Guardianship of Rachel and Columbus Lafayette Rivers, Jr.

On 30 January 2014 I wrote an article entitled - Thriller Thursday~Corn Liquor, Guns and Back Room Drinking = Death which told of the death of Columbus Rivers by his brother–in-law. The article can be read here:

http://carolinafamilyroots.blogspot.com/2014/01/thriller-thursdaycorn-liquor-guns-and.html

This senseless killing left a young widow with two small children, ages 2 and 1 month. These two children were Rachel Rivers and Columbus LaFayette Rivers, Jr. children of Atlanta J. Smith Rivers and her now deceased husband, Columbus LaFayette Rivers, Sr.  

Columbus Sr. left no will but his estate (Apartment 62, Packet No. 6) was probated with his widow, Atlanta Smith Rivers and his brother Joseph Lee Rivers as administrators. ¹

About 1914, Atlanta remarried taking as her second husband Alton John Weatherly. To this union were borne three children; all daughters. 

Then in June 1917, Atlanta J. Weatherly petitioned the court as guardian for funds to pay the cost of a hospital visits for one of the two children.²  

Click to enlarge

Transcription:

State of South Carolina}
County of Marlboro} In Probate Court
Ex Parte, Atlanta J. Weatherly,}
Guardian}
In Re the minors, Rachel Rivers}
And Columbus L. Rivers.} Petition
To Milton McLaurin Judge of probate for Marlboro County in the State aforesaid:
The petition of Atlanta J. Weatherly as guardian for Rachel Rivers and Columbus L. Rivers, respectfully shwos <sic> to this Court:
1. That the petitioner is the duly qualified guardian of the above mentioned minors.
2. That there is now in the hands of said petitioner the sum of Four Hundred Eleven & 65/100 Dollars belonging to Rachel and Columbus L. Rivers respectively. As shown <sic> by last returns filed.
3. That during the last four years your petitioner has been forced to spend more or less money on the said minors for the proper food, clothing, physicians accounts etc., and that she finds it necessary now to carry one of the minors to the hospital for treatment.
THEREFORE, Your petitioner prays that an order by [be] passed by this Court permitting and directing your petitioner as guardian of Rachel Rivers and Columbus L. Rivers to use the sum of Two Hundred Eleven & 65/100 Dollars, to pay the above expenses, and she will ever pray.
Dated at Bennettsville, S.C. this the
31^st day of June, A. D. 1917. Atlanta J. Weatherly /s
Guardian

The Courts did grant her the funds to pay for the hospital visit. 
 

Click to enlarge

The two children, Rachel and Columbus Lafayette, Jr., are my 2nd Cousins three times removed.


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[1] Probate Record (1911), Columbus Lafayette Rivers Estate, Apartment 62, Packet no. 6, Marlboro County, South Carolina, Probate Court; online database, “South Carolina Probate Records, Files and Loose Papers, 1732–1964,” digital images, FamilySearch (http://www.familysearch.org : accessed 18 August 2015).
[2] Guardianship (1917), Rachel & Columbus L. Rivers, Apartment 64, Packet no. 10, Marlboro County, South Carolina, Probate Court; online database, “South Carolina Probate Records, Files and Loose Papers, 1732–1964,” digital images, FamilySearch (http://www.familysearch.org : accessed 18 August 2015).