This article written and copyright 2015 by Will Johnson, wjhonson@aol.com, Professional Genealogist
When William Riley Ivey married secondly on 21 Mar 1877 in Franklin County, Arkansas to F J Hardin, she had a prior child Savannah. I had known this since 1995 when my cousin Ida Ross sent me William R Ivy's 1910 Will where he calls her "my stepdaughter Savannah Hicks", but it was not until 2015 when an Ancestry leaf alerted me that William Ivy had appeared as the father on a Washington State death certificate, that I discovered that Savannah had died in Yakima, Washington on 31 Dec 1940 as "Frances S Hicks". Her parents are there named as "William R Ivy", and "Frances Wade". Her husband is there listed as "Samson Hicks" which is a strange combination of her two husband's names.
Her death certificate lists her having died on 31 Dec 1940 and aged "79y11m7d", which would put her as born on 24 Jan 1861. However my great-grandmother Julia (Savannah's step-sister) had in her bible two Wade children, who died young. One was listed as born on 31 Jul 1860 and the other on 24 Jan 1862. Therefore Savannah Frances Wade must have been born as a twin, and her twin died. So Savannah Frances was born 24 Jan 1862. Her census entries put her as born in Georgia, but the exact place is unknown to me.
Her mother's name was Frances Jennette, her maiden name is unknown, but could not have been Wade unless her children were illegitimate. So Jennette must have married a Mr Wade by whom she had three children, two of whom died as children, and then in 1865 she married Henderson Hardin but I don't know where. She seems to be the same person who completed her deceased husband's Homestead Entry, granted 3 Nov 1876 in Crawford County, Arkansas, which means her dead husband was named "Joseph Henderson Hardin". The patent was granted to S1/2NE1/4 of S21-T10N- 30W. Jennette married as her third and last husband, and his second wife, to my direct ancestor William Riley Ivey, whose prior wife Mary Frances Snodgrass had died four months earlier, leaving him to raise four to five young children (its not clear if his son Robert was yet living at this time).
Savannah must have been incorporated into this family, she was about the same age as the eldest son, also named William Riley Ivey who had been born 4 Apr 1862. Then there was a son James R Ivey born 31 Oct 1867, then Robert born Dec 1869 was possibly yet living, and then the two youngest were girls Jennie Ivey born 1 Sep 1872 and Julia Ivey born 19 Jan 1875.
Savannah probably did not live long in this family group, as on 7 Aug 1879, in Crawford County, Arkansas, "Savannah F Wade age 17" married (as her first husband), to "Sampson L Stanfill age 21" (Sampson Lafayette Stanfill born 1858 died 1891), by whom she was to have six children. Since Savannah was only 17, they obtained "consent of guardian filed with this clerk", this must have been her step-father William Riley Ivey.
The first five of her six children by Sampson were possibly born in Fayetteville, Washington County, Arkansas where Sampson had a Homestead at S29-T17N-R31W just a short distance away from his step-father-in-law William Riley Ivey. However the same year he completed his Homestead Application (1889), they had already moved to Columbia County in Washington State where they appear that year in the State Census.
Her last child by Sampson, named Frances Jeannette after her own mother, was born at Pleasant, Asotin County, Washington on 20 Nov 1889. Sampson died on 22 Jan 1891 and is buried at Bundy Hollow Cemetery, Dayton, Columbia County, Washington