Eugenia Witty's sisters

My great times two grandmother, Eugenia Witty Booth's oldest sister, was Martha E. Witty Barnes, daughter of Carroll and Susan Hoke Witty.

She was born in Limestone, Alabama, as were her 2 older brothers.  Her birthday was Sept 25, 1846.  She appeared in the Limestone Alabama Census of 1850, then next census in 1860 she and her family had moved all the way to Hill County, Texas, where her father was a one of the founders of a "subdivision" which was another name for land speculation which became Woodbury Texas. 

Her father was Carroll Witty, (1919-1898) my great times three grandfather.

She married John L. Barnes, who was born Aug 2, 1846 also in Alabama, but I know nothing about his family.  The Barnes couple appeared as a household in Houston, TX in the census of 1880.

They never had any children apparently.

By the time Martha was in her 60s, she and her husband were listed twice (1907 & 1909) in a city directory for Cleburne, Johnson County, TX which is near Dallas. The 1910 Census has them living there as well.  His occupation was advertised as gardener.  

Main St, Cleburne TX 1910s

She died on April 18, 1914, and he died on May 5 of the same year.  They are buried together in Woodbury Cemetery, Hill County, Texas.  Woodbury was the town which my Gx3 grandfather had helped found.

 

Martha E. Witty Barnes 1846-1914

John L. Barnes 1836-1914

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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 Susan's father,  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 X2 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.  

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Fanny Witty Gee, next oldest sister of Eugenia Witty Booth

She was a Valentine baby, Frances Malone (Fanny) 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.  The Gees raised 7 children, who all lived to be adults, (though one died at 19 years of age) and she 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 to at least memorialize 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 Frances' son, John C. Gee, 1873-1892. In Covington Cemetery, Hill County Texas, where his mother Frances Malone Witty Gee is also buried (1850-1923).

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Eugenia Witty Booth's next younger sister 

Laura Dove Witty Patty (as well as her twin brother) 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."  

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 the February, 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  their land 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 her twin brother.

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 10 children (though one died as a child) 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 Patty, 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.

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Eugenia Witty Booth's youngest sister 

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 their 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 (or 10) 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

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.

Her daughter, Edna, died of tuberculosis in 1916, and her death certificate information was given by her father, J. J. Moore. I found the wonderful photo of him in his corn crop in 1930 two years before he died. He had actually remarried in 1912 to Julia Ann Ramsey.

James Joseph Moore, 1930 (h. of Susie Witty Moore.)

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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.