Backyards and children

Edited June 2014
A backyard view, fences are also a good topic.
I think I'll pull a couple of photos out of the files...and send you over to Sepia Sat. March 8, 2014 for other Sepian's posts at the bottom of that site...just click on their names, mine will be there.  And if you're inclined, it's really easy to join in the fun.  Don't forget to make a comment too about whatever you've posted when you sign up your own link to your blog.

My sister was born on Feb 3, 1946, so she and Mommy might have been home from the hospital.  Anyway, look what we got to play with in Dallas, TX!  This was new and fun for me...though I had not a single glove on, but those mittens are hanging by their strings from my cuffs.  I don't know who the young man behind me might be, and I am all of 3-1/2 years old here.

Then here we have a child size swing (probably made by my father who loved to do projects like this) and myself on left at about 5-6, and my sis age 2-3.  Houston, TX.

Fast forward to when my own sons sat in our backyard in Windsor, CT with elder Marty (5 years old) showing young Russ (less than 2) a wild daisy.

a Massachusetts ancestor

Well, happy birthday to GGGG Grandfather David Pulsifer of Ipswich, MA.
Born March 4, 1716, died Dec 2, 1783, either in Ipswich or Bunker Hill, Boston, MA

And there are so many different "facts" that at least I have a copy of the record (in pen and ink writing) of his birth.

The Ancestry channels have added wives to his life, at least 3.  And brothers by the same name, as well as sisters and children galore.

I did know that he was the direct line of Lucy Pulsifer Granger, who was one of the first to leave MA and travel to Texas.

I won't try to sift through the rest of the records...many of which may be cousins.
I very much doubt that he traveled to CT to marry someone there, who ended up dying in New Hampshire.  But it's always possible.

I'm just glad that of the records that seem more feasible, there are 4 more generations older than his.  That's one of the oldest stretches in US families, at least for my family.

Three states easy breezy

Strange rust orange metal fences around Kingsport, TN

Climbing over and around mountains with blue skies and fluffy clouds

The view out Wendy Welch's store's front door in Big Stone Gap, VA

Welcome to Duffield, Duffield Daze, and Daniel Boone Heritage Trail...which includes an eagle perched on a pile of stones...lots of fun signs to look at, while being a passenger with a camera!

We got silly after 2 hours driving, and needed to stretch our legs.  Plus there was half a double wide mobile home taking up both of the lanes in front of us, going about 10 miles an hour.  Time to take a break and share smiles.

This ice is going to be around a while longer, I'm afraid.

I can't remember where NC left off and TN took over, then finally VA.  Fun trip of 2.5 hours drive each way.  And great weather too!

Happy Independence Day Texas

On this day in 1836, Texas became a republic. On March 1 delegates from the seventeen Mexican municipalities of Texas and the settlement of Pecan Point met at Washington-on-the-Brazos to consider independence from Mexico. George C. Childress presented a resolution calling for independence, and the chairman of the convention appointed Childress to head a committee of five to draft a declaration of independence. In the early morning hours of March 2, the convention voted unanimously to accept the resolution. After fifty-eight members signed the document, Texas became the Republic of Texas. The change remained to be demonstrated to Mexico.

From http://www.tshaonline.org/day-by-day/30565

I'm not a Lone Star Gal any more, and didn't even realize this was Texas Independence from Mexico, and the first of the declarations of the State's independence was voted upon by those 58 gentlemen 178 years ago (I think, counting on fingers and toes).

I know how proud my father always was to be a Texan, wearing cowboy boots through St. Louis with a smile on his face, and I assume a bit of an accent when tipping his 10 gallon hat (much less actually) to the ladies.

My mother not so much outward demonstration, after all, she was a lady.  But they both moved back to Houston after they retired, to live out their lives in the humid heat which I avoid.

So glad to have been born there, lived in at least 3 of it's cities, great state.

GG grandfather Powell in NC

James Moore Powell
born Feb 27, 1791 in Bertie County, North Carolina, USA

Also lived in Warrentown, Warren County, NC when 29
Then married Nancy Jones Traylor on 20 Sept when he was 31 in Perry Alabama.
Then they moved with various family members to Dallas County, Alabama, where the state capitol had been laid out at Cahaba.  This census of 1830 has him at 39, married with 2 children, in a household with 22 slaves, 9 of whom were children under 10 years old.
Then more family moved together to Union District, LA, for the census of 1840 his household consisted of James, his wife, and 4 children, one had died in 1838.  The census of that year doesn't list slaves.  Ten years later, Census of 1850, this is the same location of the family.

My great great grandmother had married Richard Bass by the time of the 1850 Census, so the children at home still are Travis 19, John 17, Wm 14, and Emily 1.  Sons Lewis, John and Dr. William Pentecost POWELL have also moved out as they became adults. 

The 1860 census finds the family living in Walker County, Texas, which is also where my GG grandmother was now living.  

James Moore Powell died at age 77 in Old Waverly, Walker County, Texas.

Some rocks and mountains

Sepia Saturday for this week (click on the link to see lots of other fun postings, maybe on theme, maybe not. (look at links at bottom of their page for the other posts, usually a lot by Sat!)

Well, living near the Blue Ridge Parkway, in North Carolina, I chose to share some of the views I've seen there.  Maybe some rocks too.  Sorry, no musicians.

Arlene in the Big Ivy area in Pisgah National Forest (she's an artist).

Below a view of the Black Mountains from the Blue Ridge Parkway

And remembering to have a foreground with some rocks (and branches too) looking across the actual Blue Ridge Parkway down to Burnett Reservoir, the source of Asheville's water.  (Alan Burnett, I have to wonder if any of your cousins might have something named after them in America, though I actually don't know who the reservoir was named after, though I found another Burnett Reservoir in Mississippi.  No help there.)

 A winter scene of the Little River as it flows towards Hooker Falls near Brevard.  (I think that's the name of the river, so if I'm wrong, please let me know!)

In April, 2012 I was able to see this waterfall, way across a valley, with just my zoom on my little Nikon CookPix.  It's not visible in the summertime.  And of course if I'd had the telescope like the gentlemen on Sepia Saturday, I might have seen much more! 

And being very civilized, the Blue Ridge Parkway tells us just what we're looking at.

Then there was a Scottish connection too

Giles Fitz Rogers was the Rogers who came to America, and is a primary connection on my Family Tree of ancestors. 
Birth 1643 in Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland
in 1672 he married
Lucille Rachel Eastham inWorchestershire, England
Death 1730 in Dunkirk, King and Queen, Virginia

Edinburgh Castle, 1930s

I am not sure of this history of Giles Fitz Rogers, because apparently his parents were born and died in England.

Village church, Scotland

But he is reputed to be the mariner who sailed to Virginia, returned to England to marry Lucille Eastham, then brought her back to Virginia where they raised their family.  Their son John Rogers is the connection through my family tree.
That tree would look something like this:

3) Barbara Rogers (Heym) (1942- living) (my children are generation 2)
4) George Rogers (1914-1985)
5) George Elmore Rogers, Sr. (1877-1960)
6) William Sandford Rogers (1850-1879)
7) George Washington Rogers (1820-1864)
8) Micajah Clack Rogers (1795-1873)
9) Rev. Elijah Rogers (1774-1841)
10) Henry Rogers (c.1741-c.1794)
11) George Rogers (1721-1802)
12) John Rogers (1683-1668)
13) Giles Fitz Rogers (1643-1730)

Stonehaven Kincardineshire, Scotland

Another leg of my tree, on my mother's side, takes me back through Ireland to Scotland.
So here's that branch...
3) Barbara Booth Rogers (Heym) (1942-living)
4) Mataley Mozelle Webb Munhall Rogers (1917-2003)
5) Albert (Bud) Webb (1891-1919)
6) Annie Elizabeth Williams Webb (1862-1942)
7) William T. Williams (1824-1898)
8) Nancy Hansford Williams (1796-1860)
9) Margaret Beattie Hansford (1762-1861)
10) Martha Tate Beatie
11) John Tait (1703-1730) and 11) Elizabeth Edward (1703 - ?)
12) James Tait (1670-1725) and 12) Agnes Clerk Tait (1669-1739)

I spoke of Rev. Thomas Hansford, and his wife Margaret Beattie Hansford, HERE.  Her parents were the Beatties of Ireland, and earlier than that, there was a Scottish connection.

Kirkdon of Maryculter Church

Her grandfather was John Tate, of  Maryculter, Kincardineshire, Scotland, who lived from 1703-1730.  Her grandmother, his wife, was Elizabeth Edward, born in 1703 in Kincardineshire, Scotland, where she died in an unknown year.  

Kincardineshire or The Mearns, on the north east coast of Scotland

Stone Circle, Kincardinshire, Scotland

Their daughter Martha Tate Beattie, was apparently born in Ireland in 1720, and she died in America.   There are some siblings of Martha Tate (or Tait) some of whom were born in Scotland, some in Ireland.

Balbegno Castle, Kencardenshire, Scoltand

 

Crofter's Cottage in Scotland

I follow the Tate's parents back through John Tate to his father James Tait, born in 1670 in Kincardineshire, Scotland, who died in 1725 in Labadoo, Convoy, Donegal, Ireland.  

Fisherwomen, Scotland

There are some interesting lists done by Root's Web World Connect Project HERE with many Tait's on the lists, including James Tait.

John's mother was Agnes Clerk Tait, born on 19 July, 1669, in Bendochy, Perthshire, Scotland.  It is believed she died at 70 in an unknown place, in 1739.  I don't have any information further back on their branch of the tree at this time.

Midlothian Scotland, St. Mary's, Dalkeith

 





 

 

Eugenia Almeta Whitty Booth

Here's my tree, not counting generations of my children (2) or grandchildren (1)
3) Barbara Booth Rogers (living)
4) Mataley Mozelle Webb Munhall Rogers (1917-2003)
5) Mozelle Booth Miller Webb Munhall (1897-1960)
6) Eugenia Almeta Booth Miller (1873-1936)
7) Eugenia Almeda Whitty Booth born 2.24.1852 Marshall, Harrison County, TX, d. 13 Jul 1875
Hempstead, Waller County, TX.
 married on 7.20.1869 (his second m) Hill County, TX
 (7  Richard R. Booth, born 23 Sept 1846, Jackson, IN, died 30 May 1879 Hempstead, Waller County, TX.
 her parents:  8) Carrol Whitty b. 6 Nov 1818 in Alabama,  d. 19 Sep 1898 in Texas
       married on 16 Jan 1843 Limestone County, AL
      (8) Susan E. Hoke Whitty, b. 12 June 1817 in Athens, Limestone County, AL, died 18 Dec 1895, Hill County, TX

Wikipedia tells me a bit about Marshall, TX (Eugenia Whitty's birthplace)

The Republic of Texas and the Civil War (1841–1860)

Marshall, TX was founded in 1841 as the seat of Harrison County, since the county was established in 1839, and was incorporated in 1843.. The city quickly became a major city in the state because of its position as a gateway to Texas on several major stage coach lines and one of the first railroad lines into Texas. The establishment of several colleges, including a number of seminaries, teaching colleges, and incipient universities, earned Marshall the nickname the Athens of Texas, in reference to the ancient Greek city state. The city's growing importance was confirmed when Marshall was linked by a telegraph line to New Orleans, becoming the first city in Texas to have a telegraph service.^[8]

By 1860, the city was the fourth largest city in Texas and the seat of the richest county. The county had more slaves than any other in the state, making it a hotbed of anti-Union sentiment, though some residents of Marshall nonetheless fought for the North.

Eugenia Whitty was born on this date (Feb 24, 1852) in Marshall, TX, a city where her parents aren't on the census records as having ever lived.  They were in Athens AL in 1850, she was born in 1852, and they were all the way over in Hill County TX by 1860's census.  So I think they weren't planning to settle in Marshall at all...maybe were just passing through on their way to a better place to live.

Carroll and Susan Hoke Whitty had been a farming family in the 1850 census of Limestone County, AL, living next door to a brother Jackson Whitty and his wife Emily.  Susan Hoke Whitty's father, Joseph Hoke, (57), lived with her family.  She already had 5 children in AL. 

Athens, Limestone County AL was

Founded in 1818 by John Coffee, Robert Beaty, John D. Carroll, and John Read... one of the oldest incorporated cities in the State of Alabama, having been incorporated one year prior to the state's admittance to the Union in 1819. (Source Wikipedia)

Founders Hall, Athens College, Athens AL

By 1852 the family had taken to the road west.  They settled in Hill County, TX by 1860, which is another 175 miles or so west of Marshall.  In July of 1860 a census shows Carroll Whitty identifying himself as a Wagon Maker, and his two oldest sons are stocksmen (which I assume means cowboys, before the term came into use).


Susan Whitty now had 9 children, two of whom are 6 year olds (I wonder if they are twins perhaps!)  And Eugenia is listed as 9 years old. 

 Hill County, Texas was founded in 1853, so the Whitty family was among the earliest settlers, and their property was listed in 1860 as "The Subdivision."   There no longer is another Whitty family nearby, nor any Hokes either.  If I ever get the time, I might try to trace where these families moved. 

In 1868 Richard Booth, an attorney like his father, was 22 when his first wife had died in childbirth (and the baby died within 4 months.)  (See Here for more on RRB)  Their 2 year old son had been named after his grandfather, William Lewis Booth.(see HERE for more on WLB)  Richard R. Booth married Eugenia Almeta Whitty on 7.20.1869 in Hill County, TX. 

William Booth residence, Hillsboro, TX, land purchased 1855

So by the Hillsboro Census of 1870, Richard and Eugenia and little William L. Jr,  were listed as living in a separate household next door to the senior William Booth's household, which included some of Richard's older siblings, who were also attorneys. 

On 7 Feb 1871, Eugenia Whitty Booth gave birth to Edwin Whitty Booth. And on 30 Jan 1873, she gave birth to Eugenia Almeta Booth, both children born in Hillsboro, TX. 

At some point in the next 4 years, the Richard Booth and the William Booth families moved to Hempstead TX. On July 13, 1875 Eugenia gave birth to a daughter who died the same day.  Eugenia Whitty Booth also died that day.
  
50 miles northwest of Houston,  Hempstead, TX was the home of the Booth families according to the 1880 census.   William Lewis Booth, Sr's household included his grandchildren: William Jr., 14, Ed, 9, and Eugenia A, 7.  Their father, Richard Booth, had been killed by a person he was prosecuting in the same town in 1879.  Hemstead is known as having been a distribution center between the Gulf Coast and the interior of Texas since 1858 when the Houston and Texas Central Railway reached it. 

Availability of transportation facilities and the surrounding area's large cotton production facilitated growth of textile manufacturing and cotton processing industries. Merchandising and processing grew rapidly between 1867 and the 1880s. The town prospered as a transportation center and became Waller county seat in May 1873. Hempstead's commercial, manufacturing, and processing sectors suffered large financial losses from fires between 1872 and 1876.  (Source: Handbook of Texas)

There are various spellings of Eugenia Almeta Whitty Booth's names, Almetta, Almeda, Witty, and so on.  I would be interested in finding out where the name, Almeta, originally came from.

Ada Phillips Swasey Rogers

Birth: Feb 23, 1886 in San Marcos, Hays, Texas, USA

Death: DEC 2 1964 in Houston, Texas

My paternal grandmother.  A woman of strength, leadership, wisdom and healing.  She was a second generation Christian Science Practitioner. She raised 4 sons to adulthood, after losing her first son and then her only daughter as children.  

I first posted about her last year HERE. 

She lived through the no-name tragic hurricane of Galveston in 1900 just five years before she got married.  Her husband was a bit of a card and made her look overly serious when they were socializing, at least from a granddaughter's (mine) point of view.

I don't know what reason her birth was so far from her family home in Galveston since San Marcos is about 200 miles away, and I know of no relatives there.  Her mother Zulieka Phillips Swasey had lost her own mother when she was a young girl, and been raised by two living aunts, Lizzie and Lucy, though both were living in Galveston as far as I know.  Ada did spend her youth in Galveston, so probably didn't spend much time in San Marcos.
 

Ada Phillips Sawesy says on this photo of herself: "This picture was taken when I was very sick, but later was healed in C.S. (Christian Science) 1888."

 

This may have been taken at the same time as the following, done by the same studio in Galveston.

When she was 14, the 1900 Census was taken on June 7 in Galveston, and she is listed as part of a household which was headed by her Great Uncle Chauncey Sweet. She and her sister and her parents are listed with their ages.  I've mentioned before how that terrible storm killed about 6000 people in September that year.  

But wait a minute!  The 1900 Census taken on June 12 shows her living with her parents and sister in their own home.  So this whole family got counted twice, and interestingly enough, these were different wards in Galveston.

Galveston was not at all a sleepy little vacation spot at that time.  It was a boom town, with shipping coming through bringing southeast Texas goods from all over the world, and exporting many crops, including cotton.  The train service had also begun in the last few years, thus linking the rest of the west to this port.

Her wedding on  June 6, 1905 was written with detail in the society column of the Galveston Times.  The couple spent their honeymoon in Denver.   She was 19, and her husband George E. Rogers, Sr. was 27.  Mrs. McCall and Mrs. King of Houston attended, aunts of the bride, according to the society write-up.  I haven't figured out exactly who they were, but will be looking for them on her tree.

The first 5 of their children were born in the house my grandfather built, and the youngest was born after they moved to Fort Worth.
 

1909  July, Elmore age 3, Alexander age 9 months. (NOTE: this same photo has been labeled differently in another source, calling the baby James, and the boy in the background as George, in Fort Worth.)

 Gummy and my father, George Junior or Juney as it was said with the Texas accent.

We called her Gummy.  She probably had lost some of her teeth by the time my oldest cousin was beginning to talk and gave her that name.  I never really noticed, but she did wear dentures many years later.

After about 10-13 years they moved from Fort Worth to San Antonio, where my father and mother went to the same high school.  After they married they moved to Dallas where I was born, and about that time Gummy and Poppy moved to Houston, where they lived the rest of their lives.
  
I admired Gummy and had a correspondence which was limited mainly by my own youth.  She had a sensible connection in my life, though I can see how my mother would be at odds with her at times.  Early on, according to the photo albums at least, my mother was embraced by the Rogers family even before she and my father became "romantically involved."  This could only be the romance that religion offered my mother, since Gummy was a Christian Science practitioner, and my mother was very interested in learning about it.  Or perhaps it was being around all the young men in my father's family.

But back to Gummy, I moved back to Texas as a young married woman, and visited her after having my first son.  I enjoyed her politics, which were not the same as mine.  She had lost her husband the year I graduated from high school, and I had not been close to him so didn't feel that made any difference in my life.  Of course it made a big difference in her life.  But as a twenty something mother, I wasn't at all aware of end-of-life considerations.

I was glad to have contact with her at the end of her life.  

 My mother and her mother-in-law, with whom she had a love-hate relationship.  Two strong women, but my mother learned a lot from Gummy.  She was the same age as the daughter that the Rogers family lost as a child.  My mother also became enamored with Christian Science which she studied and practiced the rest of her life in almost religious addiction.  I believe she also learned many homemaking skills from Gummy..

A very proud moment for my grandmother, being the second reader (of 2 who lead each Sunday service) for the Christian Science Church in Houston.

 Ada Rogers on right and her sister Stella Swasey Winslow on left.

My grandmother lived to see my first son as a 6-months old baby.  I drove from Corpus Christi and visited her home and we shared Thanksgiving dinner together, and that night she became ill.  I was worried, but had no way to help her, and the baby also demanded my attention. I also  was quite naive' with my own Christian Science up-bringing, so that I knew very little about medical problems and normal treatment for indigestion or anything that most people take for granted.  She continued to moan constantly, but would only take help through prayer and a "practical nurse," who wasn't hired for several days to only give her comfort, no medical care.
  
As my grandmother declined with an unknown illness, I had to move away from her home and stay with cousins after a night or two without sleep.  I drove back to Corpus Christi again, after going to her house and saying goodbye, for what I hoped was just the end of our visit.  But I had to return with my husband a short time later for her funeral.   She wasn't the first person I loved that died, but it was the first time I went to a viewing.  That was a big mistake, because that body in the coffin didn't have much resemblance to the lively strong woman I loved.

I thought long and hard about whether to include this last chapter of her life here.  But her difficulty letting go of life seemed as much a part of our relationship as our enjoyment of sharing talk about cooking, plants, children and current events.  I remember how much she didn't like Kennedy, who had died just the year before close to Thanksgiving.  I don't remember what she thought of LBJ, but at least he was a Texan.

Gummy had 4 granddaughters around, myself and my sister, and my older two cousins who had lost their father and then their mother remarried.  So Claudette and Sandra virtually lived at my grandparents during some of that time.  After my father and mother moved to St. Louis, there was correspondence, and sharing of photographs, and some rare visits.  I had 4 other cousins who lived in Wisconsin, and have recently made contact with a couple of them, thanks to this new ancestry interest.

3 suits of a sort

Many a man thinks of a three piece suit as a kind of uniform.  Big choice of each day is tie, and perhaps socks.  The rest is always pretty much the same, at least for work at an office.

What, you don't see this any more? OK, I'm dated, aren't I?

And I'm switching back to times before my mother and dad had jobs.  They were both students at Thomas Jefferson High School in San Antonio...before the second world war.

And I want to share my trio of "suits" which are worn by three lovely ladies, who are in some kind of ROTC marching group.

My mother was Mataley Munhall, the sweet young thing on the left.

An older photograph, 1906 Galveston, in the only photo I can find when my grandfather, George Rogers, was actually young.  He was just 29 in this picture.  All my other photos of him show him as an old man.  I was glad to find that he actually had some dark hair at one time, (and I think a jaunty moustache.)

Come over again to look at my various ancestors and their stories on other days here on this blog.  Today I'll make it short and sweet!

And for more interesting stories related to 3 suits, check out Sepia Saturday HERE, and go to the bottom of the page where other posts are linked as well!

Mary Ann Elizabeth Powell Bass

Mary Ann Elizabeth Powell was born on 21 Feb 1825 in Perry, Alabama, where her father had received a land grant from his service in the War of 1812.

She met and married (at age 14) Richard Bass (later to be called Col. following the Civil War) in her home town, (see Here for more on him) but they started a migration to Texas, stopping along the way for several years. By the time she was in a census at age 25, she had a daughter, Julia (9) born in Alabama, and a son, James (7) born in Louisiana, and daughter, Ellen (5) also born in Louisiana.  That census of 1850 showed the family living in Union Parish, LA.

In the 1860 census the family lived in Walker County, Texas, with a 5 month old baby Elizabeth, who was born in Texas.  Ellen is no longer listed, and another daughter, Nancy C. is 6 years old, born in Louisiana.  There's a cousin living with the family as well, whose name is Emily W. Traylor.

What is interesting about both the Union Parish LA census and especially the Walker County, Texas census, is the listing of various relatives along the same road...all farmers at this time. I'm pretty sure her parents lived on the next farm, but her younger brother who was a physician is also in the neighborhood.  

My great grandmother, Elizabeth "Bettie" Bass Rogers was born in 1861.  (More about her HERE)

Mary Ann Powell Bass died on 12 Oct 1871.  If the Ancestry.com family tree is to be believed, she had 4 more children before her death at age 46.  


 

Here's her headstone in the  Old Waverly Cemetery.,Walker Co., Tex

Her parents were buried nearby, James Moore Powell (27 Feb 1791 Bertie County, NC - 27 Feb 1868, Walker County, TX) 
and Nancy Jones Traylor Powell (16 May 1804, Oglethorpe County, Georgia - 27 Jun 1881 in Old Waverly, Walker, Texas) 

James Moore Powell (1791-1868)

Nancy Jones Traylor Powell 1804-1881