Linnie and Lou George, 1880. Linnie was Mrs. Dirking, and Lou was Mrs. Spect
MEMOIRS OF LOUISE GEORGE TOMPKINS
Part 6
MOTHER’S AUTOBIOGRAPHY CONTINUED AS TOLD BY HER DAUGHTER, MYRTLE T. WILKINS
While a student at Mt. Lebanon College in Louisiana, Louise George and Mary Tompkins, a girl from Edgefield, SC became close friends. Mary’s brother, Tommy, was studying law and assisting some of the students in mathematics in a nearby men’s college (also Mt. Lebanon). However, he had never met his sister’s chum.
One Friday, when the Mt. Lebanon girls were dispersing for the weekend, one of them took a beautiful rose from a vase and handed it to Mary, saying: “Give this rose to your brother with my compliments.” Louise, standing nearby, picked up a dusty, bedraggled rose from the floor, and, in a spirit of fun, she handed it to Mary, saying: “And give this rose to your brother with my compliments, Mary.” Mary grabbed the withered rose from her hand, and with both roses ran away.
Tommy did not respond to the gift of the lovely, fresh rose, but to “Lou” he sent a beautiful poem of thanks for the wilted rose.
Soon after, he was introduced to her, and then began their courtship.
On the fourth day of December 1860, Louise George and Thomas Brooks Tompkins were married, at the home of her father in Marion, La.
Her father, Rev. Elias George, was a well-known and popular Baptist minister. Being proud of his daughter, he insisted on having an outstanding wedding for her, though she preferred a quiet one. However, he had his way and invited 200 people to attend the wedding, over which he presided. The bountiful feast was the result of three weeks of baking, barbecuing, and making dozens of pies, cakes, custards, etc.
Several months after they were married, the Civil War began, and Tommy was called into service. Lou lived with father’s family until the war ended but saw Tommy now and then when he came home on a furlough.
Their first child, Paul Garnet, was born in Marion, LA., on the 24th day of September 1861.
When the war ended, she and Tommy, with their little son, moved to Farmerville, La., where Tommy began his practice of law. In later years he was elected Judge of the District.
On the 5th of January 1864, their second son, Samuel George, was born in Farmerville, La.
Annie Brooks, their third child, was born on the 21st of March 1870, and on the 3rd of February, 1872, Myrtle Louise arrived on the scene.
Though urged to run for State Senator, Judge Tompkins declined, on account of failing health. He and his wife planned to move to California where his two sisters and their families resided.
Unfortunately, Judge Tompkins did not live to start on their westward journey, though they had shipped their household effects ahead. He died without knowing that the boat carrying their belongings had burned on the Mississippi River, and nothing was saved. Among valuable books that were burned was a volume of his own poems. His wife seemed to deplore that loss more than she did the loss of many other treasures.
Now that everything had been swept away except her four children, she determined to move with them to California as she and Tommy had planned. In the spring of 1873, she boarded the train with her little flock, and after a long, wearisome journey, they arrived in Yuba City, where they were welcomed by Dr. John Key (her brother-in-law) and Tommy’s sisters, Mrs. Savannah Key and Mrs. Mary Murphy, and their mother, Mrs. Eliza Thurman Tompkins.
After a good rest and visit, Dr. Key, being a Mason (as Tommy had been), took Tommy’s widow to Colusa and introduced her to his many masonic friends, and, together, they organized a “girl’s school” for her to conduct. They arranged for her to reside and teach in a large building called “Spect’s Academy,” and soon the “Young Ladies’ Seminary” opened with 13 or more pupils. The school grew and prospered, and the girls did not mind if the two little girls, Annie and Myrtle, played with their dolls under the teacher’s desk, not daring to talk aloud. Paul and Sam attended the public school.
Mrs. Tompkins eventually sent for her sister, Linnie, to assist in teaching. Oil painting and piano were added to their curriculum.
After two years of teaching, Mrs. Tompkins was married to Mr. Jonas Spect, a wealthy attorney, owner of Spect’s Academy and other properties.
A widower for over fifteen years, he built a nice four-bedroom home for her family, and provided a Chinese cook who was with them until Mr. Spect’s death in 1883.
Now that her time was practically her own, Mrs. Spect became active in church and charity work. She produced many entertainments which were staged in the “Colusa Theatre” which was owned by her husband.
Among the entertainments she presented and directed were, “Madam Jarley’s Waxworks,” “King Oberon and Queen Titania” (a spectacular fairy play), “the Old Folks’ Concert” (humorous), and others. These entertainments were well attended, and the proceeds given to charity.
Being ardently religious, Mrs. Spect organized a weekly prayer meeting which was held in private homes. She usually conducted the meetings. In her own home she held family worship each night with prayer and a chapter from the Bible.
Sunday school and church attendance for herself and children was a “must.”
After nine years of marriage to Mr. Spect, she again was left a widow. Mr. Spect died with a heart attack at the age of 63. At his funeral many of his tenants were weeping. Sixty-two conveyances followed his body to the cemetery.
In 1887, Mrs. Spect, with her two daughters, moved to San Jose where her son, Sam, was attending College of the Pacific. At that time San Jose was a village. Its small, horse-drawn streetcars carried passengers between Seventh (then Fourteenth) Street at the bridge and the town of Santa Clara. The fare was 10 cents; that being the smallest coin.
A few years after she moved to San Jose, her son, Paul, who was a telegraph operator in the Western Union, was given a position in the San Jose office and arrived with his wife, Allie. Their arrival united the entire family, and Mrs. Spect could not be censured for resuming her former name of “Tompkins.” Her many talents and accomplishments enabled her to do much good during her long life. A fractured leg confined her to a nursing home for two years, where she passed away on the 23rd day of July 1936, at the age of 94 ½ years.
Her descendants to this date number 45.
-Myrtle T. Wilkins - 1960
I am so appreciative of Lou Tompkins and her daughter's records of her life. There are many gaps, but the details which are included are so rich. I've learned much about the way families in Perry AL moved to Louisiana, which many of my own ancestors also did. She does talk about some of them as they were also part of her life.
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Looking forward to hearing from you! If you leave your email then others with similar family trees can contact you. Just commenting falls into the blogger dark hole; I'll gladly publish what you say just don't expect responses.