Beulah Ada Mull Rogers 1890-1922

Beulah Ada Mull and her twin sister, Della Mull  were born June 4, 1890 to Avery Smith Mull and Susan Whisnant Mull.  Census records indicate they were born in North Carolina.  Most likely they were born in Howards Creek, Lincoln, Carolina where the family resided in the 1880 census.    There is no 1890 census for the year the twins were born.  In 1890, the year of their birth, the twins older siblings were Hulda age 17, Eliza Elizabeth Eliza “Etta” age 12, Adolphus age 8, and Katie, age 6, and Mary age 2.

The Avery Mull family in its early years went by Smith because Avery’s mother Mary was not married to his father George Mull.  Avery provided for his family through farming so the family was probably interested in the farming news in the Lincoln Courier in June of 1890.

 

In the 1900 census, the Avery Mull family has moved to Spartanburg, South Carolina.  Avery is still farming and Susan is housekeeping.  The two older children in the home were Eliza, age 21 and Adolphus, age 17  They are listed as cotton mill weavers.  Kate, age 14,  Mary, age 12, and Beulah Ada and Della, age 9 are listed as cotton mill spinners.  There are no pictures of this family but this public domain photo shows some of the smallest cotton room spinners who were workin in the textile mills in Spartanburg, South Carolina during this time period.

Credit:  Hine, Lewis Wickes, photographer. Some of the smallest spinners at the Beaumont Mill.Location: Spartanburg, South Carolina. South Carolina Spartanburg United States, 1912. May. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2018675629/.

In July of 1905, tragedy befell the Mull family.  Their father Avery or Aaron as the newspapers called him went to downtown Spartanburg to sell some cotton bales.  After the sale, he came across some mean whisky and he partook.  The Mull father came home drunk and there was a fight and he took a blow to the head.  The family said he fell against the house but the attending doctor said he got hit in the head with a blunt instrument such as an axe.  The only boy in the family, Adolphus faced charges in the death.  The outcome of the charges is unknown but in the 1910 census, Adolphus is living in Spartanburg, working in the mill so punishment was not too great. These two articles from the Bamberg Herald on July 13, 1905 and the Gaffney paper on July 21, 1905 tell of the incident and the subsequent death of Avery “Aaron” Mull.

 

 

Soon after that, Beulah Ada married Fred Marvin Rogers.  Her first born son was born on January 30, 1908 in South Carolina.  His name was Joe Cephas or “Joe” as he was called.  The second son Dewey Ernest as he was named in the 1910 census or Dewey Edgar as his descendants called him was reported born in Haywood County in 1910.

In 1912, Beulah Ada and Fred Marvin were in Haywood County, North Carolina where Fred Marvin’s family was from.  The family bought 1 1/2 acres from Fred Marvin’s mother, Elizabeth Fincher Ferguson Rogers.  During this time period, Beulah Ada’s twin sister, Della died.  Beulah Ada’s daughter Lizzie Mae was born in 1918.

In the 1920 census Beulah Ada Rogers was 29.  She was living with her thirty-three year old husband Fred Marvin and sons Joe and Dewey who were 11 and 9 in Crabtree, Haywood County North Carolina.  Lizzie Mae was a one year old baby.  According to the census Fred Marvin, Joe and Dewey could read and write but Beulah Ada could not.   She apparently never got the chance to go to school, having gone to work in the cotton mill when she was nine years old.    In June of 1920, Beulah Ada and Fred Marvin had their final child together, Jack Ray Rogers.

Sadly two years later, Beulah Ada Mull Rogers passed away from bronchial pneumonia following the influenza.

Beulah Ada was laid to rest at the beautiful cemetery behind Davis Chapel Church in Iron Duff, North Carolina in the beautiful Smokey mountains.

 

Although a search was made of the cemetery and inquires were made of the Western District of the Methodist Church of North Carolina, no monument or exact place of burial can be found for Beulah Ada or for her son Dewey who was buried there in 1934 after he was killed in an auto accident.  However, she may have been buried close to her mother-in-law, Elizabeth Carolina Fincher Ferguson Rogers “Aunt Lizzie”.

This is the place that we have identified that could be Beulah Ada’s grave.  It is likely her son Dewey is beside her as there appears to be an spot next to the marker that is an additional grave.

Beulah Ada Mull Roger’s children with Fred Marvin Rogers  were:
1. Joe Cephas Rogers 1908-1987 married Thelma Ellen Dennis 1911-1988 and Gladys Inez Willis 1920-1979
2. Dewey E Rogers 1910-1934 married Lola Pearle Dunning 1911-2013
3. Elizabeth Mae “Lizzie” Rogers 1916-1971 married David Peter Kelly 1910-1993
4. Jack Ray Rogers 1919-1992 married Mildred Helen Graham 1930-2015

References available at Rogers Family Tree on Ancestry
https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/tree/34712803/family
and at Family Search https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/LB6J-YMB