Reader provides more interesting details about a woman named Frank

Frank Crawford Vanderbilt

Some readers may remember reading in this space a month or so ago a column about a field trip that I took to the McConnico Cemetery, located a short distance from “downtown” Perdue Hill on County Road 1. Not long after that story ran in the paper, I received a nice message from Tom McGehee of Mobile.

McGehee, the Museum Curator at the Bellingrath Gardens & Home in Theodore, is also a board member for the Masonic Hall at Perdue Hill. According to McGehee, a 40-year-old woman named Alice Pettibone Elliott died on Aug. 16, 1886 and was buried at McConnico Cemetery. Her parents were Samuel and Vermont-native Sarah Pettibone, who were living in Conecuh County in 1850.

By 1855, the Pettibones had moved to Monroe County and were living near McConnico Cemetery. Three of their children died there (probably of yellow fever) in September 1855. All three are buried in the McConnico Cemetery.

Twenty years before her death in Monroe County, Alice, married a Confederate veteran named John Felix Elliott on May 23, 1866. Elliott was the grandson of an accomplished silversmith named Jean Simon Chaudron, who was part of the Vine & Olive Colony in Demopolis. After his wife’s death, Elliott moved Texas, where he passed away in 1901 at the ripe old age of 81.

Now, here’s where things get really interesting.

According to McGehee, Elliott’s first wife was a woman named Frank Crawford of Mobile, who he married in 1859 in Mobile. (Frank’s father had promised that he would name his next child after his best friend, never guessing that his next child would be a girl.) Elliott bought Shell Cottage, which still stands today at 1818 Spring Hill Avenue in Mobile, but the young married couple never lived there.

When the Elliotts returned from their honeymoon, where they had been accompanied by the bride’s mother, Martha Crawford, the bride returned home with her mother, instead of moving in with her new husband. Their marriage was later annulled. Other sources say that the couple got a divorce, McGehee said.

In 1868, after the War Between the States, Frank and Martha visited a distant cousin in New York City. This distant cousin was Sophia Vanderbilt, who was married to business magnate, Cornelius Vanderbilt. After Sophia’s death, Cornelius invited the two Crawford women to move in with him at 10 Washington Place, near Greenwich Village.

A year later, Cornelius, Frank and Martha took a trip to Canada. To everyone’s surprise, the 75-year-old grandfather married the 30-year-old Frank. Frank was a devout Methodist and got “The Commodore” to donate $1 million to a small Methodist college in Nashville. Today, we know it as Vanderbilt University.

In the end, I appreciate McGehee taking the time to send me this information. No doubt many readers will find this information interesting and may have their own tidbits of information to add to the story. If so, let me hear from you.