Jennie
(White) Blackwelder
(1873-1946)
Jennie Gertrude (White) Blackwelder was born on Aug. 30, 1873 in Linn County, MO, the daughter of Lester and Susan (McCarty) White.
At the age of 11, she moved with her parents and grandparents to Isabel, Barber County, KS.
When a bolt of lightning killed her aunt, Jeanette Bailey, Jennie was 15 years old and was sent to live with her widowed grandfather, Luther White. She took care of Luther, his bachelor son Layton White and her cousin, the victim's four-year-old daughter, Mabel Bailey.
Jennie married Layton H. Blackwelder (1874-1915), the son of Isabel residents Jacob F. and Sarah C. (Rasor) Blackwelder. They had two sons -- Wilbur E. Blackwelder and Jacob Ira Blackwelder.
Layton and his brother owned a hardware store in Isabel known as "Blackwelder Bros." Later, he began farming full time.
Jennie was known as "a quick, busy, jolly, helpful person sharing her abilities and her talents with friends and family.
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| Rare old photographic postcard of Isabel's East Main Street |
Sadness struck on Dec. 26, 1915 when Layton died of a stroke at their home in Isabel. He was buried in the nearby Isabel Cemetery.
Jennie remained a widow for a decade. Then, in 1925, she married her brother in law, John Ira Blackwelder (1878-1941), an operator of a grain elevator in Isabel. They moved to Montezuma, KS, "where they had gone to raise wheat and cattle as [son] Jacob grew to manhood. They gave a home to Josie Bell Byrd who had no living parents."
Jennie died in Dodge City, KS on June 29, 1946.
Son
Wilbur E. Blackwelder was a railroader and "met with a disabling accident" at work as
a young man.
Son Jacob Ira Blackwelder died of a heart attack at age 40 after a life of community activities -- having served "four years on the Grade School Board, [as] President of the Gray County Farm Bureau, and on the advisory board of Sky High 4-H Club." The Isabel newspaper said he was "One who could never be replaced." His widow Velda later married George R. Monninger and oversaw the school cafeteria in Montezuma, KS.
Copyright © 2000, 2008 Mark A. Miner