Dorcas White Williams

Born Dec 19, 1825 in Kentuky, USA
Died: 21 NOV 1900 in Weesatche, Goliad, Texas  SO SAYS ANCESTRY . COM

Headstone for Dorcas White Williams, Woodlawn Cemetery, Weesatche, Goliad, Texas

Well, anyone can read that birthdate is the 13th, not the 19th.  How likely is it to be wrong?  I'm voting that Ancestry has done another one of the glitches that can be carried forward inevitably with one mistake becoming a thousand.  (So I'm changing it on my tree.)

Dorcas White Williams (generation 4) was mother of 6 children, including Annie Elizabeth Williams Webb, (generation 3, my great grandmother) who had 8 children.  

Generation 3 in this report, my grandfather, Albert "Bud" Webb died in 1919, at age 28 after my mother (only child in generation 2) was born in 1917.  (I'm gen. 1 here)

And now for more information on my great great grandmother Williams.

Like many early settlers in Texas, she shows up in Missouri first.
She and her husband are from Kentucky, but their immigration to MO isn't noted anywhere (yet.)

In the 1850 census of District 61, County of Montgomery, Missouri, on the same page are listed several households with 11 people with Williams as last name.  (This was one of those records where the census taker just wrote the last name for the first person in a household, but there are 9 farming households on this sheet. ) Those born in KY?  At least half the adults.  

Dorcas White Williams is age 24 and her husband William T. Williams is 23.  The next listing is probably for a daughter but because of lack of the last name, it isn't certain.  Malinda Packston is 5 and born in MO (not a Williams, living in their household) and then there is a Williams1-year old son, James D, also born in MO.

Ten years later, (Census of 1860) the family has grown, and they live in MiddleTown, MO, also Montgomery County. Whether the town has grown around them or not, William T.Williams is now listing himself as a carpenter, and he's 36 years old.  Their neighbors sound like townspeople, being merchants and carpenters.  Dorcas is 35, and James is 12.  Other children are David, 10,  John 8,  Margaret 6, and William 4.  All except Margaret were born in MO, and she was born in Iowa. 

I just searched for the 1870 census, which hadn't been on my listing for Dorcas White (her maiden name).  It's got an amazing entry.  She was living with another family, and was a domestic servant.  And there was an Eva White, 10 years old, also a domestic servant in the household. 

Since the next listing is finding her again with her husband and family living in Texas, (1880) it's probable that he's gone to set up a homestead there, as many of the early Texas settlers did.  They weren't with the first wave with Steven Austin however, who took 300 settlers from MO back in 1821.

They ended up living in Weesatche, Goliad County, Texas.  Wikipedia has this to say about Weesatche:

Weesatche was founded around the year 1850 under the name of Middletown, being halfway between Clinton and Goliad, and its post office was established on 1855-11-22. However, confusion with a Middletown in Comal County led locals to rename the community after the sweet acacia tree; the community's name is a corruption of the plant's alternate name, huisache. A post office under the name of Weesatche was opened in May 1860; although it closed during the Civil War, it was restored in 1870.

In the 1880 census of Precinct 2 of Goliad County, TX,  W. T. Williams (age 55) is head of household and again a farmer, Dorcas (age 54) is listed again as his wife.  And children listed are:  W.F. age 21, W.C. age 20, and O.R. age 14, all sons.    From the other Williams families living nearby, it's likely that their older children had their own farmsteads and families, but I can't speculate that much. 

What I am looking for is evidence of my great great grandmother, Annie Elizabeth.  Where is she?  She was born in 1862, but wasn't part of the "domestic servant" listing in 1870, where her mother used her maiden name, White.  Too young?  Perhaps.  In 1880 she would have been 18, and may have already married.

Ah, that's indeed what happened, and it's her story, to be covered elsewhere.  She married in Texas however, so she had traveled there before her 17th birthday.

By the 1900 census (very few census records from 1890 due to a fire, I have heard) Dorcas White WIlliams was living in Precinct 3 of Goliad County, TX.  Now she was head of the household.  (Her husband's death was April 22, 1898)

Now she lists that she can read, but not write, and owns her own home (not a farm.)  Her father is listed as being born in VA, and her mother in KY, as well as herself.  She is listed as mother of 10 children, 8 of whom are living.  She has a lodger living with her as housekeeper, 18 year old Laura Hard.

Though her neighbors are farm laborers and farmers, she has no Williams' living right next to her.  Her daughter Annie Elizabeth Williiams Webb lives in the same Precinct 3 of Golliad TX with her own family.   

And the culmination of this woman's life is her occupation that she lists when she's 74 years old.  She's a "Capitalist."

She died on  21 NOV 1900, about a month before her 75th birthday.  Her tombstone is beside her husband's in Woodlawn cemetery, Weesatchee, Texas.

 

Early Galveston and my family

Let's think a minute about Galveston, Texas.  It has not always just been a tourist destination.


My father was born there almost a hundred years ago in 1914.
His father, George Elmore Rogers, Sr., built the house my father was born in, and they lived there many years. (See george-elmore-rogers-sr HERE)

House built by George Rogers Sr. in Galveston, TX

My grandfather's mother, Bettie Bass Rogers, lived in Galveston the later part of her life (from before the storm of 1900 till her death in 1924).  (I featured my family survivors of the Storm of 1900 HERE)

My father's mother, Ada Phillips Swasey Rogers, was raised in Galveston.

Her mother, Zulieka Phillips Swasey had been raised as an orphan in Galveston during and following the Civil War. (See this blog posting on Zulieka Phillips Swasey's birthday.)  Zulieka and Ada Phillips were brought up in an Aunt and Uncle's home, probably that of  Elizabeth Pulsifer Granger Sweet and Sidney Sweet.  Or perhaps another Aunt and Uncle were the sister's Phillips guardians.  I have some letters written in the household by children, which don't describe clearly who was where.

Many of the men in my grandmother's family were ship captains (See captain-alexander-g-swaseys-ship-ella HERE).  Some had been ship builders from South Carolina or before that from Massachusetts, (See george-tyler-granger HERE)

A coastal life seems idyllic, doesn't it?  Well, some of the time...and that's when there aren't storms.  There is poor soil to grow a garden.  And little children can drown easily.  But if there's a port like Galveston, there are new goods available, and sailors, and everything sailors like in their lives. Some of that would have been nice for raising families, some of it might not have been.




But what of the time when Galveston was the largest city in Texas?  My family first came there before the Civil War. 

The Handbook of Texas History (see below) talks about an epidemic of Yellow Fever in 1867, affecting three fourths of the population.  "Galveston nonetheless surged ahead and ranked as the largest Texas city in 1870 with 13,818 people and also in 1880 with 22,248 people."

Incidentally I can't find anyone in my family tree who died in 1867.  But of the relatives living in Galveston at that time, there are a lot who don't even have a date of their death.  That has little meaning, but the conjecture is that if 20 people died in a day, (see below) it was probably difficult to keep track of who they were.

Also many people would pass through an international port from far across the oceans.  Many of the German settlers in Texas came through Galveston.  So my mother's grandfather's parents might have walked the streets as they first learned English before going towards Hillsboro, Texas.

I've visited Galveston as a child, and later as an adult who lived out of state.  It has looked different each time, including how the Gulf waters rolled upon the sands.

I'll let you read the entire article below, if you're interested in more information about historic Galveston.





I'm also posting this for the meme over at Sepia Saturday for the last post of 2013...Happy Holidays everyone!
 Click here to go see what everyone else is up to...world wide!



Source:
Handbook of Texas History online 

GALVESTON, TEXAS. The city of Galveston is on Galveston Island two miles offshore in the Gulf of Mexico, at 29°18' north latitude and 94°47' west longitude, in Galveston County. It is fifty miles from Houston and is the southern terminal point of Interstate Highway 45. The island is a part of the string of sand barrier islands along the coastal zone of Texas. On its eastern end where the city stands the currents of Galveston Bay maintain a natural harbor which historically provided the best port site between New Orleans and Veracruz.

 Karankawa Indians used the island for hunting and fishing, and it was the probable location of the shipwreck landing of Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca in 1528. José de Evia^qv, who charted the Texas coast in 1785, named Galveston Bay in honor of Bernardo de Gálvez, the viceroy of Mexico. Later mapmakers applied the name Galveston to the island. Louis Aury established a naval base at the harbor in 1816 to support the revolution in Mexico, and from this point Aury, Francisco Xavier Mina, and Henry Perry launched an unsuccessful attack against the Spanish in Mexico.

When Aury returned with his ships after leaving Perry and Mina on the Mexican coast he found Galveston occupied by Jean Laffite, who had set up a pirate camp called Campeachy to dispose of contraband and provide supplies for the freebooters. In 1821, however, the United States forced Laffite to evacuate.

Mexico designated Galveston a port of entry in 1825 and established a small customshouse in 1830. During the Texas Revolution the harbor served as the port for the Texas Navy and the last point of retreat of the Texas government. Following the war Michel B. Menard and a group of investors obtained ownership of 4,605 acres at the harbor to found a town. After platting the land in gridiron fashion and adopting the name Galveston, Menard and his associates began selling town lots on April 20, 1838. The following year the Texas legislature granted incorporation to the city of Galveston with the power to elect town officers.

Galveston grew on the strength of the port; cotton moved outward, and farming supplies and immigrants came in. The city served as a transfer point for oceangoing vessels and coastal steamers which ran a route through Galveston Bay and Buffalo Bayou to Houston. The construction of the Galveston, Houston and Henderson Railroad, which built a bridge to the island in 1860, strengthened the link between the two towns.

Business collapsed, however, when the Civil War brought a blockade of the port by Union ships and a brief occupation of the town by federal troops. The dramatic battle of Galveston on New Year's Day, 1863, ended the occupation, but the port remained isolated and served mainly as a departure point for small blockade runners. Following the war Galveston quickly recovered; northern troops were stationed in the city, and a depleted state demanded the trade goods denied by the blockade and the war effort.

With so many susceptible people present, however, the city in 1867 suffered one of its worst onslaughts of yellow fever, which affected about three-fourths of the population and killed at a rate of twenty per day. This disease, a malady of most southern ports, did not cease to be a threat until the institution of rigid quarantines after 1873.

Galveston nonetheless surged ahead and ranked as the largest Texas city in 1870 with 13,818 people and also in 1880 with 22,248 people. It had the first structure to use electric lighting, the Galveston Pavilion; the first telephone; and the first baseball game in the state. The Galveston News, founded in 1842, is the state's oldest continuing daily newspaper. The Galveston buildings, especially those designed by architect Nicholas J. Clayton, were among the finest of the time; in 1881 the city won the site of the state medical school in a statewide election; and the Grand Opera House was built in 1894 and presented the best theatrical productions in Texas. The opera house was restored as a modern performing arts hall in the 1980s.
In spite of efforts to maintain trade supremacy by improving port facilities and contributing to the construction of railways running to the city, Galveston business leaders saw their town slip to fourth place in population by 1900. Galveston acquired a coast guard station in 1897 which still operated in the 1990s and a small military base, Fort Crockett (1897–1957), but other cities such as Dallas acquired transcontinental rail connections and a growth in manufacturing establishments. At a time when Houston, Beaumont, and Port Arthur benefitted from the oil discoveries of the early twentieth century, Galveston had to put its energy into a recovery from the nation's worst natural disaster, the Galveston hurricane of 1900. The island lay in the pathway of hurricanes coursing across the Gulf of Mexico and suffered at least eleven times in the nineteenth century. The Galveston hurricane of 1900, with wind gusts of 120 miles per hour, flooded the city, battered homes and buildings with floating debris, and killed an estimated 6,000 people in the city. Another 4,000 to 6,000 people died on the nearby coast. For future protection the city and county constructed a seventeen-foot seawall on the Gulf side of the island, raised the grade level, and built an all-weather bridge to the mainland. The development of other ports by means of the ship channels, alternative sites for business and manufacturing provided by other modes of transportation, and notoriety because of hurricanes destined the island city to medium size. In 1980 it had a population of 61,902 and ranked twenty-ninth in the state.

Around 1900 business leaders redesigned the city government into the first commission form in the country (see COMMISSION FORM OF CITY GOVERNMENT). Their idea was to have the governor of the state appoint a mayor and four commissioners. Each commissioner would control a specific function of government-finance, police and fire control, water and sewage, streets and public improvements. Since the original plan was patently undemocratic, it was subsequently revised to provide for the election of the officers. The commission plan was somewhat popular in the years before World War I but faded in the 1920s in favor of the city-manager plan. Galveston, however, continued with the commission government until 1960, when it too changed to a city-manager form.
During the years between the world wars Galveston, under the influence of Sam and Rosario (Rose) Maceo, exploited the prohibition of liquor and gambling by offering illegal drinks and betting in nightclubs and saloons. This, combined with the extensive prostitution which had existed in the port city since the Civil War, made Galveston the sin city of the Gulf. The citizens tolerated and supported the illegal activities and took pride in being "the free state of Galveston." In 1957, however, Attorney General Will Wilson with the help of Texas Rangers^qv shut down bars such as the famous Ballinese Room, destroyed gambling equipment, and closed many houses of prostitution. Between 1985 and 1988 Galveston voters in nonbinding referenda defeated proposals to legalize casino gambling, although proponents argued that gambling could promote the local economy. Pursuant to a law enacted by the Texas legislature, however, gambling on board cruise ships embarking from Galveston was expected to boost business activity in the wharf district beginning in September 1989.

Galveston has survived on its port, tourism, and the University of Texas Medical Branch^qv. In the later 1900s the Galveston Historical Foundation encouraged historic preservation in the old business area of the Strand and various Victorian homes, which has added to the visitor attractions of the city. The famous Rosenberg Library serves as a circulating library as well as an important repository for archival materials pertaining to the history of Galveston and Texas. The restoration of the nineteenth-century square-rigged vessel, Elissa, in 1975–82 gave Texans their own "Tall Ship" to sail into New York harbor for the celebration of the centennial of the Statue of Liberty. In 2000 the population was 57,247.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: 

Howard Barnstone, The Galveston That Was (New York: Macmillan, 1966). Charles Waldo Hayes, Galveston: History of the Island and the City (2 vols., Austin: Jenkins Garrett, 1974). David G. McComb, Galveston: A History (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1986).

William T Williams 1824

Mr. William T. Williams was born on Dec. 16 1824, in Pulaski County, KY.
His father was Richard Frederick Williams, born in 1792 in Crab Orchard, Lincoln County, KY, who died in 1860 in Montgomery County, Missouri; and his mother was  Nancy Hansford, born in 1796 in KY who died after 1850 in Montgomery County, MO

William Williams died on 22 Apr 1898 in Weesatche, Goliad, Texas, USA
He was the father of Annie Elizabeth Williams Webb, my great grandmother.

He fought for the US Army in the Civil War, according to war records from Macon County, MO, July 1863, when he was 38 years old.  He is listed from the 4th sub-district, "Olio" as residence, and occupation is a merchant.  The original entry was changed later, with a red line through his entry and a remark, "Feb 22, 1865, In US Military Service."  He is not listed as "dead" as is another person on the same page, so it is presumed that he is still in the Army in Feb. 1865.  Everyone on this page is also in 4th Sub-district of Macon County with a name beginning "Wi..."  I can't find any reference to a town called Olio, MO, (though there are rave reviews through Wikipedia of a bar by that name in St. Louis.)
Please note, this post continues below the huge photo, but I wanted you to be able to read it.  (I may change it to regular size later however.)(DONE)

He and his wife Dorcas (both born in KY) had settled in Middletown, Montgomery County, MO by 1860 with their children and he listed his occupation as carpenter at that time. His oldest was 12, having been born in MO, putting them there by 1848 at least.  The 6 year old, Margaret, was born in Iowa however.

In the 1850 census 10 years prior to that, it showed he lived in Montgomery County, MO and was a farmer, with 2 children, and now listed as both born in MO.  Their birth dates would place him there by 1845. 

There will be a blog post in honor of his wife Dorcas White Williams, on her birthday of Dec. 19.

I am enjoying finding more about him, namely his parents names, on Ancestry today.  Always amazed how many more siblings and cousins there are.

Back to the Williams, who both died in Weesatchee, Goliad County, Texas.  How did they get there?  I'd love to know.  The whole family immigrated following the Civil War.  And Annie Elizabeth William married there when she was 15, in 1877.

When Annie Elizabeth Williams Webb died in 1942, she had placed her father, William T. Williams' birth in Iowa.  Isn't it interesting to wonder who gave that information, probably the next of kin, Clara Bell Webb Bruce, her daughter who lived till 1971.

But there is a state boundary line between MO and Iowa, so perhaps the family lived on it.  I imagine some farms cross the boundary, and whichever state upon which they situated the home on their land might be the place the children were born.  Interesting thought.

Bettie Bass Rogers wedding day

A woman who ended up a widow very young, and disappeared from my family before I was born, though she lived a lot longer than I originally was told.

My grandfather's mother was Elizabeth "Bettie" Bass Rogers.  She was born in Old Waverly, San Jacinto County, Texas around Feb or March 1860.  Her parents listed her as 5 months old on the 1860 census in Walker County, Texas.  The original document shows her father Richard Bass as 40, and his wife 35, but the transcriptionist mis-read his age as 20.  It does have a correction through it by pen on the original, so that's understandable.  The date of that census was July 31, 1860, so this youngest member of the family was probably born around Feb 28 in order to be 5 months old.  She was to have 10 siblings both older and younger.

Her father Col. Richard Bass fought in the Civil War, as a confederate soldier.


Her early years in Walker County Texas on a farm (according to the 1860 census her father was a farmer) also had cousins as well as older siblings nearby.  Her household also had a teenage cousin living with them, Emily W. Traylor, 16. Sister Julia A. was 18, brother James M. was 16, and sister Nancy C. was 7.  All her older siblings were born in Louisanna, but Bettie was born in Texas.  Her mother, Mary A. Powell Bass, also had family nearby; the next family listed on the census are the Powells, with 69 year old James M as head of the family. Nancy J. Powell was 36, John T. Powell was 27, and James E. Powell was 4 months old, and there was also cousin Nancy E. Traylor, age 11 living with them.

I spent hours one night looking at the Traylor, Powell, Bass connection.  How did it happen that the Traylor girls were living with a Bass family and a Powell family?  Well, as most of you probably have already figured out, their mother had died, and they were raised by her cousins...one was Mary Powell Bass, and one was Nancy J. Powell.  Mary Powell Bass's mother was Nancy Jones Traylor Powell, so having a grandmother in common meant they were second cousins, I believe.

Mary Ann Elizabeth Powell Bass headstone

But back to Bettie Bass.  In the 1870 census for Walker County, Texas, the county had grown from early settlement and the Civil War was over.  Much probably looked very different from the time of 1860, but all we have in a Census record are names and ages, and where people were born, and sometimes where their parents were born.  Thus the migrations of families can be traced.

Downtown Huntsville 1870s

By 1870 Richard Bass was a merchant rather than a farmer, now in the town of Huntsville, Texas.  Bettie now had 3 younger sisters, Ella, (9) Minnie (7) and Mary (5).   Her sister Sarah is 16.  Wait a minute, she had an older sister named Nancy C. who had been 7 in the previous census.  How could her name have changed that much?  There's no answer offered.  The oldest siblings are no longer at home, Julia A. and brother James M. Bass. Emily Traylor is now 26 and still living with them. I wonder if she had some kind of disability...a thought which just struck me, but since she hasn't married by then, maybe.

Downtown Huntsville in the 1870s

Bettie's marriage was quite an event, in Willis, Montgomery County, Texas, on Dec. 14, 1876, when she was 16, a Thursday evening with the marriage performed by Rev. D. S. Snodgrass, according to Ancestry.com.  She married William Sanford Rogers, age 26, but he only lived another 3 years after their marriage.  William Sanford was known as W. Sam, according to his son, my grandfather. W. Sam Rogers had been born in Walker County, Texas, but in 1870 was living with his sister-in-law Lucy Gibbs Rogers, in Louisiana.

Women's Clothing 1870s, not Bettie Bass Rogers

And then he married Bettie in Willis Texas. Perhaps the railroad coming into Willis gave some incentive for the family to move to Willis, and their 2 children were born there.  My grandfather George Rogers was born Aug 28, 1877, and his sister Annie Lou Gibbs Rogers was born March 10, 1879.  Their father died May 29, 1879 and is buried in Huntsville, Texas.

Willis became a community when the Great Northern Railroad decided to run a track from Houston to Chicago, and the Willis brothers donated their land in 1870 to the railroad. Willis grew in population after the trains began to travel through the town. There were hotels, dry good stores, and many other successful businesses in the 1870s and 1880s. The tobacco industry played a vital role in Willis' growth and development during that time. Other cash crops of cotton, watermelons, and tomatoes were an important part of the economy through the years. The timber industry, which still plays a role in Willis' economic growth, has been its most stable economic engine for over one hundred years.  (Wikipedia)

The next census record of 1880 included the 19 year old widow, Bettie Rogers and her two children, living still in Willis, Texas, without any reported means of support.  She is listed as head of the household.

By 1900 Census the small family is living in Galveston, Texas, with Bettie now age: 46; a widowed head of household, address 1828 Church St, June 6, 1900 living with son, George Elmore Rogers and Annie Lou Gibbs Rogers.  (George would become my grandfather.)

A short aside to refer back to the huge hurricane of 1900, as described a bit in my blog here.  The family survived it, and I don't know any details about their lives during and after it.  Then in 1905 my grandfather got married.  His sister Annie Lou married in 1906.

So the next report about Bettie Rogers is a reference on my grandfather's WW I draft card in 1918, where he gives her as his nearest relative, (and not his wife of 12 years.)  Bettie is living at 22nd and L in Galveston, Texas.

Then the census of 1920 lists Bettie Rogers "Age: 58; Marital Status: Widowed;  Relation to Head of House: Mother-in-law," living with Annie Lou Wilson and her husband Patrick and Bettie's three grandchildren, still in Galveston.

On July 17, 1924, at age 64, Bettie Bass Rogers died, as was printed in the Galveston city directory of that year.  I don't know where her grave is.

My grandfather (born 1877) wrote in 1954, of having a guardian (a cousin) that had charge of himself and his sister.  I always assumed Bettie died close to the same time as her husband, after her daughter was born in 1879. Or perhaps the cousin, working in real estate, helped with some land disputes and decided this was the best way to settle the old Tennessee land inheritances.  My grandfather notes something to do with how his guardian had helped with something along those lines.  And I also think the cousin/guardian had the 2 Rogers children in their household in one census (I'll have to check on that).

Bettie Bass' date of marriage was Dec. 14, 1876  to William Sanford Rogers in Willis, TX.  So I will celebrate her life on this one certain date of joy that she experienced.  Her birthdate is garbled through various years on census reports, which might have been her own doing.  She could have been a bit bohemian, or had some kind of confusion about her own age, and I am sure it was difficult to raise 2 children on her own.  She didn't follow the tradition of going to live with relations, rather she moved with her young family to a new city, Galveston.

Twas the night before...

OK, you've been here before.

About to start wrapping and then packing into those great packing boxes, and you don't have enough light to see, pull the cord, and blink, the light burns out.

Go find the step stool, figure out how to open this fixture under the fan which hasn't had any changes since being installed when the last fan died and was replaced 2 years ago, and it's not a regular light bulb socket.

SO, get into coat, hat and gloves, notice the hardware store a half mile away is open 15 more minutes...and drive into a pretty deserted dark center of my little town.

Look at a display of mainly bathroom fixture lights, or some for chandeliers, and get the biggest one that you can, which will shine from the center of the room.  Even pay for the name brand.

Ask about some stocking stuffer items, cause you've got 7 minutes to spare, and then can't find one of them, so go back and wait till the clerk is free, and she goes and shows you the 2 remaining ones, which are half price, and then check out well before the last customer.

After jay walking because there really is no traffic, go home, climb back on that little step stool, and put in the new bulb.  Voila!

Then wrap a few presents, which of course won't fit in just one of those nice boxes.  Do I want to send 2, or go find a bigger one for all?  Decisions, decisions.  I rescue a knit piece that the cat has found comfortable, including pulling some stitches which were obviously in the wrong place, spend a while finishing it and trying to get stitches right again...listening to a TED talk on Radio, and it's so good, I chase down the actual TED talk on line.

It is about helping everyone do better, feel more confident, and know they can be themselves better.  Can't lose.  Strike a power pose, like Wonder Woman.  I'll let you listen/watch it on the link which follows, Amy Cuddy is a professor at Harvard Business School.  Here's the link.
your_body_language_shapes_who_you_are

What you can do in private in your own home and then accomplish your goals...maybe?  Fake it till you...are who you really are.

Why am I not an elephant yet?

All innocence, though awaiting trouble on the bathroom counter...

Yep, Mom left me some water to drink...she thought it was for herself, but I've got news for her...

Everyone knows water out of mom's glass is better than on the floor out of a bowl!

Don't bother me, I'm busy here...

Oh my goddess of all things cat, there's more!

Well, after all that water that was Mom's, I need some real cat food now.

No, I'm not the size of an elephant at all.  But why does mom cover her water glass by her bedside now?  Just can't figure out how to get a sip in the middle of the night any more!

More roots across the seas

We've touched into my Irish roots...and there are many more than last post talked about I'm sure.

How about another area from which ancestors came?  Germany is easy.  My very great-grandfather (who I never knew) came from Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Germany, which is a large area much like a state in the US.  Unfortunately I don't know much beyond his census records.

He had a sister who was mentioned in his obituary in San Antonio, TX, but I have been unable to find any records of her life...Mrs Dora Lawnon.

I know he changed his name from Mueller to Miller, the anglicized version of the same name.  And there were a lot of Germans coming to central Texas both before and after the Civil War.

As always, early dates seem pretty confusing, and are mainly from census records.  He may have been born July 1868, and immigrated in 1871 at age 3.  But there is also a record stating he immigrated in 1865, before he was even born according to the other record.  Unfortunately Charles Herman Miller was not a very unique name, especially if the middle name wasn't included in a record. I did honor his birthday back in July HERE (which has other areas of interest about him)

I even found there was a man of the same name who was living in the same city (San Antonio, TX) who was about 10 years his junior, in a US Census.

I do believe he was a Mason.  And I was told he was a conductor for the railroad all his life...which is substantiated on various census records.

But let me learn a bit about German roots now.

There was a census taken "... of citizens of Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin as of 2/3 December 1867. Authorized enumerators, went from house to house in their appointed areas, recording in a “household list” of each person who was present at the time in the apartment or house."  If my grandfather had left in 1865, his household would no longer have been there.  (The link is here, giving another link to a German language list by area.  Since I have no idea of the area within Mecklenuerg-Schwerin that the Muellers came from, I'm up the proverbial creek without a paddle.  There are several hundred lists to chose from.)

Wikipedia speaks of Mecklenburg-Schwerin thus:

History, 1621–1933

"Like many German territories, Mecklenburg was sometimes partitioned and re-partitioned among different members of the ruling dynasty. In 1621 it was divided into the two duchies of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Mecklenburg-Güstrow. With the extinction of the Güstrow line in 1701, the Güstrow lands were redivided, part going to the Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, and part going to the new line of Mecklenburg-Strelitz.
In 1815, the two Mecklenburgian duchies were raised to Grand Duchies, and subsequently existed separately as such in Germany under enlightened but absolute rule (constitutions being granted on the eve of World War I) until the revolution of 1918. Life in Mecklenburg could be quite harsh. Practices such as having to ask for permission from the Grand Duke to get married, or having to apply for permission to emigrate, would linger late into the history of Mecklenburg (i.e. 1918), long after such practices had been abandoned in other German areas. Even as late as the later half of the 19th century the Grand Duke personally owned half of the countryside. The last Duke abdicated in 1918, as monarchies fell throughout Europe. The Duke's ruling house reigned in Mecklenburg uninterrupted (except for two years) from its incorporation into the Holy Roman Empire until 1918. From 1918 to 1933, the duchies were free states in the Weimar Republic.
Traditionally Mecklenburg has always been one of the poorer German areas, and later the poorer of the provinces, or Länder, within a unified Germany. The reasons for this may be varied, but one factor stands out: agriculturally the land is poor and can not produce at the same level as other parts of Germany. The two Mecklenburgs made attempts at being independent states after 1918, but eventually this failed as their dependence on the rest of the German lands became apparent."

I won't assume that my grandfather had any relations who were royal, so we can skip all the hooplah about family crests.  The family name speaks of being Millers, at some point in his ancestry.  So my conjecture is that someone he was descended from had milled either grains or lumber.

Here's some great information about immigration...

The (Texas) German Belt is the product of concepts and processes well known to students of migration, particularly the concept of "dominant personality," the process called "chain migration," and the device of "America letters." Voluntary migrations generally were begun by a dominant personality, or "true pioneer." This individual was forceful and ambitious, a natural leader, who perceived emigration as a solution to economic, social, political, or religious problems in his homeland. He used his personality to convince others to follow him in migration. In the case of the Texas Germans, Friedrich Diercks, known in Texas under his alias, Johann Friedrich Ernst, was the dominant personality. Ernst had been a professional gardener in the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg in northwestern Germany. He immigrated to America intending to settle in Missouri, but in New Orleans he learned that large land grants were available to Europeans in Stephen F. Austin's colony in Texas. Ernst applied for and in 1831 received a grant of more than 4,000 acres that lay in the northwest corner of what is now Austin County. It formed the nucleus of the German Belt.

In the late 1830s German immigration to Texas was widely publicized in the Fatherland. The publicity attracted a group of petty noblemen who envisioned a project to colonize German peasants in Texas. The nobles hoped the project would bring them wealth, power, and prestige. It could also, they thought, alleviate overpopulation in rural Germany. Their organization, variously called the Adelsverein, the Verein zum Schutze Deutscher Einwanderer in Texas, or the German Emigration Company, began work in the early 1840s. They chose Texas as the site for their colony, in part because of the favorable publicity surrounding the Ernst-inspired migration and perhaps because Texas was an independent republic where the princes might exercise some political control. Though the Mainzer Adelsverein was a financial disaster, it transported thousands of Germans, mostly peasants, to Texas. Between 1844 and 1847 more than 7,000 Germans reached the new land. Some of the immigrants perished in epidemics, many stayed in cities such as Galveston, Houston, and San Antonio, and others settled in the rugged Texas Hill Country to form the western end of the German Belt. The Adelsverein founded the towns of New Braunfels and Fredericksburg.

"By 1850, when the organized projects ended, the German Belt in Texas was well established. America letters and chain migration continued through the 1850s but stopped with the Union blockade of Confederate ports. During the 1850s the number of German-born persons in Texas more than doubled, surpassing 20,000.

"From 1865 to the early 1890s, more Germans arrived in Texas than during the thirty years before the war. The number probably reached 40,000. Many of them settled in the rural areas and towns of the German Belt. Interestingly, the postbellum immigrants generally avoided the Hill Country.

SOURCE: http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/png02

The original German settlers in Texas weren't from Mecklenberg-Schwerin however, so it stands to reason that the Miller family came after hearing about the success stories of other Germans in central Texas. 

Since he married a woman (non-German descent) in Hillsboro, Texas when he was 28, I was looking into the families from Germany which settled there.  But my source (above) says there wasn't much influx of German immigrants into Hill County Texas after the Civil War.  

It goes on to say...

By the 1880s German ethnic-islands dotted north central, northern, and western Texas. Ethnic islands failed to develop in East Texas, the Trans-Pecos, and the Rio Grande valley, however.

 By the 1890s sizable German elements had appeared in Texas cities, particularly in San Antonio, Galveston, and Houston. As late as 1880 the population of San Antonio was one-third German. By then a greater percentage of Germans lived in towns and cities than was true of the Texas population at large. German immigration to Texas tapered off during the 1890s.

But being a railroad conductor was already his occupation when Charley H. Miller (as his census name is listed) had been married just 3 years, as listed in the 1900 Census of Hill County, TX which includes his oldest daughter at 2, who would become my grandmother.  That census also states that he'd been born in Texas, though his parents had been born in Germany.  Their neighbors tended to be tradesmen and laborers.  A nearby baker with 7 children came from Bohemia, which I think of as Czech, but everyone else was from a southern state.

Later Census reports show his family in Smithfield and then San Antonio, Texas.



How about the Texas railroad history?
The Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad Company was known as M-K-T or Katy.  I saw and heard of Katy, but never remembered it was the name of the railroad.  It was the first railroad to enter Texas from the north, replacing the cattle trails that had historically brought beef to the northern packing houses. It took many years, many political and corporate squabbles to work out ownership, taxation, leases and all kinds of typical Texas power struggles over who owned what.  It was part of the struggles of a new empire in Texas.  Passenger trains were where my great grandfather worked, however, as a conductor.  All Aboard!

When I don't know a birthday

Many of my ancestors have just a birth year in their records, so I don't know their actual birthdays in order to post an acknowledgement of their lives.  And even some of them have an "ABT 1755" or something along those lines.

So I'll post tributes to those ancestors when I have the time.  I do acknowledge their lives contribute greatly to my lineage, no less than the people who ended up having something written down about them, even if only their birth and death dates.  Their children remembered them, and so shall I.

 How about going to Ireland then?

Melifont Abby, County Louth, Cistercian monks 1142-1743

Malcolm McNeal was born ABT 1720 in Ballymascanlon, County Louth, Ireland, and his death is recorded in Dublin in 1783.   We can find a little bit of history of Ballymascanlon in Wikipedia:

In 1185, during the Norman-English period, the district of Ballymascanlan as far north as Carrickarnon was donated by Hugh de Lacy to the Cistercian Abbey of Mellifont.

Following the dissolution of the monasteries by King Henry VIII the lordship of Ballymascanlan was granted to Sir Edward Moore, ancestor of the Marquis of Drogheda. Sir Garrett Moore inherited the title and estates in 1600 and was a friend of Hugh O'Neill, the Earl of Tyrone, who was a frequent visitor to Mellifont and Ballymascanlon. It remained in the hands of the Moore family until the middle of the 18th century.

We know Malcolm McNeal's wife by the lovely name, Christian Kennan, (born around 1721 in Dublin.)  They married when she was 18, on 12 January, in 1739 (at Ballonascanlan Castle Knock, Ireland.) This name place doesn't seem to exist.  If it did, Wikipedia thinks it's just a mispelling of Ballymascanlan Castle.

Their son Robert McNeal was born in Dublin (or his birth was recorded there) on 12 Feb, 1741, and he took off to America after marrying Jane around 1765.

They had perhaps 8 children.  Again Ancestry is giving two people's birth dates in the same year.  And some of the children were born in New York state, and some in Pennsylvania...with the earlier births in PA, and the later ones in NY.  Since Robert and his wife, Jane died (yes, in the same year) and there are markers on their grave sites in 1818 in Livingston County, NY,  I can assume they had children or grandchildren living nearby.  

Mt. pleasant Cemetery, Livingston, NY

Robert was a veteran of the Revolutionary War.

Their daughter Elizabeth "Betsy" McNeal married William McElhany, as I spoke of their marriage  in a prior blog posting.HERE 

Betsy and William McElhaney's daughter, Jane McElhaney (see HERE for her post)  married Isaac Booth, who had his blog post HERE.  And their son William Lewis Booth, was my grandmother's great grandfather, and he is honored in his son's posting, Richard R. Booth, (richard-r-booth-my-murdered-great-grand)

So I'm gradually catching up with everyone, and eventually will have given you a glimpse for all these ancestors.  And I left out my posts about my grandmother and her mother in this list.  A sigh of relief is felt through the universe here!

Joseph Granger 1765-1847

Happy birthday to my 2nd great grandfather born in 1765, Dec. 7, in Andover, Essex County, Massachusetts.

I still have trouble figuring out what a 2nd great grandfather might be.  It's not a great great grandfather.  Because Joseph Granger is actually my grandmother's grandmother's father.  I have 5 "greats" in front of his name.  So those Ancestry people figure things out in squares rather than linear time, I guess.  My great, great, great, great, great grandfather was born on this day in MA.

There, now I feel connected through the centuries.
He was a little boy during the American Revolution.  He had 6 siblings (or maybe more because new ones seem to get added as more research is done into ancestors.)

His parents were Jacob (1735-1795) and Sarah Farnam Granger (1730-1806) whose grave markers still may be found in Old North Parish Burying Ground, North Andover, MA.  A brief post was on my blog Here for Jacob's birthday in August.




Back to Joseph.  He married at age 28 in 1794, in Newburyport, Essex, MA.  The writing of the record is almost illegible, so it's either Jan 20, or 29, or June 20.  His wife was Sarah Tyler (1768 – 1831).

They had seven children, and George Tyler Granger (1806-?) was to be my 'great times 4' grandfather, (see post here.)

Upper left notation is "Children of Joseph and Sarah Grainger" which shows his son and my ancestor, George Tyler, born in 1806 rather than the 1804 date which all the other records on Ancestry show.  Oh my.  This is how records are messed up.

Jacob lived to be 81, which is outstanding in and of itself.  He died Mar 21, 1847.  He had outlived his wife, and at least 2 of his children.  

The 1840 Newburyport, MA census has him in a household (age 75) with one female age 30-40.  None of his own daughters would have been that young still, so someone else was caring for him in his last years, perhaps a relative or not.  It doesn't really matter.  Someone made sure his family continued, and I am glad of that.

Cinnamon Kathleen Happy Birthday

Most of these photos were shared on FaceBook.  I'm so glad to see Cinnamon's life with her friends and family there!  Glad you're my friend, Cinn!  And you're a wonderful mother for my grandchildren too!

What's next?

A discussion group will be meeting in a couple of hours over at the UUCSV church in Black Mountain.
The topic will center on this article:
-the-future-must-be-green-red-black-and-female

It is a highly controversial article, and should lead to some heated discussion.  We only meet for an hour, and I dare say that won't be enough for some (most?) of us.

Robert Jensen may be a familiar name to some of you.  If not, I wonder who reads this.  I sure have run into him before.

So let's look seriously at the life we have, and what legacy we are leaving for the next generations.

promises to myself

Froth of red stitches
a huge pile of knitting
which I've changed from a string
into a presence
which will be a present
for Christmas for someone special

Right now I have to keep it away from
clawing cats who love the scarf
in the way of a mouse
that they believe to be hiding
within its strands.

One will pounce for the pull
of the thread as I weave it
into the fabric I'm creating
but I quickly hide it so she
can't eat at it.  I love forming
something from the simplicity
of a beautiful skein.

Mohair, a goat wool, which
is blended with nylon and
wool and then dyed a deep
glorious pinkish red.
I'm pretty sure it's a red on the pink side
rather than orange or blue. 
But I don't trust my eyes any more
there may be cataracts that switch
red away from its true hues.
Cabmium, or Alizeran Crimson,
colors spell-check has never learned. 
The tubes of water colors are boxed up
and waiting until I again feel that
creative urge to swish a brush around on
gorgeous paper with texture in itself.

Reading Sena Jeter Naslund's
"The Fountain of St. James' Square or
Portrait of the Artist as an Old Woman"...
I've become focused upon wordsmithing
and exploration of visual experiencing.
She does this to me each time I read her books.
Her brother used to sit behind me in
Choir in Tampa before he moved
back to Birmingham, and he wrote a book also.
But she is the artist. When I discoverd her novel, "Ahab's Wife,"
a window opened in my life house.

Another author who did that for me was Joe Coomer.
... a quick search of my
favorite books can't locate the one I know I own.
That's the second book I'm sure I own that is not available
upon first search.  Mmm, the many tubs of stuff that stack
along the walls and closet floor are inviting me to
look within their bellies full of treasures.

But then I will be stuck with knowing all the things
I have but don't chose to play with.  To just close the
lids again and maybe remember for a while where the
glue or the pastels are, but soon to be consumed by
a daily practice of looking at the events on this screen.

Yes the computer, the internet, all the dramas that have been
written and acted and recorded and made available for me.
Stories of fictional people, or documentaries of real ones.  History
through films, or through the myriad details of ancestry DOT com.

And taking photos of my life, or the one I might be having if I
weren't busy writing about it here on blogs...and going to the studio
because they are people, and there is clay, and there is a
relationship I have with them both.

So this little soliloquy is now over.