Withrow family
Biographical Note
In 1918, Gordon Cloyd Bell married Mary Eliza Withrow. She was the granddaughter of James W. Withrow of Greenbrier County. James Withrow was born in Lewisburg, in what is now West Virginia, on October 23, 1818. Though not a licensed attorney he served as a judge and for many years, the Master Commissioner of the Circuit Court. He also represented the county in the state legislature where he served on the Judiciary Committee. He married Mary Jane Kincaid and had two sons, Edgar Daingerfield Withrow and Heber K. Withrow, and three daughters, Mrs. Helen Feamster, Miss Mary J. Withrow, and Mrs. Lucy Withrow Montgomery. James Withrow died June 26, 1901.
Edgar Daingerfield Withrow was born December 9, 1845. He married Mary See Renick on November 3, 1886. Edgar served in the Civil War as a member of Confederate company E of the 14th Virginia Cavalry. Edgar was captured at Berryville in 1864 and spent the end of the war at Camp Chare in Ohio. Following the War, Edgar went into business with his father, and later ran his own business selling agricultural implements. Together with Mary Renick, he had six daughters and one son: Mary Mathews Withrow, born September 16, 1887, died October 3, 1892; Annie Primrose Withrow, born January 26, 1889, died June 16, 1982; Mary Eliza Withrow, born November 29, 1892, died September 29, 1938; Helen Cameron Withrow, born January 9, 1895, died July 25, 1903; Letitia Renick Withrow, born July 1, 1897, died December 24, 1922; Geraldine Withrow, born August 1, 1901, died July 8, 1902; Edgar D. Withrow Jr., born July 8, 1903, died October 2, 1913. The Withrows moved to Pulaski County sometime around 1910. Edgar Withrow died March 9, 1926 and Mary Renick Withrow died January 7, 1929.
Annie P. Withrow never married. She was very close with her nephews, Edgar, Gordon, David and Andrew Bell, and much of their correspondence was written to her. She attended the Lewisburg Female Institute beginning in 1907. Annie Withrow died in June of 1982.
Letitia R. Withrow was born July 1, 1897. She moved with her family to Dublin and graduated from Dublin High School. She then attended Stonewall Jackson College in Abingdon until the school burned in 1914. She then entered Hollins College in Roanoke, VA, following graduation she became a special student of voice under Professor A. Y. Cornell of New York for two years. In 1919, she took a job as Assistant Voice Teacher at Greenville Women's College in Greenville, South Carolina. She taught there for two years, and one year at Annville College in Annville, Pennsylvania. She left Annville College to return to New York in order to resume her training with Professor Cornell in preparation for a singing career. Shortly thereafter she returned home, where she died from influenza on December 24, 1922.