Annie Lou's skiff

(Author's note.  I've since this post found more information which changes that below.  My grandfather and Annie Lou were not orphaned nor raised by their aunt and uncle.  And the middle name of Elmore refers to a distant relation of their uncle, named Elmore Ross, from the Revolutionary War. See newer posts about Annie Lou Rogers Wilson. Note date: May 9,  2015)

Remember there were pirates active in the Gulf of Mexico still at the turn of that century.

Annie Lou Gibbs Rogers Wilson was my father's father's sister, born March 10,1879 in Huntsville, TX, died July 11, 1956 in Hitchcock, TX.  She and my grandfather (2 years older) were orphaned the year she was born and then raised in the home of their father's sister, Alice Luella Rogers Ross and John Elmore Ross.  They might have been their god-parents, because my grandfather and my father's middle names were also Elmore, or maybe there was someone else named Elmore that I have yet to learn about.  Whoever Elmore was will have to be another story.  But perhaps Annie Lou brought Alice Luella's middle name forward also?

Though Great-Aunt Annie Lou was alive in my lifetime, I don't remember ever meeting her.  It's probably because I was just a child, and only interested in childish things.

I found some interesting photos - of her "skiff" and/or a sailboat in Galveston, TX.  They look like they've been in a fire. (My father's family had a house fire in Fort Worth in the 30s). This is the condition in which they came down to me.

October 30, 1904

10-30-1904

Annie Lou's Skiff

10-30-1904

on

Hannas reef

Galveston Bay

In none of these photos do I see anyone resembling a woman of 1904.  But it's  possible.  Maybe the shorter person on the end of the fish display could be a woman dressed as a man.

Who are the other men?
I wonder if Great-Uncle Chauncey is one of them, perhaps the one with mustache and bowler hat, since he owned the bank in Galveston. (He was my grandmother's uncle).

I wonder if my grandfather, George Elmore Rogers is one of them, probably a rather short man, because I do remember that he wasn't very tall.

Incidentally, George Elmore Rogers married Ada Phillips Swasey in June 1905, (my grandparents).  Aunt Annie Lou married Patrick Henry Wilson the next year, 1906, and then they had 3 children.

So this is a glimpse of the life of my great-aunt as a young woman, or at least the men who went fishing with her.

I love that it was called Annie Lou's skiff, meaning probably the rowboat. 

I'm submitting this post to Sepia Saturday this week.
It's about boats after all!