My great-grandmother, Virginia Webster Killough, born in 1862, was an exceptional woman and way ahead of her time.

She married Dutch Killough, having six boys and two girls.  One of the girls, Ann, died at the age of seven.  Dutch and Jenny were given a farm from his dad, along with livestock, as a start somewhere in Montague County, Tex.  Dutch Killough was a gambler and, to him, a deck of cards was an illness.  He gambled many personal things, some livestock, and eventually their farm.

Jenny had warned him time and again.  When they finally lost the farm, Jenny could take no more.  She petitioned for divorce, which was granted.  All this took place in about 1890.

Jenny gathered what belongings she had and her seven children, left Montague County, Tex., and headed for Wellington, Tex., in a wagon drawn by horses, alone.

I am not sure why they went to Wellington but after they arrived and got settled, Jenny went to work for a country doctor.  The doctor and Jenny walked house to house to check on his patients.  Jenny’s job was to stay at the homes when there was an illness or a new baby and to care for the sick as well as the family.  This she did at a great price, leaving her family at home to fend for themselves.

Jenny sewed and pieced quilts for others, as well as her own family, until she became blind at the age of 91.  The boys worked for farmers and did odd jobs for others.  Because of the fact that the doctor needed help and the family was given money or goods for their services, Nancy Jane Killough, Jenny’s only daughter living, quit school in the third grade to help them out.

When Nancy was 18, Jenny married the jailer of Wellington, Tex.  There she took care of her new husband and home and prepared all the meals for those in jail until her husband’s death.  She was left a two-story house and 5 acres of land at the edge of town where she lived until just before she died at 94 years of age in May of 1953.

Jenny must have been a head strong, independent woman.  She set precedence for the women heirs that followed, for each of us have shown a large amount of her nature.  Her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren who were fortunate enough to have known her, loved Jenny very much.  I personally count is as a blessing to be one of those great-grandchildren who knew her.