Levisa Jane "Vicy" Milliken

The parents of Levisa Jane Milliken. Levisa (sometimes spelled Lavica) Milliken was born about 1831 in Tennessee. Her name was most likely "Levisa", as this particular name was popular in many lines of our family. She married John A. Lewis between 1850 and 1858 in Pope County, Arkansas. In Pope County in 1850, when she was nineteen years old, John was 24 and lived in her parents' home as a boarder. In 1860 John and Vicy Lewis were in Geesville, North Fork, Pope County, with a four month old daughter. Vicy's sister Mary Catherine lived with her, age 16, as their mother had died before this time. After 1860, we lose the trail of John and Levisa; they are not yet located on any 1870 census so perhaps they died before then. The descendants of this line say that John and Levisa had another daughter, Levisa Maryann Lewis, in 1865 in Missouri, so they may have died there. It is curious and frustrating that we cannot find a census record for the parents or the girls in 1870 or in 1880; it is surmised that there is a misspelling or mistake with their names which is making the search very difficult. The search for clues continues. We only have record of the two daughters, Rebecca and Levisa Maryann, and Rebecca has totally disappeared. Levisa Maryann married in Conway County, Arkansas in 1883.
1. Rebecca Lewis was born about 1860 in Pope County, Arkansas.
1. Levisa Maryann Lewis was born in April 1865, reputed to be in Saline County, Missouri, but we have seen no proof of this. She married John F. Carlile on 2 May 1883 in Conway County, Arkansas. We know very little of John, as they married during the "Black Hole" of genealogy study (1880-1900) and by 1900 he has disappeared. There is a family story that he left for Oklahoma and never came back. We do know that the Carliles had three children during this time period, the last born in Pope County in May of 1893. At any rate, on the Sulphur, Pope County, Arkansas 1900 census Levisa appears with a second husband, J. M. Coldwell, who was born in Kentucky in January 1845, making him twenty years older than Levisa. The three Carlile children are named "Coldwell" on this census, but they should be listed as Carliles. There is a fourth child born in January 1899 and we are making an assumption here that he is the son of Mr. Coldwell and wife Levisa, but of course there is a possibility that he is a fourth child of Mr. Carlile. This is the last census on which Levisa is found to date. Her children are found in 1910, none of them with her, but she is reported to have died in 1915 in Arkansas.
: 2. Elizabeth Irena "Rena" Carlile was born 10 October 1884 in Hector, Pope County, Arkansas. In 1907 she married William Newton "Will" Cox, probably in Pope County. He was born 14 Oct 1884 in Morgan County, Missouri, according to his draft registration for World War II. In 1910 they were listed with two very young children in Valley, Pope County, Arkansas, on the same page we find listed her brother, Wesley "Carlyle", age twenty. In 1920 they were still there, with six children, living next door to Irena's brother James F. Carlile and family. By 1930 they had moved to Wilmot, Ashley County, Arkansas, where they have five of their children and one granddaughter, the daughter of their deceased daughter Florence, living with them. Irena died of tuberculosis in October of 1935 in Lake Village, Chicot County, Arkansas. On his World War II draft registration back in Pope County, Arkansas, Will Cox listed "Willie Mae Cox" as his closest relative. We do not know if this was a second wife. His granddaughter was named Willa Mae Brewer but may have been named as Cox as she was raised by her grandparents. Eventually Will Cox relocated to California, and he died there in Hanford, Kings County, on 25 July 1963. Their children were Florence Esther who married Alfred Brewer and then Emil Zimmerman, Velma Mary who married Charles Murphy, Lucy, Arthur, Walter Thurman Riley, Reuben Leroy, Dortha/Dorothy, Margaret Helen, Miller, and James.
: 2. John Wesley Carlile was born 6 June 1888 in Pope County. In 1910, he was listed living with an Ardmore family, age twenty and single. He was employed as a farmhand, and his sister Rena Cox lived nearby. He married Minnie V. Standridge on 20 April 1913, in Pope County. She was the daughter of Scott and Donie Harris Standridge, born 7 March 1896 in Pope County. On his draft card for World War I, he lived in Russellville, Pope County, and supported a wife and two children; by 1920, living in Valley, Pope County, there were four children in the home. Minnie, a young mother, sadly died on 4 November 1925 and she is buried at Old Baptist Cemetery in Center Valley, Pope County. Before 1930 John Wesley had remarried, to Maudie Alice Kinslow. She was born 16 May 1889 in Pope County and was married a first time to Joseph Thurman Lemley, who died in 1924. In 1930, the family is listed in Pope County with John Wesley's four living children and two Lemley children, Thomas and Haynie Lemley, listed as "Lamley". John Wesley died on 26 April 1972 in Pope County. He is buried at Old Baptist Cemetery, Center Valley, Pope County, Arkansas. Maudie Kinslow Lemley Carlile died on December of the same year. She is said to be buried at Tate Cemetery in Pope County, where at least two of her Lemley children are buried, along with their father. The children of John and Minnie Standridge Carlile were Ray W., Edna Fay, L. D. (a son), an unknown son who died before 1930, and Lou Estelle who married George Lawrence Newton.
: '2. Ja'mes Francis Carlile was born 30 December 1893 in Pope County, Arkansas. Like his brother John, in 1910 he was listed as working as a farmhand; he lived with a Cooper family. On 12 February 1912 he married Sarah Dollie Gipson in Pope County. Her father's name was Dock, and she was born on 16 November 1894 in Arkansas. In 1920 they lived in Valley, Pope County, next door to his sister, Rena Cox and family. James and Sarah had three children. By 1930, still in Valley, Pope County, they had five children at home, as well as her brother Joe Gipson living with the family. On his World War II draft registration in Pope County, James Francis Carlile, age 48, worked for the school board in Russellville. He died on 12 December 1956 in Russellville, and is buried at Old Baptist Cemetery in Center Valley, Pope County, Arkansas. Sarah Dollie Gipson Carlile died on 12 May 1974 and lies beside him there. She lived in Danville, Yell County, Arkansas at the time of her death. Their children were: John Calvin, Lizzie M., Adams, Mamie V., Frederick Hays, and Ocie L.
: The child of Levisa Maryann and (probably) J. M. Coldwell or Caldwell is:
: 2. George Coldwell/Caldwell was born in January 1899 in Pope County, Arkansas. No further record of him can be found.