#52Ancestors - Independent

                Permelia Ann Garvin.  My great-great-great grandmother.  She was a woman of mystery in some aspects.  But she was taught independence at a young age and spent many years surviving on her own.  Once I learned about her life, I developed a great admiration for her.

  Permelia was born on the 28^th of December 1811 in Lincoln County, Kentucky.  She was the older daughter of Jane Garvin and some unknown man.  Some in the family say her father’s surname was also Garvin and that they weren’t related.  I have often wondered if Jane and her daughter’s father were married at all.  Maybe someday we will find out.  Jane gave birth to a second daughter, Cynthia, in 1814.  Around the time of Cynthia’s birth, family legend says the girls’ father passed away.  Jane and her little girls moved in with her parents.  Her father, Isaac Garvin, was a Revolutionary War Veteran.  Her mother was Jane (Huston) Garvin.  Isaac and Jane played big roles in the raising of their granddaughters.  On the 10^th of April 1828, when Permelia was sixteen years old she married Hardin Thomas, a sixteen-year-old boy from the same neighborhood.   Isaac Garvin bestowed upon them a costly wedding gift, obviously a doting grandpa.

Copied from a badly damaged 

tintype, we are sure this is 

Permelia (Garvin) Thomas with

her infant twins; James and George.

Permelia gave birth to their first child, a daughter named Mary Jane, on the 1^st of November 1829.  Little Mary Jane died one month and two days later.  On July 20, 1831, son John was born.  Winston (my great-great grandfather) was born on 30 June 1833.  The last of their children to be born in Kentucky was daughter Nancy Jane on 9 January 1836. 

The family moved to Saline County, Missouri and there welcomed son Isaac (born 18 February 1838); William Pemberton (born 27 Oct 1840); Richard Pemberton (born 20 Feb 1842).  They moved on to Linn County, Missouri where an unnamed baby girl was born on the 27^th of August 1845 and died 16 October 1845.  Their son John died on the 18^th of May 1846.  On the 13^th of April 1847 in Saline County, Missouri, Permelia gave birth to her last children – twin boys named George Garvin Thomas and James Garvin Thomas. 

Hardin Thomas in a 

tintype taken shortly

before his death.

During Permelia’s last pregnancy, Hardin Thomas signed up and fought in the Mexican-American War.  When he returned home, he was not the same.  He was ill and he died of that illness on September 13, 1848.  His death location is unknown – it is believed it was either Saline or Linn County, Missouri since the family had moved back and forth between the two places for several years.  He was only 37 years-old. 

From then on, Permelia and her children were on their own.  Son Isaac died September 10, 1854.  Shortly after his death, Permelia packed up her kids and moved west to Doniphan County in the Territory of Kansas.  She settled near the Missouri River.  Her older sons helped her with the farm work.  Nancy Jane, her only surviving daughter, helped with housework and watching over the little ones.  Permelia never re-married, focusing her life on her children.  She passed away at her home near Wathena, KS on the 9^th of February 1869 at the age of 57.  She rests at Bellmont Cemetery at Wathena, her grave on the top of a hill, eventually overlooking the graves of two of her sons. 

What an amazing woman.  It was difficult during that time for a woman to be able to provide for a family.  Jobs for women were few and far between and those that were available paid very little.  She somehow managed to keep her children fed and clothed.  She was independence personified.