Condor Sisters Photo

I found this undated photo with the caption below in a pictoral history of Lewis county, published in 1974.

Rachel Conder, LaVisey Haley, William Haley, Arthur Talley

Some Conder family members injured in Mormon Massacre on Cane Creek in Lewis County in 1884.

Rachel and Lavicia Condor were sisters. Born in 1868 and 1871 in rural Tennesee. Their father had fought for the confederacy in the 3rd Tennessee Volunteers. They had two brothers, one of which was really their half brother from their mother's first husband who had died even before his son was born.
The family were coverts to the Mormon Church. In 1884, while hosting a church service at heir home, both brothers were killed in what has come to be called the Tennessee Mormon Massacre. Their mother was crippled from a gunshot tothe hip that day, the only one of the wounded to survive. The sisters left Lewis county with the parents as soon as their mother was well enough to travel. By 1900 the whole family were back in Lewis county, though I don't know when they came back. It must have been before 1896 when Lavicia married William Haley.

I have no doubt the sisters were close. They lived together most of their life together. Rachel never married. After her father died in 1911 and her mother in 1916, Rachel went to live with Lavicia. The last record of where they lived is the 1930 census. They lived in civil district 7 in Lewis county. Lavicia had three children Melinda, Johnny, and Mary.

Melinda (Melindy) married Ollie Barber in 1919. But by 1930 she and a 9 year old boy named Carrol E Barber were living with her parents. I found a note indicating that they were divorced but with no source.

Johnny died in 1917. No indication of how he died, and I did not find anything in WWI records. He never married.

Mary Ann (Annie) married Valantine (Val) Tatum in 1919. They had 5 children: Clora, Dorothy, Mary Helen, Elsie and Ronald. Mary died in 1976.


Rachel died in 1955 in Lewis County,

Lavicia died in 1958 in Lewis County.