Hattie May Story (1896 – 1917)

My great grandmother Lydia Margaret “Dollie” Story Zimmerman’s youngest sister Hattie May Story was born on August 20, 1896. Hattie was Dollie’s half-sister as she was the daughter of George Washington Story and his second wife Margaret Sweat. Dollie’s mother was George Story’s first wife Malinda Davis.

Hattie’s mother Margaret either died in giving birth to Hattie or passed away not long after her birth. In 1900, Hattie’s and Dollie’s older sister Amanda Isabelle “Mandy” Story, a widow, was living with her father and helping to care for her younger siblings, Riley (1893 -1949) and Hattie.

Hattie was born on her parent’s fifth anniversary. 22-year-old Margaret Sweat married 48-year-old widower George Washington Story in Franklin, Illinois. George’s first wife Malinda Davis passed away earlier in 1891. Dying young was often a way of life in rural America before modern medicine cured many formerly fatal diseases. Hattie would see plenty of family members pass away during her short life.

After losing her mother at such an early age, Hattie lost her father on either September 19, 1900, or September 19, 1903. Hattie and older brother Riley lived with one of their older half-siblings, most likely Mandy Story until they came of age.

On September 7, 1913, 17-year-old Hattie May Story married 20-year-old Leo Kincade in Scott County, Missouri. Both Mandy and Dollie lived in this area at the time. On June 29, 1914, Leo and Hattie welcomed Opal Jewel Kincade into the world in Malden, Dunklin County, Missouri.

The future looked bright for Leo and Hattie, but tragedy struck on May 23, 1917. Three months shy of her 21st birthday, pulmonary tuberculosis took Hattie in the prime of her life. Tuberculosis ravaged Southeast Missouri in the 1910s and 1920s. Dollie’s stepson William Rueben Zimmerman and his wife Cecilia died from tuberculosis in 1925 and 1926, respectively.

Leo and young Opal buried Hattie May Story Kincade on May 24, 1917, in St. Gilead Cemetery. Leo would marry again to Ethel Vaughn in 1918. However, tuberculosis would strike again on August 18, 1923, when 22-year-old Ethel also died from the disease. Leo proved fortunate not have caught the disease himself.

Opal Jewel Kincade lived a nice, long life and passed away at 90 years old on October 20, 2004, in Moscow Mills, Missouri. Opal broke the tragic pattern of early deaths in the family.

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