Lee family stories
Phoebe Cheatham Taylor lived to be 103 years old and was born and died in England. Her family boasted that she never wore glasses or false teeth. She was married to William Cheatham for many years; this union lasted until he died in a tragic mining accident. Elizabeth remembered the day her father's dead body was brought up in the mine elevator after the accident. A few years later, Phoebe did remarry to an Earl. This Earl, Alfred Taylor, gave up his title for their love.
Phoebe also sacrificed something; she gave up her daughter to be raised by her two maiden sisters. These sisters taught Elizabeth the trade of being a midwife and also taught her to read and write. This was unusual for women during this time in history.
Elizabeth Cheatham was born May 30, 1833 in Daneville, Yorkshire, England. She only reached 4’ 9 ” and wore size 2 shoes. Because her feet were so small she would buy the women’s display shoes from the cobbler’s window. This kept her from having to wear children’s shoes or have them ‘special made’. Elizabeth was married at the age of 21 years to Reverend, Rodger Lee on October 9, 1854 in Sheffield Park in the Old Sheffield Church. This was in an area was called Daffy Woods. She and Rodger lived there for many years and had a very large family together.
Rodger was born December 13, 1832 to his mother and Jonathan Lee in Middleton, Lancaster, England. Nothing else is known about his father at this time. We do know that his mother later married, William Heigh, and the couple had three children together, Luke, Adam, and Dick Heigh.
It is reported that Elizabeth and Rodger Lee had 13 children; this is counting miscarriages and deaths and according to the family bible, she had three sets of twins. This bible is believed to be in the possession of Stella Lee Baker’s family, a descendant of Clara Ann Elizabeth Lee. Correspondence has been made over the years to confirm many of these family stories by contacting various family members (Mildred Jackson Hermann, Ginger Wood White, Peggy Odle Quint, Dorothy Hermann Peavy and Julie Dafeldecker).
Elizabeth made her lively-hood as a Sergeant in the Salvation Army as well as a midwife. She also is credited with pioneering her family’s move across the Atlantic Ocean from England to the States on September 8, 1881. She had traveled earlier, perhaps with older children, to look for a coal-mining town in which Rodger could work in once they had immigrated. She selected the small mining town of Erie, Colorado for their new home.
Rodger Lee was a miner just like Elizabeth’s father, but he also was a preacher. He would go into the mines and preach the word of God to the miners, always refusing money for these sermons. It is interesting to note, that Rodger never learned to read nor write and Elizabeth selected the sermons from the Old and New Testaments that he owned and as well as helping him memorize them.
I saw these Testaments in the fall of 2003 at Ginger White’s house in Midland, Oregon (a little town outside of Klamath Falls). The two bibles printed by John Kitto had come all the way from England. They were from a Hebrew translation. During my visit I saw the 175-year-old bibles; they were very fragile. Ginger was going to send them to Dorothy Hermann Peavy of Denver, Colorado to add to her collection of family memorabilia. I hope that at some point they go into a museum, as they must be quite valuable.
Not all of Elizabeth and Rodger’s children lived to be adults and only a few immigrated with them to the U.S. We know that Hannah Lee, Eliza Lee (Twin), Clara Ann Elizabeth Lee, and Mary Polly, her husband and their daughter Gert came with them.
Rodger, like so many coal miners, died way before his time. He was in a mining accident and was seriously injured in the year 1887. Still recovering from his accident, a runaway horse and carriage ran him down and killed him while he was crossing the street. We know that the horse that killed him was named “Dick” and this horse was described as having it’s tongue frequently hanging out of the side of his mouth. (The interesting details of the horse were from notes that Ginger has given me.)
Rodger was buried in Erie, Colorado on January 22, 1889, but because the cemetery was subject to seasonal flooding, he was later interred in a cemetery with a higher elevation. Ginger looked for his tombstone on one of her family searches, but she did not find it in the cemetery where he was listed. Instead, she discovered his tombstone in the basement of the Erie City Hall. Records do not show where his exact burial location is and this will probably always remain a mystery.
After the death of her husband, Elizabeth moved her family to Denver, Colorado. Here she would rise every morning and take her carriage to the affluent parts of town to gather their old clothing, etc. She would then turn around and distribute them to the poorer sections of town. She often wouldn’t return home until nightfall.
She also frequented the Denver prison and would bring food, socks or blankets for the prisoners. If a prisoner escaped from the prison, they would often show up at her house hoping to be fed and given a warm coat or blanket before being sent on their way. I’ve been told that she thought no one was truly bad and she always treated them with kindness.
Elizabeth walked to the Colorado State Prison in Greeley and stayed in the barracks. Sometimes for up to 3 months at a time ministering to the prisoners. The prisoners made a parquet side table as a present for Elizabeth, or “Mother Lee” as she was known in later years. The table has a chessboard design on top of it. I hope to get a picture of it for this site so others can view it.
Elizabeth was a strong supporter of Temperance or the restraint of drinking alcohol. She supposedly went into the local taverns with her shillelagh (shi-LAY-lee) and broke bottles of liquor with it. The shillelaghs were originally oak clubs that were cut from the trees in the Wicklow forest in Ireland. The clubs were carried by men and were commonly used as a fighting stick or weapon. Just picturing Elizabeth, a 4’ 9 ” woman, wielding a large shillelagh is quite a vision.
Family legend states that the Lee family was originally from southern Ireland. They were not associated with any particular clan, but were honored by all. The legend of the Lee Family is recorded in Ireland and can be found in the writings of Morgan Llwellyn, Irish Historian. The Lees were noted as not only fierce fighters, but also healers and for this reason all the clans wanted a Lee to go to battle with them.
A struggle in our research is the damage that occurred during WWI and WWII in England. Many church records were lost or destroyed by fire. We’re hopeful that our family records will surface someday, or we make contact with descendants of some of our English/Irish ancestors.
Sources:
Margaret Jackson Clemens (“The Jackson Family”)
Ginger Wood White (Correspondence via email and interviews)
Mildred Jackson Hermann (letters to family members)
Dorothy Hermann Peavy (Correspondence via email)
U.S. Federal Colorado Census
