Jane B. Winans (maiden name: Harper) was born around 1830 in Alabama to William and Minerva Harper. Her father was a farmer who owned $90,000 of real estate and $10,000 of personal property by 1860. She married Wesley Parker Winans on March 3, 1851, and they had at least four children: Kate, born in June 1852; Lelia, born around 1858; Missouri, born around 1858; and Alice, born around 1860. Her husband served in the Confederate army, and he died in the Battle of Missionary Ridge on November 25, 1863.

 

She married George W. Riggins sometime in the 1860s, and their daughter Mary was born around 1870. They lived in Caddo Parish, Louisiana, and Riggins worked as a physician. By 1870, her husband owned $4,500 of real estate and $2,000 of personal property, and she owned an additional $45,000 of real estate. She helped care for her own children as well as Riggins’ children from his previous marriage. They moved to Columbia, Missouri, sometime in the 1870s. Her husband died around 1886, and she passed away in St. Louis, Missouri, on March 12, 1899.

SOURCES