M. 7 Apr 1853 in Jerseyville, Illinois
Husband: Samuel Luckey
D: 7 May 1927 in Parsons, Kansas
Thomas Michael Mitchell, who was born in rural Kansas in 1893, used to talk about his early childhood. Every Sunday, the relatives would gather for a big chicken dinner, and presiding over the meal was an incredibly old woman everyone called Grandma Luckey. “She had no teeth and she had to gum her food,” he said. This was actually Mary Jane Davis, his great-grandmother, who was about 65 at the time. Young Thomas moved away from Kansas in 1900, and he knew nothing of Grandma Luckey after that.
Mary Jane Davis was born in March 1834 to Samuel Davis and Mary Clifford, their third child. The Davis family lived in Greene County, Illinois, having migrated from the backwoods of North Carolina. They were among the first settlers in that part of Illinois, and they most likely lived in a log cabin at the time of Mary Jane's birth. It's unknown how much education she might have received in her youth.
On April 7, 1853, Mary Jane married Samuel Luckey, a man whose family had also migrated from North Carolina. She gave birth to 3 boys and 8 girls over the next 24 years. Two of her daughters died young, during the 1860s.
Marriage certificate of Samuel Luckey and Mary Jane Davis
The Luckey family decided to head west in 1879, purchasing a farm in Labette County, Kansas. All of the children moved with them except for daughter Laura, who stayed behind in Illinois to raise a family. Five years later, Samuel died, leaving Mary Jane to care for her clan. She lost two other children that year, 13-year-old John and 6-year-old May. Mary Jane took charge of the family's farm. The 1885 Kansas State Census showed that the 160-acre farm produced wheat, corn, oats, potatoes, apples and peaches, and that $30 of swine were slaughtered that year.
Not long after that, Mary Jane appears to have given up running the farm. Her grown children had households of their own and she took turns living with them. This was during the time that her great-grandson remembered her as "Grandma Luckey." In 1900, she was living in the town of Parsons with her youngest child, William, and his family. One of his descendants passed along the fact that Mary Jane had "an Irish brogue," presumably because her mother's heritage traced back to Ireland.
Mary Jane continued on for many years. In the 1910 census, she was listed with daughter Laura back in Illinois. In 1919, she was again with William in Parsons, and in 1920, she was cared for by another daughter, Maggie, also in Parsons. On March 9, 1924, the family had a special gathering — it was Grandma Luckey’s 90th birthday. The Parsons Daily Sun reported that she “was indeed surprised on Sunday, when her children and grandchildren came with filled baskets to join her in celebration….”
From the Parsons Daily Sun, March 11, 1924.
Although frail and blind in her final years, Grandma Luckey survived to the advanced age of 93. Her life actually overlapped her great-great grandson Thomas Milton Mitchell (Thomas' son) by five years, but because that branch had no contact with the rest, this fact was unknown at the time. Mary Jane died on May 7, 1927; she was buried at Oakwood Cemetery in Parsons.
Seeing Grandma Luckey for the first time
In February 2024, an amazing thing happened. One Saturday afternoon at the FamilySearch Library in Salt Lake City, I found a photo that had been recently attached to an Ancestry family tree, and it was linked to Mary Jane Davis. When I clicked on the image, I saw that it was a 4-generation photo, and the old woman at the center was labeled “Great-Grandma Luckey.”
It had been almost 48 years since my grandfather, Thomas Michael Mitchell, had told me of my distant ancestor. I imagined what she looked like, and now here she was, pretty much the image I had in my head all of those years. I was overjoyed about the discovery, and as I left the library, I stopped to tell some library workers about the magical thing I just found. I walked over to the food court at City Creek in downtown Salt Lake City and ordered a Chick-fil-A sandwich. As I sat down to eat, I opened up the image of that photo on my phone, propping it up on the table. And in this way, I had my own chicken dinner with Grandma Luckey.
Seeing Grandma Luckey for the first time
In February 2024, an amazing thing happened. One Saturday afternoon at the FamilySearch Library in Salt Lake City, I found a photo that had been recently attached to an Ancestry family tree, and it was linked to Mary Jane Davis. When I clicked on the image, I saw that it was a 4-generation photo, and the old woman at the center was labeled “Great-Grandma Luckey.”
It had been almost 48 years since my grandfather, Thomas Michael Mitchell, had told me of my distant ancestor. I imagined what she looked like, and now here she was, pretty much the image I had in my head all of those years. I was overjoyed about the discovery, and as I left the library, I stopped to tell some library workers about the magical thing I just found. I walked over to the food court at City Creek in downtown Salt Lake City and ordered a Chick-fil-A sandwich. As I sat down to eat, I opened up the image of that photo on my phone, propping it up on the table. And in this way, I had my own chicken dinner with Grandma Luckey.
Left to right: Joseph Luckey, Mary Jane Luckey, Ethel Willson and Carrie Willson (1908).
Children:
1. Mary Edith Luckey — B. 18 Jun 1854, Jersey County, Illinois; D. 18 Jan 1899, Labette County, Kansas; M. (1) James Ross (1852-1884), 24 Jul 1872, Jersey County, Illinois; (2) Albert Leonartz (1849-?), 8 Aug 1887, Labette County, Kansas
2. Caroline Elizabeth Luckey — B. 29 Nov 1855, Jersey County, Illinois; D. 2 Aug 1887, Labette County, Kansas
3. Eliza Ann Luckey — B. 1858, Jersey County, Illinois; D. 24 May 1862, Jersey County, Illinois
4. Eleanora Luckey — B. 6 Aug 1859, Jersey County, Illinois; D. Jan 1865, Jersey County, Illinois
5. Laura Jane Luckey — B. 2 Apr 1861, Jersey County, Illinois; D. 18 Apr 1954, McMinnville, Oregon; M. John Walter Brown (1852-1919), 23 Oct 1879, Jersey County, Illinois
6. Joseph M. Luckey — B. 23 Feb 1863, Jersey County, Illinois; D. 4 Feb 1941, Parsons, Kansas; M. Rachel Matilda Minder (1864-1953), 2 May 1884, Osage, Kansas
7. Rosa Bell Luckey — B. 30 Sep 1866, Jersey County, Illinois; D. 31 May 1941, Los Angeles, California; M. George Willis Reed (1867-1944), 2 Jan 1889, Parsons, Kansas
8. Margaret Louisa Luckey — B. 24 Dec 1868, Jersey County, Illinois; D. 22 Feb 1952, Parsons, Kansas; M. Alexander Taylor (1857-1940), 25 Dec 1888, Parsons, Kansas
9. John F. Luckey — B. 16 Apr 1870, Jersey County, Illinois; D. 8 Mar 1884, Labette County, Kansas
10. William Anderson Luckey — B. 8 May 1874, Jersey County, Illinois; D. 7 Dec 1935, Sedalia, Missouri; M. Ella Lucinda Mashburn (1880-1959), 23 Dec 1896, Parsons, Kansas
11. May B. Luckey — B. 10 Sep 1878, Jersey County, Illinois; D. 15 Oct 1884, Labette County, Kansas
Sources:
1850, 1860, 1870, 1880, 1900, 1910 and 1920 U.S. Censuses in Illinois and Kansas
Marriage certificate of Samuel Luckey and Mary Jane Davis, Jerseyville, Illinois, 7 Apr 1853
1885 and 1895 Kansas State Censuses
City Directories for Parsons, Kansas, 1891-1907
Interviews of Thomas Michael Mitchell, 1976
Marriage certificate of James Ross and Mary E. Luckey, 23 Jul 1872, Jerseyville, Illinois
Records of Pefley Cemetery, Parsons, Kansas
Tombstone inscriptions of Keller Cemetery, Jersey County, Illinois
Jersey County, Illinois marriage index
Death record of John Walter Brown, 29 Mar 1919, Greene County, Illinois
Obituary of Rachel Luckey, Parsons Daily Sun, 1953, Parsons, Kansas
Kansas marriages, 1840-1935
California death records, 1940-1997
