When Bessie Stidham was born on 7 May 1923, in Lothair, Perry, Kentucky, United States, her father, Ballard Stidham, was 37 and her mother, Rachel Shephard, was 36. She married Jonathan Lee Webb on 27 July 1943, in Whitesburg, Letcher, Kentucky, United States. She lived in Wooton, Leslie, Kentucky, United States in 1930 and Leslie, Kentucky, United States in 1950. She died on 8 January 1985, at the age of 61, and was buried in Riverside Cemetery, Hazard, Perry, Kentucky, United States.
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In 1926, in central Kentucky, Mammoth Cave was discovered. It dates back to Mississippian times and consists of over four hundred miles of passageway. On July 1, 1941, the cave was made a National Park.
Charles Lindbergh makes the first solo nonstop transatlantic flight in his plane The Spirit of St. Louis.
Japanese attack Pearl Harbor.
Americanized form, via Stedham , of an unidentified Scandinavian or perhaps Dutch surname recorded in DE in the 17th century as Stiddem. Possible Dutch source is Van Stedum, a habitational name from Stedum, a village near Loppersum in the province of Groningen, named with plural dative from stad, denoting a place or country estate (with specific rights). Compare Stidam .
Possibly also an altered form of English Stedham .
History: The progenitor of (the majority of) the Stidhams was Timon Stidham, the pioneer physician in New Sweden (today DE), who arrived from Sweden in 1638 for the first time, and again in 1654, when he settled in Fort Christina (later Willmington, DE). His original surname was recorded as Stiddem, the form not found in Scandinavia or elsewhere in Europe.
Dictionary of American Family Names © Patrick Hanks 2003, 2006.
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