| Notes |
- From: Sharon Elise (Friddles) Cleaton
James Howard Friddles. James may be hard to track down given the fact that he was adopted by the Cleaton family (Tennessee); don't know their first names. When he was adopted, he took their name and became James Howard Cleaton. The other children (Bessie, Jessie and Calonia (not Caldonia)) were also adopted. I think Calonia was adopted with my father by the Cleatons but I am not altogether certain of this fact. I do know that they were adopted out in 2s, except for Uncle Walter. Bessie and Jessie stayed together, James Howard and Calonia stayed together.
I know my grandmother Dora died shortly after my daddy was born (maybe 2 years after). My grandfather found it difficult to raise 5 children alone and remarried (don't know her name). The new wife did not want to be saddled with all these kids and gave my grandfather an ultimatum to either get rid of the children or her. He took all the children to the train station (where a photo was taken of all of them) and they boarded a train to take the children to an orphanage. He dropped the children off at the orphanage and came back home. After some time had passed (don't know how much time), he had major regrets over choosing this woman over his kids. He filed for divorce and was boarding the train to go get his kids back when the new wife shot him and killed him right there at the train station. Needless to say, my grandfather and the children were never reunited. That's how come they stayed in the orphanage and were adopted.
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1911 - 1971 (59 years)
[1] 