1932 :: When Ghosts Walk in Courthouse Shade

Late in the 20th century, I picked up several vintage copies of Frontier Times at a local used bookstore . . . one of those copies was dated January 1932 . . . as it happens . . . in Lynn, Massachusetts, in January of 1932, a baby girl was born . . . her young Mother had been born in Maine, and her Father in Texas . . . that baby girl was my Mom . . . 
 
One of the articles in that 1932 Frontier Times was entitled "When Ghosts Walk in Courthouse Shade" . . . the "Ghosts" story was written by Vivian Richardson and was originally published in the Dallas Morning News in August of 1931 . . . one of the "ghosts" of San Augustine mentioned in that article is Elisha Roberts, who is a 3rd great-grandpa to my Mom . . . Vivian Richardson quoted an old Texan as saying that "I always think of the San Augustine country as the Valley of the Giants." Vivian went on to say that . . .

I think the deeds of the Giants will live on in the shadow of San Augustine's court house as long as there is a patriarch left to recount them. . . . it is on that ground one may almost always, of a likely afternoon, find the old men talking, and there I found them, that hot, singing July day, and listened reverently. . . . Sam Houston . . . and old Elisha Roberts, the last alcalde under the Mexican regime, could sit all day talking and whitling. I used to think they talked about Tennessee, where they knew each other, but I don't know. Maybe they didn't. . . . Almost every Texan who amounted to anything in the early days at one time either lived or stayed for long periods in San Augustine. . . .

This article can also be found in its entirety in the Coleman Democrat-Voice (Coleman, Tex.), Vol. 50, No. 52, Ed. 1 where it was published on Thursday, December 24, 1931 . . .

P.S. . . . it is now after 3 a.m. on the 31st . . . and as I put the finishing touches on this blog post, I sit here waiting for the "super blue moon eclipse" of which it has been written that "this rare celestial event - a blue moon, a supermoon, and a total lunar eclipse - hasn't happened in over 150 years." . . . I will call Mom in a few hours so she can see the eclipse from central Texas . . . seems that even the heavenlies are collaborating to celebrate her 86th birthday!

Pretty Ribbons of Blue

Two years ago today . . . on the 16th day of December in 2013 . . . an article was published on Willie Nelson's website entitled The Mystery of “Pretty Paper” Is Unwrapped . . . this article tells the story of Frankie Brierton who was apparently the inspiration for Willie's song, Pretty Paper . . . this song has always tugged at my heartstrings, but after reading the story behind the words, I will never "hear" this song the same way again . . . 

One of my "new" favorite Christmas movies is Angels Sing . . . one of the "moments" of this movie is when the family gathers in the living room of the grandparents . . . and Grandpa (aka Kris Kristofferson) picks up his guitar and begins to sing Pretty Paper, accompanied by Marcia Ball, et al . . . one of the "characters" in this movie is played by Willie . . . 

Pretty paper, pretty ribbons of blue

Wrap your presents to your darling from you

Pretty pencils to write "I love you"

Pretty paper, pretty ribbons of blue

Crowded street, busy feet hustle by him

Downtown shoppers, Christmas is nigh

There he sits all alone on the sidewalk

Hoping that you won't pass him by

Should you stop?, better not, much too busy

You're in a hurry, my how time does fly

In the distance the ringing of laughter

And in the midst of the laughter he cries

Pretty paper, pretty ribbons of blue

Wrap your presents to your darling from you

Pretty pencils to write "I love you"

Pretty paper, pretty ribbons of blue

2014 :: In memory of Bill Dessens

As of today, there is a new member of the Heavenly Western Swing dance band . . . he was known here on earth as Bill Dessens . . . and was a member of The River Road Boys . . . although my Mom had known him for years, I was privileged to meet Mr. Dessens for the first and only time just two years ago . . . on the 10th day of June . . . at the 2012 Rockdale Homecoming . . . as a member of the 1947 graduating class of Rockdale High School, Bill was in town for his 65th class reunion . . .



Click to enlarge

Photo of Bill and Vickie by Lucile Estell


Back in March of 2011 I purchased a packet of old letters in an online auction . . . my interest was piqued because the description said they were sent to Rockdale . . . which made them desirable (to me) as vintage items which could be scanned for use in digital scrapbook projects . . . the oldest letter is dated 1874 . . . which just happens to be the year of the birth of Rockdale . . .

No names were mentioned in the auction, so I did not know until the letters arrived in my mailbox what a treasure they were for one of Rockdale's early families (the Dessens) . . . I established contact with Bill Dessens, and we exchanged multiple emails regarding the letters . . . I sent scanned images of all of the letters to him . . . and was finally able to hand-deliver the originals to Bill on the 10th day of June in 2012 . . .


Some of the letters were written in French . . . and Bill was hoping to find someone who could and would translate them for him . . . do not know if he was ever able to do that . . . he wanted to pay me . . . I declined the offer . . . but did say I would be delighted to receive a CD of their music . . . he graciously gave me two . . . they are a treasure . . . as was he . . .


R.I.P. Bill Dessens . . .

Sentimental Sunday :: Grandparents Day

This was originally published in August of 2009 . . . for another one of those nights of genealogy fun with Randy . . . I thought it appropriate to recycle it for use on a Sentimental Sunday . . . in memory of my grandparents . . .

This week (August 2009), for Randy's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun, he is asking, "How many ancestors did you 'meet'?" His short and sweet instructions are to . . .

• Write down which of your ancestors that you have met in person (yes, even if you were too young to remember them).
• Tell us their names, where they lived, and their relationship to you in a blog post, or in comments to this post, or in comments on Facebook.

I was born and raised in Texas . . . and plan to live here 'til I die . . . and I am blessed to have been touched by hands . . . that touched the hands . . . of those who came before . . .

My Mom was born in Massachusetts, but was living in Texas with her paternal grandparents before 1940 . . . and she now lives just one block away from the land owned by those grandparents . . . Mom was only 3 days old when her mother, Elizabeth, died . . . Elizabeth's father had died in 1920 . . . and her mother, Eva, would survive her daughter by only 4 years.

• Mom's father, Robert E. Henry, was born in Milam County, Texas in 1905 . . . and died in San Patricio County, Texas in 1976 . . . he joined the Navy in 1927 . . . and then took up residence in Massachusetts until after WWII . . . when he finally returned to Texas, bringing his 2nd wife and their three daughters with him . . . his father died shortly thereafter, and before I was born.
  • Robert's mother, Berta Mary Henry nee Sharp, was born in Houston County, Texas in 1873 . . . and I was born on her birthday just four years before she died in 1955 in Rockdale, Milam County, Texas.

My Dad, Forrest Lee Pounders, was born in San Benito, Cameron County, Texas in 1927 . . . and died in Rockdale, Milam County, Texas in 1996 . . . he spent time in Japan and Korea while in the Army, but lived his entire life in Texas.

• His father, Jacob Edmund Forrest Pounders, was born 1902 in Caldwell County, Texas . . . and died in Rockdale, Texas in 1957 . . . both of Pa Jake's parents were dead before I was born.
• His mother, Ima Lois Pounders nee Muston, was born in Lee County, Texas in 1906 . . . she lived next door to my parents my entire childhood, and until her death in 1999 . . . her father died when she was a child.
  • Her mother, Emma Patience Muston nee Nettles, was born in Lee County, Texas in 1882 . . . and died in Rockdale, Texas in 1964.

So, that makes seven (7) for me -- 2 parents plus 2 grandpas plus 1 grandma plus 2 great-grandmas.

Sentimental Sunday :: Memories of New England

One year ago, in October of 2011, my youngest sister and I loaded up our about-to-be-80-year-old Mom and made a road trip from central Texas to the coast of Maine for an extended stay in a beach house at Old Orchard Beach . . . and afternoons spent gathering seaglass on Peaks Island . . . and mornings spent walking the paths of the Victorian garden cemetery overlooking the Saco River where Mom's young mother was laid to rest in 1932 . . . some of the photographic memories of those days have been preserved on the pages of a book created via MyCanvas at ancestry.com . . . a digital photo album entitled Memories of New England highlights the pages of that leather-bound book, which was presented to Mom for her 80th birthday earlier in 2012 . . . 

 

Our adorable Mom was born near Boston, Massachusetts . . . but spent most of her growing-up years with her paternal grandparents in central Texas . . . her Father had left the dry dusty farmfields of West Texas in 1927 to join the Navy . . . and wound up spending time along the coast of Maine with one of his shipmates . . . where both of them met their future wives . . .

Mom's parents, Robert and Elizabeth (aka Bob and Betty), were married in July of 1929 . . . their first child (a boy) was born in May of 1930 in Lynn, Massachusetts . . . followed by Mom in January of 1932 . . . and then 19-year old Elizabeth died three days later . . .

Mom never visited her Mother's grave until October of 1977 . . . which was the first time we made the trek to New England from Texas . . . we went back again in 1981 . . . and then in 1998 . . . 2011 was our fourth trip . . . and we are already making plans for trip #5! . . . in the meantime . . .

Mom was talking just this morning about wanting to print copies of her photos of that trip, and share them with family members . . . she doesn't know it yet, but with this post, I am doing the sharing for her (sorry, Mom!) . . . remember that ALL of the photos in the following albums were taken by Mom with her digital camera . . .

TO MAINE AND BACK THRU MOM'S EYES . . . this album contains images captured by Mom along the road . . .

• MAINE
  
  
  • Dunstan Cemetery . . . at Scarborough in Cumberland County, Maine . . . Mom's maternal 2nd great-grandparents, William Thurston Merrill (1816-1898) and Olive Jane (Goodwin) Merrill (1821-1895), are buried here . . . along with numerous other kinfolk . . .
  • Eastern Cemetery . . . at Gorham in Cumberland County, Maine . . . Mom's maternal great-grandma, Phoebe Ann (Merrill) Morse Tripp (1848-1927), is buried here . . .
  • Greenwood Cemetery . . . at Biddeford in York County, Maine . . . Mom's maternal great-grandparents, Atwood Frank Smith (1837-1907) and Jerusha Marilla (Barker) Smith (1841-1899), are buried here . . .
  • Hills Beach . . . at Biddeford Pool in York County, Maine . . . Mom's maternal grandparents, Thomas Warren Alonzo Smith (1866-1920) and Eva May (Brackett) Smith (1874-1936), owned and operated a florist business in Biddeford in the early part of the 20th century . . . as part of that business, T.W.A. Smith did landscaping at Biddeford Pool . . .
  • Laurel Hill Cemetery . . . at Saco in York County, Maine . . . Mom's maternal grandparents, Thomas Warren Alonzo Smith and Eva May (Brackett) Smith are buried here, along with their children, including Mom's Mother . . .
  • Nubble Lighthouse . . . near the entrance to the York River in York County, Maine . . . aka Cape Neddick Light Station . . .
  • Old Orchard Beach . . . in York County, Maine . . .
  • Peaks Island . . . in Casco Bay near Portland, Maine . . . we have photos of Mom's maternal family members at events on this Island from the early part of the 20th century . . . and Mom's 9th great-grandpa, Michael Mitton, once owned Peaks Island . . .
• MASSACHUSETTS . . . this album contains images of the house where Mom was born . . . and the beach where she played as a child . . .
• NEW HAMPSHIRE . . . Mom's parents honeymooned at Alton Bay on Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire . . . where her Mother also spent time as a child . . .

In loving memory . . .

We have this moment to hold in our hands
and to touch as it slips through our fingers like sand;
Yesterday's gone and tomorrow may never come,
But we have this moment today.



Remembering . . .
Bennie Everhart
20 March 1948 ~ 07 April 2010


Hold tight to the sound of the music of living,
Happy songs from the laughter of children at play;
Hold my hand as we run through the sweet fragrant meadows,
Making mem'ries of what was today.

Tender words, gentle touch and a good cup of coffee,
And someone who loves me and wants me to stay;
Hold them near while they're here and don't wait for tomorrow,
To look back and wish for today.

Take the blue of the sky and the green of the forest,
And the gold and the brown of the freshly mown hay;
Add the pale shades of spring and the circus of autumn,
And weave you a lovely today.

For we have this moment to hold in our hands
and to touch as it slips through our fingers like sand;
Yesterday's gone and tomorrow may never come,
But we have this moment today.


Lyrics by Gloria Gaither
Music by William J. Gaither
© 1975 William J. Gaither

When the flowers bloom in Spring

Wordless Wednesday :: Could I have this dance . . .

  On this date . . . the 8th day of February . . .
in the year nineteen hundred and seventy-five . . .
I married my favorite dancing partner . . .

Remembering Aunt Gladys

 

On this date in our recent family history . . . the 18th day of September . . . in the year 2007 . . . Gladys Coreen Taylor nee Muston dies in Waco, McLennan County, Texas . . . she is the sixth of seven daughters born to Charlie & Emma Patience (Nettles) Muston (my great-grandparents) . . . and the last one surviving . . . Aunt Gladys is laid to rest beside her husband, John A. Taylor (1909-1990), in the Lexington City Cemetery in Lee County, Texas . . . one of the older sisters of my Aunt Gladys is Ima Lois Pounders nee Muston (1906-1999), who is my paternal grandma . . . in the late 1950s and early 1960s, our little family would drive down the road to Lexington (from Rockdale) on Sunday afternoons to visit with Grandma (Emma) Muston, who lived right across the street from Aunt Gladys and Uncle John . . . so the Sunday visits always included them, too . . . remembering . . . 

2005 :: Hurricane Katrina

Norman and Carol Ann (Mulholland) Parr are the late in-laws of one of my New England cousins -- actually a 2nd cousin once removed. I re-established contact with cousin Kristin in 2009 by way of Facebook, after basically being out-of-touch with that entire branch of the family for an entire decade. She had posted a note on her Facebook page in memory of her deceased in-laws (a family story previously unknown to me). I did some research on Google, and found numerous articles mentioning the Parrs, who had apparently been invited to share the home of friends in the face of the impending storm. I also found tributes posted by their son, who shared these photos of his parents. Remembering with and for them . . .

Tech Tuesday :: Kinship Chart

This post is all because of Joan . . . who posted the following comment on my photo blog . . . Doggonit, Vickie, even your charts are works of art. I am wishing that you were my muse. . . . then it dawned on me that there is no reason to have a plain black and white kinship chart hanging there, when I can have a vintage looking chart that is actually pleasing to the eye . . . so I put one together this a.m. . . . and here's a copy for any of y'all who want to use it . . . and if you would also like to have a plain black and white PDF version, just send me an email asking for the PDF relationship chart, and I'll send one to you . . . benotforgot at gmail dot com . . . FYI . . . the accompanying text is freshened up a bit from a post that I originally shared more than ten years ago on my password-protected sites at myfamily . com [retired] . . .

Click on the above chart to open an enlarged view in a separate window.

• Your first cousins are those people in your family who have two of the same grandparents as you, i.e., they are the children of your aunts and uncles.
• Your second cousins are the people in your family who have the same great-grandparents as you, but not the same grandparents.
• Your third cousins have the same great-great-grandparents, and so on.

When the word removed is used to describe a relationship, it means that the two related people are from different generations.

• You and your first cousins are in the same generation (both two generations younger than your grandparents).
• Your mother's first cousin is only one generation younger than those same grandparents, so your mother's first cousin is your first cousin, once removed.

To identify the exact degree of kinship between any two related people . . .

1. Identify the common ancestor of the two people, i.e., find the direct ancestor of individual #1 who is also a direct ancestor of individual #2. The box in the upper left corner of the chart is that common ancestor.
2. Across the top row of the chart, find the relationship of individual #1 to the common ancestor.
3. Down the left edge of the chart, find the relationship of individual #2 to the common ancestor.
4. Read down the column of the individual #1 and across the chart on the row of individual #2. Where the two rows intersect is the box which identifies their relationship.

For example . . . for the Common Ancestor, I am using Christopher Clark who was born in 1681. By the middle of the 19th century . . .

• Christopher's daughter, Agnes, has a great-great-grandson by the name of Samuel (1835-1910) . . .
• Agnes' sister, Elizabeth, has a great-great-granddaughter by the name of Josephine (1842-1899) . . . this Josephine is my 2nd great-grandma, who had lived in Milam Co. TX (where I was born & raised) for more than two decades by the time of her death in 1899 . . .

Since Christopher was the g-g-g-grandpa of both Josephine and Samuel, this puts them both in Column #5 (as his 3rd great-grandchildren) . . . which makes them 4th cousins to each other . . .
As the 2nd great-granddaughter (me) of the 2nd great-granddaughter (Josephine) of Christopher's daughter, Elizabeth, I am the 7th-great-granddaughter of Christopher . . . this puts me in column #9 . . .


If you follow Samuel's Column #5 down until it intersects with my Column #9, you will find that I am the 4th cousin four times removed to this Samuel . . . who was sometimes known to use the AKA of Mark Twain . . .


I assume most of y'all use some type of family tree program that computes your relationships for you . . . I know I do . . . but I still like to keep this chart handy . . . for doing simple computations . . . or for verifying that I am remembering a relationship correctly . . . FYI . . . the following explanation of Grand and Great was found somewhere on the WWW . . . more than 10 years ago . . . I like the way it explains the greats and the grands . . .

• GRAND . . . Grand is a prefix added to represent one generation of separation . . . the father of your father, for instance, is still a father to you . . . however, there is one generation between the two of you . . . so he is a grandfather to you . . . and you are a grandchild to him . . . this term is most commonly applied to fathers and mothers . . . but it can also be used to define other relationships . . . such as a Grand Uncle or Grand Aunt . . . i.e., a brother or sister of your grandparent . . .
  
• GREAT . . . Great is a prefix that is added to represent two generations of separation . . . if Grand is one generation of separation, then Great-grand (i.e. great-grandmother) is two generations of separation . . .
  For every generation of separation above one (Grand), there is a Great added to represent each additional generation of separation . . . your father's grandfather is 3 generations separated from you . . . so he would be your Great-Great-Grandfather . . . the Grand and two Greats represent the 3 generations of separation . . .
  
  This prefix can also be used to define other two-plus generational relationships, like Great Aunt, or Great Uncle . . . as noted, the Grand is more commonly left out (Great Aunt instead of Great Grand Aunt) when referring to relationships other than father and mother . . .
  
  It is common, once you go beyond a Great-Great-Grandparent, to refer to the Greats by number . . . for instance, your Great-Great-Great-Grandfather would be called your 3rd Great-Grandfather . . . and written as G3-Grandfather, GGG-Grandfather or something similar . . .
  
  

The Heart Remembers

Remembering . . .
Bennie Everhart
20 March 1948 ~ 07 April 2010

One year ago today . . .

   

We had 11+ inches of snow on the ground as of this date one year ago . . . I took this photo in the pasture across the street from where I live . . . which is 30 minutes south of downtown Dallas, Texas . . . see also . . . 11th February 2010 . . .

  Also on this date . . .  
1885 :: Death in Central Kentucky Lunatic Asylum
1920 :: T.W.A. Smith Hopelessly Ill Ends Life

1911 New Year's Day 2011

100-year-old 1911 Calendar Postcard from private collection of benotforgot . . . and you are welcome to save a copy of this for your own personal use . . . 
 
One hundred years ago today . . . on the 1st day of January . . . in the year 1911 . . . I wonder . . . were our ancestors recalling the events of the year 1910 . . . and at the same time wondering what the coming year would bring in their lives . . . three of my grandparents were born during the first decade of the 20th century (one grandma would not be born until 1912) . . . all eight of my great-grandparents were alive at that time . . . but only six of my sixteen 2nd great-grandparents are known to have still been living as of the 1st of January in 1911 . . . 


One hundred years later . . . on the 1st day of January . . . in the year 2011 . . . I am so very blessed and thankful for my family (L-U-V y'all) . . . for my health (and that's a big one) . . . for a warm roof over my head . . . for dear friends who actually know what it means to walk the talk . . . for a God who loves me and has collected all my tears in a bottle (and there have been a lot of them since the 7th day of April) . . . 



On a lighter note . . . I am also thankful for my constant companion and foot-warmer, Riley (Bennie's poodle) . . . and for the new toys I received for Christmas . . . one being a new Canon EOS Rebel D-SLR camera (Bennie always enjoyed giving me tech gadgets for gifts . . . so this was a gift to myself, a long-needed upgrade from our original vintage Canon AE-1) . . . but the best gift (mostly because of the thoughtfulness and love behind it) I received (besides time spent with family) was the Flip-Pal Mobile Scanner my family surprised me with . . . we do what I will refer to as (because our Mom was born in Massachusetts) a Yankee Swap . . . so there are not supposed to be any exchanges of gifts between individuals . . . my baby sister (who was the instigator on this little project) told me the surpise gift was to show appreciation for all the work I've done on gathering and sharing our family history . . . [note to self . . . be careful about entering those contests on facebook . . . some family members actually read that stuff!!!] . . . sooo . . . 



Most of the following items have been on my mental to-do list for a while . . . but only because Jasia has challenged us to commit to some genealogy goals in 2011 for her 101st Carnival of Genealogy . . . (and with the qualifier used by my 2nd great-grand-uncle almost 150 years ago . . . whether God will permit me to live, to keep the records of another year, is more than poor mortal man can know, but trusting in His mercy I shall enter upon the trials of another year, with hopes of future success & prosperity through His goodness & favor.) . . . I am stating to whoever is listening that . . . the good Lord willing and the creeks don't rise . . . 


I plan to keep on keeping on . . . with the daily postings at The Journal and On This Date . . . and an occasional family-related quote at And I Quote . . . and getting together some new posts here at benotforgot.com . . . and continuing to transfer info from an expired rockdale.myfamily.com to Rockdale - My Hometown . . . and figuring out how to stay organized once I actually get organized (i.e., putting photos, books, files back where they belong instead of in convenient stacks and piles around my computer area) . . . and consistently paying attention to the reminders to do backups . . . and to learn to use the new toys (camera and portable scanner)!!! . . . and to use that camera when visiting cemeteries and photographing grave markers and then posting them on findagrave (with appropriate genealogical info) . . . and to use that portable scanner when I do onsite research at various libraries and research centers in Texas, as well as on visits to family members throughout Texas . . . AND . . . to research and shop for a new desktop computer (had a power surge that may have killed the old desktop . . . awaiting a final diagnosis from the nephew-in-law / IT guy) . . . and then purchase and install Family Tree Maker 2011 and learn to use it (having some issues with FTM 2010) . . . whew . . . I'm exhausted already . . . 

• I wanted a perfect ending. Now I've learned, the hard way, that some poems don't rhyme, and some stories don't have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what's going to happen next. ~ Gilda Radner
• Never part without loving words to think of during your absence. It may be that you will not meet again in this life. ~ Jean Paul Richter
• Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened. ~ Theodor Seuss Geisel, attributed

My Christmas Card to You & Yours

 

Sympathy Saturday :: Milford Henry

On this date in our family history . . . the 13th day of November . . . in the year 2010 . . . Milford Barton Henry was laid to rest at the Forest Grove Cemetery in Milam County, Texas.

Milford was my 1st cousin once removed, and was born 14th June 1924 in Norton, Runnels County, Texas to Milton E. Henry (1902-1975) and Edna Gladys Henry nee Caswell (1902-1973). They left Norton around 1939, and Milford had made his home in Rockdale, Milam County, Texas since that time. He was a 1942 graduate of Rockdale High School.


On June 2, 1946, he and Dorris Spence were married in Rockdale. To this union two children were born. Milford worked as a Shop Foreman with Texas Utilities. He retired from I.G.C. after 30+ years. He was a Veteran of World War II serving in the U.S. Army Air Corps. He was a founder and charter member of Rockdale Christian Church where he was a former board member and Elder Emeritus.


Milford passed away Wednesday, November 10, 2010 at his home with his family. The date of his passing was the anniversary of the birth of his paternal grandma, Berta Mary Henry nee Sharp (1873-1955) . . . and it was also Forget-Me-Not Day. Milford had reached the age of 86, and was preceded in death by his parents and two adult brothers, Marlyn Edward Henry (1930-1995) and Charles Eugene Henry (1940-1973) as well as three infant siblings.




For we have this moment to hold in our hands,
And to touch as it slips through our fingers like sand;
Yesterday's gone, and tomorrow may never come,
But we have this moment, today.

2002 Reunion :: Here timelessness lived

On this date in our family history . . . the 19th day of October . . . in the year 2002 . . . assorted kith 'n kin of William Paschal and Josephine Wingfield (Davis) Henry gathered in Rockdale, Texas for a family reunion . . .



The Rockdale Reporter. Rockdale, Texas. November 14, 2002. In the 1992 bestseller Colony, the granddaughter, Darcy, says that . . .


. . . there should be, in every life, a place
. . . where you could come and visit your past,
and the past of your people,
and know that whatever happened outside,
here timelessness lived.
A cozy room on a rainy Saturday in Rockdale was just that sort of gathering spot for assorted kith 'n kin of some early 19th century Milam Co. residents. As the family members arrived they were beckoned into the past of their people by a large display of their family history spread out on quilt-covered tables.

Here they read about how 17-year-old Josephine Wingfield Davis migrated c. 1859 with her family from Morgan Co., GA to Brazoria Co., TX (where she would marry William Paschal Henry in 1864). This time of change was the beginning of a new season for Josephine and her family -- for they left behind a way of life in a time and a place that has often been described as gone with the wind country.

An article about a Henry family reunion at the old Hamilton homeplace was published in The Rockdale Reporter in the autumn of 1931. It recorded the following about the arrival of Josephine and her family in the then-new town of Rockdale . . .

On Oct. 3, 1876, the Henrys arrived in Rockdale to visit a sister and family of Mrs. Henry's [Josephine], it being Dr. and Mrs. M. F. Anthony, who at that time had the post office and drug store combined on the corner where the Wolf Hotel now (1931) stands.

Of that time period The Galveston Weekly News reported that . . .

Every day or two some very interesting scenes occur in the pettifoggeries of Rockdale . . . there are street fights occurring almost every day . . . where a population of eighteen hundred now thrive, was ten months ago the home of the deer, and the pleasure ground of the black bear.

Twenty-three years later -- on Oct. 28, 1899 -- Josephine died a tragic death in an accident that was graphically described in 1899 issues of The Rockdale Reporter as well as The Rockdale Messenger. The Messenger article specifically mentions the grey mare that was pulling her buggy on that autumn afternoon when it collided with "a light spring wagon" as she drove "over the hill at the home of George Banzhaf."

Josephine apparently fell from her buggy "with her head between the left fore wheel of the buggy and shafts and was so held that her hair was wound around the buggy hub and spindle. . . . some young man met the buggy at the gate near the old Ferguson place, more than a half-mile this side of where the accident occurred. She was dead when found as her neck was broken."

The article concluded with the following -- "Brother [Wm. P.] Henry does not blame the drivers of the wagon for the accident but thinks they should have ascertained the results before driving home."

103 years after her death, Josephine and Wm. P. were well-represented in the most recent gathering that included descendants of three of their five children --

• Wm. P. & Annie (Calvert) Henry, Jr.
• Edgar & Berta (Sharp) Henry
• Ella (Henry) & J. D. Hamilton

Descendants of Jerome & Sudie (Criswell) Henry and Emma (Henry) & Sam Sharp were not able to attend.

New to the reunion in 2002 were Esther (Hall) & John Biggers of Lake Jackson TX, and Susie (Deen) Hagler of Wills Point TX -- who were kin to the majority of those attending through their connection to Josephine's daughter-in-law, Berta (Sharp) Henry, as well as her son-in-law, Sam Houston Sharp, Jr. Berta and Sam were siblings from Houston Co. TX, and they married the Henry twins, Edgar and Emma.

Berta and Sam were grandchildren of Mahala (Roberts) Sharp Hall, who was a daughter of early Texas alcalde, Elisha Roberts. As alcalde, Roberts held court on the broad front gallery of his house; Sam Houston, James Bowie, David Crockett, William B. Travis, and Stephen F. Austin all boarded there. In 1833 Roberts was elected delegate to the convention in San Felipe.

One of Mahala's sisters was Matilda Connell Allen, whose first husband, John Connell, died in 1834 at Viesca, Milam Co. Matilda's second husband was Samuel Tabor Allen, who was a delegate from Milam (Viesca) to the Consultation of 1835, and also represented Milam in the House of Representatives of the 1st Congress, 1836-1837. Samuel was killed by Kickapoo Indians in 1838 in the Battle Creek Massacre. In 1850 Matilda donated 120 acres of the family estate to Bell County (created & organized from Milam in 1850) as the site for the new county seat -- now known as Belton.

More than 150 years later, kith & kin of these strong early Texas women -- this Mahala and Matilda and Josephine -- shared a noon meal that was "spread in picnic style." Afternoon activities including taking photos, concluding the silent auction, and giving prizes for --

• Oldest . . . Iola (Christian) Avrett
• Youngest . . . Trey Hill
• Longest road-trip . . . Charlotte (Christian) Walraven of San Angelo

The guessing games for the children were won by Madison Smith (candy) and Josh Landi (pennies).

Proceeds from the fund-raising efforts more than covered the expenses for the 2002 reunion. Top selling items included:

• the "Henry" teddy bear donated by Carla (Henry) Schomburg
• an assortment of items brought by Susie (Deen) Hagler from Eddie Deen & Co.
• a large print of a photo of Wm. P. and Josephine donated by Peggy (Ferguson) Skeeters (the original of which hung in the hallway of the Hamilton home in Rockdale for many years)
• two reproductions of a photo of Mahala (Roberts) Sharp Hall donated by Esther (Hall) Biggers
• a family history notebook from the files of Vickie (Pounders) Everhart
• a ribbon-bound copy of a 19th-century autograph album that belonged to Berta (Sharp) Henry donated by Roberta (Henry) Pounders

The 2002 gathering was organized by Susan (Henry) Aigner, youngest daughter of Robert E. & Ann ( Howard) Henry. In the autumn of 2003 this gathering will take place at the home of J. D. and Susan (Henry) Aigner in Sinton TX.


The Rockdale Reporter
November 14, 2002
Written & submitted for publication
by
Vickie (Pounders) Everhart

1999 Reunion :: Putting down roots

On this date in our family history . . . the 16th day of October . . . in the year 1999 . . . descendants of the children of William Paschal Henry and his wife, Josephine Wingfield Henry nee Davis, gathered in Milam County, Texas for a family reunion . . .





The Rockdale Reporter. Rockdale, Texas. October 21, 1999. In these pre-dawn hours of "the new millennium," approximately seventy descendants of William Paschal and Josephine Wingfield (Davis) Henry gathered in the Minerva Community Center in Milam County, Texas for a family reunion. This event, held 16 October 1999, was coordinated by granddaughters of Milford and Dorris Henry — Monica (Sheppard) Landi, Carla (Henry) Schomburg and Heather (Henry) Williams. The family gathering took place a short distance north of the site of a parcel of land where Wm. P. and Josephine had set up housekeeping c. 1878.


SHE CAME FROM GEORGIA, HE FROM KENTUCKY — It was a winter's Tuesday in Civil War Texas when Josephine became the bride of Wm. P., then a young Confederate soldier. The date of the ceremony was 1st March 1864, and the location was Brazoria County on the Texas Gulf Coast. At that time, the counties of Brazoria and Matagorda were threatened with the possibility of invasion by Federal blockading forces intent on stopping the delivery of any supplies into Confederate ports.


A little over a decade later, in October of 1876, this couple and their five surviving children arrived in Milam County for a visit with Dr. Milton G. Antony, and his family. Dr. Antony, a practicing physician in Rockdale and Cameron, was Rockdale's postmaster at the time, and was married to Josephine's older sister, Margaret. The Antony's newly-married son, Edwin LeRoy Antony (1852-1913), was then prosecuting attorney for Milam County, and would go on to be elected as a Democrat to the U. S. House of Representatives in 1892. Margaret (1833-1912) and Milton (c. 1824-1885) are buried in Rockdale's Old City Cemetery.


The Wm. P. Henry family soon moved to Milam County, where they lived for a while near Dr. Thomas Riddle just south of Rockdale. In 1878, Wm. P. bought 100 acres of land north of town in an area then known as the Bethlehem Community. At this location he and Josephine would at last put down roots, settling in to work the land and to raise their children --

• William Paschal Henry, Jr. (1868-1941)
• Jerome Bonepart Henry (1870-1956)
• Emma Sharp nee Henry (1872-1944)
• Edgar Henry (1872-1950)
• Ella Hamilton nee Henry (1875-1967)

Wm. P. was said to be "...one of our most substantial and upright farmers," and he would live out the remainder of his days in this rural community.

The circumstances surrounding Josephine's death were reported in detail in a November 1899 issue of The Rockdale Reporter.

When (the body of Josephine) was found between her home and that of George Banzhaf, near the gate that leads to Dr. Isaac's home, she was lying across the axle dead, with her hair and clothing wound around the spindle of the buggy.

The story went on to say that "Her neck was doubtless broken by the fall..." as she was thrown from the buggy following a collision with a wagon driven by two young men. As her horse bolted, her long hair came undone and was caught up in the buggy wheel, dragging her body for some distance. Josephine (1842-1899) and Wm. P. (1836-1912) were laid to rest in the Murray Cemetery.


BACK TO 1999 — In addition to time spent visiting with each other at the recent Fall gathering, entertainment for young and old alike included an assortment of games and good food. Family members also enjoyed browsing through a family history display set up by Vickie (Pounders) Everhart. Those participating in the day's activities included the following family members who came together from across the State of Texas —

• Christie Adkins, Cedar Park
• Nellie (Christian) & Jack Adkins, Sonora
• Susan (Henry), J. D. & LaRhea Aigner, Sinton
• Elaine (Henry) & Gale Clee, Magnolia
• Mary (Peebles) & Buz Cockrell, Livingston
• Vickie Everhart, Red Oak
• Ewin & Virginia Fergeson, Canyon Lake
• Sonya (Skeeters), Kirk & Travis Fleener, Spring
• Bert & Arlene Henry, Richardson
• Dale Henry, Belton
• Vaun & Carla Henry, Kilgore
• Monica, Paul & Josh Landi, Gonzales
• Lou McMains & Alicia Wyatt, Lexington
• Monty Northern, College Station
• Fred & LaDonna Peebles, Austin
• Carole (Henry) & Billy Sanders, Sinton
• Carla & Doug Schomburg, Jonathan & Caitlynne Wise, Stafford
• Peggy (Fergeson) Skeeters, Houston
• June Stewart, Spring
• Lucille (Kyle) Towery, Thorndale
• Rhonda (Henry) & Michael Wade, Spring
• Charlotte (Christian), Staci & Jimmy Don Walraven, San Angelo
• Heather, Glenn & Morgan Williams, Sugar Land.

Those attending from Rockdale included --

• Iola (Christian) Avrett
• Milford & Dorris Henry Dorris (McMillan) & Emily Hill
• Darla (Henry) & John McMillan, Laura & Hannah
• Rebecca (Pounders) & Jacob Nink
• Jaime & Emily Northern
• Robert Pounders
• Roberta (Henry) Pounders
• Donna (Christian) & Joe B. Rogers.

A number of family members found it necessary to cancel at the last minute, including Georgia (Henry) Kaseberg, formerly of Rockdale, who is now living in Leander with her son, Bert. Georgia has been a Keeper of the family history for much of her life, and her efforts will be appreciated for many generations to come.


The first Henry-Davis reunion of the next century will be held at Rockdale Christian Church on Saturday 21 October 2000. Reunion planners will once again be Monica Landi, Carla Schomburg and Heather Williams, assisted by other descendants of Milford and Dorris Henry.



The Rockdale Reporter
October 21, 1999
Written & submitted for publication
by
Vickie (Pounders) Everhart

Wordless Wednesday :: Happy Anniversary

Wordless Wednesday :: Happy Anniversary