Texas was...

... part of Mexico, was it's own republic, became a US state, was part of the Confederacy and then was back in the USA

March 30th, 1870 -- Congressional Reconstruction ends as Texas readmitted to Union

On this day in 1870, U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant signed the act that ended Congressional Reconstruction and readmitted Texas to the Union. In the aftermath of the Civil War, Texas had been in turmoil, first under Presidential Reconstruction and then, beginning in 1867 with the passage of the First Reconstruction Act, under Congressional Reconstruction. The latter required that Texas have a constitutional convention, with delegates elected by all male citizens over the age of twenty-one, regardless of race, color, or "previous condition of servitude." The convention was to write a new state constitution that would provide for universal adult male suffrage. When the constitution had been written and the state had ratified the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution, Congress would consider the case for readmission to the Union. The convention met at Austin in June 1868 and did not adjourn until February 1869. The constitution it produced differed significantly from previous constitutions by authorizing a more centralized and bureaucratized system of government, with greater power in the hands of the governor. In February 1870 the Twelfth Legislature assembled at Austin to adopt the Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments and select United States senators in preparation for readmission to the Union. They quickly approved the amendments and selected Morgan C. Hamilton for a six-year term and James W. Flanagan for a four-year term. This completed the requirements set by Congress for readmission.
Source: Texas Day by Day

The Ah-Ha of genealogy

I am reading all kinds of details, all the time.  You never know when one will stick in your mind.  There was a middle of the night memory which came to me, remembering 2 women who came to my grandmother's wedding from Houston to Galveston, and I had no way of knowing who they were.  When I had checked the siblings of her parents, and her husband's, there just wasn't anyone by the name of McCall, the one I remembered.

But recently I'd been looking at the various step-children and children of the Elizabeth Granger Sweet and Sidney J. Sweet household.  And there had been a step-daughter who married a McCall.  Frances Ada (Fannie) Sweet McCall.  Could she have been one of those visitors from out of town to the Galveston wedding? The other step-sister was Mary E. Minni Sweet King.

First I had to find the clipping of the newspaper notice of the wedding of Ada Phillips Swasey to George Elmore Rogers, Sr. in 1905.  Thank heavens it was still there on Ancestry!

The Galveston Daily News of June 7 described the gown, the setting, the flowers, and some of the people. There's this final paragraph...

"Among those from out of town in attendance were: Mrs. McCall and Mrs. King of Houston, aunts of the bride; Mrs. N. C. Munger and Mrs. W. A. Grant of San Antonio and Mrs. Sherwood of Houston

But Mrs. McCall was stuck in my memory cells, and suddenly I knew she had been the step-daughter of "Grand Aunt," Elizabeth Granger Sweet. On Ancestry a wife doesn't have listed the step-children who had been born to a first wife, unless you look under the listings of her husband. So it took me some real delving to find that when she had married Sidney Sweet she suddenly had 2 daughters.

I wonder if Grand Aunt Lizzy came to the wedding.  If her 2 step-daughters did (for Mrs. King was the other one) then perhaps her own children Uncle Chauncey Sweet and Aunt Lucy Sweet Chamberlain (living in Galveston) did as well.  Then I noticed Aunt Lucy died in 1905 so maybe she didn't make it to the wedding.  It was a small affair in the parlor of the house, after all.  I don't know who the Mrs. Munger and Grant and Sherwood are yet...  But to come all the way from San Antonio in 1905 was pretty impressive, so those 2 women must have had a connection to the Swaseys.

Uncle Chauncey Sweet had not only his own mother "Grand Aunt Lizzy" living with him in 1900, but the 2 nieces, Ada and Stella Swasey were also listed in his household. It is strange because they were also listed in the household of the Alexander Swasey parents, who at least offered Ada a venue for her wedding.

There was a rumor that my grandmother Ada's family disapproved of her marrying Poppy, George Rogers. Since he and his sister had been virtually orphaned, and had guardians as well as a mother that apparently had little to do with their lives, they didn't have an "established family" to speak for their heritage.  It's too bad, because they had plenty of ancestors from "first families of Virginia," but didn't know about it. And George Rogers had been working since a teen to support himself and sister (and perhaps mother as well.)

Ada's sister Stella Swasey, who was just a year younger than my grandmother, was her maid of honor.

Ada P Swasey Rogers with her first son, wearing her wedding dress.

And who was Charles Olgivy, the best man? I know Anna Lou Rogers as bridesmaid, as she was Poppy's younger sister.  Then a groomsman, Louis White, is also unknown.  It's likely that Charles and Louis were young friends who weren't part of my grandparent's lives when I knew of them.  Or even if they had been, I don't remember them telling me about their friends.  After all, do you know your grandparents friends?

But with the great internet as my resource these days, perhaps I can learn more about my grandparents' lives.

"Dear Nan" Zulie Granger Swasey (mother of Ada Swasey Rogers)

 Aunt Lucy Sweet Chamberlain (or maybe Zulie Granger Swasey ..or  Ada Phillips Sweet?)

I find my grandmother may have made an error on the 2 photos above, calling both of these Lucy Sweet Chamberlain.  They don't look like the same woman at all to me. I'm thinking the penciled description on the second one makes it more likely, because it was before she married.

This was "Auntie" (Ada Phillips Sweet) who was Chauncey Sweet's wife, and who hostessed the household of her mother-in-law (Grand Aunt) and nieces and nephew in 1900 Galveston.

Elizabeth Pulsifer Granger Sweet

I mentioned Great Great Great Aunt Lizzie (also known as Grand Aunt by my own grandmother Ada Phillips Swasey Rogers) as a survivor of the Storm of 1900 in Galveston TX.

However, I did not pay enough attention to her own life, when just considering her (and her family's) survival of the hurricane.

In 1850 she lived in Newburyport MA (where she had been born March 27, 1833).  She attended Putnam Free School in 1852, age 19 in the Middle Class (not yet a senior.)  Her next younger sibling had been Joseph (1835-?) who died before the 1850 census. She had a younger sister, Lucy.

In 1855 her older sister Mary Granger, married William Phillips in Galveston.  So I imagine the family had moved there at least a year before that.  The Phillips family (with his parents) moved to Town Bluff, Tyler County, Texas, where they had 2 daughters.  But Mary Granger Phillips died (Nov 1861) not long  after the birth of her second child (Sept 1860), and the children went to live with the Phillips (Gainer) grandparents, and at some point with the Granger grandparents and sisters, Lizzie and Lucy, in Galveston.

By 1860 Census of Galveston, Elizabeth was 25 and lived with her parents. Father George Sr. (54 years old) was a Lumber Merchant. Her older brother George Jr. was 30 years old, but doesn't list an occupation. Her mother Lucy was 51, keeping house. And her younger sister Lucy was 24. The orphaned nieces weren't listed with the Grangers.

And suddenly a New England family was thrown into the south, though in a metropolitan city.  But it must have been quite strange in many ways for these northerners as the roots of the Confederacy bloomed.  In Texas, right up until a vote was taken in the state capital in 1861, there were almost as many people against secession as for it.  The cotton planters who owned slaves must have been in the majority, or the politicians, because the state in early 1861 seceded from the Union.

Many young men joined the Confederacy, including Sidney John Sweet, in 1861.  He had a wife, Helen, and a young daughter and another child who would be born in 1862. He had come to Texas (the Beaumont area) from Massachusetts, and his wife had come from Tennessee. But 1862 was not only the year his second daughter was born, but his wife died.

By August of 1863, Elizabeth Granger married Sidney Sweet in Harris County (where Houston is), and suddenly had 2 step-daughters.  She was 30 years old, but then had a son and daughter herself, one in 1865, and one in 1868.  They were living in Sabine Pass, Jefferson County, Texas by then.

Her father, George Granger, died sometime after 1870, there appears to be no record of his death.

Her husband, Sidney John Sweet died in 1875, and apparently was buried with his father, Capt. Riley Porter Sweet. There's a slab memorial to several other family members in Sabine Pass, TX.  The family was descended from a veteran of the Revolutionary War.

Elizabeth's mother died in 1876 in Galveston.  But she remained in Sabine Pass, and was a widowed head of household in 1880. She and her (step) daughter F. A. Sweet (17 years old) were listed as school teachers.  Her son, Chauncey was a clerk in a store (age 15, and would go on to bigger things in banking in Galveston.) Daughter Lucy was just 12. And the other person living with them was Elizabeth's brother-in-law, G. W. Hawley, a tin smith. In my tree (not jiving with this census) F. A. (Fanny) Sweet married a McCall and named a son Hawley McCall. Otherwise I can't find a G. W. Hawley anywhere. I think her other step daughter Minni (Mary E.) Sweet must have married John A. King by this time as she wasn't part of the household.

By the 1900 census, she was living with her son Chauncey and his family in Galveston.  It was a houseful, with nieces and nephews as well as in-laws. The census was taken June 7, and the great storm came September 8-9. They all survived the storm, but I'm sure it affected their lives.  See the above post link for more information about it.

Chauncey Sweet is a Teller in the bank, (bold face type in lower left column on left page) and under his listing is his mother, Elizabeth P. Sweet, (wid. Sidney J) living at the same address.  This is a 1908 City Directory of Galveston, TX.

The 1910 census still has her living with her son and his wife, in Galveston. She was 77 years old.  But Elizabeth P. Granger Sweet died Nov. 9, 1911 at 78 years of age.  She is buried at the Trinity Episcopal Cemetery in Galveston.

My grandmother saved her obit, or someone did.

I've greatly enjoyed reading about this woman, who was barely on my family tree, but who lived a long life and had a lot of records in her name.

Then I had an ah-ha moment in the middle of the night.  So I'll tell you all about tha as soon as possible!

My mother, Mataley Rogers

52 Ancestors 52 weeks...Week 13 (March 25-31):" In the (News) Paper"

I wished her happy birthday as a remembrance of her life...which I'll just cut and paste from 2013 here. I've enlarged the photos of my mother "in the paper"  which were as a bridesmaid and then as a bride herself.

More 52 Ancestors posts are shared on Facebook in the group Generations Cafe.. I think anyone can join.

Repost from Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Happy Birthday Mom

Born March 26, 1917, San Antonio, TX

Baby portraits, Mataley Mozelle Webb, 1917

Her Grandma Eugenia Booth Miller and Mataley and 2 playmates, San Antonio, TX 1922

  - I think it likely that this was around the same time as the following pictures however she marked her album.

Her mother, Mozelle Miller Webb and Mataley, 1924, the year Mozelle remarried to Fred Munhall

Fairy princess, probably the same year as pictures above, thought it is marked 1926

1929 House on Lafayette, San Antonio (Mataley was around 12 but looks much older to me.)

Jefferson High School, San Antonio, TX 1934

Don't you love the kids peeking out the window!

Mataley with her two younger cousins Patsy Rogers and Robert Rogers, San Antonio, TX 1934

Bridesmaid before 1936

Wedding Announcement, 1936

Nov 21, 1936 San Antonio, Texas

That's probably the San Antonio River.

Probably a photo that she wished had been destroyed, but somehow survived through the years.

Newlyweds and Mother in Law at shared Rogers home

George and Mataley (notice his hair at this time) from my father's album

A hunting we will go, trip with in-laws in Feb. 1937

My mother, Mataley, George Sr., Uncle Chauncey standing, Ada kneeling, my Dad, George Jr. sitting in front, at tent for camping trip 1937

Living on their own, on Washington Ave, Beeville Tx, sometime before 1941 (notice his hair is thinner)

Mataley in swing, (pregnant with Barbara,) while Ada and George Rogers Sr are cutting up, Dallas, TX 1942 (The senior Rogers were moving from San Antonio to Houston sometime that year.)

Mataley, George holding Mary Beth, Barbara in front, 1946, Dallas, TX

Barbara, Mary Beth and Mataley, 1947 Easter Houston, TX

St. Louis, 11/23/50 first snow

Mary Beth, Mataley, Barbara at chapel of Principia College, Elsah IL, 1950-51 probably

My parents moved to St. Louis to enroll me and my sister in Principia, the Christian Science school.  We both attended through our 3rd years of college.

Mataley, Mary Beth and Barbara with Studebaker, Forest Park St. Louis, Mo 1952 perhaps

Mataley and her mother, Mozelle Munhall with Mary Beth in front, 1954 St. Louis, MO

Mataley, my cousin Claudette Rogers and Barbara, St. Louis, 1954

 

George Sr, Mataley in back, Barbara, George JR, Ada and James Rogers, St. Anne MO 1957?

Ada, George and Mataley, St. Anne MO, around 1957

Mary Beth, Mataley and Barbara, St. Anne MO, 19589-60 perhaps

George, Mary and Mataley in front of home they built in Clayton, MO, 1961

Family gathering at San Jacinto monument and restaurant.  Barbara on left, Mary (back) Russell Heym, Mataley with hand raised, Lisa Miller on right, Zachery Miller climbing steps, probably 1978

Home in Houston, TX

Mataley and Barb at Disney World Epcot Center 1981

I haven't copied many other pictures of my mother that were taken during my adult years, while she became a grandmother.  So there are lots of images in my mind that I don't have here to share.  I hope you enjoy this glimpse into her life, which ended in 2003.

An early Barbara - Smyth Bowers 1596-1644

Barbarie (Barbara) Smyth (Smithe) Bowers

1596–1644

Birth 25 MAR 1596 • Braithwell, Yorkshire, England

Death 25 MAR 1644 • Cambridge, Middlesex, Mass

8 times great grandparent
She married George Bowers in 1614/15 in Braithwell, Yorkshire, England. They immigrated to the American Colonies by 1620.  I'm in awe of a family who came to America with hopes of opportunity.

The following 3 pages are exerpts from a book which includes some information about the George and Barbara Bowers family.  Though George remarried after Barbara's death in 1644, his first 6 children were hers.  And my ancestor was Benanuell Bowers.

Source: Ancestry and Descendants of Amaziah Hall and Betsey Baldwin,compiled by EdithBartlett Sumner, Los Angeles, CA 1954

8g -Barbara Smith Bowers (1596-1644)

7g -mother of Benanuel Bowers (1627-1698)

6g -father of Capt. Jonathan Bowers (1673-1750)

5g -father of Mary Bowers Swasey (1719-1823)

4g -mother of Lt. Jerathmel Bowers Swasey (1752-1826)

3g -father of Capt. Alexander G. Swasey Sr (1784-1861)

2g -father of Capt. Alexander G. Swasey Jr. (1812-1866)

1g -father of Alexander John Swasey (1853-1913)

father of Ada Phillips Swasey Rogers (1886-1964)

mother of George Elmore Rogers Jr. (1914-1985)

MY FATHER

Lucinda Benson Gibbs Rogers

Luci was born on March 28, 1818. In Union District, South Carolina.  As my great great grandmother's birthday approaches, I looked at some previous posts about her.
Here's a good one I think.

I noticed looking at the grave sites, that she outlived not only her parents, but all but one of her siblings, and even all but 2 of her children.  She died when 65 years old.

I've never been able to find out why her middle name was Benson.  Born in South Carolina, of parents from Virginia.  Maybe a famous politician or soldier that they looked up to. Maybe a famous Reverend of their faith, the Baptists. There was a Judge Gabriel Benson who was in the War of 1812, came from VA to Greenville, Spartanburg County SC,  and then was in Perry County AL.  Lucinda's father had followed a similar journey (living in Union District SC.) But Judge Gabriel Benson wasn't related, and wasn't a great soldier, just a private.  However, maybe their paths crossed and Hiram Gibbs and his wife, Sabra Ann Wilbourn Gibbs had a reason to remember a Benson by giving their daughter his surname for her middle name. Perhaps he was asked to be a godfather (if Baptists do that).

A lot of speculation.  I looked to see if he was in the SC area when Luci was born.  He had a daughter born the same year, but was living in Alabama most of his life and at that time as well.  He had several children who died in Union Parish LA,  however, but not for many years. Luci spent many years in Mount Lebanon, Bienville Parish, Louisiana.

And why is he on my family tree over on Ancestry? Well, he's the ancestor of someone who married into the Bass family, and Bettie Bass was my grandfather Geroge Rogers' mother. Ancestry says he was the father-in-law of my 3rd great uncle!

And perhaps it was a woman's name that was given to Luci after all! Often a grandmother's name, or great grandmother's surname might be given to a daughter at birth (like I was.) But Hiram Gibb's grandmother had been a Barnett!

I'll put this question in the back of my mind, and maybe wake up in the middle of the night with another Ah-Ha moment in a few years.

And just to give a bit more history about the family...here's a quoted article about George Washington Rogers and his wife, Lucinda.  I was thinking about how Luci had had her husband's body reinterred in Mount Lebanon, LA but she herself had died and been buried in Huntsville TX.  I dare say she would roll over in her grave that she hadn't also been taken to Mount Lebanon where she more connections!

Biography of George Washington Rogers 
    (Feb. 7, 1820-Jan. 26, 1864, buried at Mount Lebanon Cemetery in Bienville 
    Parish, LA.)

LUCINDA BENSON GIBBS (1818-1884) future wife of Colonel GEORGE WASHINGTON ROGERS
(1820-1864). 

G.W. Rogers served in the War in Mexico - under Captain Gillespie; Col. John C. 
Hays: 1st Regiment Texas Rangers, Gen. Zachary Taylor. He was wounded on 
assault on Bishop's Palace, Monterrey, Mexico. His name is on the Gillespie 
Monument in Huntsville, Texas. After the battle (from war department 1846) Col.
George Washington Rogers lay wounded on battle field all night, during icy 
storm. He contracted tuberculosis. After recuperating, he returned to his home
in Gibbsland, LA. Later he married Lucinda Benson Gibbs.

George Washington Rogers and his wife, Lucinda Benson Gibbs purchased 600 acres
of land in Walker county in 1844 from Pleasant Gray and his wife, Hannah. 
(This being out of their Headright.) Mr. and Mrs. G.W. Rogers were said to be 
the wealthiest family in town and their Greek-Revival style home on University
Avenue was the finest in its heyday. The aristocracy from East Texas were 
entertained there. (G.W. Rogers was Huntsville's first Treasurer.) One feature 
was a huge ballroom that occupied the southeast wing. In later years, the 
house served as the president's mansion for the third president of Austin 
College - Rufus Bailey. The house also became the home of H.H. Smith, the 
second president of Sam Houston Normal Institute. Other owners made changes in 
the house, but it has been restored and is still standing today.

Listed in 1850 Walker County Census as a merchant, 30 years old.

Died near Cotton Gin, Freestone, Texas. (After remaining in Texas for 2 years, 
remains were moved to Mount Lebanon, La., and interred by Mt. Lebanon Masonic 
Lodge #104.) 

Interestingly enough, she doesn't have herself listed as "wife of G.W. Rogers"

Have a little fun!

Some fun photos come to mind...so I'll share a couple that I can find easily. 

The prompt photo has some folks on a beach kind of standing on one foot and moving toward the water, but they are fully dressed. (below) Just hamming it up.  I thought immediately of one of the photos of my father's family.

From l to r, father George Rogers Sr, son Alec, son Chauncey and son (my father) George Jr. posing as an Indian.  The middle two uncles are making gestures as well, with Alec posing as Napoleon, and I don't know what the thumb raised gesture of Chauncey might be.  But he's also thrust at a balanced pose.

The home at 1201 Woodlawn in San Antonio has a also been mentioned in some of my prior posts.

But I want to include some more of the family, so here's my grandmother, Ada Rogers, walking with her youngest, Jimmy.

This was dated at 1936. I know the Rogers family lived in San Antonio from 1935 to 1942.  Uncle Jimmy was probably 14 when this photo was taken. He joined the Navy in 1941 when he was 19.

And fast forward to 1953, this shot of my mother, Mataley Rogers on L with her eyes closed, walking with Dorothy (Dottie) Rogers, wife of James Rogers taken in Stevens Point, WI.  I like how my father labeled the photo "Leave it to Honey to shut her eyes. It's good of Dottie too."

Thanks for suggesting some  interesting shots related to this photo at Sepia Saturday this week.

"We are dancing along this week with a somewhat odd couple - the girl on the left is brewery heiress Grania Guinness, and the main on the right is Australian actor Cyril Ritchard. The story behind their odd pose has been lost, but that doesn't matter because they are inviting you to share you old photographs: whether they be of dancing, odd poses or anything you like.

Thanks Alan for hosting this meme!