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 bust 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
