Nancy Ann Cunnius

1825 – after 1910

Nancy Ann Cunnius was born in 1825 in Alabama , the daughter of Tarlton & Katherine Nicholas Cunnius.

In 1847 she married Jonathan R. Burris in Grayson Co., Texas and they had two children; Mary Ann & Benjamin. Mary Ann will grow up and marry John Emsley Foster, my direct ancestor.

After the presumed death of Mr. Burris, Nancy married Ellcana Lollar on March 28, 1854 in Collin, Co., Texas .

Then after Mr. Lollar was no longer in her life, don’t know if he died or they divorced, she married Jeremiah Monroe Gage in about 1870, probably in Wise County , TX .

In the 1880 Federal Census record of Wise County , Texas , she list herself as married to Mr. Gage, who was born in ca 1816. He is listed as 64 years old, and she is 54. Living with them is Benjamin, now age 27, and Larkin A. Cunnius, age 25 (Larkin is Nancy ’s half-brother). Larkin later moved to Holdenville, Hughes Co., OK, where he died on Dec 29, 1925 at home of old age. He states he is a widower at the time of his death, and he is buried in McMahan Cemetery , Holdenville , OK . He married Ebquonia Coldasun on Dec 2, 1882 in Wise Co., TX.

In the 1900 Federal Census record for Wise County, Texas, Nancy list her age as 74, and lives as a widow with Samuel Foster (Sam is her daughter Mary Ann Foster’s husband John’s brother). She lists herself as an aunt in the census however. She states she was married for 23 years (perhaps she combined all the years she was married to her three husbands, and states that she had five children of which only one still lives. I have only found two children, Mary Ann & Benjamin, so I assume that three children must have died as small children, and their fathers are unknown. She further states that she is a nurse.

In the 1910 Federal Census record for Charlie, Clay County, Texas, Nancy Gage is now 84 years old and living with her widowed daughter, Mary Ann Foster and Mary’s son Benjamin age 23. She list herself as a widow, the mother of five (again) with one surviving. Apparently her son Benjamin who was born in 1853 is now dead.

In the 1920 Federal Census record for Clay County, Texas, there is no listing for Nancy Ann Gage or Mary Ann Foster or a Benjamin Burris. In fact no one with the last name of Gage or Foster is living in 1920 Clay or Wise Counties , TX , so one must assume that Nancy Ann Cunnis Burris Lollar Gage died between 1910 and 1920 in north Texas, probably Clay County, TX but this has never been proven and her grave has never been located.