Understanding the Gumm Family

In returning to Murfreesboro, one goal was to try to find some Gumm descendants; I wanted to find someone who had memories of the family, photos, stories and history. The wisest decision seemed to be to go back to Judy Garland’s great grandfather and trace all the descendants from that point in time. Those were the people who lived during the late 1800s and early twentieth century.

Going back in time, we have Judy Garland, her father, Frank Gumm, her grandfather Will T. Gum, and her great grandfather, John Alexander Gum. My plan was to trace all of John Alexander Gum’s children.

I should explain here that until Frank Gumm went to Sewanee and changed the spelling of his last name, all members of the family spelled their name with one ‘m.’

Arriving back in Murfreesboro, I knew via Gum relatives Ralph Puckett and Albert Gumm Wilson that all the Gums in Rutherford County were descendants of the same family. Some have suggested this is not true, including writer Rita Piro, who did wonderful research on Judy’s maternal side. Rita told me she had had no luck with finding any relatives of Judy in Murfreesboro and said that anyone who thought they were related to Judy were probably wrong. I decided to ignore all talk and look at everything freshly.

Curry and I had many conversations online with Alberta Wilson’s son, Guy. Guy had done quite a bit of research on his own. We knew that everyone descended from Norton Gum, but there were some missing links in between Norton and John Alexander. It would take several years for me to find the missing link and prove that, indeed, everyone was related. One big missing link involved John Alexander Gum. I’m getting ahead of myself here, but I will leave you with that.

In his young adulthood, John Alexander Gum went by the name ‘Alexander.’ In 1851, at the age of twenty-four, he married sixteen-year-old Martha Wade in Old Jefferson. Their first child, Judy’s grandfather, William Tecumseh Gum was not born until 1854.Three years later, they had another son, John Alexander Gum, Jr. It was a family tradition to name at a son William, and it seems this tradition had taken precedence with their first son.

Following the birth of their sons, the Gums had a daughter, Laura in 1860. Laura never married and later appears to have had mental problems. For a while, she was employed in a store in Murfreesboro, not a usual situation  for a woman at that time. Perhaps this indicates just how tight the family’s financial conditions were. Laura even helped her parents out in time of trouble.

Two years after Laura’s birth, another baby girl arrived whom the Gumms named Lucy. (Except for one grandson-in-law, I was unable to find any descendants for Lucy. They had moved a great deal.)

Now in the midst of the Civil War, and with John Alexander away, working as a scout or spy, no more children would arrive until 1865, when their daughter, Mollie was born. Mollie is a tragic figure in the family. She died suddenly at the age of nineteen. Much later, finally, after connecting with  some Gum descendants, I learned that a portrait of Mollie exists. This portrait appears in my book, From Tennessee to Oz, Part 2.



Lovely photo of a younger
Nannie Gum Rion



Two years after Mollie’s birth, another daughter arrived. She was no doubt named for her grandmother Nancy Wade, but has always been referred to Nannie. Nannie married a man who is said to be a descendant of French royalty, Edwin Rion. They lived in a lovely home in Murfreesboro, which  Frank and Ethel Gumm and their two oldest girls visited in the 1920s. Nannie’s granddaughters, Claire, Joy, Wanda and Nancy, as well as a grandson, Lee, were all extremely generous with their help on this book and in sharing photos. In fact, Joy and Wanda met their cousin, Judy Garland, as children.



Bettie Gum Fox
Courtesy Aaron Todd



Bettie was the next daughter. Born in 1872, she is said to be Tennessee’s first female social worker. She married Henry Lee Fox, the brother of Walter D. Fox, who would hire Frank Gumm to work for him at Ovoca. Betty’s family stayed in Murfreesboro and also remained in touch with Frank Gumm and his children. When Judy agreed to call in for a local radio interview after her stupendous success at Carnegie Hall, the first thing she said was to ask about the Fox cousins. Ethel Gumm and the girls stayed with Betty’s daughter, Anna Lee, in Chicago before they went to work at the Chicago World’s Fair. Tracing all these people took time, but it was my great joy to get to know them. All of the Fox family did very well. One, Aaron Todd, was a highly respected professor at MTSU. Another, Van Fox, became a well-known television and radio producer.



Susie Gum Finlayson
(courtesy John von Rosen)



Susie Gum was born in 1874. She was a beautiful girl with creamy skin, black hair and blue eyes. She married E.V. Finlayson of North Carolina and had two girls. Finding this family was not easy, but eventually, with the help of genealogy boards and generous individuals, I was able to make that connection, and was given some photos by them.

John Alexander Gum and Martha Wade’s final child was a boy known as John H or “Johnny.” I must confess that I often wondered if this boy was not the result of one of the girls’ having an unfortunate liaison. He was born in 1877 and had a sad life. After the Spanish American War, Johnny returned. Addicted to alcohol, he had a troubled life and did not live long. He died in 1913 at the age of twenty-six and is buried next to his parents and older brother, Will T. at Evergreen Cemetery in Murfreesboro.



Descendants of the Gum family at a special gather
Linebaugh Library in Murfreesboro, TN
l. to r. Ralph Puckett (descendant Robert E Gum), Bill Gibb (grandson
Alle Gumm), Virginia Puckett (wife of Ralph), front Claire Rion Weber
with her son and grandson. Claire is the granddaughter of
Nannie Gum Rion.

Hopefully, you have found this article interesting and it has helped you to have a greater understanding of Judy Garland’s ancestors. Until now, there has been little information on this line of the family. On occasion, I have witnessed persons claiming to be Judy’s relatives who, knowing her ancestry, probably, are not. Perhaps now we can begin to have a clear idea of who these ancestors and their descendants are.