Biography of
Marinda Fox-Ewell Watkins

Born 1816. Died 1888

Biographical Sketch

Marinda Fox was born in 1816 in London (now Laurel County) Kentucky, the daughter of Benjamin Fox. She married Thomas Ewell, son of Leighton Ewell and Susan Athey. With Thomas, Marinda (at age 17) had a son, Richard Leighton Ewell. The child was born in 1833 in Laurel County Kentucky. There exists today a curious portrait of this young family (see the story of the portrait below).

According to the Myrtle Weaver Felts manuscript on the Watkins family of Laurel County Kentucky, Marinda was soon thereafter widowed, and then married to Wiley Wellington Watkins in 1835. However, according to Ewell descendants, the real story of Thomas’ “death” was that he left his wife and young son. The circumstances around the “frontier divorce” or “presumed death” are not known. According to Ewell family oral history, Thomas returned to Laurel County after Marinda and Wiley had passed on. He was a very old man. He lived with his grandson for a couple years before his death. Thomas had faired well in life, with some money and a good horse.

In 1835, soon after Wiley and Marinda’s marriage, they moved to Keytesville (Chariton County) Missouri. Wiley’s brother, Luke Jr. had moved to Missouri in 1831. Luke had spent time in Keytesville, before settling in New London (Ralls County) Missouri. Wiley appears in the 1840 Chariton County census. Marinda’s father, Benjamin, had moved to Daviess County Missouri.

The first child of Wiley and Marinda was Martha Jane, who was born on March 31, 1838 in Maryville, Missouri according to the Felts manuscript. Martha Jane married first, Silas Stringfellow.

In 1845, Marinda, Wiley and the family returned to Laurel County. They built a house on a hill near the Laurel River (just across Highway 229, where the Laurel River Bridge crosses the highway). This land was part of the property owned by Wiley’s father, Luke Watkins Sr.

In 1848, another girl was born, Ellen. She would marry John Craig Jackson.

Marinda and Wiley’s first son was born on May 2, 1851. They named him Addison Franklin Watkins. Addison would marry Ann Chesnut. Their fourth child was named Marshall Fountain Watkins, born December 12, 1852. He would marry Elizabeth Bullock.

The fifth child of Wiley and Marinda was another son, Beverly Luke Watkins. He was born on September 2, 1855. In 1857, their 6th child was born, Henry Watkins. Henry would marry Amanda Watkins, his cousin from the Chapman side.

In total, Marinda would have seven children. Wiley raised Richard Leighton Ewell as his own. Of the seven children, five were boys and two were girls. She had her first when she was 17. She had her last child when she was 41.

Marinda and Wiley lived in the house on the hill in Laurel County Kentucky until her death in 1888. She was 72. Wiley lived until 1896 when he was 82. They are buried side by side in Rough Creek Cemetery in London, Kentucky.

We have photographs of Wiley and Marinda when they were middle-aged. Though her youthfulness had passed, the same way she held herself in the photographs was depicted in the portrait when she was eighteen. Marinda’s life can be considered a success, evidenced by her large family and bountiful descendants.

The Portrait of Thomas, Marinda, and Richard Leighton Ewell

There are painted portraits of Thomas and Marinda Ewell with Richard Leighton Ewell on Marinda’s lap. She appears somber, yet graceful. She has brown eyes and hair, which is pulled back into a bun. She wears a garnet necklace and a dark dress with small white flowers and a white collar. The baby is a beautiful blond boy, no more than eighteen months with baby blue eyes. As was the custom for boys that age, he was wearing a dress. The young child would grow up to be a Colonel, serve in the Civil War, and be very successful in life. Thomas appears older, mustached and a bit debonair. He has piercing blue eyes and is well groomed. He is wearing a long dark blue coat with two rows of buttons, a white shirt with a stiff high collar, and a tie. He is wearing tight, whitish-blue britches.

The portrait has a curious history, for Thomas and Marinda did not sit for the artist. The portrait was painted in about 1905, 17 years after Marinda’s death. Her grandson, Richard Randall Ewell, commissioned their painting. The artist worked from daguerreotypes - one of the earliest forms of photography, to paint the portraits.

The Frenchman Louis J.M. Daguerre invented the photographic process in 1829 in France. He announced that he had perfected the process in 1839, which used a specially coated thin silver plate to accept the photographic image. The process was also worked on by some Englishmen, but Daguerre’s process won out and Daguerre protected the process with patents. Samuel Morse (inventor of the Morse code) brought the process to the United States in 1841. Eventually, “tintypes” replaced the daguerreotypes.

The original Thomas and Marinda daguerreotype and portrait exist today. The portrait and the story behind it was passed to MaryAlice Ewell Mullins, the great granddaughter of Richard Leighton and currently held by another ancestor of the Ewell family, Noraye Sinclaire of Idaho.

How did Marinda Fox Ewell Watkins and Thomas Ewell have their photographs taken in about 1834 in the Kentucky frontier, less than 60 years after Daniel Boone cut the Wilderness Trail and 7 years before the photographic process was introduced into the United States? It is believed that the Ewell family was well-to-do. According to Ewell family lore, Thomas was a sea captain and had the means to travel. It is very probable that Thomas took Marinda and the baby Richard to Europe, and that Marinda was in Paris, France for the photograph. This is somewhat more likely than the photographic process being available in the U.S.; but nonetheless the circumstances surrounding the photographs will remain a family curiosity.

Submitted by: Mark A. Watkins

Wiley & Marinda>>Addison Franklin Watkins>>Fred Fountain Watkins>>William Franklin Watkins>>Mark Anderson Watkins

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Friday, 12-Sep-2008 2:18 AM