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 . . .

Main Street in Rockdale

Old Rockdale postcard . . .
Main St. north from I & G. N. Depot, Rockdale, Texas

The postcard in the collage has been reproduced in multiple Rockdale publications . . . location / ownership / existence of original unknown . . .
According to a newspaper clipping from the files of my cousin, Peggy, a Henry family reunion was held at the old Hamilton homeplace in Rockdale, Milam County, Texas sometime in 1931. That yellowed and crumbling piece of paper recorded the following about the arrival of my 2nd great-grandpa, William Paschal Henry (1836-1912), and his family in the brand-new town of Rockdale, Milam County, Texas . . .

On Oct. 3, 1876, the Henrys arrived in Rockdale to visit a sister and family of 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 Hotel Wolf in the lower right corner of the above collage, with an arrow pointing to the same building on the old Rockdale postcard. The Hotel had gone out of business before 1935 when Rockdale's American Legion post purchased the building.

During World War II the building's second story was lopped off and its Main Street front was shortened and remodeled. A stage was added and the hall became the place to be for dances and music for almost 20 years. Rockdale Reporter, 06 Aug 1998

When I was in high school (the 60's), we frequently spent a portion of our weekend hours attending teen dances -- with real live bands! -- in the un-airconditioned bottom-half of this building. My parents were regular fixtures as chaperones at these events.


Directly across the street was McVoy's Grocery Store where my parents shopped weekly. Every Friday, my widowed Grandma, who never learned to drive, had her grocery list ready for Mom or Dad to take with them to McVoy's. There was a large wooden magazine rack near the front door where I would sit and read comic books while Mom checked out. Mr. Galbreath kept the produce stocked and freshly washed, and would give us pieces of fresh sugar cane to chew on. The meat market at McVoy's was where Mom bought steak cutlets for making her infamous chicken-fried steak with cream gravy which NONE of us have ever been able to replicate.


I was back on Main Street just this past weekend while in Rockdale for the 75th Annual Rockdale Homecoming as well as my Mom's 60th RHS Class Reunion, where I was flattered to be told by numerous people (who had known Mom since the 40s) that, "You look just like your Mom!"


At the Homecoming gathering, one lady said to me, "Aren't you the one who found the snake in the bedroom when you were babysitting Delaine?" That was also during high school in the 60s! I was babysitting for the local pharmacist in his home. The baby and I were sitting in the rocker / recliner in her nursery when I saw a snake come crawling in the room! I got out of the room with Delaine and shut the door (which wasn't much of a barrier since it had such a gap at the bottom) and called my trusty Dad at our home (no cell phones in those days). Dad was there immediately, but it took him a while to find and kill the poisonous copperhead -- it had crawled up into the coils under the rocker / recliner!


Before I left town, we (me & Mom & my sister) visited the Dan Kubiak exhibit at the I&GN Depot, and I also took a few photos of Joy Graham's Bit of History building on Cameron Avenue.


The journey back home to Main Street was nostalgic, while somehow filled with the sweet assurance that at Home we are not forgotten. These people knew me as a child. They knew my grandparents. And in some cases, their parents and grandparents knew my ancestors. And many of the families of Rockdale have somehow managed to climb into my family tree!






This 19th of June 2009 blogpost was prepared for Evelyn Yvonne Theriault's June edition of the Festival of Postcards . . . and was also submitted for Postcard Friendship Friday which was formerly hosted by Marie Reed.

Festival of Postcards :: Old Orchard Beach

This blogpost was prepared as an entry for the 3rd edition of A Festival of Postcards which was hosted by Evelyn Yvonne Theriault. The theme for this edition was Signs, for which we were asked to, "Publish one or more postcards that show actual signs (e.g. road, advertising, storefronts) OR interpret the theme in whatever way you want (e.g. signs of the times)."

My Mom has photos (from the early 1920s) of her mother, Elizabeth Marilla Henry nee Smith (1912-1932), enjoying outings at Old Orchard Beach, and Mom and I spent some time walking that beach ourselves, so I chose to use a postcard from my collection that relates to those family trips. The postcard is captioned, Old Orchard St. and Amusement Center, Old Orchard Beach, Maine, and is featured in the following collage. It was purchased during a trip my Mom and I made to Maine, the home of Mom's maternal ancestors. It was printed by Tichnor Bros., Inc. of Boston, Massachusetts, and is postmarked 1959 from Montreal, Canada. The postage stamp in the upper right corner is one the stamps from the actual postcard. Among the SIGNS on the storefronts facing Old Orchard Street in this image are . . . Hotel White-Hall . . . Bus Station / Boston & Maine . . . a diner advertising Coca Cola & Hamburgers & Frankfurts & Ice Cream . . . and in the far right background is visible the Casino sitting out over the water at the end of the Pier.




John Greenleaf Whittier said that, "They seek for happier shores in vain, who leave the summer isles of Maine." 

While Old Orchard Beach is not one of the many "isles" of Maine's Casco Bay, it has long been considered an isle of escape for more than two century's worth of vacationers. It is said that many Canadians come down for summer vacations, and that it is common to hear conversations in French.

Old Orchard Beach has been promoted as a tourist destination since 1631, when its first settler established a Garden By the Sea. In 1829 the first Public House opened, and in 1837 tourists paid $1.50 each to stay at a local farm. Railroad service between Boston and Portland opened in 1842. Over the years Old Orchard developed into a major resort. Airplanes took off from the beach and auto races were held on the sand. Most of the large hotels were destroyed in the fire of 1907.

From Old Orchard Beach by Daniel E. Blaney . . .

From 1631 to the present, Old Orchard Beach has had a singularly rich history among New England's summer communities. Old Orchard was originally a small seacoast farming community nestled on the shore of Saco Bay. When the railroad came in 1873, the coast exploded into one of the grandest Victorian settings in Maine. It boasted famour religious camp meetings, transatlantic flights, big bands, big fires, harness racing, and automobile racing on the beach. The Kennedy family, Bette Davis, Fred Allen, Rosa and Carmen Ponsell, Pierre Trudeau, and Charles Lindbergh all rejuvenated themselves in this community. Old Orchard Beach is still a vacation mecca, and residents and visitors alike will find enjoyment and education within these pages. . . . The pier was built in 1898. On March 17 of that year, actual construction commenced. The original twin pavilion was short-lived. The grand opening was on July 2. On December 4, the end of the pier was swept away during a northeast gale, only 156 days after opening. The ballroom, at the end, featured every well-known East Coast band. The big band era ended in the 1960s with the advent of rock and roll and record hops. Louis Armstrong was among the last big bands to play on the pier. . . .

Postcard Festival :: 19th-Century Steam Side-Wheeler

Steamer Mt. Washington 
Lake Winnipesaukee NH
Originally uploaded by amhpics

When I saw that the theme for the premier issue of A Festival of Postcards was Wheels, I immediately knew I wanted to showcase the 19th-century steam side-wheeler, Mt. Washington, whose huge paddle wheels were driven by a single-cylinder steam engine. Unfortunately, I am unable at this time to locate the originals of my Mt. Washington postcards, so I am using available scanned images from the internet of a few similar postcards.

In the book entitled simply Lake Winnipesaukee, Bruce Heald states that . . . In 1872, a new steam side-wheeler at Alton Bay was launched, which was christened the steamer Mount Washington. This vessel was built by the Boston and Maine Railroad, which used an extension of her rail service on Lake Winnipesaukee. She was longer, faster, and considered by many the most beautiful side-wheeler ever built in the United States. . . . This vessel was to become the largest steamer to ply the waters of Lake Winnipesaukee and would outlive her builders, her competitors, and three generations -- a variable Winnipesaukee tradition, as famous a side-wheeler as was ever launched in America. . . .

The paddlesteamer Mount Washington, named after the highest of New Hampshire's White Mountains, was launched in spring 1872 to carry mail, goods, and passengers on Lake Winnipesaukee, under the flag of the Boston and Maine Railroad. With a hull length of 178 feet (54 m) and a beam of 49 feet (15 m) she appeared as a typical representative of the North American sidewheelers around the second half of the century and was the largest steamer on the lake at that time. The huge paddle wheels were driven by a single-cylinder steam engine of 450 hp (340 kW) at approximately 26 rpm. The power was transferred from the vertical single cylinder to the wheel shaft by the walking beam, high above the upper deck, oscillating in the frequency of the paddle wheels. Known as "The Mount", her kitchen and restaurant service became famous.

The last time Mom and I traveled to New England was in March of 1998. While visiting in the home of Mom's 1st cousin, Margie, in Lynn, Massachusetts, I used my Canon AE-1 to preserve images of the pages of a family scrapbook. These two snapshots of Mom's mother, Elizabeth, and Elizabeth's mother, Eva, were amongst the faces glued to the typical black paper pages of that album. Because we can see the Mt. Washington in the background, we know that Elizabeth and Eva are on the dock somewhere on Lake Winnipesaukee -- possibly Alton Bay. . . .




Elizabeth was out picking up pawpaws with her childhood friend, Diantha, when they met their future husbands. When Elizabeth married her handsome cowboy / sailor from Texas in July of 1929, they honeymooned at Lake Winnipesaukee. In 1978, Diantha wrote the following to my Mom --

I had forgotten about Alton Bay. Betty* & I went up with her mother & stayed in the cottage one week end. I too have since been back to try to locate the cottage. I had forgotten that that was where they honeymooned . . . Win died in Nov. 1940 - I wonder did your father ever know? As I said we did have a postcard that you'd all gone to Texas - and I can recolect no further word. . . . *Betty aka Elizabeth

See also :-

• 22 December 1939 Mt. Washington destroyed by fire
• Mt. Washington Photo Collection

The above postcards and postcard collages -- with a wheels-theme -- were posted for the 20th May 2009 inaugural edition of A Festival of Postcards which is hosted by Evelyn Yvonne Theriault who lives near Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Make sure you check out her delightful blog.

COG Swimsuit Edition :: At the beach

Family Photos
Lynn Beach, Essex County, Massachusetts
circa 1931 and 1933

 

My Mom is the adorable little girl in the photo above on the top right. The little boy running away from the camera is her older brother, Robert E. Henry, Jr. (1930-1997). The good-looking couple in the middle-left photo is my grandparents -- Robert E. Henry, Sr. (1905-1976) and his first wife, Elizabeth Marilla Henry nee Smith (1912-1932).

Robert Henry was born in Milam County, Texas in 1905, and had been working as a cowboy in West Texas before travelling to Dallas, Texas in 1927 and enlisting in the United States Navy. It is highly doubtful that he had ever seen the ocean before making that drastic change in his lifestyle.

While in the Navy, he met and married the 17-year-old Maine beauty who was to become my maternal grandma -- Elizabeth Marilla Smith. They married in July of 1929. Their son was born in May of 1930. Robert was discharged from the Navy in January of 1931. Mom was born in January of 1932. And Elizabeth died 3 days later.

Based on the photos we are blessed to have in our family, it would seem that they must have spent a large portion of their very brief time together playing on the sandy beaches of Lynn, Massachusetts, as well as at Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire. One of the tidbits of information that was passed to my Mom about her mother was that Elizabeth was a talented swimmer, and loved the water.

I'm not sure about the date of the photo of that baby girl in the above collage, but it must have been taken during the summer of 1933. or 1934. Is that baby girl 18 months old, or 30 months old? [I found a photo of Mom dated 1934, and based on it, this one has to be 1933.]

This blogpost created for the . . . 

CreativeGene.blogspot.com

Sentimental Sunday :: Easter Sunday at Goldfish Pond

On Easter Sunday in the year 1931, our Grandma Elizabeth was at Goldfish Pond with her baby boy . . . a baby girl would join the family the following January . . . that baby girl grew up to be our Mom . . . 

On that long ago Sunday, Elizabeth captured the above snapshot of one of the goldfish, saying that it was "partly out of the pond after a piece of popcorn" . . . this Goldfish Pond was apparently a favorite place for an outing for this little family . . . a few years later the following snapshot was taken . . . 

This is our Mom and her brother, sitting on the edge of Goldfish Pond . . . this would have been mid-1930s . . . mayhaps on another Easter Sunday . . . 

More than three hundred years before the above images were captured on film, that little body of water was known by another name . . . Ingalls Pond . . . 

Near this pond was the home of Edmund Ingalls, one of the founders of Lynn, Essex County, Massachusetts . . . this pond can be seen on the following map . . . towards the right . . . and in the bottom third of the image . . . 

Map of Lynn and Saugus : settled in 1629

On an unspecified day in the month of March in the year 1648 . . . Edmund Ingalls would meet a watery death when the horse he was riding fell through a faulty bridge while crossing the Saugus River on a journey to Boston from his home near Ingalls Pond . . . this Boston Street crossing can be seen in the bottom third of the above map . . . to the far left . . . 


This Edmund Ingalls is said to be the 5th great-grandpa of President James Garfield . . . he is the 7th great-grandpa of American author, Laura Ingalls Wilder . . . and as a result of on-going research regarding the ancestors of our Mom, just this past week this same Edmund Ingalls was revealed to be the 10th great-grandpa of the Mom of the Keeper of this family history blog . . .

The genealogy and history of the Ingalls family in America

Other blogposts regarding the same Edmund Ingalls . . . 

• Barbara Johnson from Wisconsin
• Cow Hampshire
• Historians out & About
• My Maine Ancestry
• Nutfield Genealogy
• Omah's Corner

Sentimental Sunday :: Happy 35th Pam & Mike

On this date in our family history . . . the 5th day of December in the year 1975 . . . my youngest sister, Pam, marries the love of her life, Mike . . . and in that same year . . . I married my Bennie in February . . . and we moved to Flint, Michigan . . . and I hated it there . . . and we came back to Texas . . . and my middle sister, Rebecca, gave birth to her 2nd son, Monty, in June . . . and we threw a surprise party for Mom & Dad's 25th anniversary in October . . . and then another wedding in December . . . 1975 wound up being a rather busy sewing year for my Mom . . . she made my blue velvet wedding dress as well as the dresses for my two sisters (my attendants) . . . and then she made our dresses for this December wedding, and her dress, as well as all sorts of table coverings, etc. for the receptions . . .


In the photo . . . Bennie (1948-2010) & Vickie . . . Robert (my brother) . . . my Dad, Forrest Lee (1927-1996) . . . Pam & Mike . . . my Mom, Roberta (1932-2023) . . . Rebecca holding Monty . . . Dennis (1953-1990) holding Trent . . .

The 12th of March 2010 . . . and 1860 . . .

One hundred fifty years ago yesterday . . . on Monday, the 12th day of March . . . in the year 1860 . . . James Madison Hall (1819-1866) penned the following words in his daily journal . . .

To day I purchased in Crockett 2 hoes, 1 rake and some other articles which I sent home by Dick. In the evening I purchased my bay horse Mustapha at public out cry on a 12 months credit for the sum of $124.75 for which I executed my note with W.A. STEWART as my security payable to S.A. MILLER who sold the horse. At home still planting corn, with 2 plows running. I also gave my note to Isaac ADAIR for the sum of $120 for costs in sundry cases. Weather clear and pleasant.

. . . and yesterday morning . . . before hitting the road for a three-hour drive to Austin, Texas . . . I typed the above words and made a new blog post at The Journal . . . where I plan to continue posting on a daily basis (for the next seven years!) each and every one of the 150-year-old entries made by J.M. Hall during the entire time period from the 16th of January 1860 until two days before he died on the 12th day of September 1866.

Nothing especially significant about that journal entry . . . except for the fact that it was written exactly 150 years . . . to the day . . . before I first laid eyes . . . and hands . . . on the actual 150-year-old pages of that Journal . . . and held in my hands tax receipts from the 1840s that were written to my 3rd great-grandma, Mahala . . . that means that my hands were touching papers that were once touched by her hands . . .



My trip to Austin yesterday was an unplanned one . . . until I received a private message on Facebook Thursday night . . . from cousin Grace who was letting me know that she was in Austin . . . and planned a Friday visit to the Center for American History . . . for the express purpose of spending some quality time with the original of the James Madison Hall Journal!

I responded with an I wish I could be there with you . . . promptly followed by I'll probably see you in the morning! I sent her my phone number, and got her phone number, and called my Mom and told her I planned to be in Austin on Friday . . . and proceeded to stay awake all night long 'cause I was so excited about the pending trip (shh, Mom doesn't know I drove all the way to Austin and back after not sleeping all night!).

Cousin Grace is actually a half 3rd cousin once removed. We both descend from Mahala Lee Sharp Hall nee Roberts (1816-1885) . . . me from Mahala's first marriage to the mysterious John M. Sharp . . . and Grace from Mahala's second marriage to Col. Joshua James Hall.

Mom met me in Round Rock, and then we stopped by Grace's hotel to meet her for the very first time (and felt like we had known each other forever) . . . and off we went to find the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History on the campus of the University of Texas.

Grace had called ahead to talk to the staff about what we were wanting to look at. Once inside, all three of us had to show a photo ID and fill out their required paperwork. We also had to fill out separate request slips for each box we wanted to see. We also were given a paper that had to be taken back out to the parking lot for display on the dashboard . . . something about it being the ONLY free parking lot in the area . . .

Lockers were available for anything we had with us that is NOT allowed in the Reading Room, e.g., purses, cameras, notepads and writing instruments . . . AND BASEBALL CAPS (and yes, I was wearing one . . . it was very windy in Austin yesterday . . . and no, I was not allowed to wear it in to the reading room!). They do provide their own paper and #2 pencils for taking notes.

They had multiple smaller tables, and one really big table, but if we all sat at it, we were only allowed one box at a time . . . one box per table . . . so we sat at three different tables . . . so we could have three different boxes at one time. When we were ready for a 4th box, one of our boxes was removed before the 4th box was brought out. And the request slip for each box had to actually be signed by the person sitting at that table.

We left multiple requests for copies . . . no copying was done while we were there. We were instructed to fill out a request form listing each box # and folder # and a brief description of the item . . . and to insert a START and a STOP paper (provided by them) inside each folder . . . which was to be returned to its box . . . and taken back to the desk when we were through with it. They will copy the requested items and mail them to us, along with an invoice. I believe they said that requests for a lot of copies require credit card information for prepayment, but I'm not sure . . . we did not have to do that. They said to expect to receive our copies within one or two weeks.

The J.M. Hall who penned the thousands of words that make up the 1860-1866 Hall Journal is a half great-grand-uncle to Cousin Grace . . . and he is only related to me because he is the stepson of my 3rd great-grandma, Mahala . . . as well as being her son-in-law . . . 'cause he married her daughter / his step-sister, Margaret Annot Hall Stewart nee Sharp (1840 - ca. 1878) in 1859, which was eight years after his father married the widowed Mahala.

But this 19th century gentleman personally knew some of my kith 'n kin . . . and interacted with them on a sometimes daily basis . . . and wrote about those people in his daily ramblings. He introduced me to those folk in a manner that would have never been possible if not for him and his Journal . . .

If I were to feel inclined to keep a daily journal that might possibly be useful as a book of reference and may hereafter be profitable to those who have an interest in my affairs (that's a quote from the Journal), the following is what I might record about yesterday's adventure . . .

Friday March 12th 2010. To day in the morning Grace, Roberta and myself went to Austin for the purpose of perusing old family papers. Studied Republic of Texas tax receipts for the widow Mahala L. Sharp before she married J.J. Hall. Confirmed the shooting of Sam Sharp on November 27th 1851. Laid my hands on the journal page containing the record of the marriage of the said Sam and Nellie on July 11th 1861. Dined outdoors on a meal of apricot chicken salad with fresh fruit. Drank ginger peach tea with ice. A good time was had by all. Returned home from Austin in time to watch Emmit Smith discover his roots on NBC. Traffic on the highway heavy and congested. Weather clear and pleasant with a brisk wind.

Hmmm . . . wonder what someone would think upon reading the above 150 years from now . . . FYI . . . Box #3S41 was not located while we were there . . . really curious about the photos . . . there is no known original likeness of James Madison Hall in existence . . . only a photocopy of a photo in a book . . . we suspect this listing is a typo because it is known that there IS a photo of Mahala and her second husband, Joshua James Hall . . . we await word from the staff on the status of the missing box . . . and its contents.

I would, of course, love to have a copy of every single piece of paper in those boxes . . . but I don't expect that will happen . . . would love to have digital images of some of them in particular . . . terrific collage subjects on their own . . . even without the family connection . . .



The following list of information from the folder containing the Center's finding aid was emailed to us by one of the staff members. There was more information in the folder but it was not available in the file on her computer, so she will include copies of those pages when the copies we requested are mailed to us in a week or so.

HALL (JAMES MADISON) FAMILY PAPERS, 1807, 1813, 1840-1980. (1 ft.) Unrestricted access. [AR 81-131; 84-22; 88-95]:

• Box #2B78
  
  • Joshua James Hall:
    
    • Diary, 1848-1857
      
    • Financial records, 1850-1872, undated
      
  • Mahala L. Hall:
    
    • Financial records, 1844-1897
      
    • Legal records, land deeds, 1876-1881
      
  • A.M. [sic] Hall, financial records, 1868
    
  • James Madison Hall: Diaries: June-December 1862
    
• Box #3S200a
  
  • 1860-1866 (with index) [FYI . . . this is the actual Journal]
    
• Box #2B78
  
  • Financial records, 1840-1864
    
  • Military records, 1846
    
  • Nannie Burton Hall, autograph book, 1857-1888
    
  • Horace Oscar Hall:
    
    • Correspondence, 1887-1903, 1934, undated
      
    • Financial records:
      
      • 1876-1907
        
      • 1908-1934
        
• Box #2.325/D1b
  
  • Oversized, 1865-1869, 1910, 1922-1925
    
• Box #2B78
  
  • Legal records, land deeds, 1878-1924, undated
    
• Box #2B109
  
  • J.F. Hall, legal and financial records, 1932-1933
    
  • Felix Roberts Hall:
    
    • Financial records, 1918, 1924
      
    • Military records, 1909-1922
      
  • Susie Loring Hall:
    
    • Correspondence, 1947, 1950
      
    • Financial records, 1926
      
    • Legal records, 1927, 1942, 1952
      
    • Clipping, 1961
      
  • Robert Loring Hall:
    
    • Correspondence, 1939-1947, 1978, 1980
      
    • Printed material, 1947
      
  • Callie MaGee Hall, financial records, 1921-1945
    
  • Sam Sharp and Florine Hall, account books [with some family history], 1869-1889
    
  • Florine Hall, correspondence, 1889
    
  • John Marshall Sharp and M.L. Hall, notebooks, undated
    
  • General correspondence, 1882-1899, undated
    
  • General financial records, 1869-1908
    
  • General Legal records, land deeds, 1807, 1813, 1923, undated
    
  • General printed material, 1975, undated
    
• Box #3S41
  
  • Photographs:
    
    • Mahala L. (Roberts Sharp) Hall, undated
      
    • James Madison Hall, undated
      
• Box #OD1273 Plat map, undated [Houston County?]
  

CENTER FOR AMERICAN HISTORY Archives and Manuscripts Separation Sheet Accession no. 88-95 Collection title: HALL (JAMES MADISON) FAMILY PAPERS To be routed to: Center for American History Unit 2.325/D1b The following items have been routed to the above unit for more appropriate disposition: Hall, Horace Oscar Financial documents, 1865-1869, 1910, 1922, 1925

• http://www.cah.utexas.edu/services/faq.php

A Letter to My Dad

This collage features me . . . aka BeNotForgot . . . and my Dad, Forrest Lee Pounders (1927-1996) . . . the photo in the upper right shows my Dad placing a lucky penny in my shoe on my wedding day in 1975 . . . my Mom made my blue velvet gown . . . at my request, my Dad wore the same navy blue suit he wore the day her married my Mom . . . and he then wore it one more time . . . for his final Homegoing on the day of his memorial service in January of 1996 . . . a few years after his death from kidney cancer, I sat down and wrote a letter to my Dad . . . I am sharing it with the blogosphere today . . . for Father's Day . . .

Hey Dad -- Hard to believe it's actually been five years since that last summer with all of us together.

I traveled back to our hometown for my class reunion this past weekend (2000). That reminded me of the weekend of our 1995 class reunion -- a weekend I chose to spend with family instead of former classmates. That turned out to be your last weekend of actually feeling anything like your old self -- for you started those experimental cancer treatments the following Monday. And life was never to be the same again.

That was also the weekend of Rick and Cathy's wedding -- you were to be his best man, but didn't feel up to it. We, your children, attended the wedding as your representatives.

But the best part of that weekend was sitting out in the backyard at the home you shared with Momma for 45 years -- the home we four children grew up in -- the backyard full of so many happy memories. We had the best "private playground" of any of our classmates, thanks to you and Uncle Billy -- a merry-go-round, a seesaw, and a swingset set in concrete so that we could swing high enough to touch the leaves of the shade trees as we aimed for the sky. And the dog trough where we always dumped the tadpoles from Ham Branch, and soon had little baby frogs hopping all over the place.

Nearby were the various garden spots with that wonderful Central Texas sand where you and your Mother grew those wonderful vegies (sure would like some of yall's fresh new potatoes and fresh tomatoes right now!) -- and where we delighted in chasing and catching baby horned toads when we were kids. Remember how we filled our little red wagons with sand and made homes for those baby horned toads? And made beds for them in match boxes?

And then there were the doodlebugs? Funny how that became such a sweet term of endearment in your later years. Guess you started it by calling Jacob "Doodlebug," which he in turn decided to call you. He still (at age ten now) talks about his "Doodlebug." [Did you know they are actually the larva of a winged creature similar to a dragonfly? I didn't!]

As I'm prone to do, I brought in boxes full of scrapbooks and family photo albums, and all of us -- you and Mom, your Mother, your kids and grandkids -- we all sat around the backyard leafing through the pages of memories of our lives together. There was laughter and there were tears, as we all -- somewhere deep inside -- realized that this was a day to burn into our memories, for the odds were against our ever getting to do it again in just that way.

I treasure the photos I took that day -- the central Texas sunlight filtering through the leaves of the trees that had stood guard duty over our little family for almost half-of-a-century. Those were the final photos of you really laughing and feeling good. We had ice-cold watermelon, one of the few things you kept an appetite for as your health declined. Many of your lifelong friends kept us supplied throughout that summer.

Anyway -- I could go on and on -- you know how I am!!! But I'll close for now -- just wanted to jot down a few thoughts. Luv you and miss you, Dad . . . see ya next time . . . your "eldest" daughter . . .

Appreciation for Hometown Newspapers

Just wanted to take a minute to share something I received in my email today . . . it talks about today's final issue of a small town newspaper [i.e., the Journal Tribune] . . . and is from a library in Biddeford, Maine . . . where I have spent many pleasurable hours looking for tidbits about the lives of Mom's New England kith 'n kin while digging thru their newspaper archives . . . both onsite and online . . .

Which prompted me to write a little about how much I enjoy and appreciate both the current Rockdale Reporter as well as the archives of . . .

• The Rockdale Messenger [est. 1873] 
• The Rockdale Reporter [est. 1893]  
• The Rockdale Reporter & Messenger 

For more than a century, the Reporter family has memorialized countless tidbits about our kith 'n kin, e.g., there was . . .

• the tragic death of Mom's paternal great-grandma in 1899 
• the surprise birthday party for Dad's maternal grandma in 1936 
• the write-up about the marriage of our Mom and Dad in 1950 

And the numerous reports thru the years from the little communities of Bethlehem and Cole Springs and Tanglewood give us a delightful snapshot of their day-to-day lives . . . which we would not have if not for the Reporter, so . . .

To all of the Reporter family . . . both past and present . . . I will quote from the McArthur Library blogpost . . . 

"Thank you for being a part of my story." 

P.S. . . . and just as an additional FYI . . . some of the HERNDON ancestors of the COOKE family were / are near neighbors [both in life and in death] of some of Dad's kith 'n kin who came to Texas from Alabama and Mississippi . . . to wind up living and dying, and resting for eternity, in a little country cemetery in Tanglewood . . . 

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.

1953 Christmas Tree

Dear Grandma and Grandpa Henry, Thank you for my new tricycle. I want summer to hurry so I can ride it outside. I love you. X O X O X Vickie



On the radio in 1953, we might have been listening to Bing Crosby singing White Christmas, or Eartha Kitt singing Santa Baby, or 10-year-old Gayla Peevey singing I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas. 

And mayhaps we watched A Christmas Carol on Kraft Television Theatre on the small black and white television in the living room.

NBC's 1953 broadcast of the Christmas-themed "Amahl and the Night Visitors" was the first sponsored program to be broadcast in color. And, of course, there was the string of variety specials featuring the likes of Perry Como, Andy Williams, Bing Crosby, and Bob Hope.

When we were kids, Daddy usually went out and cut down the tree that would adorn the living room in our little home. I can remember going out with him at least once to choose and chop down a tree from the pasture out in the country, and bring it home to Mom. I just love that we have this black and white image of one of our Christmas trees from the early 50s.







Mom spent a large number of her growing-up years living with her paternal grandparents in this house in central Texas. She remembers that they strung popcorn for decorating the tree that usually sat in a little entry-way near the front door of the house.

Mom recalls desperately wanting a pair of roller-skates during the early 1940s. Her father had remarried and was still living in Massachusetts. Due to metal shortages during the war, roller skates were not easy to find. She remembers being told that her father was relentless in his search for this gift for her, and that he was somehow able to find and secure the object of her desire -- the roller skates were delivered to her in Texas.