Ann Alfred (Anne) Shotwell was born on November 14, 1843, the daughter of Col. A. L. Shotwell, a prominent Louisville businessman.
She married Gabriel Farnsley (“Gabe”) Tate (1839–1886) on February 7, 1861, in Jefferson County, Kentucky.
They lived in Henderson, Kentucky, where records place them first on Green Street (1880 census) and later at 1300 North Adams Street, a Federal-style farmstead property identified on the 1880 Henderson County map as belonging to G. F. Tate, now 644 Taylor Drive, within the Harding Place Trailer Park.
By the mid-1880s, marital difficulties had become public: in July 1885, Gabriel was placed under a $200 bond to keep the peace toward Ann, and in August 1885, a court order restrained him from entering her residence.
Gabriel died the following year, in 1886, and was buried at Fernwood Cemetery, Henderson.
Ann and Gabriel had two known children:
Mrs. William J. Harding (daughter), who lived with Ann until her death.
Alfred Lawrence Spotwell Tate (son, 1871–1907). Alfred operated a drug store in Audubon and was married to Georgia Edwards. His later years were troubled by alcoholism, and he died in the Henderson city jail on January 6, 1907, with a coroner’s jury ruling his death due to alcoholism, heart paralysis, and neglect.
After Gabriel’s death, Ann married Edwin T. (“Ned”) Conway (1842–1908), a businessman and Democratic political figure in Henderson. He had two sons, Clark and Edwin, from his first marriage. Ned Conway’s obituary noted that Ann (then identified as Mrs. G. F. Tate of Henderson) survived him at his death in 1908.
Ann spent her later years living with her daughter, Mrs. Harding, on the Spottsville Road (Adams). She was a member of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. Ann died at her daughter’s home on May 15, 1908, at the age of 64, and was buried in Fernwood Cemetery, Henderson County, Kentucky
