The Cumberland Chronicle - Huntsville, Tennessee - January 1917 MRS. CORDELL DEAD. Widow of John M. Cordell Dies at the Home of Her Son in Kentucky. China Whitecotton Cordell, widow of John Marlon Cordell, died at the home of her son, Harrison R. Cordell, near Sublette, Magoffin Co., Ky., Saturday, January 27th, at 4 p.m., age 72 years and 1 month. She leaves four sons besides "H.R. to survive her, Wayne W., of Washington, D.C., John; of Holdenville, Okla., C.C., of Little Rock, Ark., and Y.W., of Washington, D.C. Mrs. Cordell was a native of Scott county, being born and reared here. Her father, Wayne Whitecotton was a captain in the union army and was a prisoner of war at Andersonville and Libby prisons. He came home broken in health and died near the close of the war. China Cordell's mother was a Chambers and from that branch of the family was distantly related to Abraham Lincoln. During the dark days of the war of 1861-65 her cabin home, which was near the main military road between the north and the south, was the scene of many bits of war drama - fighting and bivouacking and feeding. The last named wherein she took a prominent part, making pies and cakes for the soldiers, a necessity of those stirring times. John Toomey purchased the Cordell homestead at Helenwood soon after the death of John Marian Cordell, February 13, 1885, and since that time Mrs. Cordell had made her home among her children, spending most of her time with her son Harry, where she died.