Who's My Daddy?

When I woke up this morning, I found the following email from John King in response to Monday's blog.

"Last night's blog challenged me to identify the parents of MAYO CRAIG, the young soldier who had drowned in Spokane WA and was shipped home to be buried at Moffett Cemetery. Naively, I thought it would be easy to connect him with his grandparents, Amos & Elizabeth (Jackman) Craig, who lived a quarter mile west of the Moffett Cemetery. After all, the gene pool was, and still is, shallow in Lukin Twp, (John’s words, not mine) and there are only three other Craig's buried at Moffett. Surely, Milo was related to them. Why else would he be buried there?

Turns out that he was born to an unwed mother CAROLINE CRAIG, the youngest child of Amos & Elizabeth Craig. CAROLINE CRAIG married WILLIAM BROTHERS for her first marriage on 12/30/1896 in Knox Co IN. He died in 1912 and she married for the 2d time on 4/30/1912 in Lawrence Co IL to Amasa T. Shepard (1865 - 1942). Caroline Craig Shepard (1873 - 1950) is buried in Orange Co CA.

The breakthrough in identifying MAYO CRAIG came with a search of the 1910 Census of Lawrence Co for any teenage boy named MAYO.

This sighting led back to the 1900 Census of Lukin Twp, which includes the household of WILLIAM & CAROLINE BROTHERS.

Note that WILLIAM & CAROLINE BROTHERS had been married for 3 years in 1900 and for 13 years in 1910, but there is an older boy named MAYO BROTHERS, born before they were married. MAYO's younger brother AMOS BROTHERS is named for their maternal grandfather AMOS CRAIG.

The SHEPARD's moved from Bicknell IN to the West Coast in 1922.

MAYO CRAIG first enlisted in the U.S. Army on 9/10/1910 at Jefferson Barracks, MO at age 18. He was discharged on 9/17/1913 at Ft George Wright in Spokane WA. I cannot find his 2d enlistment.

We will probably never know the name of MAYO CRAIG's biological father. As the old saying goes -- "Daddy, Daddy, Who's My Daddy?". "

You might think that nothing goes on in Lukin Township, but you can't hide a good scandel from John King. . . .