Eugenia Almeda Whitty Booth

This week I'm posting about the Booth family tree.

A repost from Monday, February 24, 2014 (edited)

Eugenia Almeda Witty Booth, my great great grandmother

She would have been 169 years old this year!!

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 of their 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 moved to Texas, where the rest of their children were born in Marshall.  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 (twins probably!)  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 and they both died the same day. Chidbirth was not as safe a procedure a it is today. Eugenia was only 23 years old.

  

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. He had been just 32 years old, leaving three orphaned children.  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 County,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 name, Almetta, Almeta, Whitty, and so on.  I would be interested in finding out the source of the name Almeda.

The great times 3 grandparents, the William Lewis Booth family, evidently moved back to Hillsboro TX by 1885 when grandmother Hannah Conn Booth died, and Uncle Charles Thomas Booth died in 1886. Great great grandmom Eugenia Almeda Booth married Charles Herman Mueller in 1896. The loss of the 1890 Census doesn't confirm where they were at that time (a fire at the Library of Congress I think.)

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 

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 settled.


A hilly area of Hill County.

Randle-Turner House, Itasca, Hill County, Texas

A later house in Hill County 

 

Map of Texas highlighting Hill County

Laying of Corner Stone, City Hall, Hillsboro, Texas

This post belongs to the Barbara Booth Rogers Family Tree. Photo shows Mataley Mozelle Rogers, and her mother Mozelle Booth Miller, and my sister Mary Beth Rogers.

Sharing with Sepia Saturday this week...not sure how my great great grandmother's life, and where she lived, would actually meet this prompt photo...will think about it!

I'll post about Eugenia's sisters next.