Part 3 of 6
Anna Eliza Blount Kline
And Her Swamp Land Patent
In the two previous segments of the story of Anna Eliza Blount Kline revealed the saga a well-educated pioneer woman who traveled from Obion County, Kentucky on the Mississippi River across from New Madrid, Missouri to Cheatham County, Tennessee and how she arrived at New Madrid, Missouri in 1867. We continue the story below.
Siblings not noted in his bio were: William P. (born 1813), Andrew James (born 1832-1882), Sophronia (1833-1871), and Mary E. (1835-1893). I have not identified a ninth adult child as of this writing. The Tickell siblings Elizabeth, Martha, and Madison lost their sister, Sophronia Tickell Cline, in 1871. Sophronia still lived in Hickman County, Kentucky in the town of Moscow. She was only thirty-eight years old and left five children twelve years old or younger and her oldest daughter, Molly Cline, was seventeen at the time of her death. Her husband William F. Cline went on to marry two more times and to have more children by those wives. Sophronia and William Cline’s children moved to New Madrid to be with the Tickell family after their father’s death in 1885. If you take a ferry, to cross the Mississippi River, it is only thirty-six miles from Moscow, Kentucky to New Madrid, Missouri. Henry was twenty-six at the time he moved to New Madrid, and he brought his nine-year-old half-brother Sam Cline with him to raise. Sam was born to his father and his second wife, Mary Cromwell. Henry did not get along with his father’s third wife and his second step-mother. Family tradition states that is why Henry brought Sam with him, rather than leave his with his step-mother Susan Smith Cline. After Henry married, he and Lena raised Sam to adulthood. Later in life, Sam and his family moved to Hammond, Indiana. I have communicated with descendants of Sam Cline and have genealogical information on his family for future publication.
I am not sure where Anna received her education, but I am somewhat sure it was in or near their home in Cheatham County. What we know for certain is that she was well educated and a good business woman. After moving to New Madrid, she met and married Gazwell Kline on 23 Jan 1868, in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South in New Madrid, Missouri. His father, William Cline, was from Germany and they owned and operated a grocery and dram (liquor) store in downtown New Madrid. Gazwell provided well for his family.
Anna and Gazwell Kline had two children. Nancy Lena was born 7 Aug 1870, and her brother Robert Edward Kline was born 24 Jul 1872. Their children we most likely educated at the New Madrid Academy, a private school. Lena was fluent in French, German, English and she was an accomplished musician. Her brother Robert Edward graduated from Kentucky University and Business College in Lexington[1]. The history of popular education in Kentucky, Missouri, and Tennessee, before the Civil War, was similar to that of public education in every southern state. The institution of free public education, as seen by upper-class whites, was incompatible for their children. They saw them as “pauper schools” and never considered letting their children attend them. I bring this up because citizens today, in general, are unaware that the average citizens of the 1800s had little, or limited, education.[2] In contrast, Anna Eliza Blount Kline was blessed with a good private education. She made certain her two children also had a good education, and she was instrumental in the education of her grandchildren as well.
Little was told to me about Anna’s twenty-year marriage. Gazwell was the only son of William Cline and Nancy (Cox) Cline. They also had four daughters – Elizabeth Cline Verlaque, Sarah Jane Cline Curtis, Nancy Cline Whitmore, and Louisa Cline Frederickson. Gazwell’s sisters married and moved to San Diego, California, the Chicago area, and Davenport, Iowa. Anna’s husband Gazwell Kline died March 24, 1886. The New Madrid Record[3] published a funeral notice that read: “Mr. Gazwell Klein died in this city at one o’clock p.m. Wednesday, March 24, 1886. Aged 42 years, 11 months and 15 days. Friends of the deceased are respectfully notified that the funeral will take place from the residence of Mrs. Mosier, in this city at 2 o’clock Thursday, March 25, 1886, then to the Klein graveyard. Services will be conducted by Rev. Webster Full.” We cannot locate Gazwell’s burial place because that section of what used to be New Madrid has been washed away in the ever-ceasing encroachment of the Mississippi River on the town of New Madrid.
[1] Gleaned from the obituary of Robert Edward Kline glued in Anna Eliza Blount Kline’s Bible. My cousin Sam Goolsby has the Bible now.
[2] www.historynet.com/antebellum-period
[3] The article was pasted in Anna Eliza Blount Kline’s Bible. It was undated but had to be the day or death, or the day of the funeral.
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