William Jason Hunter

One of these men is  William A, Hunter/Trammell's son Jason William Hunter (1875-1896).  It looks like a formal portrait made in a studio.  He lived only 21 years.  The picture was taken within a year or two of his death. 

Jason married  Fannie Emaline Medley.  Fannie was luckier than Jason on living a long time.   She lived within three months of 102 years.

Jason and Medley had two daughters.:  Lois and Jacie. 

Jacie Hunter married Vernon Tip Ingram.  They had three children.  Their son Hunter Davenport Ingram became a councilman of Woodstock, then Mayor.

Lois married a Carraway but it did not last long.  They had no children.  Lois worked for Western Union in Atlanta.

Lois or Jacie never knew their father.  Lois was a baby and Jacie was not born yet.  

William A. Hunter/Trammell and Emeline Ray Hunter took the two girls and their daughter-in-law in after Jason's death and their welfare was became the grandparents responsibility.

William A. Hunter/Trammell was the only father they knew.

Lois ended up with the house that her grandfather had built.

Then, in the 1980s I came along doing genealogy research.  Lois showed me around the house and pointed out things of historical interest and  old family pictures . She also showed me the barn William fell out of and broke his leg which put his health on the incline.  I also  waw grapes on a vine on a little fence by the barn that William had planted.   I shooed them away the wasps  and picked some grapes for Lois and I to enjoy.

 

We were buddies.

During my visits I asked her did she know about William being adopted?  She said she didn't.  I asked her about the story that William killed  a man in Franklin, North Carolina.   She said she didn't know anything about that but it was probably untrue.

As research time went on I found out more of the details of killing and the adoption. 

William was the  bastard son of Jason Henderson Hunter, so the court of Macon County, declared, and his mother Rebecca Trammell died before 1850 and he was raised by his grandparents, Jacob and Polly Hogshead Trammell.    He did not murder someone but his uncle Van Trammell did, over an argument about the Civil War and William provided Van with a false alibi, which was proven wrong so a warrant went out for his arrest for being an accessory to murder, so he skipped town and changed his name to his paternal name.

I typed up a letter and sent all my uncles and other interested parties, including Louis Hunter Carraway, my findings.

Lois called me up so mad she was sputtering.  She told me she knew all that and that was the only father she knew and she  wanted to carry that trashy information to the grave with her to protect his good name.  She said she had a some correspondence between Jason and William recognizing their father son relationship.  I first instinct was that wanted to see those letters but I let her rant and rave.  And knew she hated me at the moment so much I was not going to see those letters. 

That is the trouble when doing family research:  Not every family member is highly successful and some of those who are did it my unscrupulous means.

Like her mother, Lois lived a long time,  over 102 years.  She is buried at Bascomb Methodist Church  Cemetery,  near Woodstock.