Alma Mattie Simmons AKA: Mattie Alma Poe, Mattie Alma Simmons, Mattie Alma Jennings
Mattie Alma Poe was the probable name on her birth certificate. This is the name that was used on all Census records that I have found for her. She was born in Independence, VA, Grayson County, to Lenicta A. and Robert F. Poe on September 16,1903. Although other records show that she was born in 1902, I believe that 1903 is probably the correct year for her birth. An update to her place of birth: She could have also been born in Elk Creek, VA, also Grayson County. I find this possible because Independence wasn't always were the Poe's lived. They were also in Elk Creek Census records, however, I have to look a little closer to find out for sure where they were living when my grandmother was born.
I can give some very accurate facts about her because she was my grandmother. There are many facts that I do not know about her though. She never talked about her family in Virginia that I can remember. I wish she had because I would like to know what they were like.
She had a possible nine sibling. I say possible because I have found that the census records often show a different name for the children as the years go by. Often, the children would go by their middle names or other nicknames making it a little harder to figure out if those children were repeated in the tree that I have created.
My grandmother also stated that her birth cerficate was destroyed in a fire at the courthouse where it was stored. I have not been able to find proof of the fire that she was talking about. Maybe she was just putting up a smoke screen because when she signed up for social security, she made herself look older, from all indications, so that she could then claim her social security earlier.
It appears to me that she stayed in Independence only as long as she had to. I know that the census records show her in Bel Air, Harford County, Maryland in January of 1920. The days that the census were taken were the 8th, 9th and 10th. This puts her at just having turned 16. However, the census records states she was 17. Probably because they only subtracted the years from one another rather than figuring out the month of birth also. She was married to William H. Jennings and had a son of 6 months old. She was actually only 15 years old when she had her first child and only 14 years old when she got pregnant with her first child.
I am also of the belief that the Poe's didn't have much money. I cannot prove and probably never will be able to prove what reasons my grandmother had for getting pregnant and married at so young of an age. She got married because she "had to". What would prompt so young a girl to be with a man? Was she in love with him, or think that she was in love with him? Did she think that this was her way out of her home? Was she running from someone or something that she didn't want to face anymore? Or was she simply trying to escape the poverty that surely had to be running rampant in her family?
Her seven children were by three different men starting with William Jennings. His four children were Ralph, Vivian, Doris and Donald. Her fifth child's father is fairly well unknown to me, that was Shirley. The sixth and seventh child were with Paul Simmons, they were Elaine and Paula (my mother).
Her last child, my mother, was born April 14, 1942 at Union Hospital in Elkton, Maryland, County of Cecil. On my mother's birth certificate it is stated that my grandmother was 38 years old. Her name is listed as Mattie Alma Simmons and the father's name was Theodore P. Simmons. Her father worked at a place called Triumph as a carpenter. Her mother is listed as a housewife. They resided on Water Street in Elkton. The street name has since changed to Howard Street. I see on a map that there is still a Water Street, however, it looks like a non-road to me, just a short dead end street that I have never even known to exist. I will check it out the next time I am in the area and update the information. However, my mother states that the house they lived in was on the opposite side of the street from the stores. This puts the house at about the same place as the ball fields in Eder Park which is right next to the Big Elk Creek and Elkton Cemetary. I would like to find any pictures of the house that might be out there, so if you or anyone you know might have pictures of the Elkton Area in the 1940's or so, please contact me with information as to how I can obtain copies of it.
In any case, my grandmother was 38 when she had her last child. Therefore, she had spent the better part of 23 years having babies. This, in turn, means that she spent about 40 years from the time her first child was born until the last one was married and on her own.