Monday, March 28, 2011

Alva Jefferson Leisure Questions

I’ve got some questions for my cousins out there. For the past few days, I know not why, I’ve been looking at the Alva Jefferson Leisure family. I say I don’t know why because Alva is my 2nd cousin 3x removed and I much closer relations I need to research. That be as it may, I’ve been looking at Alva.
Alva was the son of William and Margaret Jane (Holford) Leisure, born 09 Aug 1867 probably in Rush county, Indiana.  He married Lena Eldora (aka Dora) Anderson in Hancock County, Indiana on 30 Oct 1890.
This is where the mystery (for me) begins. The 1900 federal census finds the family in Beebe Township, White county, Arkansas where Alva is listed as a saw mill proprietor. Listed with “Dora” and Alva are two sons - Paul born in March of 1893 in Pennsylvania and Earl born in March of 1895 in Indiana. At first I thought the recording of Pennsylvania may have been an error by the census taken (it wouldn’t be the first time) but on both his WWI and WWII draft registrations, Paul lists his birthplace as Philadelphia, PA. On that same census, Dora is listed as having four children with two living so somewhere there may be a record for two children I don’t have in my database.
It appears the family moved back to Indiana after Paul was born and then sometime between 1895 (Earl’s birth) and 1900 they moved to Arkansas. William Leisure was born in Arkansas in 21 Jul 1900, after the census was taken. Then, it’s back to Indiana by 10 Jul 1903 when Thelma was born in Hancock County. After that, they stayed put.
Here’s my question: does anyone know what drew Alva and family to Pennsylvania and/or Arkansas?
Just wonderingJ

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