What did my great grandmother do in 1879 as a new widow?

One interesting family on my family tree is the Bass family, or Basse, or a few other spellings of it. I'm choosing it because 1) John Basse came to Virginia about the time Jamestown was being settled and 2) he had a lot of males in the line going back a few more generations and 3) he married a Native American woman who I've talked about before.  The descendant of all these people was my father's grandmother Elizabeth "Bette" Bass Rogers.

I've written about great grandmother, Elizabeth "Bettie" Bass Rogers before, but  I'll cut and paste about her just to remind us of her life lived mostly as a widow.  I can only imagine how hard it was for her, with two babies that had guardians from her husband's family. She moved from the countryside of Texas to the city life of Galveston...which was much like New Orleans as a port city for immigrants coming into Texas because Houston hadn't yet become a big port.

From my post on Saturday, December 14, 2013

My grandfather's mother was Elizabeth "Bettie" Bass Rogers.  She was born in Old Waverly, San Jacinto County, Texas around Feb or March 1860 based upon her parents listing her as 5 months old on the 1860 census in Walker County, Texas.  The original document shows her father Richard Bass as 40, and his wife 35, but the transcriptionist mis-read his age as 20.  It does have a correction through it by pen on the original, so that's understandable.  The date of that census was July 31, 1860, so this youngest member of the family was probably born around Feb 28 in order to be 5 months old.  She was to have 10 siblings both older and younger.

Her father Col. Richard Bass lived through the Civil War, as a Home Guard Confederate soldier.

Col. Richard Bass headstone

Her early years in Walker County Texas on a farm (according to the 1860 census her father was a farmer) also had cousins as well as older siblings nearby.  Her household also had a teenage cousin living with them, Emily W. Traylor, 16. Sister Julia A. was 18, brother James M. was 16, and sister Nancy C. was 7.  All her older siblings were born in Louisana, but Bettie was born in Texas.  Her mother, Mary A. Powell Bass, also had family nearby; the next family listed on the census are the Powells, with 69 year old James M. as head of the family. Nancy J. Powell was 36, John T. Powell was 27, and James E. Powell was 4 months old, and there was also cousin Nancy E. Traylor, age 11 living with them.

I spent hours one night looking at the Traylor, Powell, Bass connection.  How did it happen that the Traylor girls were living with a Bass family and a Powell family?  Well, as most of you probably have already figured out, their mother had died, and they were raised by her cousins...one was Mary Powell Bass, and one was Nancy J. Powell.  Mary Powell Bass's mother was Nancy Jones Traylor Powell, so they had a grandmother in common..

Mary Ann Elizabeth Powell Bass headstone

But back to Bettie Bass.  In the 1870 census for Walker County, Texas, the county had grown from early settlement and the Civil War was over.  Much probably looked very different from the time of 1860, but all we have in a Census record are names and ages, and where people were born, and sometimes where their parents were born.  Thus the migrations of families can be traced.

Downtown Huntsville 1870s

By 1870 Richard Bass was a merchant rather than a farmer, now in the town of Huntsville, Texas.  Bettie now had 3 younger sisters, Ella, (9) Minnie (7) and Mary (5).   Her sister Sarah is 16.  Wait a minute, she had an older sister named Nancy C. who had been 7 in the previous census.  How could her name have changed that much?  There's no answer offered.  The oldest siblings are no longer at home, Julia A. and brother James M. Bass. Emily Traylor is now 26 and still living with them. I wonder if she had some kind of disability...a thought which just struck me, but since she hasn't married by then, maybe.

Downtown Huntsville in the 1870s

Bettie's marriage was in Willis, Montgomery County, Texas, on Dec. 14, 1876, when she was 16, a Thursday evening with the marriage performed by Rev. D. S. Snodgrass, according to Ancestry.com.  She married William Sanford Rogers, age 26, but he only lived another 3 years after their marriage.  William Sanford was known as W. Sam, according to his son, my grandfather. W. Sam Rogers had been born in Walker County, Texas, but in 1870 was living with his mother Lucy Gibbs Rogers, in Louisiana.

Women's Clothing 1870s, not Bettie Bass Rogers

And then he married Bettie in Willis Texas. Perhaps the railroad coming into Willis gave some incentive for the family to move to Willis, and their 2 children were born there.  My grandfather George Rogers was born Aug 28, 1877, and his sister Annie Lou Gibbs Rogers was born March 10, 1879.  Their father died May 29, 1879 and is buried in Huntsville, Texas.

Willis became a community when the Great Northern Railroad decided to run a track from Houston to Chicago, and the Willis brothers donated their land in 1870 to the railroad. Willis grew in population after the trains began to travel through the town. There were hotels, dry good stores, and many other successful businesses in the 1870s and 1880s. The tobacco industry played a vital role in Willis' growth and development during that time. Other cash crops of cotton, watermelons, and tomatoes were an important part of the economy through the years. The timber industry, which still plays a role in Willis' economic growth, has been its most stable economic engine for over one hundred years.  (Wikipedia)

The next census record of 1880 included the 19 year old widow, Bettie Rogers and her two children, living still in Willis, Texas, without any reported means of support.  She is listed as head of the household. (There's no 1890 census available.)

By 1900 Census the small family is living in Galveston, Texas, with Bettie now age: 46; a widowed head of household, address 1828 Church St; June 6, 1900 living with son, George Elmore Rogers (23) and daughter, Annie Lou Gibbs Rogers (21).  (George would become my grandfather.)

A short aside to refer back to the huge hurricane of 1900, as described a bit in my blog here.  The family survived it, and I don't know any details about their lives during and right after it.  Then in 1905 my grandfather got married.  His sister Annie Lou married in 1906.

So the next report about Bettie Rogers is a reference on my grandfather's WW I draft card in 1918, where he gives her as his nearest relative, (and not his wife of 13 years.)  Bettie is living at 22nd and L in Galveston, Texas.

Then the census of 1920 lists Bettie Rogers "Age: 58; Marital Status: Widowed;  Relation to Head of House: Mother-in-law," living with daughter, Annie Lou Wilson and her husband Patrick and Bettie's three grandchildren, still in Galveston.

On July 17, 1924, at age 64, Bettie Bass Rogers died, as was printed in the Galveston city directory of that year. She was buried in Huntsville TX, according to her death certificate.

My grandfather (born 1877) wrote in 1954, of having a guardian (an aunt and uncle) that had charge of himself and his sister.  I always assumed Bettie died close to the same time as her husband, after her daughter was born in 1879.  But the guardian doesn't seem to have had the 2 Rogers children in his household in any available census.
Bettie Bass' date of marriage was Dec. 14, 1876  to William Sanford Rogers in Willis, TX, with Rev. D. S. Snodgrass officiating.  Rev. Snodgrass had also married the J.E. Ross couple earlier in the year, on Jan 18, 1876, (who became the guardians of the Rogers children.)

Bettie's birthdate is garbled through various years on census reports, which might have been her own doing.  She could have been a bit bohemian, or had some kind of confusion about her own age, and I am sure it was difficult to raise 2 children on her own.  She didn't follow the tradition of going to live with relations, rather she moved with her young family to a new city, Galveston. There were limited ways a widow could support her family, (for instance, my widowed grandmother on my mother's side was a seamstress.) Another means was to take in boarders, but the census records don't give any indication of that. (A later census does show a male boarder in the household.)

Let me just check what the Bass family situation was when Bette became widowed in 1879. Her mother had died in1871. Her father who had probably been in the Confederate Home Guard, lived until 1880. Apparently 5 of her sisters and one brother lived longer than that. I'm going to check and see where they were living in 1879.

Oldest sis, Julia A. Bass Barton moved to Cameron, Milan County Texas when she married in 1869. That's where she raised her family and died in 1899 in Hale Center, Texas, which is a long ways from Cameron. 

Bette's oldest brother, James M. didn't marry until he was 28 in 1870. The family lived with his parents, and then her parents by 1880. He moved from being a retail clerk to being a merchant by then. By 1895 the family had moved to Houston where his wife operated a boarding house. By 1900 James has established himself as a bookkeeper. When he died in 1907 in Houston, his widow received Veterans benefits for his service during the Civil War. (I don't have any other records that he served.)

Here's a post (edited) about Elizabeth Bettie Bass' siblings 
from February 1, 2019:

I started looking at my great grandmother Elizabeth "Bettie"Bass Rogers' sisters and brothers. Since I  discovered the youngest sister had been mistaken for a sister of other folks named Mary Mason (married to a Bass), I wanted to know about these pioneers of Texas, who were really my relatives.

1) The first one, Julia A. Bass Barton (1841–1899) was born in (probably Perry) Alabama. But before she was a year old, her family (Col. Richard and Mary Ann (Mae) Powell Bass) moved to Union Parish in northern Louisiana.   She moved with her family again to Walker County Texas between 1854 and 1860.  She didn't marry until she was 28, to John Matilda Barton, in 1869. 

John Matilda Barton

Perhaps the Civil War interfered with her romantic life.  He had a son from his first marriage (wife died when son was about 6 mos old.) Julia and John Barton had a son and two daughters. They had moved upon marrying to Milam County, Texas, which is where Julia died at age 57-8.

2) The next sibling to be born was James M. Bass Sr , who (on Ancestry) had no date or place of death...though many census reports included him with his family.  But after doing a search to no avail, I looked a bit at the census reports of his wife, who (as often is the case) outlived him.  This was the excitement of my day!

By the time I was done, I had his approximate death date from a pension request from his widow, for his service in the Confederacy.

James M. Bass Sr. - Birth 05 DEC 1842, Union Parish, Louisiana, Death sometime in 1907, Harris County, Texas.  He married when he was 28, on Dec 5, 1870 in Walker County, TX to Laura A. Cunningham Bass, 1844–1924.  They had 5 children, of whom at least 3 lived to adulthood, one of whom, Richard Clarence Bass, became a dentist. But the first child was born on Dec. 25, 1870, so I'd say this was a marriage just in time.
  
The 1880 census of Walker County lists Laura A. and probably J.M her husband, living with his father-in-law.

By the size of the monument for Laura Cunningham Bass I imagine her children were well off.  She died 11 Mar 1924 (aged 79) in Tulsa, Tulsa County, Oklahoma, and is buried in Fairlawn Cemetery. Oklahoma City, OK.  The monument also holds her son James' remains, as well as his wife, and children.  (I don't know if her husband James is buried there or not.)

James and Laura lived in Houston TX for a while after he was in his 50s, (by 1895) and that's where he died about 1907.

The next 4 Bass siblings of Great-grandmom Bettie Bass have places of birth and general dates, but I don't have much information about their lives.

3) Ellen Bass, born in 1845 in Louisiana, was part of the family in the 1850 census. But by the 1860 census in Walker County Texas, where the Bass parents (Col. Richard and Mae) are farmers next to her Powell parents, there is no Ellen in the family. 

4)  John H. Bass was born about 1851, no place given. Not on any census reports of the family. But he's listed in Ancestry sites without any primary source.

5) Nancy E. Bass was born in 1853 in Louisiana. She is on the 1860 census as being 7 years old, in Texas. She is not on the 1870 census. 

The 1870 Census. This is where it gets a bit weird. Confusing? There's now a 16 year old Sarah Bass living in the Richard Bass household! Older son James is still living with them, but is listed below the 2 servants...he's now 27 and employed as a dry goods clerk (and this is taken in August 1870, the same year he married). But his wife Laura Cunningham Bass isn't listed. (She is on the Cunningham household for this census.)

6) Susan (or Sarah or Nancy?) is listed in the 1870 census, being born in 1854 by that age given on the census.  Born in LA. No other information about this person.  Of course you're thinking Nancy E. changed her name to Susan (Sarah.) But neither of them continued to have any records.

An old plantation house, not one owned by my family as far as I know

7) My great grandmother, Elizabeth "Bettie" BASS ROGERS Birth 12 FEB 1860, Old Waverly, San Jacinto, TX  Death 17 JULY 1924, Galveston, Galveston, TX.  I celebrated her birth HERE.

8) Ella Bass, born around 1861 in Texas, appears on Census of Walker County TX in 1870 as a 9 year old.  No other information on her.  And of course not to be confused with Ellen born 1845 who also disappeared.  I'm afraid these children all died.

9) Martha E. "Mattie Bass Cunningham. BIRTH MAY 1863 • Walker County, Tx, DEATH 08 JAN 1929  San Antonio, TX. The following information is on Ancestry sites, and in a minute you'll see how sometimes they just fall apart.

Again the 1870 census record of the family has names of children that don't compute with other records.  (No Mattie, no Martha E.) Children are listed in age order...Sarah, 16; Elizabeth 10; Ella 9; Minni 7; Mary 5.

Martha E. "Mattie" Bass married James Durrah Cunningham Sr, (1852-1925) the younger brother of Laura Cunningham Bass who married our James Bass (see above number 2.)    Mattie was listed in many census and city directory records (finally an Auntie who was documented! - well, second great Aunt.)

The 1880 Census of Walker County has her listed as a 16 year old boarder, but the household name is missing as it is on the previous sheet, but she is "at school."  And her name is given as M. E. Bass. But not for long, because she married J.D. Cunningham in 1881, according to the later 1910 census data which gives information of "married 28 years." They had 3 children, all of whom lived to adulthood, and one lived until 1974.

But there are confusing statements about Mattie and J. D. Cunningham of Houston, namely that she had another family of origin. The last time we heard about our Mattie Bass was in Huntsville when she was a student boarder in the census of 1880, age 16.  So between being called M. E, and Mattie Bass, we know that is the girl who was sister to Bettie Bass Rogers.  We don't know that she was the wife of James Cunningham Sr. in Houston. 

Oh, there was still at least one more younger sister!

10) Minnie Bass Zellner,  - Birth 29 Feb1864 • Texas,  Death 

MAR 13, 1939 • Port Neches, Jefferson, TX  She was 7 when her mother died. And yes, she was listed on the (infamous) 1870 census of Walker County Texas, as a 7 year old, with 5 year old Mary also listed (who doesn't appear elsewhere.)  

Minnie was not of age when her mother died, (7 years old)  nor probably when her father died (16). So someone in the family took on her care until she married (in Milam County TX). 

Minnie married when she was 20 (1885) to Frances Edward Alexander Zellner (known as Frank). They had 3 sons and a daughter, and lived on several farms through their lives.  She lived until 1939, dying at 75. But it is notable that they also lived in  Milam County TX where her older sister Julia Bass Barton lived.

11). As mentioned before, there was a Mary Bass listed in the 1870 census of Walker County TX.  She was listed as 5 years old.  So I've added her as a child of Richard and Mae Bass.

 It's possible she was the Molly Louise Bass Bell which I just found at the bottom of the list of siblings. Molly had been born Aug 8 1866, and lived in Milam County until she married David K. Bell and moved to San Antonio for the rest of her life, until 1929. I don't have any census records for her at this time...

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Now back to my pursuit today - to see if any of these relatives might have helped Bette Bass Rogers with her two little children. The guardians who must have been close to her husband, were her late husband's sister, Alice Luella Rogers Ross and her husband (John) Elmore Ross.

They were close enough that my grandfather's name was George Elmore Rogers...the same name that Mr. Ross chose to go by. They had married the same year as the Rogers, as I mentioned before, by the same pastor, in Walker County TX. But by Nov 1876 when their first child was born, they had moved to Mexia Texas...including another sister of W. Sam Rogers and Alice Luella Rogers Ross, a spinster named Laura Terrissa Rogers. 

So when W. Sam died in 1879, the Ross' had had their second son, J. Elmore was a clerk in a store, and lived quite a way distant from Walker County, where Bette and her two babes lived. But she somehow ended up going the distance to Galveston. Perhaps that was the direction that traffic was going at that time. Did she reach out to the Ross family for help? Did she ask her parents for help? 

Where she was living in 1880 was a neighborhood of blacks. Many of the dwellings had one or two residents. I am sure this was not what she had expected when marrying W. Sam Rogers.

By June 6, 1900 she was listed in the census for Galveston. Her dwelling was located at 1828 Church St, and she was renting. But she had a servant girl as well as a roomer who was in real estate. My grandfather was 22, living at home, and working as an accountant.

Family members have said my grandfather started working as a teenager to help with the household expenses...and I would think that very likely.

By the 1920 census (the next one I can find) she was 58 and living with her married daughter Annie Lou Rogers Wilson and her family.  She died in 1924.