(Editor's Note: This is part 2 of Donna's account of M.A.B. Tatum, who in last week's episode fell to his death from a train.)
Ann Tatum had been living a comfortable if not well-to-do existence when word came that her husband, MAB Tatum, had fallen to his death from a train near Athens, Ga., in the hours before dawn on Oct. 19, 1897. When she received news of her husband’s tragic and untimely death, she dispatched one of her sons, Colyer, a lawyer, to bring his body home for burial and to find out what had been the cause of his accident.
“The body was taken into Athens, where a Coroner’s inquest fixed blame upon railroad authorities for a dangerous custom of stopping on the bridge and calling out Athens station.” (Dade Gazette, Oct. 1897)
(Photo: Ann Tatum Thurman was a leading woman in Dade County for over 30 years. She outlived two husbands who were well-known and she reared a family of public servants.)
After the Masonic pomp and circumstance of his burial, and after a decent time period following that, Ann filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the railroad company for $20,000. The case was decided about a year later and she was awarded a settlement of $6000. With at least two of her children remaining at home and a substantial house and property to take care of and no husband to count on for support, she was surely grateful for the settlement.
In May of 1905, Ann married another well-known local politician and Methodist preacher, Rev. Stephen H. Thurman. From Dade Sentinel, June 2, 1905:
"Both the contracting parties are well known and have hosts of friends to which the news of the affair will be received with great interest. The bride, as is also the groom, is highly connected in Trenton and elsewhere. They will make their home in Trenton where both have valuable property."
Ann Thurman and her new husband, Stephen H. Thurman, were well known to each other as their first spouses were brother and sister, MAB (Brad) and Betty (Elizabeth) Tatum. Brad, of course, had died in 1897 and Betty had died in Walker County in 1903.
No one can say what led to this marriage. We don’t know if it was purely for convenience or if there was truly a love match formed after the loss of each other’s soul mates. It does seem that the community was happy for this union. But alas, this marriage was short-lived, as Rev. Stephen H. Thurman died on January 6, 1907. The Dade paper reported that Stephen died of heart failure:
“He seemed to be in good health that day. He visited with family and neighbors, comforting the sick. Stephen had gone to the coal house, filled his scuttle, and fell dead in the yard. His wife Anne found him with the coal bucket, still in his hand.”
Ann Tatum-Thurman lived 78 years. A notice of her death in the Dade paper is as follows:
“Mrs. Ann Tatum-Thurman, age 78, widow of the late S. H. Thurman and M.A.B. Tatum, respectively, died in a Sanitarium at Chattanooga, last Saturday morning at 9, after an illness of several months.
As the wife of M.A.B. Tatum, Mrs. Tatum resided in Dade County for more than 30 years, where they reared their family.
A number of years after the tragic death of Mr. Tatum, the deceased married the late Rev. S.H. Thurman, who died some two or three years later.
Mrs. Thurman was a brilliant woman, of great individuality, and was always a leader in church, social and educational affairs wherever she resided.
She leaves many friends and relatives here who sincerely mourn her death and who deeply sympathize with the bereft family.
Mrs. Thurman leaves behind two sons and one daughter, as follows: Atty. Byron E. Tatum of Chattanooga; Colyer S. Tatum of Brenham, Texas, and Mrs. W.D B. Chambers of Rossville, also an aged sister, Mrs. Jane Porter of Lylerly, Ga.
The remains were brought to Trenton Sunday morning and laid to rest in the Tatum family burial plot in the Payne Cemetery.
The Rev. J.A. Henderson conducted her funeral services, paying a beautiful tribute to the memory of the deceased and admonishing others to emulate her example of Christian piety and purity of life.”
(Photo: Ann Withrow Tatum- Thurman died in September of 1918. She is buried at Payne Cemetery in Trenton. Her importance to her family and community is evidenced by the size and grandeur of her tombstone. She lived in Dade County for over 50 years. She is not buried with either husband; her grave stands independently, but near each family plot.)
Upon further research on Ancestry.com, this researcher found great information placed there by her descendants. Her death certificate was among those items saved there. A death certificate will give not only the cause of death, but also information about parents and their birthplace and about spouses and it will also list who is providing that information to authorities. It was sad to note that her cause of death listed as senility. Today it might have been written as dementia or Alzheimer’s disease.
Ann lived through the Civil War, Spanish American War, almost all of the World War I, and the death of two husbands and several of her children. She has been gone almost exactly 100 years. While researching her husbands for the Cemetery Walk last May, it became evident that she was a figure who did not hold public office, but she was as important in the history of Dade as they were. She bore the Tatum children who lived and prospered. She was helpmate and partner to two of the most important men of that time period.
I imagine that she was a strong woman who made her own path as far as her times would allow. Her children recognized her value by giving her a separate and beautiful memorial gravestone.
We remember the men who have served us in public office over the years but we often forget about the women and other family members who helped to make it possible for those men to be successful. It is important to remember that “those also serve who only stand and wait.”
--Donna M. Street
donnam.street@gmail.com
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