by Rocky Macy
Julia Ann MARTIN was born in rural Newton County, Missouri, on September 29, 1852, the daughter of William and Delana (HOLMAN) MARTIN. She married Eugene Marshall Stanley PRITCHARD in Newton County on February 20, 1870, and passed away, a widow, in that same county on January 8, 1928.
Julia Ann MARTIN was my great-great-grandmother.
According to a biography of her uncle, Hezekiah M. Martin, that was published in the Goodspeed's 1888 History of Newton and McDonald Counties, Julia Ann’s paternal grandparents, Abraham and Mourning (BIGGS) MARTIN arrived in Newton County, from Tennessee in the spring of 1843. Uncle Hezekiah, who had been born in Robertson County, Tennessee, on January 8, 1822, came to Missouri in the fall of 1844 and arrived in Newton County in 1845. It is likely that Julia Ann’s parents and her older siblings showed up in Newton County at about that same time.
The 1860 U.S. Census lists Julia and her family as living in Buffalo Township of Newton County, Missouri. Included in that census entry were the head of the household, William Martin – age 45, his wife, “De Lana” – age 45, Harriet (18), Hezekiah (16), William (13), Mourning (10), and Julia (7).
Julia’s father, who was in his late forties and early fifties during the Civil War, fought on the side of the Union. He served as a private in Company K of the 6th Kansas Cavalry. Perhaps that is why he and his family were located in Franklin County, Kansas, on a special Kansas state census of 1865. That census listed household members as William (52), Delana (51), William (18), Mourning (16), and Julia (13). The entry next to William and his family on that Kansas state census was that of his younger brother, James S. Martin, along with his wife and eight children.
The detour into Kansas in the 1860’s appears to be the only time that Julia Ann MARTIN lived outside of Newton County, Missouri. By 1870 she had returned to the county of her birth where she was listed with her new husband, Eugene Marshall Stanley PRITCHARD, residing in the home of his parents, Marshall and Caroline PRITCHARD in Lost Creek Township.
So far a census entry has not be found for Julia Ann and E.M.S. PRITCHARD for 1880, but in 1900 they were living in Neosho Township of Newton County along with their 22-year-old son, Walter, and they were at the same location living alone as a couple in 1910 and 1920. Eugene, who was also known as “Gene” and “Pa” passed away in 1921, and Julia spent the final seven years of her life as a widow. No records regarding her years of widowhood have yet to come to light.
Julia Ann PRITCHARD and Gene had three children. They were Louella (December 5, 1871 – June 6, 1954)) who married William Stephen MACY, Andrew Marion (April 3, 1873 – December 31, 1932)) who married 1. Belle HOLMES, and 2. Maud May MARTIN, and Walter (August 13, 1877 – August 2, 1933) who married Minnie PETERS.
Julia Ann MARTIN PRITCHARD died on January 8, 1928, in Newton County, and, according to their death certificates both she and Gene are buried at New Salem Cemetery in rural Newton County – but their tombstones are no longer existent. New Salem was begun with a land donation of one acre by Julia’s uncle, Hezekiah Mitchell MARTIN, who was her father’s younger brother.
The tombstones have disappeared with time, but their family line lives on – and this weary typist is just one of hundreds of individuals who owes his very existence to the struggles of hardy pioneers like Julia and Gene and countless others. So many sacrificed so much in order for us to be here today, and their legacies live on through us and into the future.
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