Mexico was my great-great-great-great grandmother. I have always wondered about the story behind her interesting name.

Mexico was born between 1834 and 1836, according to various census records. She was the oldest of ten children of Alenson Powell and Margaret Culpepper Powell. Her parents married in Stewart County, Tennessee, and lived at various points in Benton and Henry Counties; I'm not sure if she was born in Stewart County where they married, or in Henry County, as was the next child in the family. Her father was a chair-maker by trade.

Mexico's siblings were Louisa Mariah (1836-?, married John Stephen Medlock), Mary (1838-?), Malvina Elvira (1842-?), Martha Emily (1844-?), Rebecca (1847-?), James J. (1848-aft 1900), Margaret Temperance (1851-?), Nancy A. (1856-?) and sister M. (1865-?).

On July 20, 1854, Mexico married Isaac C. Dortch, Jr., in Benton County, Tennessee. In 1859, they, along with several of Ike's brothers and their families, moved to Union Township in Greene County, Arkansas, to farm. The Dortch family settled in and around the Knob community on the border between Greene and Clay Counties, Arkansas; many of their descendents still live in the area.

Ike and Mexico had nine children together. The first three were born in Tennessee; the rest were born after the move to Arkansas. They were: George Washington "Wash" (1855-1932, married Martha Essie Stanphill), Mary Jane "Sis" (1854-aft 1920, married Jesse Hatley and James M. Trantham), Joseph A. (1859-1879), David Powell (1860-1932, married Elizabeth J. Gossett and Jeanette "Nettie" G. Gossett), Margaret Abigail (1861-1950, married John Mitchell Wyatt), Nancy J. (1864-?, died unmarried, probably young), Louis D. (1866-1959, married Eliza Ann Lamb and Irene Elizabeth Haneline; this was my ancestor), Martha Melvina (1870-1900, married Henry L. D. Wyatt and Johnnie Beaton), and William S. (1872-1960, married Pearlie A. Lucy).

Mexico died in about 1874, when her youngest child was still a toddler. I don't know what she died of; it could have been an illness or accident, or given the ages of her children, it could have been due to pregnancy or childbirth with a tenth child.