Sarepta (Kennedy) Mayle
(1873-1963)
arepta
(Kennedy) Mayle was born in 1873 in the Webster community of Taylor
County, WV, the daughter of Josiah and
Ruth Ann (Minerd) Kennedy Sr.
She married Lewis A. Mayle (1858-1918). The ceremony took place in Barbour County on July 13, 1893. At the time of their wedding, Lewis was age 35, and Sarepta just 18.
Lewis had been married once before, to Mariah Dalton, and brought children to the marriage -- among them Ollie B. Mayle, Isaac Tillison Mayle (1879-1948), Cleophis "Clee" Mayle and Esker Mayle. In fact, Sarepta was barely older than some of her step-children.
Sarepta and Lewis went on to have four known children of their own -- Lora Belle "Lorie" Mayle, Leona Mayle, Louise Croston and Clifford Lee Mayle. She also had a presumed step-granddaughter, Ethel Komindo.
When the
federal census was taken in 1900, Lewis and Sarepta made their home in the
Pleasant District of Barbour County, where Lewis was a farmer. The 1910 census
shows Lewis and Sarepta living as farmers in the Knottsville District of Taylor
County, WV, and living next door to stepson Isaac Mayle and brother John
Kennedy. By that time, she had borne four children.
Lewis died in 1918, and is
buried in the Pritchard Cemetery beside his grandson Dowdin Mayle.
The 1920 and 1930 censuses show Sarepta as a widow, with her making her home with married daughter Leona Mayle. She was a member of the West Hill Wesleyan Methodist Church.
Sarepta is said to have had a second husband, Arthur Mayle ( ? - ? ), but this is not confirmed.
Sarepta died at the age of 90, in 1963, at the home of her step-granddaughter Ethel Komindo of Webster, and was laid to rest in the West Hill Cemetery in Webster, Taylor County. It's possible that Sarepta had another stepson, W.E. Mayle, named in a family obituary in 1936.
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| Sarepta's grave at the well-manicured West Hill Cemetery |
Stepson Isaac Tillison Mayle (1879-1948) considered himself white. He was a teacher for 50 years in Barbour and Taylor Counties. In about 1899, he married Margaret Mayle (1878-1939), the daughter of Simon P. and Amanda (Dalton) Mayle. Circa 1917, Isaac also was a coal miner for the Sterling Coal Company in Cecil. Isaac and Margaret had seven children -- Bessie Leah Mayle (1898-1959), Gorman Mayle, Dowdin Mayle, Troy Mayle, Lulu Catherine Mayle, Hallen Mayle and Richard Mayle -- and at least 16 grandchildren. Sadly, son Dowdin died a the age of 22 of pulmonary tuberculosis on June 28, 1926, with burial beside his grandfather Lewis Mayle at Pritchard Cemetery. Margaret died on April 5, 1939. Isaac passed away on March 2, 1948, with burial beside his wife at Mt. View Cemetery in Barbour County. Isaac's obituary was covered by the Grafton Sentinel.
Stepson Cleophis " Clee" Mayle ( ? - ? ) lived at Simpson, Taylor County. We are researching whether Clee married Nettie (?) and had seven children -- Ervil Mayle, Marcy Mayle, Coy Mayle, Homer Mayle, Alma Mayle, John Harvey Mayle and Dennis Mayle. Son John Harvey Mayle (1916-1953), a coal miner for Poole Coal Company, was married to Velca (?), and tragically was killed in an automobile accident in Elkins, WV at the age of 37 on April 25, 1953. Said the Grafton Sentinel, John and a companion "were enroute home from a day in the mountains ... [and] were crushed to death beneath their pickup truck which skidded on a wet Elkins street and overturned."
Daughter
Lora Belle Mayle (1894-1975) was born in Berrysburg. She married Melton A. Mayle (1891-1976) on May 30, 1914.
They lived in Webster community near Grafton, where Melton was a school
teacher and farmer. The Mayleses had eight children -- Vernon L. Mayle, Opal
Mayle, Annabelle Vaughn, Loretta Mayle, Rosetta Lee, Eleanor Mayle, Herbert
Mayle and Wilbert Mayle. They are mentioned in the 1986 book, A History
of Taylor County, West Virginia, published by the Taylor County
Historical and Genealogical Society, Inc. The book entry states that in
1966, the Mayles deeded 9.1 acres containing the West Hill cemetery (founded
in 1911) to the Wesleyan Methodist Church, led by trustees Dorsey Maley,
Vernon Mayle and Oscar Frum. According to the book, members of the church
"may not watch television, dance, use tobacco, alcohol, go to movies or
marry again until their spouses are dead. Members must also keep their arms
covered. Women are not allowed to cut their hair or wear short
dresses." Lora passed away on April 19, 1975, and was survived by 25
grandchildren, 29 great-grandchildren, one great-great grandchild and two step
great-great grandchildren. Now widowed, Melton moved to Canton, Stark County,
OH, to be near several of his adult children. He died suddenly in Canton at the
age of 84 on June 2, 1976, just a year after his wife's passing. His remains
were returned to Grafton for burial with his wife at the West Hill
Cemetery.
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West Hill Wesleyan Methodist Church, on or near land donated to the church by Melton and Lora Mayle |
Son Clifford Lee Mayle (1897-1936), married cousin Leona Gale Mayle (1896-1942), the daughter of Charles Luther and Emily Jane "Emma" (Minerd) Mayle, and the granddaughter of William Minerd. Clifford and Leona lived in Cecil, Taylor County, where they were farmers. They had nine children -- Hazel J. (Mayle) Mayle, Thomas Edward Mayle, Emma L. Mayle, Vonda Bud, Fredda Newman, Mable Mayle, Rosaline Dalton, Rosco E. Mayle and Maxwell "Mack" Mayle. Clifford suffered from nephritis, and died at the age of 39, just two days after Christmas in 1936. He is buried at Mt. View Cemetery in Barbour County. Leona outlived him by just six years. She died of pulmonary tuberculosis at the age of 45 on April 9, 1942, near Grafton. Their son Maxwell of Grafton was the informant on her death certificate.
Daughter Leona Mayle (1900- ? ) lived in Pittsburgh in 1936 and in Baltimore, MD in 1963.
Daughter Louisa Mayle (1903- ? ) married (?) Croston and made her home in Cecil, WV in 1936 and in Detroit in 1963.
We are researching whether Sarepta had a
step-daughter, Sophronia Mayle (1877-1964),
who married Morgan Mayle (1874-1942), the son of Jonathan and Matilda (Varner)
Mayle, and the grandson of Reese and Delilah Male. Sophronia's death
certificate shows that her parents were Richard and Elizabeth Mayle, so this
needs to be researched more deeply.
Sophronia and Morgan were the parents of 12 children -- the above- mentioned Ethel Komindo as well as Harold Bliss Mayle (1897-1977), Holly Mayle, Frederick C. Mayle, Harley B. Mayle, Victor Mayle, Mazella (Mayle) Mayle, Forrest Mayle, Jonathan Richard Mayle (1910-1940), Wilmer A. Mayle (1911-1939), Ruby Mayle (1905-1929) and Grace Newman (1899-1971). Morgan was a self-employed farmer, and they resided at Moatsville. During World War I, at the age of 44, Morgan registered for the federal military draft, and gave his race as white. He was found dead in bed at the age of 69 on Dec. 11, 1942, with burial at Mt. View Cemetery. Son Harold Bliss Mayle was "employed by the coal mines for 15 years, and was a schoolteacher for over 30 years in the Preston and Taylor County Schools," said a newspaper. Daughter Grace Mayle married Alston Gordon Newman, resided at Philo, OH, and had four children -- Eunice Dalton, Meredith Newman, Robert Newman and Juaneta Newman.
Copyright © 2005-2008 Mark A. Miner