Life interrupts research

At least I am still alive. A week of continuing discomfort landed me in the hospital a week ago, and I received a stent on my heart...an artery right on the wall of the heart.

So I'm now slowly recovering. And not doing much else.

I'm thinking of those ancestors who still want their stories told...so I'll be back.

Where Ruth Ann Swasey James' children were born

I hope to have a summary on each of her children's births.  I'll worry about where they lived later.

I have spent hours looking at census records for one daughter, who lived into her 90s...and everywhere confirmed she had been born in Iowa in 1857. Her mother, Ruth Ann Swasey, was born and died in Rhode Island, so that was a bit hard to believe.

Summarizing how these people are related to me...my great times 3 grandfather Alexander G. Swasey  (1784-1861) had a son, Alexander G. Swasey, (sea Captain) (1812-1866), and a daughter Ruth Ann Swasey James (1828-1908).  Alexander ended up fighting for the Confederacy (as a ships captain) and Ruth Ann's husband William James fought for the Union during the Civil War.

I'm going to first list the 4 children that my cousin has on her James Family Tree. Then I'll try to figure out who the other 3 are who are on my tree. Lots of times grandchildren are put into the places of their parents, usually because of having the same name.  When a census says William D. -- lived someplace when he was 10 years old and he was really William A. -- then I go searching for someone with the correct initial who was old enough to be a head of household...and usually find a cousin, or uncle who was correct.

Parents:
Ruth Ann Swasey James, b. 1 July 1829 Newport RI, d.11 Jan1908 Providence RI.

William Davenport James, b. 5 Aug 1827, New Bedford, Bristol, MA, d. 20 May 1910, Providence, RI

Children:
Lewellen Swasey James Nickerson b. 9 May 1852 New Bedford, Bristol, MA, d. 20 Apr 1928, Rhode Island

Clara D. James Dean, b. 8 Feb 1854, MA, d. 9 Aug 1944, Central Falls, Providence County, Rhode Island,

Alice Creighton James Smith, b. 23 Feb 1857, Lansing, Iowa, d. 8 Jan 1935, Providence, RI

William Alexander James, b. 11 Oct 1860, Mobile, Mobile AL, d. 19 May 1949, Kernville, Kern, CA buried in RI.

Also on my tree, just to list who isn't on the more official one, has the same parents listed, and still needing to be weeded out:

Augusta James, b. abt. 1853, place and death unknown.

Isabela James, b. abt. 1855, d. abt 1930, St. Louis MO.

Elizabeth R. James, b. abt. 1861 Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, US or England.

Well, it didn't take very long to find a census for father William D. James for 1855 in New York, and to find that this was another man completely...born in Ireland, married to Ann, also born in Ireland, who had children Augusta and Isabela. So now I can cross them off my tree completely.

But there's the weird Elizabeth R. born in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire...maybe England or maybe US.  I'm going to just delete her from my tree as well. There. A bit rash, but the places she was born being so confused seems pretty safe, especially since she was pretty far removed from my ancestors.

Since my cousin is a California relative, I am interested in the fact that her gg grandfather William A. James had been born in Mobile AL, when most of the family were from New England (with the exception of the Iowa daughter.) And he had been born in 1860.

But it's also interesting to see that his father joined the US army in 1861 till 1865, for Massachusetts. So the family's stay in the south was brief.

So that's as much as I'll delve into today. Where do you think we should go tomorrow? I've just added some more ancestors of the James family, going back further in time. But I think I'd like to first come down to more recent times. They moved to California, after all!

Other family trees

I have my basic 3, my mother's family (The Booths); my father's dad's family (The Rogers); and my father's mom's family (The Swaseys.)

If I spent the rest of my life just filling in new information on those trees, (on Ancestry) I probably wouldn't get finished.

And then I started looking at the wives of my 3 sons...so that's 3 more families to see where they came from. Oh my, they are so interesting. I think only one daughter-in-law is doing her own research, and we got into a mess last week when we found both our trees had the same name. So that's been changed and we can now see the work of the other, and not lose it.

I also have 2 friends who were interested in seeing a bit of their trees, and I don't do much more with them...but trees over on Ancestry have a habit of growing when I'm not looking.

Oh, and I have a fourth cousin who does genealogy on the Swasey tree, she has the same great times three grandfather! I've never met her, and she lives about a thousand miles away in California.

I recently switched back to the Swasey Family Tree (father's mother's family) here on the blog. So I'll stay on that tree for a while. They mainly came from New England, so there are lots of good records available.

So I'm going to spend some time this week looking at my fourth cousin's family. She has some different children in the very first family, which I've been scratching my head about. Her James family started with Ruth A. Swasey who married William D. James. I've got 7 children from them, and she's got 4.

So I started with one of the unlikely ones, read through all the information on a woman who lived until her 90s, and she's definitely a Swasey James ancestor, even though she was born in Iowa in 1857. My question was (of course) how and why did my great times three grandmother who lived her whole life (I thought) in Providence RI, end up having a baby in Iowa?  I still think she might had been adopted.

But I'll give you more information, in a bit more coherent version, tomorrow!

Great great Aunt Mariann (Mamie) Swasey Gresham (1849-aft.1883)

I look through my more immediate family members on my Ancestry trees about once a month. There are sometimes new documents which have been added, and Ancestry gives me a little "hint" of a green leaf on their name in the tree. Sometimes the hints are way off base (actually most of them.) But this last week I found a couple of documents that made me sit up and take notice.

My great grandfather Alexander John Swasey (1853-1913) had 4 sisters born before he was. They were born when his parents lived in St. Augustine FL during the times it became the state of Florida. But just before G-Grandpa Alex was born, they apparently moved back to Charleston SC.  His mother had been born in Charleston, and there were other Zylstras living there (looking at census reports before and after the Civil War.)

So the new information last week was that his older sister Mariann (Mamie) Swasey Gresham (1849-aft.1883) had married, and had children.  I haven't been able to find any indication that his other 3 older sisters even lived past childhood.

Mamie Swasey was 17 when her father Captain Alexander Swasey (1812-1866) died in Charleston SC. He had spent virtually the whole of the Civil War in prison in Fort Warren in Boston Harbor, only to return home in 1865 and die of consumption in 1866.  His grave is somewhere with another family, unmarked. My cousin visited Charleston and tried to find it a few years ago.

Now I've recently learned of Great Great Aunt Mamie married in June of 1869 to Joseph Gresham (1844-1895).  But before she married, another document shows that she returned to the US from Panama on 15 Jun 1868 when she was 18. The manifest show another female listed just before her name, and I would think it unlikely that she would travel alone to Panama and back. I think her friend's name was Teresa J S Lindsey (27) and there was another female named Mary Lindsey (19) as well.  The ship Rising Star brought these passengers into New York. Perhaps there was some missionary work they were involved with...I'm open to suggestions.

GG Aunt Mamie married Joseph Gresham in Charleston SC.  But he was from Pontotoc, Mississippi, and they set up their home in State Line, George County (or Green County) MS. His family included at least one member who fought in the American Revolution, so there are DAR documents about them. The Daughters of the American Revolution are good at keeping records. 

State Line MS is on a railroad line, and GG Uncle Joseph Gresham in the 1870 census is listed as a clerk in a sawmill, which was probably owned by his father.  Joseph and Mary (Mamie) Gresham were living with his father, John Gresham at that census, and Mary must have been expecting their first son (Joseph Jr.) who was born in June 1870.

They had 7 children, one of whom died in infancy. There were 5 sons and 2 daughters in their family. And their son, George Leon, who became a physician, lived until 1962.

Joseph Gresham, Mobile AL (no date given)

In 1885 Joseph Gresham received forty acres of land from Pres. Grover Cleveland, in Washington County AL. I wonder what service he had provided to the US government. He was a CSA veteran, having enlisted in Company K, Mississippi 1st Cavalry Regiment as a private.

The 1880 Census for Washington County AL has his occupation listed as a merchant. At that census Mary Gresham was 30 years old, with her father having been born in Rhode Island. (Capt. Alexander G. Swasey.)

Mamie gave birth to her last son, Nov. 9, 1883. He lived till 1935, but we have no further records of Great Great Aunt Mamie Swasey Gresham. So we can only say she died after 1883.

Her husband, Joseph, died in 1895 in Pascagoula, Jackson County, Mississippi, and he was buried in State Line, MS. 

I am a big fan of another Grisham, namely the novelist John Grisham. A lot of his books are centered around Mississippi and Alabama, so I was thinking we might have distant cousin status. But it really doesn't matter, even though he grew up in that area. The Firm, and Pelican Brief are 2 of my favorites which were made into movies. 

Sharing on Sepia Saturday this week.

Finding a new great aunt...but first the back-story.

Originally posted Tuesday, May 20, 2014 - edited May 14 2020

Looking at my ancestors on my father's side of the tree.

Alexander John Swasey

Writing says "Alexander John Swasey, the father of Ada and Stella Swasey" Possibly photographed around 1890.

Born in 1853 in Charleston, South Carolina. His mother had Dutch roots, Anna J. (Fanny) Zylstra Swasey.  

His father, Captain Alexander Swasey was a Confederate Blockaid Runner.  His birthday link is HERE.

My father's mother's father, Alexander John Swasey (I'm calling him G-grandpa Alex) had 3 older sisters, born in 1840, 41, and 43, all born in Florida.  There isn't much information about any of them.

EDITORIAL NOTE: there's now another sister that I just discovered, and I'll be talking about soon.

He married Zulieka Granger Phillips in 1882 when he was 29.  She had been an orphan raised in the homes of her mother's sister's families in Galveston, Texas during the Civil War and following.  I don't know how G-Grandpa Aex got to Galveston, TX from Charleston, SC where he lived as an adult.  That's where his father died in 1866, following imprisonment during the war.  But the first verifiable record of G-Grandpa Alex being in Galveston is in 1884.

G-Grandpa Alex had various clerical and bookkeeping and sales jobs.  In 1884 he is listed as a Collector in the Rosenberg Bank in Galveston Texas city directory.  His wife's cousin Chauncey G. Sweet is listed with the same occupation, and their residence is listed as the same address at that time.  Many of my Swasey and Phillips and Sweet families apparently lived together around the corner from each other.

My grandmother, Ada Phillips Swasey Rogers (1886-1964) lived with her parents until her marriage to George Rogers in Galveston in 1905, a ceremony which was held in the Swasey home. She just had one sibling, a sister named Stella Zulieka Swasey Winslow (Aunt Jim) (1887-1960).

In 1907, G-Grandpa Alex and his wife, Zulieka Granger Phillips Swasey, (Dear Nan) moved to Houston TX  and he was a bookkeeper for Kirby Lumber. By 1910 he was listed as an accountant at that lumber company, with their home on Main Street.

They lived in an apartment called The Savoy in Houston in 1911, and he was a clerk for an oil company. They are listed in the Houston Directory at the same address until his death from heart failure in 1913.  His wife's cousin Chauncey Sweet took his remains back to Galveston to be buried.  Chauncey signed the death certificate Oct. 4, 1913, which lists his occupation as a salesman, to be buried on Oct. 5.

Unfortunately G-Uncle Chauncey was wrong about G-Grandpa Alex's mother. She was not named Tylstra, nor was she born in Tallahassee FL. The Florida part was true, but it was St. Augustine where she lived. And her name was misread when a "Z" looked like a "T" on a document.

----------------------------------------

Another repost about G-Grandpa Alex and the Swasey family.

Friday, March 2, 2018 EDITED

Alexander John Swasey

Was he known as Alex or John? I don't know for sure.

1853–1913

Birth MAY 20, 1853 • Charleston, Charleston, South Carolina, 

Death OCT 4, 1913 • Galveston, Texas

He was married to Zulieka Granger Phillips Swasey.  He was my grandmother Ada Phillips Swasey Rogers' father. 

He was a bookkeeper, and so was my grandfather, George Rogers. 

Alexander Swasey's mother was Anna J (Fanny Tylstra) Zylstra Swasey.  There was difficulty reading the census, and apparently even the family believed her name had been Fanny Tylstra.  But I saw the "Z" in longhand on a census report, and changed my Ancestry notation for her name, and found more of her family.  Unfortunately I've never found when or where she died.

She had lived in St. Augustine FL where her brother was the postmaster. (See this old post about them!) Alexander's father was Captain Alexander G. Swasey, a nautical man who spent most of the Civil War in prison in a fort in Boston Harbor.  He had been a blockade runner for a short time for the Confederacy.  He died shortly after the end of the war, when Alex John was just 12.

G-Grandpa Alex and G-Grandma "Dear Nan" lived in Houston until Alexander died in 1913.  His wife lived until 1935.  They are both buried in Lakeview Cemetery in Galveston TX

Tomorrow I'll introduce you to his sister, Marianne (Mamie) Swasey (1849-1883)

Early Hill County Texas

The following was originally posted on Monday, March 2, 2015

-----------------------------

Hill County Texas, the root country for Eugenia Witty Booth

I'll just share the photos I've found on line from Hill County, the area where lots of my roots were planted.

In Hill County Texas, there are several sites which factor into my ancestors' homes.
Hillsboro became the site of the Booth family home, but Woodbury was where the Witty's first settled and several are buried.


 Hill County.

Randle-Turner House, Itasca, Hill County, Texas

A later house in Hill County 

Laying of Corner Stone, City Hall Hillsboro, Texas

Hill County Courthouse, finished in 1890, rebuilt after an electrical fire in the 1990s with assistance from a concert by Willy Nelson (a Hill County native)

The Old Rock Saloon 1876, Hillsboro TX

WOODBURY, TEXAS. Woodbury is on Farm Road 309 twelve miles northwest of Hillsboro in north central Hill County. Anglo-American settlers began moving into the area about 1850, and the community was established in 1857, when Carrol Witty, William R. Nunn, and Rev. Thomas Newton McKee purchased property and offered it for sale. After the Civil War settlers began moving into the area. The first business, a dry goods store, opened in 1869. A general merchandise store opened the following year. A post office opened in Woodbury in 1871. In 1892 the town had a population of 200, two general stores, a drugstore, two blacksmith shops, and a steam-powered cotton gin and gristmill. By 1900 the school registered 114 students and employed three teachers. The town was bypassed by the rail lines, and by 1936 only 148 people and two business were in Woodbury. In 1946 it had forty people and one business. During the 1950s and 1960s the population was twenty. From the 1960s through 2000 the community reported a population of forty.

SOURCE: Texas History OnLine

Susan E. Witty Moore (1856-1902)

And more about the Witty family, among many who were pioneers in Texas.

Originally posted on Tuesday, March 3, 2015

Eugenia Witty Booth's youngest sister (Eugenia was my great great grandmother)

Susan E. Witty Moore was born Dec 28, 1856, in Marshall, Texas.  I believe by 1857 her father had started the Subdivision in Hill County that was to be named Woodbury, and in the cemetery many of the Witty family are buried, including Susan.  

By the 1860 census of the Witty family, she is listed (as of July 30 when the census was taken) as being four years old. There was one source (another census) which gave her age such that she would have been born in 1857, but I'm going with 1856 and have changed the Ancestry listing on my tree.

It is nice that the youngest of 9 children was named after her mother, Susan Hoke Witty.  

In the 1870 census her family says she is 13 (in agreement with having been born in 1856, because her birthday isn't until Dec. and the census was in July again...thus the question was answered, how old will she be in this year?

The wonderful census of 1900 tells how long people had been married, as well as listing their names and birthdates and the states in which they were born.

In 1877, Susan had married a farmer, James J. Moore, and they lived (in 1900) in Justice Precinct 2, Hill County, Texas with their 14 year old daughter, Edna.  James is listed as having been born in Alabama, as her parents were, though later records suggest he was born in Texas.  

Susan Witty Moore died Sept 10, 1902, in Woodbury, Hill County, Texas, and has a nice big grave marker in the Old Woodbury Cemetery, where many other of the Witty family are buried.  


The "Texas Find A Grave" information gives this information about her:

Children: Edna Mae Moore (1885 - 1916)

Siblings: Martha E Witty Barnes (1846 - 1914) Mary Witty Hughes (1848 - 1876), Laura Dove Witty Patty (1854 - 1935)

Her daughter, Edna, died of tuberculosis in 1916, and her death certificate information was given by her father, J. J. Moore. So I know he lived until that year in June.  Unfortunately I am unable to find much information about James J. Moore.

She may have been only 46 when Susan E. Witty Moore died, but she outlived her sister, my great great grandmother who died at 23 in 1877.

In the 1880 census, Susan Witty Moore (actually 24, but listed as 20) was living with her parents in Hill County TX, as well as a niece, Freby Moore, age 21.  Susan Witty had married in 1877 to James Moore...but for some reason was living with her parents and using her maiden name.  And whoever Freby Moore was, the niece, she was born in Alabama.  Perhaps James' sister?   Susan and James Moore didn't have their daughter, Edna May More, until 1885.

But this Uncle James "J.J." Moore (b. 1856 Marshall TX) had a life which continued after his wife Susie died in 1902, and he remarried to have more children.  He also lived until 1932, and here's a great photo of him in his corn field in 1930.

Great times 3 Uncle James Joseph Moore 1854-1932

Mary Elizabeth Witty Hughes (1848-1876)

Originally posted: Sunday, February 22, 2015 (edited)

Another Sister of Eugenia Witty Booth

Mary Elizabeth Witty Hughes (1848-1876) was 6 years older than my great great grandmother, Eugenia Witty Booth.

Great Aunt Mary Beth (I'm guessing that that was her name because my own sister went by that nickname as a young girl) was born in 1848, also in Alabama, the 4th child of Susan Hoke Witty and Carroll Witty, (the first two being boys.)

In Limestone County, Alabama in 1850, the Wittys were farmers, and grandfather Joseph Hoke, age 57 was living with them as well.  At that time the next family listed in the census were Jackson Witty, a brother of Carroll Witty's, actually named Andrew Jackson Witty.  When Carroll went to Texas around 1850-52, Andrew Jackson Witty stayed in Alabama.

But let's look at Great Aunt Mary Beth a bit more.  By 1860 she was 12 and living in Hill County, Texas.  Then when she was 19 she married Isaac Butler Hughes, who apparently went by his middle name on most records.

They had 2 children: James M. Hughes who lived just from 1867-1876, and Alice Dovie Hughes Felts, 1869-1893.

But the same year that their son died, so did Aunt Mary Beth, on July 2, 1876.  She is buried with her husband, who had died just the year before, on 10 August 1875.

His headstone is broken, but her's has been somewhat repaired. It's interesting to note that her initial is wrong "M".  They are in the same cemetery as her parents and other family members, The Old Woodbury Cemetery, Hill County, Texas.

 

I was trying to find out if Alice had any children, who would be my cousins of course...but there wasn't much information on her, besides a name J. B. Felts for her husband, but no information on him.  

Susan Elizabeth Hoke Witty 1817-1895, mother

I've already spoken about her husband Carroll Witty, and their 9 children, including my great times 2 grandmother, Eugenia Witty Booth. (I'll finish describing the siblings this week!

But I haven't recorded the story of their mother, Susan Elizabeth Hoke Witty, 1817-1895, my great times 3 grandmother.

She was born on 12 June 1817 in Madison County, Alabama. Her parents were Joseph Hoke (1793-1852) and Elizabeth Hunt Hoke (1793-1846). In the 1850 Census of Limestone County, AL, the Carroll Witty family included her father, Joseph Hoke, age 57, and he lists that he was born in South Carolina. That 1850 Census has Susan Elizabeth Hoke Witty (age 32) and her 5 older children, her husband Carrol (age 31) and her father, living in household number 211, and household 212 is Jackson Witty, (age 35) an older brother of Carrol Witty.

Susan Elizabeth Hoke's birth was in Madison County, Alabama, which is located next to Limestone County AL on the northern border near Tennessee. Limestone County AL is where the Carrol Witty family lived until they went to Texas. The Elk River and the Tennessee River flow through Alabama in that area, which was an agricultural center for cotton raising.

The Elk River (above) flows into the Tennessee River in Limestone County, AL

Susan and Carrol were married 16 June 1843, in Limestone County AL, when she was 25 years old.  They had 9 children, including a set of twins. They moved to Marshall TX from 1851 until about 1858-59. They then lived in Subdivision, Hill County TX the rest of their lives. The area they settled was one of those land speculations to bring new residents to Texas. It later became named Woodbury.

Susan's mother, Susan Hunt Hoke (1793-1846) might have been born in Alabama or South Carolina. She and Joseph Hoke married in 1816 in Madison County AL. The only sibling I know of for Susan Elizabeth Hoke Witty was William E. Hoke, who was in one census a pharmacist. (1825-1876).

The Hill County Texas census for 1860 has Carrol and Susan Witty with their 9 children. The two oldest boys are listed as stockmen, but the transcriptionist changed their occupation to "stockroom." My gg grandmother, Eugenia was just 9 years old in 1860.

A lot happened between that 1860 census and the 1870 one. Susan Hoke Witty's two oldest sons, James and John had fought for the Confederacy.  John joined in 1862 and died in 1865. James came back and was part of the family on their farm in Hill County, where he again was listed as a stockman.  My gg grandmother, Eugenia had already married at age 18, in 1869, so was no longer part of the household in 1870.

In 1870 Carrol was 52, and Susan Witty was 53, living with just 4 of their children still, the three youngest just teenagers.

By 1880 Carol and Susan are 64 and 65, and their daughter Susan (21 years) is living with them and a niece Freby Moore age 20 is also.  (I wonder about that name, but have no answers today.)

The next household in the 1880 census listing is William W. Witty, age 36 and his wife, Molly age 35, and 3 children ages 5 and under.  Who's William Witty? He was the second to youngest child of Carrol and Susan. His son who gave information on WWW's death certificate thought he'd been born in Missouri, and some Ancestry trees indicate he was born in Atlanta GA. But I'm pretty sure that his mother, Susan E. Hoke Witty, lived in Marshall TX where he had been born. And did I mention he was a twin to Laura Dove Witty? That's what I discuss tomorrow.

Susan died on18 Dec. 1895. Carroll died on 19 Sept 1898. They are buried together in  Old Woodbury Cemetery, Woodbury, Hill County, Texas.

 Susan's headstone propped up...

Carroll and Susan Hoke Witty's headstones, photo taken in 2013. I wonder what that symbol is on the other headstone.

William Wiley Witty (1854-1929)

Originally posted, edited...

Sunday, March 1, 2015

A set of twins who were siblings of Eugenia Witty Booth

Yesterday I introduced to you Laura Dove Witty.
She was actually a twin.

William Wiley Witty has the same birthday on most of his records.

But there is discrepancy on some others.  So though his year of birth is always within a year of the same one, the place is given on some records differently.

So about half the Ancestry listings in families have him born in Marshall Texas on the same birthday as Laura, the other half (out of 10 listings) say he was born earlier in the same month, to the same parents, but in either Missouri or Georgia, these mainly coming from his death certificate and the grave site information.

Now I've got a bit of logic on my side, the Marshall Texas and twin story that I'm presenting today.  His mother gave birth in Marshall 2 years earlier to my great great grandmother, Eugenia.  The kids are all on the first census in 1860 in Subdivision, Hill County, Texas...and there's no mention anywhere that Susan Hoke Witty (their mom) could have gone to Missouri or Georgia.  It's just not logical.  Until proven otherwise, I'm sticking with this direct movement of the family from Alabama, to Marshall (eastern Texas) to Hill County (central Texas)

Unfortunately a lot of his, and his children's records in "Find A Grave" use the earlier March 3, 1854 and Missouri information. Maybe that's what he told people in his family.

So who was William Wiley Witty?

The 1870 Census of Precinct 1 in Hill County, Texas, taken in July of that year, lists him as 16, while Laura is 17, both born in Texas.  So here he is a year younger than she is. But the 1860 Census had also been taken in July, and there he and Laura were both 6 years old.  One of these records gives his birthday a year off, I think.

But skip ahead to the 1900 census for Precinct 2, Hill County, Texas, taken in June, and here is some interesting information that has been added to the data.  He is married and age 46.  That still has the 1854 birth year, including month of March.  He states he's been married 26 years, making his marriage happen in 1874 to Mary Witty.  They have 10 children at that time, and he owns his own farm.  Mary was born in Georgia in Nov 1854, but William was born in Texas, as well as all their children, according to the census.

The very same 1900 Census also gives his sister, Laura, a clear birthday as March 1854...though they no longer lived in the same area...so a different census taker was recording it.

So I continue, at this time, to think these siblings were twins.

As I mentioned his wife was Mary, and one source gives her as Molly, and another says Mary Jane Paschal.  I haven't looked into her family beyond the fact that they came from Georgia to Texas.

AND they had at least one set of twin children: Stella and Della.
They not only have the same birthday, but were buried under the same headstone, though one died in 1909 and one in 1926.

I was thinking perhaps a pair of their older siblings were also twins, being sometimes listed as born the same year, but I haven't found any more information on one of them...and some information again gives their dates a year apart.  Both are possibilities.

Mrs. William Witty, Molly, after giving birth to 10 children, lived to 79, dying in 1933.
William, the farmer, predeceased her in 1929, dying at 74.

They had married in Hill County Texas, but lived in Star, Mills County, Texas.  Where is that, you may ask?  Star is a small unincorporated area with agriculture, named after nearby Star Mountain.

From The Texas Historical Association:

The first settlers, (Mills County) like the Indians, subsisted primarily on hunting. A number of the early settlers were German immigrants who toiled, as one put it, in a "place that was a heaven for men and dogs-but hell for women and oxen." Life on the frontier was often precarious; Dick Jenkins and several other early pioneers were killed by Indians. In 1858 Mr. and Mrs. Mose Jackson and two of their children were killed by Indians at Jackson Springs, while two other children were carried into captivity. After a force of settlers routed the Indians at Salt Gap, their pursuers and a company of Texas Rangers recovered the captive Jackson children. In 1862 a band of twenty Comanches raiding for horses was pursued by settlers to the mouth of Pecan Bayou and put to flight after three Indians and one white, O. F. Lindsey, were killed. After Indians killed John Morris, a rancher, settlers pursued them and killed or wounded seven of the twenty-seven raiders. Few of the settlers joined the Confederate Army during the Civil War because their own frontier required protection against the depredations of Indians and outlaws.

During the Civil War and for decades thereafter whites caused settlers more trouble than Indians, as cattle rustlers, horse thieves, murderers, army deserters, and other rogues infested the area. Vigilante committees were formed to deal with criminals, but then these groups degenerated into warring mobs committing criminal acts themselves. A reign of terror followed conflicts between vigilante groups, which broke out in Williams Ranch in 1869. Vigilantes drove out some bad characters, but killed other innocent men; lynchings and assassinations became commonplace. The turbulence lasted until 1897, when the Texas Rangers finally broke up a group of vigilantes who frequently gathered at Buzzard Roost. The first post office in what is now Mills County was established in Williams Ranch in 1877, and the place became a center for the area; between 1881 and 1884 250 people lived there. In 1885 the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway built tracks into the region, stimulating settlement and demands for organization. In 1887 the Texas state legislature carved Mills County from lands formerly assigned to Brown, Comanche, Hamilton, and Lampasas counties. Goldthwaite became the county seat. In 1890 5,493 people lived in Mills County. By that time, the area's agricultural economy was already fairly well-established. The county had 680 farms and ranches, encompassing 142,299 acres, that year.

Sources:Hartal Langford Blackwell, Mills County-The Way it Was (Goldthwaite, Texas: Eagle Press, 1976). Flora Gatlin Bowles, A No Man's Land Becomes a County (Austin: Steck, 1958).

 There are at least 6 graves of Witty's in this Cemetery, very near Star, Texas.  At the information site about the cemetery, it says:

Hurst Ranch Cemetery is in Hamilton County, Texas but has so many Mills County connections from Star, (originally Hamilton County) Mills County, Texas.

Laura Dove Witty Patty (1854-1935) A twin sister

Originally posted on Saturday, February 28, 2015

Eugenia Witty Booth's next younger sister 

Laura Dove Witty Patty was born on 29 Mar 1854, in Marshall Texas.  This is where my great great grandmother Eugenia Witty Booth also was born just 2 years earlier.  Then by 1860 the family settled a new area in Hill County, much further west.  Actually their father, Carroll Witty had purchased land and "settlers began moving into the area about 1850, and the community was established in 1857."  I note that the Hillsboro Historic Association doesn't have any records of him...which seems interesting somehow.  (More on Hill County tomorrow when the Witty's family has settled there.)


But let's go back to Marshall, which was founded in 1841 as the seat of Harrison County, in East Texas, and was incorporated in 1843.

Marshall quickly became a major city in the state because of its position as a gateway to Texas; several major stage coach lines and one of the first railroad lines into Texas ran through it. The founding 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.Marshall was the first city in Texas to have a telegraph service....by 1854 the local paper had a telegraph link to New Orleans, which gave it quick access to national news. By 1860 Marshall was one of the largest and wealthiest towns in East Texas, with a population estimated at 2,000.  With slavery still prevalent for the major industry, cotton, over half the population were Blacks.

The whole Witty family had still lived in Limestone County, Alabama as of Feb 1850s census.  Carroll Witty probably settled his wife and the younger children in Marshall, by 1852 when Eugenia was born, then took his two oldest sons with him (this is pure speculation on my part) to set up a home in Woodbury, Hill County, Texas.  Then they would all have a place to live on the frontier.

Obviously father Carroll visited the Witty family in Marshall, perhaps for supplies or other reasons, including fathering Laura Dove. And I'll tell you tomorrow about her twin brother, William Wiley Witty.

She married like many young women in that time when she was 17.  Her husband was James Riley Patty, born on 14 Oct 1845 in McMinn County, Tennesse.  He had been a Corporal for the 59th  Tennessee Mounted Infantry, Company A, during the Civil War.  So he moved to Texas following the war, and was 26 when he married in 1871 in Hill County, Texas.

The Patty family included 9 children, the last one born in 1890.  The youngest, Eva Laura Fay Patty Herring, lived to be 96, dying in 1987, after having 4 children.

Laura and her husband both died in 1935.  He died first, March 30, and she applied for pension as a Civil War widow in April of that year.  She died on Oct 5.  Her adult son who lived with her, Birch, gave information for the death certificate, saying she was still married.  He had been 50 when the 1930 census was taken, and his 45 year old sister Hettie also still lived with their parents.  Birch was employed as a grocery clerk, but Hettie didn't work outside the home.  These adult children  didn't marry or have children as far as I know.

Edith, who died at 90, their oldest child, also was living with her parents as of 1920, and she was a public school teacher.  By 1930 however she was living as a boarder in Dallas, TX, and was still teaching.  She didn't marry or have children.

Lexie Patty, their 6th child, is on a Sevier County, Tennessee Census in 1930 as a widow, with 3 sons who all have Patty as their last name.  And Lexie is the head of a household which farms, while parents who are listed must be her in-laws, Levi and Sarah Henner.  She also gives her birth as well as that of her parents as being in Tennessee (which wasn't true).  At some point in her life Lexie returned to Hill County Texas, and she died there age 84 in 1968.

Major Riley Patty...the next youngest of their children...what another interesting name!  As a child he was given Major Riley as his name, but later records just show him as Riley.  Perhaps various official persons thought the title should belong to someone who had attained that rank.  He lived from 1885 till 1951, dying at 71 years of age.  In 1940 it is interesting to note, that he lived with his brother Birch, and sisters Hettie and Lexie, in Hillsboro, Hill County Texas.

These were siblings that came back to, or never left, the home of their parents.

William Canal Patty did marry, and had 2 children, then in his fifties became an inmate of the Colorado State Hospital, where he died after 5 years at age 57.  How sad.

Frances Malone Witty Gee (1850-1923)

More about the Witty family...Eugenia Almeda's siblings...

Originally published: Wednesday, February 25, 2015 (edited)

Fanny Witty, next oldest sister of Eugenia Witty Booth, (my gg granmother)

She was a Valentine baby, Fanny (Frances Malone) Witty Gee born on Feb. 14, 1850 in Limestone, Alabama. But I don't know if Valentines Day was celebrated much then.

Her first census listing was when she was 4 months old, and the penmanship is so illegible the transcriber calls her Thomas, though a female child.  At least by 1860, when her family had moved to Texas, she was listed as Fanny.

She married at 17, to Richard A. Gee who had been born in 1833 in Tennessee (17 years older than she was). Some of his records say he was born in Virginia, where his parents were born.  They raised 7 children, who all lived to be adults, (though one died at 19 years of age) and had 19 grandchildren.  Some of her children and grandchidlren lived into their 90s, and one, Ethel M. Stingily, lived to 100, dying in 2013.

Her 19 year old son who died, has a marker in the same cemetery where she was buried, but I can't find any photos of her marker. So I'm using his because I know how hard it must have been for a mother to lose a son when he had his whole life ahead of him.

Many of the death certificates in the early 1900s show how hypertension was a killer in my family.  I've seen this on many Booth records.  I'm so glad there is medication now (which I can take.)

Fanny herself was 73 when she died in 1923.

One of these men is Richard Albert Gee...I don't know the other, nor which one he is.

Her husband, Richard Albert Gee ("Rags" which are his initials) was a Sergeant in the Confederacy, and thus had a veterans grave marker when he died in 1930 at age 96.

Richard Albert "Rags" Gee, (1833-1930)

Marker for John C. Gee, 1876-1892. In Covington Cemetery, Hill County Texas, where his mother Frances Malone Witty Gee is also buried (1850-1923).

Martha E. Witty Barnes (1846-1914), one of 9 Witty siblings

My gg grandmother's sister.

Eugenia Witty Booth's (1852-1875) oldest sister was Martha E. Witty Barnes, Sept 25, 1846 - April 18, 1914.

Martha Witty was born in Limestone County, AL on her parents' farm. Her father Carroll Witty (1818-1898) and her mother Susan Hoke Witty (1817-1895) moved to Marshall Texas around 1851 when she was about 5 years old, and her sister Eugenia was born there in 1852, as well as her sister Laura Dove Witty Patty in 1854 (maybe twin to William Wiley Witty,) and Susan Elizabeth Witty Moore (1856-1902).

There were the two oldest boys, John Witty (1843-1865) and James (1845-1904) then 2 other sisters who had also been born in Limestone County AL - Frances Malone Witty Gee (1850-1923) and Mary Elizabeth Witty Hughes (1848-1876).

I will be posting blogs about all the Witty children, including those younger siblings of Eugenia's, namely Laura Dove Witty Patty (1854-1935) and William Willy Witty (1854-1929) and Susan Elizabeth Witty Moore (1856-1902).

Yes Carroll Witty and Susan Hoke Witty had 9 children. And had them while moving from Alabama to Texas, staying just a few years in Marshall TX, then moving to the new settlement of Subdivision, Hill County, Texas. That was where Martha married John L. Barnes (1836-1914). He had also been born in Alabama, and served in the Confederate army, applying for a pension in 1911.

Martha and John didn't have any children, and lived quite long lives. They lived in the Houston Texas area, and Cleburne TX, then apparently died in Hill County TX, she was 67, and he lived to his 77th year.

J.L Barnes was a "Hotel Keeper" in Houston TX in the 1880 census. They had two elderly men (50 years old) living in their household, E.M. Witter, a hotel clerk, and A. A. Wilson, a physician.

They lived in Cleburne, Texas, where the City Directory of 1907 and 1909 listed J. L. as a gardener, and the Cenus of 1910 has them living in Jutice Precinct 1, Johnson County TX...he's still a gardener. But of interest it has him listed as being a veteran of the Confederate Army.

 John L. Barnes, Woodbury Cemetery, Hill County, TX

Martha Witty Barns, Woodbury Cemetery, Hill County, TX

The Carroll Witty family - James and John Witty

Sons of Carroll Witty and Susan Hoke Witty:
John and James

My great times 2 grandmother was Eugenia Almeda Witty Booth...daughter of Carroll Witty and Susan Hoke Witty.

I wrote a blog about Eugenia HERE, and another one Here.

My gg grandmother had a lot of siblings, most of whom moved to Texas as well, from Alabama.

James J. Witty was just a year younger than John, the oldest of his siblings (which number 10 in all, including one set of twins).  Born in 1845 he was barely old enough to go to the war between the states for the Confederacy with his older brother, John, in 1862.

He didn't serve in the same way however, and was in the cavalry while John was in the infantry.
And he had a surviving widow who eventually applied for his war pension many years after he died.

12th Texas Calvary, W. H. Parsons Regiment , Company "A" of Hill County, TX,

His family had settled in Texas from Alabama, and his father (Carroll Witty) was one of the founders of a community called originally "Subdivision, Hill County, Texas" and later known as Woodbury.

The Hill County Historical Commission tells us: "Woodbury is on Farm Road 309 twelve miles northwest of Hillsboro in north central Hill County. Anglo-American settlers began moving into the area about 1850, and the community was established in 1857, when Carroll Witty, William R. Nunn, and Rev. Thomas Newton McKee purchased property and offered it for sale."

In the 1870 Census for Hill County, TX, James was 25 and living with his parents and listing his occupation as "stock raiser,"  just as he had 10 years previously in the 1860 Census.

James married a woman who was a widow with three children, when he was 39 himself.  Mary Lou Cobb Brooks and James were married Nov 23, 1884.  Her children were William Terrell Brooks (Born: 1859) Mary Elizabeth Brooks Dennis (Born: 1862) and Bert Brooks (Born: 1875).  The date of the marriage was listed on her application for widow's pension, and the location was Shackleford, Texas, where she lived the rest of her life.

Unknown old house, Moran, Shackleford County, Texas

Moran Texas, 1924 looking west.

Shackleford County, Texas is where James spent his later adult life, and where he and his wife are buried, but in different cemeteries.   She's in the Moran Cemetery, also in Shackleford County, and her youngest son Bert Brooks was also buried there.

Witty Fish and Chip truck, probably a belonging to a later descendant of the Witty family

His death is noted in the Texas Find A Grave site as "J.J. Whitty found dead in his wagon Sept of 1904 on his way home from town, found by Brooksey King (Possible burial place 7 or 8. Thought to have died of a heart attack."  (Jo Ann Farmers Notes)

The cemetery where his remains are located is unique in that it's a ranch cemetery with many unknown cowboys buried there.  It is listed as the Lynch Cemetery.  "The Lynch Cemetery is located 8 miles southeast of Albany near the Ibex Community on FMR 601. The cemetery began in the summer of 1875 as the final resting place of J. A. Leflet, a young cowboy who worked for the Lynch family on what was then called Fairview Ranch. Founders of the ranch, John C. Lynch and his wife Fannie, arrived in this part of Shackelford County in the 1860's after coming to nearby Stephens County with Fannie's family, the Peter Gunsolus family. After Mr. Leflet was buried in 1875, on a rise a quarter of a mile from the Lynch home, other cowboys on the ranch who died were also buried there, most now are unmarked or unknown."

 James J. Witty is listed as a known grave, and has a legible marker there.

Post office, Moran, Shakleford County, Texas

This is an edited post from 2015 HERE.

The following is a revised post from Thursday, February 19, 2015

John C. Witty

He died in 1865, in the county in which he lived according to several census records.

Who was John C. Witty?
My great great grandmother's brother, Great times 2 Uncle John Witty.

My Mother: Mataley Webb Munhall Rogers
Grandmother: Mozelle Miller Webb Munhall
Great grandmother: Eugenia Booth Miller
Great great grandmother: Eugenia Almeda Witty Booth

John was in the Civil War,  Confederate  Regiment, State/Origin: Texas 12th Regiment, Texas Infantry (Young's)  Company:  K  Rank In:  Private   Rank Out:  Private
1862 enlistment records.

With the great flux of Ancestry records, I find that Kezia and John Witty lived (were born and died) in Yorkshire, England. So that wasn't the one born in Alabama who fought for the Confederacy, but was the one who married Kezia!

John and Kesiah Martha Witty (not in America)
This version of his dates gives him living from 1845-1931.
And being married to Kesiah.

What I do know is that John C. Witty was part of my Great times 2 Grandmother's household, first in Alabama before she had been born, then to Texas, and he's also on the census of the new "subdivision" in Hill County when 16.

This was a young man who joined the 12th Texas Infantry for the Confederate cause.  Some Texans didn't want to fight for the south, and some left and joined Union forces.  It was a terrible conflict with brothers against brothers.  He was only 18 when he enlisted in the military.  And he died in 1865.

My gg grandmother Eugenia Almeda Witty Booth (1852-1875)

A repost from

Monday, February 24, 2014 (edited)

Eugenia Almeda Witty 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 Almeda Booth Miller (1873-1936)

7) Eugenia Almeda Witty 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 Witty b. 6 Nov 1818 in Alabama,  d. 19 Sep 1898 in Texas

       married on 16 Jan 1843 Limestone County, AL

 (8) Susan E. Hoke Witty, 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 Witty'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 Witty was born on 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 had 3 siblings born in Marshall before 1856, 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 waiting to go on their way to a better place to live.

Carroll and Susan Hoke Witty had been a farming family in the 1850 census of Limestone County, AL, living next door to a brother Jackson Witty and his wife Emily.  Susan Hoke Witty'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 Witty 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 Witty 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 Witty family was among the earliest settlers, and their property was listed in 1860 as "The Subdivision."   There no longer is another Witty 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 Almeda Witty 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 Witty Booth gave birth to Edwin Witty Booth. And on 30 Jan 1873, she gave birth to Eugenia Almeda 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 Witty 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.  

Hempstead, Waller Texas: 

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