November, 2000

While I was working on a genealogy project this past August, I realized I did not have very much information on the life of my great aunt, Maude M. McCormick.

 Aunt Maude was my Grandma Lewis’ sister.  They were Millers.  I knew the basic stuff:  she was born on her parent’s farm on Brushy Creek…lived in Piedmont most of her adult life.  She had no children. She would come to Cape to visit her sister and sometimes stayed long enough to work at Wimpy’s when they when they were short of help.  Once, in the late 50’s or early 60’s, Grandma Lewis hosted a Miller Reunion, and all of her siblings and families came.  

It was a major expedition  (at least as a kid) to travel the winding, car sickness inducing roads to Piedmont to see Aunt Maude.  I can remember one of the earliest trips I made to Piedmont, when we went to the funeral home when her husband, Mr. McCormick, died.  That was in the late 50’s, and I was only 6 or 7 years old.  Until I did this research, I didn’t even know his first name.

Spending Memorial Day weekends at the Lewis Family Reunions at Sam A Baker Park, I had the opportunity to be given a tour of the Mountain View Cemetery by my Uncle Francis and Aunt Leta before the annual Memorial Day service there.  They pointed out the graves of a lot of Lewis relatives.  They also showed me the tombstone on Aunt Maude’s grave.  It showed her name as Maude Hickman McCormick.  Where did she get the Hickman name?  Well, buried next to her, was another husband, John L. Hickman.

So, I added his name into my genealogy records. 

 A few years pass.

 Another time, some of my aunts and uncles were talking about Aunt Maude.  I found out she had another husband, with a last name of Smith.  Such a common last name.  Even harder to track down a Smith than a Lewis.

 A few more years go by.

 Another Memorial Day, Aunt Leta, Uncle Frank, and I were touring cemeteries in Iron County looking for any tombstones of relatives to add to the genealogy info we were gathering.  We stopped at the Meadows Cemetery on Highway F, where Grandma Lewis’ parents, Jay and Martha Miller are buried.  Not too far away was the grave of a William Smith.  Perhaps this was Aunt Maude’s first husband.  Uncle Frank and Aunt Leta thought that it was.  So now I had his birth and death dates.

 A few more years pass.

 So this past August I decided to find out the rest of the story.

 I wrote to the funeral home in Piedmont for information.  Lucy from Reugg Funeral Home was kind enough to send me what she had on Aunt Maude and her last husband, whose full name was Thomas Theodore McCormick.  Thomas has been married before…he had had six children…he was buried in the Masonic Cemetery in Piedmont.

 I put in a call to Uncle Bill.  I asked him if he can fill in some of the missing info.  When, where, and who did she marry.  When, where, how, and why did they pass away?   I gave him the new info about Thomas McCormick and Aunt Maude from the funeral home.

Uncle Bill volunteered to go to Piedmont, Greenville, and Ironton to see what he could find.  He took Aunt Frieda with him.  I gave him the dates I had from tombstones.  That gave date ranges for marriages. 

 On their trip, at the courthouse in Ironton they found the marriage licenses for Aunt Maude’s first two marriages.  SUCCESS!

 At the Wayne County Courthouse in Greenville they find the Will and Probate for Aunt Maude.  MORE SUCCESS!  But no marriage license for her third marriage.

 In the meantime, I tried the power of the Internet.  I put a query on a genealogy site that had a forum for Wayne County and another for the surname McCormick.  Within a couple of weeks, I receive an email from a Pat McCormick.  She is a granddaughter of Theodore McCormick!!!!  And she also says he grew up considering Maude her grandmother.  Now I have even more info coming my way.  Pat lives in Aurora, Missouri, which is southwest of Springfield.  She visits Piedmont every once in a while.

 By email, I ask her if she knows where Thomas and Maude were married.  She didn’t.
We agree to try to find out. 

 One Saturday at lunch at Café Cape, the Lewises were discussing Aunt Maude’s marriage.  It is suggested that they may have gotten married in Arkansas, which was a common practice at the time…no 3 day waiting period, no blood test, and no friends and relatives around.

 Weeks later, Pat McCormick is talking on the phone to an “old timer” she knows in Piedmont, Leroy Fowler.  He asks Leroy about Maude and Theodore.  Leroy stood up for them at their wedding!!!!

“Where did they get married?”  “They got married in Piggott, Arkansas!” Leroy says.

 In October, Uncle Bill got his reply from the Missouri Historical Society.  He had written to them asking for the obituaries in the local papers.  The Society has microfilms of all of the local papers statewide.  They sent him the obits for Aunt Maude and Tom McCormick.  No luck on the obit for John Hickman.

 So here is what we now know about Aunt Maude:

Maude Mae Miller

 Generation No. 1

MAUDE MAE⁴ MILLER  (JAY LAFAYETTE³, GEORGE H.², JOHN W.¹) was born 17 October 1887 in Iron County, MO, and died 19 August 1980 in Piedmont, MO.  Buried Mountain View Cemetary, Des Arc, MO.  She married:

         (1)WILLIAM A SMITH 3 April 1904.  He was born 28 May 1883, and died 14 November 1908 in Iron County, MO. Buried Meadows Cemetery, Iron County, MO

                  Child of MAUDE MILLER and WILLIAM SMITH is:

                i.  DEWY⁵ SMITH, b. 8 June 1905; d. 29 June 1906.

        (2) DR. JOHN L. HICKMAN 21 December 1913.  He was born 10 April 1871, and died 2 July 1937 in Piedmont, MO

            (3) Thomas MCCORMICK 23 December 1948.  He died 22 July, 1957 in Piedmont, MO. 

Marriage License – Maude and William Smith

Des Arc Items

This beautiful Sunday, while the young are having their pleasure, there is one sad home in our community.  Wm. Smith, son of John Smith, died Saturday at 3 o’clock.  He had been sick about three weeks with that dreadful disease, typhoid pneumonia.  Drs. Jones and Toney did all they could for him.  He held out so long that we thought he would recover.  But alas!  It was his Master’s will that he should go.  One consolation:  he was ready for the call.  Interment occurred Sunday at King’s graveyard.  He leaves a young widow, father, mother, two brothers, and three sisters to mourn his lost.

 (Located in the Ironton Library August 2000 by Bill Lewis)

  Marriage License Maude and John L. Hickman:

 According to Aunt Minnie,  (Maude’s youngest sister) he taught at King’s School where the Miller kids went to school. He became a Veterinarian in Piedmont.

 Aunt Maude also owned and operated the Richardson Hotel in Piedmont for 12 years.  I don’t know when she bought it and when she sold it.

 | Miller Home page | Aunt Maude’s Will | Photos | Obituaries