1868 :: Death of Little Maggie

 

On this date in our family history . . . in Grimes County, Texas . . . it is the 19th day of April in the year 1868 when little Maggie Henry succumbs to the burns she received when she fell into a pot of boiling water a few weeks earlier . . . she had attained the tender age of two years, five months, and 20 days . . . Margaret Ann "Maggie" Henry was a great-grand-aunt to the Keeper of this family history blog . . . and from various records, we know that Maggie was born on the 30th day of October in the year 1865 in Brazoria County, Texas . . . 

 

 

In 1867, the 10th of February, Maggie's mother, Josephine, sat down in Navasota, Grimes County, Texas and wrote the following in a letter to Aunt Lucy Laura regarding her [at the time] only child . . . 

 

Well Aunt my darling sweet little Maggie has grown to be a great big girl she will soon be 16 months old & healthy & fat as a Guinea pig is large to her age she is slow in teething she has but 7 & another nearly out, she can say a good many words very plainly, she has the Whooping Cough now but it dont hurt her her cough troubles her some, she so much company for us all, . . . Mr. Henry & Maggie join me in love to you all . . . Maggie sends Kisses to you all, . . .

Seventeen months later . . . it is the 12th of July in 1868 when a bereaved Josephine again writes to Aunt Lucy Laura . . . 

 

. . . you cant imagine the comfort your kind epistle brought to my sad and aching heart. I could scarcely peruse it for the incessant flowing of tears, tears of sorrow & joy, oh, Aunt words are inadequate to express my troubles, . . .

 

none compared with what I have experienced this year, I could have given my precious darling sweet Maggie up much easier had she taken sick and died, but to think that she was scalded in a tub of boiling water which took the skin all off her left arm hand & side & she then suffered two weeks in that situation, oh! how it grieves me to think of her suffering & oh how sweet she was playing just a minute before she fell in the water, precious one she bore her suffering so well . . .

 

I never thought she could recover from the time the accident occurred, still I hoped & prayed that she would be spared us, we done all we could for her tried every way possible to alleviate her pains she knew every thing that happened, . . .

 

sweet child was conscious to the very last, the day she died she would call her Father & me to her & kiss us not a great while before she died I washed & dressed her sores & she never murmured & when we saw she was dying I knelt by her side & kissed her & asked her if she knew her papa & mama, & she looked at us both as good as to say, I know you both, Aunt I can never forget the last look from her, How much we miss our darling babe, but we know she is happy and its so wrong for us to wish her back in this wicked world, Sweet one, she was too pure too good for this world. she was born to comfort & cheer us awhile . . .

 

I have lost a kind Mother Father brother & little sister, but none was so dear or near to me as my own precious child was, . . .

 

 

Sentimental Saturday :: The 10th day of October

Sixty-five years ago today . . . on an autumn's Tuesday . . . which was the 10th* day of October in the year 1950 . . . Miss Roberta Mae Henry became the bride of Mr. Forrest Lee Pounders in a small ceremony held in Freeport, Brazoria County, Texas . . . exactly one year and one month later, I came along as the first of their four children . . . the following photos were taken near the beginning of their journey together . . . 

The Rockdale Reporter

Thursday, October 19, 1950

Roberta Mae Henry

Becomes Bride of

Forrest L. Pounders

A marriage of interest to a wide circle of friends here is that of Miss Roberta Mae Henry and Forrest Lee Pounders, both of Rockdale. The ceremony took place Tuesday, October 10, at 6:45 o'clock in the evening at the First Methodist church in Freeport, with the Rev. Houser reading the double ring service.

The bride chose for her wedding a suit of royal blue gabardine with which she wore gray accessories. In keeping with tradition she also wore something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue.

Attending the couple were Miss Georgia Faye Henry and Robert Henry, cousin and brother of the bride.

Immediately following the ceremony the couple left for Galveston where they spent a brief honeymoon and later went to Houston to visit with relatives of the groom.

The bride is the daughter of Mr. Robert E. Henry of Sinton. She has made her home here with her grandparents, Mrs. Edgar Henry, and the late Mr. Henry. She graduated from Rockdale High School in 1949 and during her high school career she was popular and took part in all activities of the school. Since finishiing she has been employed in the local office of Southwestern Bell Telephone Company.

The bridegroom is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Jake Pounders. After finishing from Rockdale High School in 1945 he entered the U.S. Army where he remained for some time, seeing service in Japan. He is employed at the Fred Pounders Service Station.

Mr. and Mrs. Pounders will continue to make their home in Rockdale.

*P.S. . . that 10th day of October in 1950 was also the 23rd anniversary of the birth day of my Dad . . . he would have been 88 today . . . 

1913 :: Death of Judge E. L. Antony

On this date in our extended family history . . . the 16th day of January . . . in the year 1913 . . . Judge E.L. Antony dies in Dallas, Texas . . . this Judge Antony is a 1st cousin 3 times removed to the Keeper of this family history blog . . .



The Dallas Morning News
Friday, January 17, 1913
Prominent Resident of Texas Dies Here
Judge E.L. Antony Dies in This City
Former Congressman and Prominent Texan for Years
Native of Georgia, but Came to Texas in Early Day --
Funeral Services to Be Held This Afternoon

Judge E.L. Antony of Cameron, Tex., a prominent Texan and former Congressman, died yesterday morning at the residence of his brother-in-law [sic -- actually son-in-law], L.C. McBride, 3304 McKinney avenue.


Judge Antony was born in Burk County, Georgia, Jan. 5, 1852. His parents were Dr. Milton Antony Jr. and Margaret Frances Davis. Dr. Milton Antony, the grandfather, was the founder of the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta. The ancestors of Judge Antony were of the old Virginia Commonwealth, who bore valiant part in wresting the thirteen colonies from the dominion of Great Britain.


He came with his parents to Texas in 1859, settling at Columbia, Brazos [sic -- Brazoria] County. In 1869, he entered the University of Georgia (formerly Franklin College), where he graduated with honors in 1873. During these four college years he was closely associated with two of Georgia's gifted sons, Charles Crisp and the immortal Grady. Returning to Texas in 1873, he was admitted to the practice of law at Cameron, Milam County, where he married Miss Augusta Houghton, Sept. 20, 1876.


He was conspicuous in many ways, serving his people in various capacities. He was elected to Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the appointment of Roger Q. Mills to the United States Senate, which he filled with distinction and credit to himself and his constituents. His many friends will concur in the statement that no Representative of the people ever had a clearer view or more powerful conception and grasp of the tariff question than did he. He was a man of much and varied learning, not only as a lawyer, but in the many fields of literature and science; many sided, and much gifted, it was easy for him to do what seemed hard and difficult to most men.


He is survived by his mother, Mrs. Margaret Antony, now in her eightieth year; a wife, and two daughters, Miss Beryl , and Alice, the wife of J.A. Brown, all of Cameron, Tex.


Funeral services will be held at the home of Mr. McBride, at 2:30 o'clock this afternoon, by Rev. J.H. Moore, and the burial will be in Oakland Cemetery. The following have been selected as the active pallbearers: Murphy W. Townsend, Cullen F. Thomas, A.H. Winkler, C.H. Loper, O.F. Wencker and W.P. Donaldson, and the following as honorary pallbearers: Judge E.B. Muse, Judge Kenneth Foree, Judge J.E. Cockrell, E.W. Luna, F.R. Malone and J. Howard Ardrey.

1885 :: Death of Milton Antony M.D.

On this date in our extended family history . . . the 25th day of January . . . in the year 1885 . . . Dr. Milton Antony dies in Rockdale, Milam County, Texas.


Dr. Antony is my 1st cousin five times removed . . . and he is also the husband of the older sister of my 2nd great-grandma, Josephine Wingfield Henry nee Davis (1842-1899) . . . he is buried in the Old City Cemetery, which is just out of sight at the bottom edge of this postcard.


Dr. Milton Antony, Jr. was a Confederate Surgeon in Brazoria County, Texas during the years of the war between the states . . . then relocated to Milam County, Texas where he was the third Postmaster in Rockdale, serving 06 June 1876 to 26 April 1877 . . . which was one month after the entire wooden portion of Rockdale burned . . . he was a practicing physician in both Cameron and Rockdale . . . a Henry family reunion write-up in a 1931 edition of The Rockdale Reporter states that . . .

On Oct. 3, 1876, the Henrys [my 2nd great-grandparents] arrived in Rockdale to visit a sister and family of the Mrs. Henry's, 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 stands.

That is the Wolf Hotel on the right corner of the Rockdale postcard. The Wolf sat on the northeast corner of the intersection of Main and Milam. According to a history of Rockdale published in 1936, a two-story stone and brick bank building was erected in 1875, which later became the Wolf Hotel, and then, ca. 1935, the American Legion Hall. An 1885 map of Rockdale does show a bank at that location, and on the corner across the street is a post office in the Mundine House.


A year before Josephine arrived in Rockdale to visit her sister, Margaret, the following item appeared in the 12 November 1875 issue of the Galveston Weekly News . . .

There are street fights occurring (in Rockdale) almost every day and the officers of the law seem to enjoy it, taking their fines, never giving offenders the least word of warning or lecture. Nothing better could be expected when they license women of ill fame for ten dollars a month and receive half of the fines and their compensation. The most disgusting of it is, when they choose, these officers step beyond their authority and utterly disregard the law at pleasure. Every day or two some very interesting scenes occur in the pettifoggeries of Rockdale.

And just a year before that 1875 report, the same paper, in the 09 November 1874 issue, described the brand new city of Rockdale as being . . .

delightfully located in a thriving section of the county. . . . there are two or three banks, fifty or sixty merchants, and plenty of saloons, and has generally all the appearances of a railroad town. . . . While all is new and in some degree crude, there are some fine stone and brick buildings. . . . 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.

For more information about Dr. Antony and his family, see . . .

• Dr. Milton Antony, Jr.
• Dr. Milton Antony, Sr., his father
• Judge Edwin Le Roy Antony, his son
• Antony Roots & Branches, his ancestors & assorted kith 'n kin

P.S. The handwritten paper in the background of the collage is a document from 1864, signed by Milton Antony, M.D. and three other doctors -- requesting the Confederate army to excuse the only druggist in Brazoria County, Texas from being conscripted into the army . . .

1950 :: Marriage of Berta and Fuzzy

On this date in our family history . . . the 10th day of October . . . in the year 1950 . . . shortly after the sun rises . . . 18-year-old Roberta Mae walks out of the home she shares with her paternal grandparents in central Texas . . . and climbs into a waiting car . . . it is an autumn's Tuesday, and . . . it is the birthday of the driver of the car . . . Roberta's grandma, Berta Mary, is aware of the plans for the day . . . and wishes them a safe journey as they leave town . . . the driver heads south from Rockdale . . . towards Freeport, Texas . . . that is where Roberta's only brother, Robert, lives and works, as does her cousin, Georgia Faye . . . the first stop in Freeport is Georgia's apartment . . . where Roberta changes into the navy-blue suit she had recently purchased at Goodfriend's on Congress Avenue in Austin . . . there is a bouquet of zinnias sitting on the piano when they walk into the little Methodist church in the neighborhood. . . and there, with Robert and Georgia as witnesses, a small wedding takes place . . . when Roberta next returns to visit the wood-frame house where she spent most of her growing-up years, she is the new bride of 23-year-old Forrest Lee Pounders (1927-1996) . . . 

Happy Anniversary, Mom & Dad . . . 

Wordless Wednesday :: Happy Birthday

 

Mom's Great-Grandmas

The prominent name in each of these four "wordles" are my great-great-grandmas on my Mother's side. 

The other names on each individual "wordle" are the surnames I currently have associated with each of these women. 

Our Josephine and Nellie (aka Mary Alexandrien) and Jerusha and Phoebe were all born in the 1840s.





Jerusha married Atwood F. Smith in York County, Maine in 1857. Their son, Thomas Warren Alonzo Smith, is my great-grandpa.





Phoebe's daughter, Eva, married the above mentioned T. W. A. Smith in 1894 in York County, Maine.





Josephine married William Paschal Henry in 1864 in Brazoria County, Texas. Their son, Edgar, is my great-grandpa.






Nellie married Samuel Houston Sharp in 1861 in Liberty County, Texas. Their daughter, Berta, married the above mentioned Edgar Henry in 1895.

P.S. The "wordles" in the above collages were created at wordle.net [defunct]. Randy Seaver over at geneamusings.com told us about this fun little word generator.

1864 :: Marriage of Josephine and Wm. P.

HENRY - W P & Josephine

It is a winter's Tuesday in Civil War Texas when Josephine Wingfield Davis becomes the bride of William Paschal Henry, then a young Confederate soldier . . . the ceremony takes place on the 1st day of March 1864 . . . somewhere in Brazoria County on the Texas Gulf Coast . . .

The youngest of five children of Milton Grant Davis and America James Fears, Josephine was born the 10th of May 1842 in Morgan County, Georgia . . . sometime after the death of her Mother in 1857 . . . and before the 1860 Texas census . . . Josephine and all of her siblings, along with their widowed Father, join the westward movement to Texas . . .

According to an entry on a photocopy of Josephine's Family Bible . . . William Paschal Henry was born on the 19th of February 1836 . . . it has been said that he was born in Greensborough [sic], Kentucky . . . the handwriting for said Bible entry is the same as on their marriage record, which was found in Brazoria County by Pam (Pounders) Bryan . . .

In October of 1876, Mr. and Mrs. W. P. Henry and their five surviving children arrive in Milam County, Texas for a visit with Josephine's sister . . . Mrs. Milton G. (Margaret Davis) Antony . . . the Wm. P. Henry family soon move to Milam County, settling on land in the Bethlehem Community north of Rockdale . . .

Josephine dies tragically in October of 1899 . . . and William P. dies in February of 1912 . . . they are buried side-by-side in the Murray Cemetery north of Rockdale, Milam County, Texas . . . this Josephine and Wm. P. Henry are 2nd great-grandparents of the Keeper of this family history blog . . .

• BeNotForgot.com

  • Arrival in Rockdale
  • Josephine's Tragic Death

• GoneToTexas.proboards.com

  • Josephine
  • Josephine & William
  • William
  • William's Family
  • William in the Civil War

• The Family Bible

  • America's Birth
  • Josephine's Birth
  • Negroes Births

Georgia Faye (1925-2001)

Georgia Faye Kaseberg nee Henry (1925-2001) spent the last year or so of her life as a resident of a nursing home in Cameron, Texas, a victim of Alzheimers . . . she died exactly ten years ago today . . . on the 2nd day of March in the year 2001 . . . her burial on the 5th of March coincided exactly with the 101st anniversary of the birth of her mother, Willie Ruth (Jennings) Henry . . . her Daddy (George Rettig Henry) and my maternal Grandpa (Robert E. Henry, Sr.) were brothers . . . Georgia Faye was a witness at my Mom and Dad's wedding in Freeport in 1950 . . . she was an editor of Matchless Milam which was published during the Texas Sesquicentennial (1986) . . . and she was a wonderful supplier and sharer of a wealth of genealogical info on our family . . . we loved her dearly and are forever in her debt . . . she is missed . . . the following is Georgia Faye's story written c. 1986 . . . in her own words . . .





Georgia Faye Henry was born August 31, 1925 in Norton, Runnels County, Texas to George Rettig and Willie Ruth Jennings Henry. She (had) one brother, Weldon Lee Henry, born August 30, 1927.




Georgia started school at Norton School; later that year transferred to a two-room schoolhouse in a cotton field at North Norton. After finishing grade seven, she graduated in 1942 from Norton High School.


Georgia came to Rockdale in January 1943 looking for work. She applied for an opening at Western Union as a morse code operator trainee. Mable Luckey trained several such students in what is now (1984) Promenade Building. Upon completion, she worked in Bastrop, Texas, near Camp Swift. She later worked in several Texas towns and in 1943 went to teletype school in Springfield, Missouri. After graduating, she worked in several towns making vacation reliefs. In 1944 she was offered a six-week job in Freeport (Brazoria County) Texas, which extended until June 1960. During her life in Freeport, she saw the streets of Freeport paved and saw the town of nearby Lake Jackson created where only trees and marsh once were. She witnessed several hurricanes, staying through two. All that water was a far cry from dusty West Texas. She learned about the Gulf, beaches, deep sea fishing, and enjoyed seafood which definitely was not in her hometown of Norton. While in Freeport, she married Albert Samuel Edward Kaseberg, Sr. June 14, 1956. They moved in 1960 to Baytown (Harris County). A son named Albert Samuel Edward Kaseberg, Jr. was born July 27, 1961. Georgia divorced Albert, Sr. in 1966.


Georgia and Albert, Jr. moved to Big Spring in 1968, then to Lafayette, Louisiana and Lake Charles, Louisiana. When that telegraph office closed, they moved to Rockdale in 1974. They moved to Monroe, Louisiana later for six months, and returned. Georgia took her retirement after 35 years of service. Georgia later worked from 1976 to 1982 as manager of Gold Bond Stamp redemption store in Rockdale before it closed.


Many interesting and sad times are recalled during her career. How can you explain to a sweet lady you cannot wire her homegrown flowers to a daughter? How can you explain you cannot wire some papers to a son to be signed and wired back? The work was gratifying by delivering messages about a new grandchild or offer of a job. Many times though, you got a nervous stomach, grabbed a box of kleenex and deliver a death message, many during World War II and Vietnam and Korean conflicts. Often these were about persons she knew personally. You got the feeling everyone dreaded to see you approaching. She still has her old morse key and the later model called a bug. Both still work. She came a long way from morse code to computer operation in 35 years!