R/RFHA Newsletter, December 1999                                                  P.48

The Department of the Interior

Pension Office

Washington, DC April 4, 1874.

Sir:

I beg leave to request that you will communicate to me the names and addresses of the heirs of the estate of Mary, widow of MICHAEL RAWLINGS deceased, late a resident of your vicinity. Mr. RAWLINGS was a soldier of the War of 1312, and upon his service warrant #96768 for 120 acres, was issued under the Act of 1855 in the name of the said widow.

I am desirous of ascertaining in whose behalf as heirs of the Warrantee the Warrant should be assigned.

You will please to return this letter with your reply.

(The second page with the signature of the writer of this letter was not included

with this information.)

From Carol Kennedy, 1153 Washington Mountain Rd., Washington, MA         01223

(Further to mentions of this family in the June 1999 Newsletter, Pp.15 & 16... and P. 30 of the September 1999 Newsletter.)

Update

Carol states her guess that Grace and WILLIAM parents of HARRY LEE RAWLINS, was in error. She received early in November her grandfather's marriage certificate to her grandmother. It was HARRY's second marriage.

HARRY LEE RAWLINS, aged 40, widower, born in England. Father's name HENERY (as written, mother's name Isabella Lee.

Susan Duden, aged 27, single, born in New York City. Father was Paul Duden, mother was Elizabeth Piering.

HARRY LEE and Susan were married in the Church of the Transfiguration, New York City, also well-known as "The Little Church Around the Corner", patronized by actors and other show business persons.

********

Copy of Obituary of HARRY LEE's first wife's death, taken from a Sioux City, Iowa paper, Feb. 19, 1900. (excerpted)

"ACTRESSES DEATH DOUBLY SAD: Member of ZAZA Company Expires just Before Husband arrives.

While kind friends, unable to lend her any further comfort of assistance than they already had given her, stood by her bedside in a room at the Hotel Oxford at 7:15 o'clock last evening, Mrs. Isabel Parker RAWLINS, a member of Charles Frohman's western "ZAZA" Company, breathed her last just as the Omaha train from the north, with her husband H.R. RAWLINS aboard, pulled into the railroad yards.

Mr. RAWLINS, stage carpenter for the "ZAZA" Company, which played in Sioux City two weeks ago, had been summoned from Eau Claire by a telegram announcing that the condition of his wife was more serious than he had earlier been informed. He received the news of her death from A.B. Beall.

The deceased young woman 26, beautiful & accomplished with a bright stage career, had arrived in Sioux City after coming with the cast from Lincoln, Nebraska. She had been ill from a bad cold she had contacted in Little Rock, Arkansas, in early February, and had not appeared in the show in Sioux City because of her condition. It was thought she was improving but suddenly took a turn for the worse.

She passed away peacefully after having received the last rites from Rev. Father

(continued next page)

Residence: Dallas Co., TX