Maude Katherine DaVault

1888 - 1982  (93 years)

• Name	Maude Katherine DaVault
  Nickname	Sis
  Birth	17 Jun 1888
  Gender	Female
  Death	25 Mar 1982
  Burial	Lee Co, VA
  Person ID	I2713	RidingsHale
  Last Modified	20 Mar 2013

  
  

  Family	Charles Campbell Newman,   b. 10 Nov 1879, Lee Co, VA d. 20 Mar 1960, Lee Co, VA (Age 80 years)
  Family ID	F885	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	30 Nov 2025

  
  

• Notes

  Aunt "Sis" was one of the most memorable members of the family. At the age of fourteen she became involved with David Sewell who was older and married at the time. Family stories say that in about 1902, her family sent her to Texas where some of her brothers and sisters lived. While there she went to college and taught school for awhile, but went back to Jonesville, VA by 1910. On the 1910 Lee County Census she was living with her sister and brother-in-law, Jessie and John Seabolt. After David Sewell's wife died in 1931, he and Maude were married, and he died in 1939. One family member, while doing research at the Lee County courthouse in Jonesville found a record of a license for a "house of body" issued to her. Unfortunately, I failed to get a date of the license and we can only assume what a "house of body" might have been. She was a spry, independent lady and operated a farm by herself. She was very outspoken and didn't take any nonsense from anybody. About 1950, a telephone operator was rude to her. She had her phone taken out and made the telephone company take all the telephone posts off her property. In 1952 she married Cam Newman, but they separated just a short time later. I don't believe they were divorced because she was listed as his widow in his obituary. When I was growing up I thought Aunt Sis was a very prim and proper lady and I, as well as my sisters, children, nieces, and cousins always enjoyed our visits with her. She always had good family stories and she had a trunk with all types of memorabilia from her parents, such as her mother's midwife kit and civil war items that belonged to her father. She lived alone until she died at the age of 93 years.