Arminda Pamelia "Amelia" "Melia" Herron (August 20, 1873-August 31, 1961)

Arminda Pamelia "Amelia" "Melia" Herron, photo courtesy of Katherine Abbott, contributor on Ancestry.com

When most of us think of our grandmothers, we think of them with nostalgia.   Memories of my grandmother Moats are always bittersweet.  They usually include me singing her favorite song, "Country Roads," the smell of her pecan pies, dreaded trips to the outhouse, and her and my grandmother Davis shucking peas together on the front porch.   My grandmother Davis always conjures images of us walking together down the street, Peach snuff in the corners of her mouth, and the soap opera, "The Young and Restless," playing in the background as she sits rocking in her chair.  Grandmothers usually hold a sweet place in our hearts.  And although my memories surrounding my grandmothers are conflicted with other emotions, I still revert to them occasionally.   When I asked my stepson, Heath, what memory first came to mind when he thought of his grandmother, Frances Virginia Waldon, he could only respond by saying, "Memories."   Every memory is wonderful to Heath because my mother-in-law is a supportive, loving, nurturing grandmother who all six of her grandsons cherish.   One of her grandsons reflected that when he thinks of her and returns home, cinnamon and oranges invade his senses because, during the holidays, she has them brewing on the stove as she waits for her family to trickle in one by one.  She is the essence of mother and grandmother.  It is a trait I became reminded of when I started researching my husband Mitch's distant cousin, Arminda Pamelia Herron, who possesses the same quintessence of motherhood.  Here is her story through the testimonies and tributes of her descendants. 

James Herron Family (Photo courtesy of Katherine Abbott)

In the year Arminda was born in 1873, society's obstacles were similar to today's.   America was in a deep financial crisis, and a great depression threatened the financial security of Americans.  The Panic of 1873 started two years of stagnation, weakening America's economic leadership [1].  There were other turmoils and wars that America faced during that year.   The Indians and the United States were still engaged in the Modac Wars, and like today, one faction of society threatened and dominated another [2].   Just as the Democrats and media bullies like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube today suppress opposing viewpoints, in 1873, Congress enacted the Comstock Law, making it illegal to send any "obscene, lewd, or lascivious" books through the mail that they deemed inappropriate [3].   There are always those who try to legislate someone else's morals, and the year Arminda was born was no different.   In Arminda's era, the women of Fredonia, New York, became the voices of protest against local liquor dealers, fearing the perceived immorality of alcoholic consumption in society[4].  But like Elon Musk, some pioneers persevere despite their country's afflictions.  And in 1873, Levi Straus and Jacob Davis expanded their company and began manufacturing denim jeans [5].  Society's issues are cyclical and generational.     And on August 20, 1873, James Simpson "Jim" Herron and Clara Annie "Carrie" McCracken began the next generation with the birth of their daughter, Arminda Pamelia Herron, in Eldridge, Walker County, Alabama [6-15]. 

James Simpson Herron, Clara Annie McCracken,
 Laura Harriet, Missouri Jane, and J.D. Herron
(Photo courtesy of Katherine Abbott)

Arminda's joyful arrival had begun the next generation, but she was only the beginning of Jim and Carrie's legacy.   Besides Arminda, the two of them welcomed Harriet Laura (March 9, 1876-November 14, 1959), Missouri Jane (June 5, 1850-December 8, 1904), and J.D. Herron (March 20, 1884) [6-7, 15-18].   Sadly, though, her parents lost their only son to death when he died on the same day as his birth [18].  To help support and feed his family, Arminda's father, Jim, toiled the land on their family farm [14-15, 19].  And it is on her father's farm where Arminda, or Melia as she preferred, lived her carefree and happy childhood [19].   It is also where she received her brief education, learning to read and write so that she could understand God's spoken word [19-29].   As Christians, Melia's parents faithfully took their children to church every Sunday to reinforce their values and dedication to Christ [19].  America may have been experiencing growing pains, but in Melia's community, life remained the same [30].    When a neighbor needed food, someone within the community would butcher a hog and help place food on the table [30].  Eldridge, Alabama, represented family, friends, and community kinship. 

Jeremy Kane "Jere" Lynch, Photo courtesy of Katherine Abbott (ancestry.com contributor)

In 1890, according to family folklore, while Melia and her mother were delivering vegetables to a local boarding house, Melia met the man who altered the course of her life [32].   Jeremy Kane and Jane Anastasia Lynch, a brother and a sister of Irish descent, ran a local boarding house together after leaving their birth town, Washington D.C [32].   Their father, James Lynch, had sadly committed suicide by hanging himself after their mother's death [31,32].   Jeremy, or Jere as he preferred, blamed his sister for his father's death.  But regardless of his feelings,  Jere remained obligated and loyal to his sister, relocating the two to Carbon Hill to escape the tragedy of their parents' deaths [31].  And after a proper courtship, Melia and Jere married on March 26, 1893, in Walker County, Alabama [32-34].   Shortly after their marriage, the newlyweds, with Jere's sister, Jane, and her soon-to-be husband, James Steadman Northrop, headed west toward Oklahoma, first settling in Fort Smith, Sebastian County, Arkansas [32].   While there, almost on their first anniversary, the couple welcomed a son, James Ira, on March 25, 1894 [35-37].  Afterward, the couples ventured to Choctaw Nation, Indian Territory, Oklahoma, seeking employment [32].   While the men left the women alone for days, the local Indians watched over Jane, Melia, and the children, leaving them turkeys on their doorsteps as if they were their guardian angels [32]. 

On September 14, 1895, Melia's mother died while Melia was living in Oklahoma and expanding her family with Jere [33-38].  Soon after, though, her father remarried Rosetta Catherine Webster on December 2, 1897, in Fayette County, Alabama [39-42].    And through their union, Melia gained three more siblings, Myrtle (December 24, 1898), Arthur (February 23, 1901), and George (June 7, 1906) [43-47].   But sadly, she lost another sibling when Arthur died on August 18, 1904, when he was only three years old [44].  Simultaneously, while her dad expanded his family, she also grew hers when she and Jere welcomed into the world six more children.   They included Carrie Jane (May 24, 1897), Nell Elizabeth (November 3, 1899), Jeremiah Kane (January 28, 1902), Harriet Rosetta (April 15, 1905), John Simpson (April 20, 1907), and Mary Selma (June 25, 1909) [20-28, 48-49].  Melia will have siblings that are ironically the same age as her children.  

Jeremy Kane Lynch, Arminda Pamelia Herron Circa 1917 or 1918 Photo courtesy of Katherine Abbott

While Melia tended to her children, her hot-tempered Irish husband, Jere, searched the stars for ways to increase his fortune [50,51).  It was his nature to sleep outside, avoiding the confinements of walls [50-51].  On rainy days, he would lay a pallet by an open door, so he could smell the scent of fresh rain filling the earth with revitalization [50-51].   Jere's talents were unlimited, and his natural curiosity had him continuously seeking solutions.   Besides farming and mining, Jere also was interested in chemistry [20-29, 48].   He had received a formalized education and in-depth training in that field, so it was natural that he would develop an interest in alchemy that would lead him to produce a make-up line [52].  Within the walls of his farmhouse attic is where Jere's dreams led him to experiment, create, and design what he hoped would be his legacy [52].  But besides the make-up line that he would sell and promote as he traveled around Alabama, rumors and folklore have persisted of Jere creating what we all know today as "Vicks Vapor Rub [53]."   Hal Jones, a descendant, states that Jere had submitted the appropriate patent paperwork; however, when the issue came before the courts, Jere had lost the battle and the 2.9 million dollars worth of generated sales between the years 1918-1919 alone when the Spanish Flu affected America [53,54].

Arminda Pamelia Herron
Photo courtesy of Katherine Abbott

Jere may have lost the battle that could have resulted in him becoming a millionaire that might have left his family a legacy that would last for generations and decades, but he and Melia were rich beyond measure.  Evidence of that exists through the generous and loving commentary that their descendants have shared on Ancestry.com.   Melia's descendants have proudly boasted about her talented cooking skills, her ability to can meats and apple butter jam, sew beautiful dresses, and shower them all with abiding love [55].  JJO Parker states, "Grandma Lynch knew how to do almost anything, or so it seemed to me."   And sadly, Melia would one day have to do the one thing that no mother wants to do.  Alone, she buried her oldest son,  James Ira, on July 28, 1940, when he was killed in a mining accident [56].   Her husband, Jere, had previously passed on October 24, 1935 [48, 57].   Melia will live her remaining twenty-six years as a widow until her death on August 31, 1961 [6-7, 12, 49].  Their interments are in Kelley Cemetery in Eldridge, Walker County, Alabama [12,57].

Arminda Pamelia Herron
Photo courtesy of Katherine Abbot

Just like I experience nostalgia when I think of my grandmothers and my memories surrounding them, Melia was always overcome with sentiment when she thought of her own.    As the years escaped her one by one, on her birthdays and for family reunions, Melia would return to her father's farm, which held her childhood memories (58, 59, 60).   She would think of "the many good times, pranks, and fun" and "relive them all over again" as she would stare out at the grove that surrounded her childhood home (59).  Society's patterns will always be cyclic, and in the year that Melia died, society's challenges had not varied from the year she was born.   America was still engaged in war, except the enemy had changed.   We were now fighting the Vietnamese, another olive-skinned civilization.    Cultures remained divided, and the Soviet Union built a wall separating East Berlin from West Berlin.  And as before, one man, Alan Shephard, Jr.,  dreamt beyond the turmoil existing in America and became the first American in space in a suborbital flight aboard Mercury 3.   Thankfully, though, what also remains generational are the grandmothers who leave ever-lasting memories imprinted upon the hearts of those that descend.   Arminda Pamelia Herron Lynch and Frances Virginia Waldon Herron are two women whose memories will sustain society's continuous evolution!

SOURCES

1. https://www.loc.gov/rr/business/businesshistory/September/Panic1873.html

2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modoc_War

3 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comstock_laws

4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women%27s_Crusade

5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1873_in_the_United_States

6. Ancestry.com. Alabama, Deaths and Burials Index, 1881-1974 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.

7. "Alabama Deaths and Burials, 1881–1952." Index. FamilySearch, Salt Lake City, Utah, 2009, 2010. Index entries derived from digital copies of original and compiled records.

8. Edmund West, comp.. Family Data Collection - Births [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2001.

9. The Family Data Collection - Births database was created while gathering genealogical data for use in the study of human genetics and disease.

10. Heritage Consulting. Millennium File [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2003

11. Original data: Heritage Consulting. The Millennium File. Salt Lake City, UT, USA: Heritage Consulting.

12. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/156309524/amelia-h_-lynch

13. The Birmingham News; Publication Date: 1/ Sep/ 1961; Publication Place: Birmingham, Alabama, United States of America; URL: https://www.newspapers.com/image/575046734/?article=e91a1a9c-52ef-4553-a095-1152ccda2c30&focus=0.49877948,0.2929816,0.6119497,0.352753&xid=2378

Ancestry.com. Newspapers.com Obituary Index, 1800s-current [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2019.

14. Year: 1880; Census Place: Beat 5, Walker, Alabama; Roll: 34; Page: 5A; Enumeration District: 274

15. Ancestry.com and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 1880 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2010. 1880 U.S. Census Index provided by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints © Copyright 1999 Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved. All use is subject to the limited use license and other terms and conditions applicable to this site.

16. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/144699294

17. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/136185683

18. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/71684919/j-d-herron

19. “Mrs. Laura Banks of Oakman Was An Eagle Writer 35 years Ago- Correspondent Tells Brief Story Of Her Life And How She Gathers News,” XXXX, Month XX, Daily Mountain Eagle, Jasper, Alabama, Page Unknown

20. Year: 1900; Census Place: Cagle, Walker, Alabama; Page: 9; Enumeration District: 0139; FHL microfilm: 1240043

21. Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2004.

22. Year: 1910; Census Place: Cagle, Walker, Alabama; Roll: T624_35; Page: 9B; Enumeration District: 0174; FHL microfilm: 1374048

23. Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006.

24. Year: 1920; Census Place: Precinct 18, Jefferson, Alabama; Roll: T625_21; Page: 26B; Enumeration District: 126

25. Ancestry.com. 1920 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Images reproduced by FamilySearch.

26. Year: 1930; Census Place: Precinct 25, Walker, Alabama; Page: 6B; Enumeration District: 0035; FHL microfilm: 2339788

27. Ancestry.com. 1930 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2002

28. Year: 1940; Census Place: Eldridge, Walker, Alabama; Roll: m-t0627-00087; Page: 8A; Enumeration District: 64-37

29. Ancestry.com. 1940 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012.

30.) “Hogs And Hominy,” 1946, October 24, Daily Mountain Eagle, Jasper, Alabama, Page 4.

31.) “A Laborer’s Suicide - Found Hanging To A Post In The Rear Of His House,” 1890, December 13, The Critic, Washington District of Columbia, Virginia. Page 3.

32.) Abbott, Katherine, The Lynch & Allen Familes, December 22, 2018, Contributor on Ancestry.com.

33.) Original data: Alabama, Marriages, 1816-1957. Salt Lake City, Utah: FamilySearch, 2013.

34.) Ancestry.com. Alabama, Select Marriage Indexes, 1816-1942 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc, 2014

35.) Registration State: Alabama; Registration County: Jefferson; Roll: 1509394; Draft Board: 2

36.) Ancestry.com. U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2005.

37.) Original data: United States, Selective Service System. World War I Selective Service System Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration. M1509, 4,582 rolls. Imaged from Family History Library microfilm.

38.) https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/71685122/carrie-o-herron

39.) Ancestry.com. Alabama, Compiled Marriages from Selected Counties, 1809-1920 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 1999.

40.) Ancestry.com. Alabama, Marriage Indexes, 1814-1935 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015.

41.) Original data: Dodd, Jordan R., comp.. Early American Marriages: Alabama, 1800 to 1920.

42.) Original data: WPA Indices to Marriage Records, by County, 1814-1935. Alabama Department of Archives and History, Montgomery, Alabama.

43.) https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/199210972/myrtle-herron

44.) https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/191532933/arthur-herron

45.) https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/197732909

46.) Ancestry.com. Alabama, Deaths and Burials Index, 1881-1974 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.

47.) "Alabama Deaths and Burials, 1881–1952." Index. FamilySearch, Salt Lake City, Utah, 2009, 2010. Index entries derived from digital copies of original and compiled records.

48.) “In Memory of Jere Lynch,” 1935, November 21, Daily Mountain Eagle, Jasper, Alabama, Page 6

49.) “Lynch, Mrs. Melia,” 1961, September 1, The Birmingham News, Birmingham, Alabama, Page 29.

50.) Lisby, Caroll Edward, 2004, “Committee of One,” Xlibris Corporation, LLC., Page 8

51.) Anderson, Nancy Lynch, “Jere Lynch’s Adventures In Nauvoo,” 2007, October 13, Memories submitted on Ancestry.com.

52.) Abbott, Katherine, and Raymond Sloan, “Chemistry”, Approximately 2007, Memories submitted on Ancestry.com.

53.) Jones, Hal, “The Inventor,” Approximately 2009, Memories submitted on Ancestry.com

54.) https://vicks.com/en-us/vicks-history

55.) Heil, Mildred Lynch, “Going To The Farm,” 2007, July 17, Memories submitted on Ancestry.com.

56.) https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/81551641

57) https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/81551641/jim-lynch

58.) “Mrs. Lynch Has 85th Birthday,” 1958, September 4, Daily Mountain Eagle, Jasper, Alabama, Page 10.

59.) “A Happy Reunion,” 1948, June 28, Daily Mountain Eagle, Jasper, Alabama, Page 12

60.) “Herron Reunion Attracts Crowd,” 1951, September 13, Daily Mountain Eagle, Jasper, Alabama, page 16.