{"id":106265,"date":"2026-01-20T10:19:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T15:19:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/live-genealogy.pantheonsite.io\/?p=106265"},"modified":"2026-01-27T10:26:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T15:26:16","slug":"a-million-relatives-fame-and-fortune-in-the-meador-family-tree-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/a-million-relatives-fame-and-fortune-in-the-meador-family-tree-part-1.html","title":{"rendered":"A Million Relatives: Fame and Fortune in the Meador Family Tree (part 1)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction:<\/em><\/strong> In this first of a four-part series, James Pylant tells his own genealogical journey, that started when he was 11, about his vast Meador family and their many connections and stories, including an unclaimed Texas oil fortune. James is an editor at GenealogyMagazine.com and author for JacobusBooks.com, is an award-winning historical true-crime writer, and authorized celebrity biographer.<\/em><\/p>\n

In the 1960s, the small south-central Texas panhandle town of Slaton drew around 200 people from across the U.S. to attend the Meador family reunion. This newsclip refers to Danny Moorhead, a Meador family descendant.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Abilene Reporter-News (Abilene, Texas), 20 January 1985, page 55<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

My great-grandmother, whose maiden name was Meador, may have been among that reunion crowd. It was at that family gathering or another that she unexpectedly encountered a long-lost roguish relative she had assumed was long dead. She was a kind, soft-spoken lady, but this time she couldn\u2019t hide her feelings.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought you were dead!\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHell no! I\u2019m still alive, and I\u2019m going to get even with each one of you!\u201d<\/p>\n

He wasn\u2019t the only ancient kinsman with a dodgy death date. Other old, long-forgotten Meadors were surfacing from a rumbling in the family grapevine. They all seemed to be catching the same scent: money.<\/p>\n

Genealogical Journey<\/strong><\/p>\n

My genealogical journey unfolded at age 11. That\u2019s when I first asked my grandaunt about our family history, and she gave me a five-generation ancestor chart for my grandfather. It depicted his maternal great-grandparents, Obadiah Monroe Meador and Mary Francis (Meador) Meador.<\/p>\n

Yes, Mary\u2019s maiden and married names were the same.<\/p>\n

Obadiah and Mary wed in 1850 in Itawamba County, Mississippi<\/a>, \u201cbut claimed not to be related at all,\u201d said a granddaughter. (1) At least, that\u2019s the story they told; maybe they didn\u2019t know. Some years before my genealogist grandaunt\u2019s death, she learned two facts about her great-grandparents\u2019 relationship: they were indeed related; and thousands of people wanted to be related to the Meadors.<\/p>\n

Obediah and Mary had five children, one being John Benjamin Meador, a Baptist minister who died at 35 of pneumonia. (2) He was my great-great-grandfather. Another son, Lofton, \u201ceither accidentally killed himself or committed suicide,\u201d said niece Virginia Meador Thompson. (3)<\/p>\n

\"Photos:
Photos: three generations (left to right): Obadiah Monroe Meador (1829-1907); John Benjamin Meador (1852-1887); and Susan Mahala (Meador) Bownds (1874-1968). Credit: James Pylant.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After Mary\u2019s death, Obadiah married Mary Matilda Hoover in 1869<\/a>. They had 13 children, the last being born when Obadiah was 62!<\/p>\n

James Monroe Meador (Meadows)<\/strong><\/p>\n

One of these children, James Monroe Meador, was born on 3 October 1870. He grew up on his father\u2019s East Texas farm and married weeks after his 22nd birthday. Jim, as he was called, made his living working farmland adjoining that of his father.<\/p>\n

Obadiah Monroe Meador died on 6 November 1907<\/a>. His widow survived him by 15 years, dying on 3 April 1922 near Jacksonville, Texas. Jim served as executor of her estate<\/a>, which was valued at $12,000 (more than $230,000 today).<\/p>\n

Long after Jim\u2019s death, his name became linked to wild rumors involving a vast oil fortune \u2013 a tale in which identities blurred, and dates and places of death shifted to fit the latest narrative.<\/p>\n

\"Photo:
Photo: the Lucas Gusher at Spindletop Hill, South of Beaumont, Texas, 10 January 1901, which began the Texas oil boom. Credit: John Trost; American Petroleum Institute; Wikimedia Commons.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the mid-1980s stories spread about a \u201cforgotten, lonely old man\u201d who died in a Texas mental hospital leaving behind a multibillion-dollar estate.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Commercial Appeal (Memphis, Tennessee), 20 October 1985, page 22<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This article reports:<\/p>\n

More than 150 people have trekked to the Tennessee Technological University library in search of records that could prove they are kin to a dead Texas oil magnate who left a multibillion dollar estate.<\/p>\n

The searchers have last names of Meador, Meadors, Meadow and Meadows.<\/p>\n

They are looking for the magic link to James Monroe [Meador] Meadows, who died in 1939 and whose family is believed to have changed the name to one of those variations.<\/p>\n

\u2026Some fortune seekers say Meadows died a forgotten, lonely old man in a mental hospital in Texas, while others like Pennsylvania lawyer Richard Ferris contend Meadows died in Pittsburgh. Ferris is representing about 160 possible heirs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re saying after taxes, lawyers\u2019 fees and everything, each share will be worth right at $17 million,\u201d [Glenna] Meadows said [one of the claimants]. \u201cPeople have tried to prove their kinship in other cases for a lot less.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The frenzy wasn\u2019t just in Tennessee and Texas. Other states, like West Virginia, experienced it too.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Midland Reporter-Telegram (Midland, Texas), 28 August 1985, page 49<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This article reports:<\/p>\n

Hundreds of would-be heirs to a Texas oil baron\u2019s supposedly unclaimed fortune are besieging county offices across southern West Virginia, searching for ancestral records they hope will make them instant millionaires.<\/p>\n

It was enough Tuesday to prompt deputy Summers County clerk Rachel Adkins to wish that reclusive tycoon James Meadows had never been born.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now, I do, I really do,\u201d Ms. Adkins said. \u201cIt\u2019s really been a circus here. Our vaults are packed with people looking through documents. There\u2019s been 50 to 60 people here a day, asking for birth certificates and land records.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2026The fortune-seekers recount tales of Meadows dying forgotten and alone in a mental hospital in Texas in 1939, leaving behind an unclaimed estate worth billions. He also left behind a vague family tree that includes some of the largest clans in West Virginia and Kentucky.<\/p>\n

But Richard Ferris, a Pittsburgh lawyer handling a suit for about 160 purported heirs, said Tuesday that Meadows died in 1939 in Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n

A growing number of would-be heirs are claiming a share of the take in federal court in Beaumont, Texas. Officials there are skeptical, and earlier this year U.S. District Judge Joe Fisher threw out one of three cases seeking a share of Meadow\u2019s estate.<\/p>\n

The oil developer\u2019s estate reportedly included a one-eighth interest in the famed Spindletop oil field, and the promise of instant wealth has spread like wildfire through West Virginia\u2019s unemployment-plagued hills.<\/p>\n

Ferris said the first step in any claim is to establish that Meadows indeed owned a share in the oil field, something that has yet to be accepted by a court. He said no one knows how much the man was really worth.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll these people have gone crazy,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m up to my eyeballs in rumors.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2026Local officials say determining ancestry is especially complicated because the tycoon\u2019s forebears alternately spelled their name Meador, Meadors, Meadow and Meadows, and some also married into the Lilly clan, one of southern West Virginia\u2019s biggest families.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The late family historian Victor Paul Meador estimated more than one million Americans descend from Thomas Meador, who came to Jamestown, Virginia, in the 1630s. (4) Multiple branches of Thomas\u2019s descendancy have staked claims to James Monroe Meador\u2019s (Meadows\u2019) supposed outrageous fortune, whipping their interest into a family tree frenzy.<\/p>\n

My mother always thought her grandmother\u2019s maiden name was Meadow, whereas her aunts in West Texas pronounced it \u201cmedd\u2019uh,\u201d a throwback to the family\u2019s roots in the Deep South. My great-grandmother, who appeared in the 1880 federal census as Meador, said those with \u201cthe name Meador never claimed [to be] Meadow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regardless of how my half great-great-granduncle James Monroe \u201cJim\u201d Meador spelled his last name, he didn\u2019t die in an asylum. He died in his native Cherokee County, Texas, on 8 January 1931<\/a> at age 60 from complications of periodontitis following surgery.<\/p>\n

Stay tuned for more on this fascinating family saga!<\/p>\n

Create a free account<\/a> at GenealogyBank for 7 days to start your journey and discover the stories your ancestors left behind.<\/p>\n

Note on the header image:<\/em><\/strong> \u201cHeywood #2 Gusher,\u201d Spindletop, Beaumont, Texas, 1901. Credit: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.<\/p>\n

_______________<\/p>\n

(1) Susan Bownds to Lennie Bownds Allen (Dallas, Texas), undated handwritten letter in the author\u2019s possession.
\n(2) Susan Meador Bownds, manuscript (spiral notebook), 1957, unpaginated; original in the author\u2019s possession.
\n(3) Virginia Thompson Meador (Oklahoma City, Okla.) to Lennie Bownds Allen, 12 October 1982.
\n(4) Victor P. Meador with John W. Meador, \u201cThe Meador Families of North Central Tennessee\u201d (Kansas City, Mo.: the authors, 1971), p. 19.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

James Pylant tells his own genealogical journey, that started when he was 11, about his vast Meador family and their many connections and stories.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":106282,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12557],"tags":[1943,59218,59219,59214,59215,59216,59217,34697,59224],"class_list":["post-106265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-genealogy-stories","tag-family-fortune","tag-james-monroe-meador","tag-james-monroe-meadows","tag-meador","tag-meadors","tag-meadow","tag-meadows","tag-oil-drilling","tag-spindletop"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/photo-0120-2026-featured-graphic-oil-gusher.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106265"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106265\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":106284,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106265\/revisions\/106284"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}