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CHAPTER ELEVEN

Autobiography of Jessie Beulah Phillips Vaughn

Reformatted 4 November 2019 by author Lawrence Eugene Vaughn Jr

Clyde, Arley, Harry and Beulah, 1910

Table of Contents

• Autobiographical Sketch of Jessie Beulah Phillips Vaughn
• Marjorie White Vaughn’s Notes About the Vaughn Family

Autobiographical Sketch of Jessie Beulah Phillips Vaughn

Notes in the left column are an attempt by Bill A Vaughn to put content in order

A visit to Grandmother Vaughn’s house, 1974. Front Left; Steven Lance Vaughn; center; Lawrence Eugene Vaughn III; back left Lawrence Eugene Vaughn, Jr.; center Jessie Beulah Phillips Vaughn; Lawrence Eugene Vaughn.

Letter from Beulah to her son, Eugene Vaughn. Date unknown.

Above: Letter from Beulah to her son, Eugene Vaughn.  Below is a letter from “Grandma” Rebecca Ann Snider Vaughn to Beulah, Ruth & Billie, March 8, year unknown.

Above: Letter from “Grandma” Rebecca Ann Snider Vaughn to Beulah, Ruth & Billie pg 2

Funeral Program

Marjorie’s Notes About the Vaughn Family

In a note handwritten to me by my mother, Marjorie Gwendolyn White Vaughn, on January 11, 1994, she gave me her recollections of the Vaughn side of the family in as much detail as she remembered:

When I met your father in August of 1942, your grandfather, William Thomas Vaughn, was a salesman for L.B. Price Mercantile Company and part time Baptist minister in Hannibal. I think it was at the Immanuel Baptist Church on St. Marys Avenue. Also he was minister at a church located on 5th Street.

I’m really not positive on that, as I seem to remember that the Hannibal Calvary Baptist Church, at one time, split apart and some of the people started the church your grandfather pastored. He also, at various times, pastored Baptist churches at Perry, Meadville, Braymer and Kahoka, Missouri, where he and your grandmother lived in the parsonage home (a house provided by the church for their pastor). It seems to me he also was part time, or filled in, for minister vacancies in Macon and Rush Hill, Missouri.

I’m sure there were many small communities where he pastored that I do not recall.

Grandmother, Jessie Beulah (Phillips) Vaughn ran a substation for the Hannibal post office at that time. L.B. Price Mercantile Company was a business that sold bedroom linens, some dishes and kitchen cookware. I do not know how long he worked for them. Both the mercantile company and the postal station was located at, I think, 1724 Market Street (Hannibal, MO) and grandfather and grandmother lived upstairs. My family lived next door at 1722  Market, upstairs, above Neiman’s Grocery Store.

At the time your father was about 18 months or 2 years old they ran a grocery store in Marion, Illinois. They used to sit your dad in a wooden cracker box on the counter while grandmother ran the store. The store was located on Chestnut Street in Marion. They were partners in the store with Beulah’s dad. It was not successful.

Your dad, Ruth & Virgil attended Lincoln School in Marion, Illinois in 1928.

William Thomas was born in Creal Springs, Illinois to Lemuel Lafayette and Rebecca Ann (Snider) Vaughn. W.T. moved to Cartersville, Illinois where he met Jessie Beulah Phillips. They were married by a Reverend Wright in his home.

W.T. had a sister by the name of Nellie, who had several children. I don’t know her last name. I do remember your dad talking about Sammie, who he liked. Sammie was a son of Nellie.

W.T. went off to service in World War I to Camp Taylor at Louisville, Kentucky. The period of service I do not know. W.T. and Beulah had not been married long before he entered active service. Prior to marrying Beulah, W.T. worked at #9 Company Store, which I believe was a coal miner’s store.

There is an old bible somewhere.

Grandmother’s maiden name was spelled Mac Annelly (sic). Her mother’s name was Leona. Bell was Leona’s sister. Grandmother’s brother, Clyde, was born on the family farm in Marion. They lived with Aunt Bell when Clyde was born. Clyde married Jessie Hollis, and they had Harold and Eva.

• Harry married Nellie Doane, and they had Lee.
• Arlie married Verna (1907).
• Leona Mac Annelly’s sister married George Gilbert
• Brother of William Thomas: John & Flo Vaughn & Jack, their only child, lived above a store they ran in St. Louis.
• Alfred Phillips-Optometrist, had Lee, Eva, and Harold.
• Your grandmother Vaughn at one time was a hat maker and a shirt maker. Ruth told me one time grandmother taught school, but Bonnie (Virgil’s wife) said, “No.”

My mom (Nellie Frances Teall White) once told me that I was almost an angel. I didn’t know what she meant, and thought that it was because I was so active in our church. I was almost sure I had done something wrong that kept me from being an angel. Mom had me reach around and feel my shoulder blade, and said that’s where the wings had been clipped off! I was crushed, and worked really hard to earn my wings back!  

I really don’t remember going to church in Monroe City, Missouri, but know that I went with Mom and Pop White (Tony Matthew and Nona Mae Turner White). They worked on the Gospel of the Kingdom Campground located in Shepherdsville, Kentucky, where they built the first cabins for folks to live in during the summer sessions. Tony Matthew White, his son and my father, Wallace Benjamin White, and Uncle Foote (Forrest Russell Flick) built them.

Next chapter: Alfred Morefield Phillips Family