The story of Tom and Tillie Leigh

By Editor | June 6, 2018 |

Millie Meyerholz of Pana writes for a living, her columns appearing in the Pana News-Palladium.
More than 35 years ago, Millie wrote a story that I thought was so interesting that I asked her for permission to reprint parts of it here.

“Mrs. Ray (Tillie) Burlison of North Front Street in Ramsey has sons with most unusual names, patterned after ranks in the army: Captain, Sargent, Colonel and Major Leigh. There was also a General and Durward Lieutenant, both whom are deceased.
“During her first marriage to the late Tom Leigh many years ago, when they lived in Hanson, near Ramsey, her husband named their first son General after the famous Confederate Army General, Robert E. Lee. General died at age 13.
“When the second son was born, they lived in Pana. Mr. Leigh and the attending doctor both wanted to name him Captain, to go along with the firstborn son’s name, and they did.
“Sometime after, a third son was born, and the same attending physician wanted to again keep in tune with the little one’s brother’s names, and he was named Sargent.
“The fourth son was born when they lived in rural Brownstown, and the new doctor also liked the unusual names, so it was that Colonel Leigh was born.
“Son No. 5, Major, was born at the same Brownstown address, and the Beecher City doctor who attended the birth talked strongly about naming the baby Lieutenant (which would have been the next rank down the line.)
“‘I was a lieutenant,” the doctor told the couple, and ‘a lieutenant is not worth a darn.’ So, Major it was.
“And sure enough, still another, the last son came along when they lived in Wilmington.
He was born on his cousin Durward Murphy’s birthday, but was named Durward Lieutenant to keep the similarity in all the boy’s names. However, he went by his first name. He died in a head-on auto collision at the age of 17.
“The remaining four Leigh boys all live in Illinois. Captain in rural Cowden, Sargent in Eureka, Colonel in Nokomis and Major in Bingham.
“Fittingly, Captain, Sargent and Colonel all served in the army.
“Oh, yes, Mrs. Tillie Leigh Burlison had her way, too, by naming their three daughters: Velba, Ida Mae and Veta. Velba, their second child, died in infancy. Mrs. Veta Black, born after Captain, made her home in Brownstown.”
A second story, similar to the Leigh family naming, was told to me by former County Clerk Isabelle Brandt.
Over the years of her service as county clerk, Isabelle had noticed a pattern in birth certificates from St. Elmo during certain years. The birth record for more than a few males born in St. Elmo had their given name as Overton.
Issie later figured out that if the parents did not have a name for the child, Dr. Lewis, the attending physician, was happy to oblige by loaning his.
H. Overton Lewis was a native of Louisville in Clay County and began practicing medicine in St. Elmo in the mid-1920s. By his own estimate, Dr. Lewis delivered more than 6,000 babies in his career – and, apparently, named many of them after himself.