Delila Ann Webb Lane

My grandfather, Ralph Wellons, would have known his maternal grandmother, Delila Ann Webb Lane.

She was born on September 6, 1837 in Dayton, Ohio. The family moved to the Perkinsville area in Jackson Township of Madison County, Indiana during her first year of life. She died on January 17, 1922 at the home of her son near Frankton in Lafayette Township of Madison County. She is buried in Elwood, Indiana as is her husband John Lane.

There is a surviving obituary from the Frankton, Indiana Critic that was published on January 26, 1922. And no, I’m not kidding. Frankton had a newspaper and it apparently was a pretty good one.

She lived in Jackson Township and was counted there in 1850, 1860, and 1870, as she grew up, married and had most of her children. She married John I. Lane on August 16, 1856. I believe it was his second marriage. She is shown as living in the Frankton area again when her daughter Florence Elizabeth is born on 27 July, 1876. Florence’s older siblings were born in Jackson Township. Her mother, Mary Fallis Webb, died 4 days later. She is back living in Jackson Township for the 1880 census.

Delila’s husband, John Lane, died on September 4, 1894. They actually had 13 children, not the 10 that were listed in the 1880 census. Two died in infancy and are not named. A son, Arthur died in California as an adult.

By 1900, she is living in Wayne Township of Hamilton County, Indiana (the Wellons clan is there, but she is not living with them). She is widowed and the head of household.  This is the only time she is shown as living in Hamilton County.

On October 12, 1908, she lost her father, Jacob Mumford Webb. He was 98 years old.

In 1910 she is shown as widowed and the head of household in Lafayette Township (Frankton area) again. But in 1920 she is still in Lafayette Township, but shown as the mother of the head of household.

The obituary says that all 10 of her living children attended her funeral and that her 7 surviving sons served as pall bearers. Florence Lane Wellons attended with two of her sisters. I don’t know if my grandfather, one of her 37 grandchildren (plus 35 great grandchildren at her death) attended the funeral.

And we have a picture!