Amanda Evaline Womack, the 11th child of Joel W. and Sarah Womack, was born in Tallapoosa County, Alabama, November 26, 1854.  Current knowledge suggests that her arrival brought to 13 the number of persons in Joel's household because it is believed that all the children were still at home and that all were then living.  The oldest child at home would have been Martha whose age was 15 and the youngest , Georgeanna America, would have been age two.

            The circumstances of Amanda Evaline's childhood would have been similar to that of the other Womack children.  That account can be read by clicking here .  These children grew up in a very rural area of Alabama and, like their neighbors, they were engaged in the business of farming.  There were a few gold mines still around but most were closed and almost none  produced significant amounts of the metal.  While the children themselves probably were not aware of and little concerned with the gathering clouds of civil war, the issues that would later prove so devastating were clearly present.  And that fact must have had some influence on the childhood of the children.

            When Amanda Evaline was 19 years of age, she married George E. McKelvey, son of John and Elizabeth Adair McKelvey.  The McKelvey's lived a few miles away near the present day community of Hackneyville, Alabama.  Amanda and George were married December 16, 1873 and they settled near the McKelvey home place.

            The 1880 Census listed Amanda Evaline and George in the Hackneyville district.  George's father, John McKelvey, had died and Amanda and George with their daughter, Ella M., were living with his mother, Elizabeth.  Because subsequent Censuses will show that there were children who died in infancy, whether or not Ella M. was the only child born by 1880 is not known.  More than likely, she was not. 

 Rueben, the oldest son, was a lad of 16 in 1900 but his untimely death on April 5, 1903 left Hugh as the only male to carry on the name of this line.  The cause of his death is unknown but he was laid to rest in the Dillard Cemetery near Hackneyville.

            By the 1910 Census, two children were still at home.  Ella Maude, obviously a spinster at 30, may have never married but William Hugh did marry and had issue.  The 1920 Census discloses William Hugh's  household with a wife and two children, both females. 

Descendants of Amanda Evaline Womack

 

 1   Amanda Evaline Womack b: November 26, 1854 in Probably Tallapoosa County, AL  d: November 2, 1919 in Tallapoosa Co.,AL

..  +George E. McKelvey b: 1852 in Alabama m: December 16, 1873 in Tallapoosa Co.,AL d: 1934 in Tallapoosa Co.,AL

. 2   Ella Maude McKelvey b: January 1880

. 2   Katie McKelvey b: March 1882

. 2   Reuben McKelvey b: February 27, 1884 in Tallapoosa Co.,AL  d: April 5, 1903 in Tallapoosa Co.,AL

. 2   Myrtle McKelvey b: August 1888

. 2   William Hugh McKelvey b: August 1893 in Tallapoosa Co.,AL

.....  +Linda LNU b: 1890 in Alabama m: Bet. 1912 - 1913 in Tallapoosa Co.,AL

 

            Amanda Evaline Womack died in her 64th year on November 2, 1919.  She was buried in Dillard's Cemetery.  Dillard's Cemetery is located about 12 miles from City Hall in Alexander City, Tallapoosa County, Alabama, on Highway 63 North about three miles from Hackneyville High School in Township 24 N., Range 21 E., in N.W. Quarter of Section 9.  Her son, Rueben, had been buried there in 1903.  George E. lived for 15 years after her death.  He died in 1934 and was laid to rest beside Amanda Evaline.

            Amanda Evaline Womack had a life not dramatically different from the life of many southern women who endured a bitter Civil War, Reconstruction, and the hardships brought on by both as well as the economic hardships and uncertainties characteristic of small time dirt farmers.  But it was she and the women like her who instilled in their children an abiding faith in themselves and the will to make things better.  What a legacy!