Mich D. NEEDHAM

 The following bio was taken from page 326 of the book entitled “Rusk County History” compiled and edited and used with permission of the Rusk County Historical Commission.

Transcribed by Gloria Riley

Submitted by Gloria Briley Mayfield, Rusk County TX Coordinator

 Mich D. Needham was born in Laneville and spent his life there.  His father was William Howard Needham, who was born November 7, 1836, in Tennessee and died in Rusk County, July 24, 1900.  His mother was Catherine C. Perkins (October 26, 1836-October 13, 1902).  They are buried at Laneville.

 William Howard and Catherine had six children.  Mich D. (December 26, 1871-December 30, 1932) married Annie Lee Lowe.  More is told of this couple at a later point in this story.  Robert E. Lee Needham (1873-1970) married Orrie Johnson (1877-1935) and they are buried at Laneville.  David was shot and killed when young and little is known of him.  Hardman (1879-1966), who married Alice Harper (1884-1974), is buried at Laneville.  Alice Needham (1876-1923) married Robert (Bill) Lowe, brother of Annie Lowe.  Fannie was a child about whom we know very little except that her first husband was Jesse Mayfield and her second, a man named Hunt.

 The oldest of the above six children was Mich, who married Annie Lee Lowe on December 10, 1896.  They had four children:  Opal Fetna (1897-1976), who married Andrew J. Jackson and had one child, Celita Joyce, who lived only a few days.  Zelma Merwyn (1899-) married Andrew Gibson Goodlett and their daughter, Annie Beth, married B. H. Rowe.  Roy M. Needham (1901-) married Mary Louise Houze, whose mother’s family name was House.  Clifford Lowe Needham (1905-1966) never married.  Opal, Celita and Clifford are buried at Laneville.

 Mich and Annie Lee also had two great-grandchildren, Jon David Rowe and Lynda Beth Rowe, Moore Trent, and two great great-grandchildren, Kimberly Ann and John David Moore

 Annie Lee’s parents were James (Tobe) Lowe (1827-1886) and his second wife, Rachel Elvira Mays (1838-1874), who is buried in Mays Cemetery.

 Tobe and Rachel had six children, all born at New Salem:  Laura Louvenia (1859-1919) who married J. G. Maples; John Finley (1861-1947), who married Kate Talley; Sarah Frances (Sally) (1864-1951), who married C. C. Chris Hoover; Della Ulda (1866-1961), who married J. G. Russell; William Robert (Bill), 1870-1954, who married Alice Needham, sister of Mich; Annie Lee (1872-1981), who married Mich D. Needham.  The latter couple is the subject of this story.

 Tobe’s first marriage was to Mary Johnson in 1853.  Lucinda Jane Lowe, their only child, died at an early age.  Tobe’s third marriage was to Emma Mays Avery.  Their son, Claude Lowe (1877-1962) married Sarah Katherine (Kate) McDonald.

 Tobe’s parents were Charles Franklin and Felah (or Celia) Lowe.  Charles Franklin, who was born in Virginia, November 29, 1798, to Charles and Mary Lowe, died in Tennessee.  He and Mary were the parents of eleven children:  Thomas, John S., Sr.; Elizabeth; Malinda, who married Robert White; William, who was born in 1800 and married Rhoda Plummer; Charles Franklin (above); Walter; Wesley; Samuel, who married Amanda; James, who married Elizabeth Jane Newman; and Henrietta, who married James Newman.

 Written by Beth Rowe