Annie Elizabeth Williams Webb...my great grandmother, who I never knew. She died in July of the year I was born in August, and because her son (my mother's father) had died many years before, I doubt that she'd kept in touch with my mother's life. My mother never mentioned her, nor her father.
Annie had been born 20 June 1862, in Columbus Missouri though her parents lived mostly in Montgomery County, MO where her father was a farmer. However, he had gone off to fight for the Union in 1861 and she was born in 1862, so perhaps her mother, Dorcas White Williams, had been living in Columbus, where this birth was recorded.
Annie was the 7th child of 8 born to the William T. Williams family. Only O. R. was born later in 1866. The Williams family moved from Missouri to Texas around 1870, give or take a few years. Her mother had a strange census listing in 1870 of living alone in a boarding house, under her maiden name, and performing as a domestic servant. I noticed that one of Dorcas' brothers, Caleb White, lived in that same town (Upper Loutre in Montgomery County MO) with the post office in Danville. He was the miller in the town, and by the 1870 census record lived with his wife and 5 children in his household. His census was taken 22 Sept. 1870, while hers was taken 29 Sept, 1870. There was also the Loutre River nearby...were they starting their journey to Texas perhaps by river?
There is no information about the rest of the family on the 1870 census record for Dorcas White...nor her 4 year old son and Annie at 8 years old. I wonder (yet another conjecture) if the family had packed up for moving to Texas, and was in this small town just waiting for some other immigrant families, and Dorcas just helped out in that boarding house. Or perhaps they all left for Texas earlier, and she had been too sick to travel. Or maybe she was against the move. For whatever reason she was living in that boarding house, I'm still left wondering why she used her maiden name. Who would know that, except her family of origin and herself?
Another noted event in or before 1870, was the death of Henry White, the father of Caleb and Dorcas. At least 6 of his children were still alive at that time. He had farmed somewhere in Montgomery County MO since the early pioneers arrived before 1833. His wife outlived him, dying in 1885.
Before the next census where Annie appears, in 1880, she has also moved to Texas, and married at 15 years of age in 1877. She doesn't appear in any 1870 census records that I can find. Her husband was Leroy (L.F.) Webb, who had been born in Texas. See here for more about him, and the family, but I'll catch up with his life while married to Annie.
I'm including a "story" I just submitted to L. F. Webb's Ancestry page...about the details of the photo above.
The original photo has been transferred into a printable newspaper version, with the usually digital spots. But if it's enlarged enough, you can read the details across the porch roof facade.
"Dealer of General Merchandise" and below that...
"Country Produce Bought and Sold"
And now to look at the people...about 32 men, and 5 children. One of the men is wearing a white apron...either a butcher or someone just working in the store.
My guess is the man in center, somewhat taller, and somewhat separate from the others around him, would be L. F.
Slightly to his right (our left) is a shorter man at his shoulder. In front of him stand two children...wearing dresses, perhaps girls. The other children include 2 boys on the roof of the porch by the window, and one in a white shirt, second to far right with the man having his hand on his shoulder.
Note the windows are all open. Summer in Texas gets very hot. But the custom was for men to have on shirts, a vest, and perhaps a coat and even tie for a special occasion.
In Texas all the men wear their hat almost all the time, just like cowboy boots, so they can ride horses to get places.
And remember, nobody used deodorant in those days, nor even bathed often. So the layers of clothing might have been uncomfortable, but they might have soaked up some of the sweat that inevitably would have occurred.
I also would try to guess if the children are those of Leroy Webb's. If the taller one in front of him were indeed a girl, he had 6 year old Clara Bell Webb, and the smaller might have been my grandfather, Albert J. Webb at 3 years old. Of course his older sons would have wanted to be in the photo too. James Eugene would have been 16 in 1894, and John Leroy would have been 14. Maybe they are the two boys on the roof of the porch, one of whom is the only male not wearing a hat!
Going back further into L. F.'s history, he received a store as his inheritance from his father, Samuel J. Webb, who died with a will on Aug. 15, 1877.
Interestingly enough L.F. also became the executor of the will, and the guardian of his 4 younger brothers and sisters.
Perhaps his father had been sick before dying, and thus had written this will. I imagine he was quite happy to see (maybe attended also) the wedding between his son L. F. and Annie Elizabeth Williams on Aug. 7, 1877, just a week before Samuel died. L. F.'s mother had died just a year before, 6 months after giving birth to the last son. Thus L. F. at 20 suddenly had new wife and guardianship of 4 siblings, the youngest being just 1 year old. Seems like Annie fit right into a new wife and family guardianship role at once. Of course since L. F. also inherited the family business, it's likely they lived in the family home.
I just discovered an older census, taken in 1870, which included L. F. and his parents, residing in Clinton, DeWitt County TX. And another census in 1860 shows his father Samuel had been born in Maryland, and Ellen, his mother, had been born in NY on the Clinton, DeWitt County 1860 Texas census, when L. F. had been 3.
The next census for 1880 shows the Webb family living in Goliad TX. This was the site of earlier conflicts when Texas was trying to become free from Mexico. It also was one of the beginning places of the Chisolm Trail, to take cattle all the way to Kansas, on the hoof so to speak. There they could be loaded on cattle cars and sent to cities further east. This lasted as long as railroads hadn't made it to Texas yet.
Where's Goliad County?
By 1881 L. F. has been appointed postmaster for Weeshatche, and it's probable that he's running a general store already, much as he had from his father's homestead in Dewitt County. Or it's possible the county line changed where his store was located! He lists his occupation as retail grocery in the 1880 census.
After the first two boys, Annie had a daughter, Laura Mae in 1882, who died in 1887. Her second daughter was born in 1882, "Maggie" was the nickname for Marguerite Ellen Webb, who lived till 1961. She could have told me all about the sites, towns and counties, if I'd known to do this research then.
Tomas Ketch Webb was born in 1886 and lived till 1959. Next came Clara Bell Webb. born 1888. married to Fred Clyde Bruce, and lived till 1971.
My grandfather "Bud" was born as Albert James (or Joe) Webb in 1891, and lived till 1919. He married my grandmother in 1915, and my mother was born in 1917.
Annie's last child was Leary Frances Webb, Jr. 1905-1937.
I discovered the 1900 census which had been listed for Annie Webb belonged to someone named Etta Webb...and had nothing to do with her. Fortunately L. F. was well documented as Larry F. Webb as a merchandising business, still in Precinct 3 of Goliad County, probably Weesatchee. His household consisted of Annie, his own children Maggie, Thomas, Clara and Albert J. (Bud.). They also had a 25 year old lodger/housekeeper. By then apparently the siblings had grown and gone to their own homes.
By 1910 they had moved to San Antonio, and L. F. was running a Confectionary, where perhaps one or another of his children worked. And Annie had had her "late life" child (at 42) L. F. Jr. in 1895. Bud was living with them, age 18, was working in a real estate office.
Great grandfather L. F. lived with his family in San Antonio at 130 Lewis St. for several census reports. When my grandfather, Albert Bud Webb, signed his draft card in 1917, his address was 96 Lewis St, (at least a few blocks away), which is still a small cottage. At that time he had married my grandmother, and my mother had just been born.
2016 street view of 125 Lewis St, San Antonio, TX Google image, with some strange coloration through my printer! There was no 130 Lewis St left, but the curved 2 story porch on this house situated on a corner, says that it was thoughtfully created. This house now holds offices of a psychological practice.
One of the interesting things to have found, was that Annie didn't remember much information about her parents. When filling out census reports, she didn't realize they had come from Kentucky, but said her father was from Iowa, and her mother from Ohio. That was done consistently.
Annie's death certificate states she had coronary thrombosis and cirrhosis of the liver, when she died on July 8, 1942. She was 80 years old. Her husband L. F. had predeceased her in 1921, and it's impossible for me to decipher the physician's causes on his death certificate. But it was apparently fast. He was retired from his work and had reached 64 years.
They both were interred under a nice headstone, in Mission Cemetery in San Antonio. My grandfather "Bud" is buried near them. That's the same cemetery where my mother's Miller family are also buried.
