The James Thomas Smith Family - Part 13

 

Ollie Perry Smith

Born Feb 6, 1894 – Died Aug 25, 1898

Age 4

          Ollie Perry Smith was born February 6, 1894 to James Thomas and Sarah (Sanders) Smith, at Select, Ohio County, Kentucky.

           He was five years younger than my grandmother, Eva (Smith) Cox, in age and she told me it was her job every day to look after him. 

          Tape March 7, 1977:  Grandmother:  “Ollie died when he was four years old…a little boy.  He died from spinal meningitis.   I was about 12, I guess…maybe 10. (Actually, she was nine.)   He wasn’t sick very long – maybe for a day and a night…maybe two days.” 

~.~ 

          In The Hartford Herald, Wednesday, August 31, 1898 issue, on page 3, column 7, under the community of Select, mention was made of the death of Ollie Perry Smith, age four: 

Select, KY 

“A little child of Mr. James Smith, of near this place, died Thursday morning and was buried Friday.  The sympathy of the community is extended to the bereaved family.” 

~.~ 

          Tape Oct. 10, 1977:  Grandmother:  Yes, Ollie was four years old, and he passed away at the time mother had typhoid fever.  I guess I was about eight or ten years old, maybe.  So I had to take care of Harb when he was a baby.  Mother was unconscious.  She never did even know when Ollie died.  And after she got well, I can remember her going to the door, and she said at night, and looked out…she always wanted the children in, you know.  But, she said, “He never came.”  It was hard for her to realize.  She didn’t see him sick or anything.  And they tried to tell her.  I believe it was Cicero Crowder was the one.  And she was unconscious…she never did know.  She was just too sick.”  

(Excerpt from letter of Evelyn Elmore, age 94, daughter of Aunt Della Catherine Smith Taylor (the oldest sister of Eva Caroline Smith Cox):  (Sarah below is their mother). 

          “Mother got her horse and went to Select - (pronounced SEE-lect per Grandmother Cox- JB) after grocery’s, etc.  Grandmother “Sarah” had typhoid fever – was in the parlor – away from the family.  She went into a coma for about two days and nights and Mrs. Raley would set by her bed day and night and take wet cotton and keep her lips damp – no response – and Grandpa was worried sick.  They would keep the children in the yard a lot.  

          “So when Mother got back from Select (store), the children ran to her and said Ollie Perry is acting and talking strange – (saying “see moon, see stars”).  She hurried to him.  He called her “Detta” and said, “see moon and stars” – as he pointed to the blue sky.  She grabbed him and felt of his head.  (Aunt Della, his oldest sister, would have been eighteen then. JB) 

          “She said he was hot with fever and they called the Doctor and he said Ollie had spinal meningitis – and to isolate him.  Keep the children away.  So she said she had such a load on her.  Grandmother Sarah in a coma and Ollie dying, and Grandpa walking the yard, wringing his hands.  He thought they both would die. 

          “Ollie died and Uncles and Aunts (Sanders) all gathered in for Ollie’s funeral – ready to load the Box (caskets were homemade back then – padded with cotton and lined with Sateene).   So Uncle John and Uncle Tom was standing at the foot of their sister’s bed (Sarah).  So sad.  Suddenly she opened her eyes and looked at them.  Said, “Tom, why are you here?  What a pretty tie you have on.  Grandpa rushed to her side.  She looked at him.  “Jim, why do you look so sad?  Is everyone all right?”  He said, “Duck, I have to tell you – Ollie Perry is dead.  We are ready to take him to the Brick house cemetery.  They are here to go with me.”  She said, “Bring him to me so I can see him.  They brought the casket to her bedside, she looked at him, his clothes, said he looked nice, touched his hair – closed her eyes and was in the coma again. 

          “(I used to weep when mother would tell this – not a tear…never could cry, not when Eldred, Jewell or Dad) died).  (Eldred and Jewell were her two sons. JB)   A very sad and caring person.  She touched each and said, “So sweet, I love them.”  So maybe Grandma just didn’t shed tears either…my mother-in-law didn’t shed a tear when she lost a little four-year-old boy and a daughter and oldest son.  But no tears.  I’m like my Dad - tears come easy – as we would start to leave to come back home, he would kiss us on the forehead and get his handkerchief. 

          “So Grandmother came out of the coma and no one else got typhoid fever.  Your grandmother has probably told you all this.  I love to think of those times we’d sit by the fireside or table and talk.”    ( The above is an excerpt from letter of Evelyn Elmore, age 94, daughter of Aunt Della Catherine Smith Taylor (the oldest sister of Eva Caroline Smith Cox.  Letter written to Janice Brown). 

~.~

Thanks to Janice Brown.

The James Thomas Smith Family - Part 12

 

Ella Jennie Smith

Born May 8, 1891 – Died Mar 19 1978

and husband

 Roy Thompson Stewart

November 26, 1892 – November 23, 1971

          Ella Jennie Smith was born May 8, 1891 in Ohio County, the daughter of James Thomas Smith and Sarah (Sanders).

          When she was twenty-three, she married Roy Thompson Stewart, age twenty-two, on January 30, 1914.   Roy was the son of John Henry Stewart and Susannah Miranda (Cox).  This couple had two sons, Velno Kenneth and Theron M. Stewart.

          In the Hartford Herald, page 5, column, 4, dated Wednesday, 4 Feb. 1914, I ran across an article although it was only partially included in another page I was working on for an obituary of Tom Sanders.  The part of the article quoted, said: 

"Smith - Stewart"

"    At the residence of Rev. Birch Shields, Beaver Dam, at noon, January 30, 1914, while seated in their buggy, Mr. Roy Stewart and Miss Ella Smith, both of Select, Ky. were united in matrimony, Rev. Shields performing the ceremony.  Miss Smith is the accomplished daughter of Mr. James T. Smith, a prosperous farmer living near Select, and Mr. Stewart is a successful teacher of the county and the son of Mr. J. H Stewart, merchant of Select.  These young people have many friends who wish them much success as they move down the steps of time as man and wife."    

~.~

          An obituary in the Ohio County News, dated Thursday, March 23, 1978, page 17, reads: 

"Ella Stewart" 

"Cromwell -- Ella Stewart, 86, died Sunday, March 19, at Ohio County Hospital.

     

    She was a member of Bald Knob United Methodist Church and Cromwell Lodge No. 294, Order of the Eastern Start.  Her husband, Roy Stewart, died in 1971.

 

    Survivors include two sons, Kenneth Stewart of Leitchfield and Theron Stewart of Hammond, Indiana; three grandchildren; two brothers, Harb and Ellis Smith, both of Cromwell, and a sister, Mrs. J. N. Cox of Troup, Texas.

 

    Services were 2 p.m. Tuesday at William L. Danks Funeral Home.  Burial was in Sunnyside Cemetery." 

          Roy Stewart married the sister of Eva Caroline (Smith) Cox, my grandmother.  He was a well respected member of his community and among his family relations.  He was a member of Select Church of Christ, the Cromwell Lodge No. 692 F&AM and the Cromwell OES No. 294.  A retired rural mail carrier, he retired in 1958.  

          He had Masonic graveside rites and was buried in Sunnyside Cemetery. 

          He helped me with my research on the Thomas Smith family.  His parents were John Henry Stewart and Susannah Miranda Cox.  Susannah, called “Susie,” was Granddaddy Cox’s oldest sister. 

         An obituary from The Ohio County News, dated Thursday, Dec 2, 1971,  page 8, reads: 

"Roy T. Stewart"

 

"Cromwell -- Roy T. Stewart, 78, died at 12:15 p.m., Tuesday, November 23, at the Ohio County Hospital.

 

    Mr. Stewart was born November 26, 1892 in Ohio County.  He was a member of the Select Church of Christ, the Cromwell Lodge No. 692 F&AM and Cromwell OES No. 294.  He was a retired mail carrier, retiring in 1958.

 

    Survivors include his widow, Mrs. Ella Smith Stewart; two sons, Kenneth Stewart and Theron Stewart, both of Hammond, Indiana; three grandchildren.

 

    Funeral services were conducted at 2 p.m. Friday, November 27, at the William L. Danks Funeral Home by the Rev. Gary Embry, pastor of the United Methodist Church, assisted by the Rev. Arnett Williams, pastor of Concord Baptist Church.  Burial was in Sunnyside Cemetery." 

~.~

Excerpt from tape 10-10-77: 

          Grandmother:  “Well, we lived with Ella and Roy.  They lived out on a farm and she was afraid, and we were living at the mines at that time, and they wanted us to come up there because Roy was teaching school and was gone all day.  So they come and begged us to move up there with them.  We lived right in the house with them.  We lived together.  We had one side of the house and Roy and Ella had the other.  At that time we didn’t have any children.” 

          I have many recorded tales that my grandmother told me about herself and Aunt Ella growing up.  They were close in age – only two years apart. 

                                                ~~~<.>~~~

Thanks to Janice Brown.

The James Thomas Smith Family - Part 11

 

Eva Caroline Smith

Born Mar 31, 1889 – Died Dec 4, 1988

and husband,

Jasper Newton Cox

May 10, 1884 – September 21, 1974

          My grandmother, Eva Caroline Smith, was born in Select, Ohio County, Kentucky, in 1889, the third daughter and fifth child in a family of nine children.  Her parents were James Thomas Smith and Sarah Sanders.  Her paternal grandparents were Thomas Smith, (Jr.) and Catherine "Kitty" Ann Jenkins; her maternal grandparents were Charles Sanders and Fidella Porter - all of Ohio County, Kentucky.  Eva Caroline Smith had four brothers and four sisters.  She was the fifth child and third daughter born to her parents.

          In 1908 at her parent's home at age 19, she married Jasper Newton Cox, 24, who only months before had been discharged from the Army after serving five years.  They had grown up together in the same town, being neighbors, and attended the Select School together.  The first date they ever had was to go to church.  "Newton didn't have his own buggy, and always hired one to go courting in.  It seemed like he always picked the wildest horse he could get at the livery stable," she told me.  "And so," she said, "we had some harrowing experiences several times." They had been married 66 years when he died in 1974 at the age of 90.

From Oral History Interview:

 Tape recording:  3-10-77:  Grandmother:  “Yes, I had a sewing machine.  The first one I had came from Sears and Roebuck.  We were living on a farm in Kentucky in 1912.  Eula Mae was a baby.  I was so proud of that machine.”

~.~

          Every year, her birthday on March 31 was a big event and everyone who could, came to help her celebrate it.  As long as she lived in her own home, it was celebrated there; after she moved to Tyler to live with her youngest daughter, it was celebrated at my aunt's home.  All her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren tried to come, if possible.  In 1988 she reached a milestone and celebrated her 99th birthday.  Her three daughters gave a party for her at Darrell's home, and as always there were flowers, a beautiful cake with candles, and punch.  We all called on her to make a wish, to which she promptly stated, "I hope you all live to be a hundred.  You deserve it."

          A wonderful story teller, Eva Cox recounted spell-binding stories of family happenings and day-to-day living in an era that is gone forever.  As her oldest granddaughter, I visited her frequently to collect her life history. Though it was hard times, she made even the Depression years seem exciting!  She left a legacy - her life history, preserved on cassette tapes over a 17-year period, which will ultimately become the basis for my book about her life, her parents, brothers and sisters, and her grandparents, one of whom was a Civil War soldier.  He was Thomas Smith, who fought on the Union side, and was captured by a group of Confederates on New Year's Day near Bowling Green, Kentucky in 1862.  He never returned home from the war.

          While Eva Cox did not make much history herself, she lived through some of the most momentous years in recorded history.  Seventeen presidents of the United States were inaugurated after her birth.  Several have sent her greetings, including one on her 99th birthday from President and Mrs. Reagan.  Numerous wars have been fought, won and lost.

          My grandmother's early Kentucky tales recall the family smokehouse, making syrup and soap, moving from their old log house to a new two-story log house built by her father when she was five, home chores, her brothers and sisters, play parties, church activities, and her courtship and marriage.  Her tales filled many pleasurable hours for our family members while sitting out on the back porch, or after a special Sunday dinner while sitting around her dining table. 

          She told many stories to her grandchildren when they were young.  I asked her once if the stories were true, and she chuckled and said, "Some were, but some I made up."  All of the stories, though, were very entertaining.  When she was trying to get us to take a nap, we lay on the bed and she played little games with us, which we will always remember.  Her favorite songs were "My Old Kentucky Home,"  "Little Brown Church in the Wildwood", “In The Sweet Bye and Bye,” and "Sweet Hour of Prayer."   When she lived in Kentucky, she and her sisters and families attended the old Bald Knob Church.

          Every year everyone in the family who was home went over to her house to watch the Kentucky Derby with her.  My grandmother always tried to watch it, and when they played "My Old Kentucky Home" before the race started, one time she rose from her chair and stood with her hand on her heart.  She said there was no other song like that one; it always reminded her of her home and native state, and so it was another of her favorites.

          She was still telling her life stories to me, even six months before her death.  She had a wonderful recall and memory, and a dry wit, coupled with a soft-spoken voice that had just a hint of a Kentucky brogue.  She almost made it to her 100th birthday; she was ill for about four months and died at the age of 99 years, eight months and six days.

          Darrell loaned me a copy of Grandmother's "Day Book" that was written by her own mother, Sarah (Sanders) Smith, for each of her children. (She died a year later, November 1931).  It was a long, thin, gray, canvass-covered book...100 pages.  At the end Sarah Smith wrote:

"June 18, in the year 1930" --  below this date she wrote these words:

"Mrs. Eva C. Cox, My Daughter, this Book is written in Rememberance of your Mother.  With lots of love.   Mrs. Sarah Smith." 

          What a great thing for her to do and she must have worked diligently a little bit each day to make one of these for each of her eight living children.  It must have helped to pass lonely days, and she realized how valuable it would be for each of her children to have - "lest they forget."

           She wanted them to know where their roots were.  She was undoubtedly a very smart and intelligent woman, with great common sense.

~.~

"Troup Couple Will Mark 65th Anniversary Sunday” 

Troup--Mr. and Mrs. J. N. Cox of Troup with observe their 65^th wedding anniversary with members of their family Sunday. 

Both were born in Kentucky and have resided in Texas for 53 years.  They have lived near Troup for the past 23 years. 

They are the parents of four children:  Mrs. Darrell Appl of Tyler; Mrs. Retha Green of Corpus Christi, Mrs. Eula Mae Smith, of Leoti, Kansas, and Gilbert O. Cox, Troup. 

Other descendants include six grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren." 

~.~

            The obituary for my grandmother, Eva Caroline (Smith) Cox, which appeared in the Tyler Morning Telegraph on Monday, December 5, 1988 is quoted here: 

"Mrs. E. C. Cox Services Tuesday" 

Services of Mrs. Eva Caroline Cox, 99, Tyler, are scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Tuesday in the Lloyd James Funeral Home chapel with Dr. Paul W. Powell officiating.

 

Burial will be in Rose Hill Cemetery in Tyler.

 

Mrs. Cox died Sunday in a Tyler hospital after a lengthy illness.

 

She was born March 31, 1889 in Cromwell, Kentucky.  She was a housewife. She had been a resident of Texas since 1919, living in New Summerfield for 40 years and Tyler for four years.  She was preceded in death by her husband, J. N. Cox in 1974 and a son, Gilbert O. Cox in 1984.

 

Survivors include three daughters, Mrs. Darrell Appl, Tyler, Mrs. Eula Mae Smith, Leoti, Kansas, and Mrs. Retha Green, Corpus Christi; six grandchildren, 12 great-grandchildren, and nine great-great grandchildren.

 

Interment will be in Rose Hill Cemetery." 

~.~ 

          My grandfather, Jasper Newton Cox, was the 12th child of the fourteen children born to his parents, James William Cox and Mary Elizabeth Mitchell of Ohio County, Kentucky.  Most of his ancestors on both sides had been in the county since shortly after Ohio County was formed in 1798.  His paternal grandparents were Thomas Jefferson Cox and Susannah Miranda Leach; his maternal grandparents were Joseph Martin Mitchell and Susannah Caroline Acton. 

~.~

          His obituary in the Tyler Morning Telegraph in September 1974 is quoted below:

"J. N. COX"

 

New Summerfield -- J. N. Cox, 90, of New Summerfield died

Saturday morning at his residence following a brief illness.

 

Funeral services are set for Monday at 2 p.m. in the Lloyd

James Funeral Home chapel with the Rev. Milton Gardner

officiating.  Masonic graveside services will follow at the Rose

Hill Cemetery.

Mr. Cox was a native of Ohio County, Kentucky and was in the

drilling department of several major oil companies.  He was a

veteran of the Spanish American War in which he served with

the U. S. Army.  He had lived in New Summerfield for the past

25 years.   Mr. Cox was a member of the Baptist Church, the Troup

Masonic Lodge No. 272, and had been a Mason for 49 years.

His survivors include his wife, Mrs. Eva C. Cox of New Summerfield,

a son, Gilbert Cox of New Summerfield; three daughters, Mrs.

Robert A. Smith of Leoti, Kansas, Mrs. Duane Marvin Green of

Corpus Christi, and Mrs. Darrell Appl of Tyler; six grandchildren

and nine great-grandchildren, and several nieces and nephews.

 

Pallbearers will be Masons."

Note:  When my aunt wrote the information for her father's obituary, she did not realize that it was not the Spanish American War that her father fought in, but rather, the period after the war called the "Insurrection Period."

Thanks to Janice Brown.

The James Thomas Smith Family - Part 10

Ellis James Smith

Born January 5, 1887 – Died 20 Feb 1982

 and wife,

Jeanetta “Nettie” Drake

Born 26 July, 1891 – Died 21 Nov 1908 

         Ellis James Smith was the second son of his parents, James Thomas and Sarah (Sanders) Smith, born in 1887 on a cold winter day in Ohio County, Kentucky.  When he was 21, he married Jeanetta Drake, 17, daughter of James Drake and Eliza Shields.  They had three children:  Edith Lorene, Gladys Pauline, and Glenn James.

~.~

Tape recording March 10, 1977:  We asked grandmother to tell us something funny about Uncle Ellis: 

           GM:  “I remember one time three of us was on the horse behind Ellis, and we all fell off.  I believe it was Ella was on the hind in.  Just Della and Ella fell off.  But I held on to Ellis.  We were going up a steep hill…all four of us.  Boy, if our Daddy had known that!  I think they called the horse Old Babe…an old grey horse.  Gentle, but we all played on that old horse.”

          Then somebody asked about Uncle Ellis getting spider bit. 

           Grandmother:  “Em-hm.  On his arm, but he tells that story different to me.  I don’t think I am going to tell that.  They were working in the field, and he pulled off his shirt and laid it down on some logs, I think it was.  And come quitting time, when they were going to go home, he put that shirt on, and he come on, but the spider bit him, and he knew what kind of spider it was.  It didn’t seem to hurt him at the time, but he come on home, and got ready and went to see his girl…I don’t remember what girl it was…but he got sick on the way and he turned around and come back.  Now, that’s the way I remember it, but Ellis tells it a little different. 

            “And of course, they didn’t know what to do for him.  And Mother did have a little whiskey there…she always kept it locked up in her trunk in case of sickness.  Cause none of them didn’t drink.  And she went and got that and gave him a toddy until the doctor could come.  And then she called Grandpa.  He was real good in sickness.  Grandpa Sanders.  And they got him drunk, and he said he was dying.  Well, really and truly, I wouldn’t have taken it a bit harder if he had been.  We all was standing around the bed crying.  I thought he was gone.  He was just drunk, but we didn’t know it.  Cause they just give him so much of it.  I can remember that.  I don’t care what any of them says.  But he got all right when he sobered up.  (Laughter.)  Because he wasn’t used to that.  Because Ellis didn’t ever…I never did know of him to drink.  But they just gave him too much of it.  I can remember that as well as if it were yesterday when he talked…and told us all goodbye and that he would see us in heaven.  I didn’t know how they reacted or anything.  But he never had nothing like that.”

          Retha:  “Mama, wasn’t it Uncle Ellis that had the flock of chickens? 

          Grandmother:  “Yes, he had, oh maybe, I guess two dozen.  Leghorn hens up there at that barn.  The far one.  You see, they had an old one, and then they built a new one, and he had all them chickens out there, and they just laid eggs.  Those leghorns really laid a lot of eggs, yes.  He would gather them up and take them to the store to Select…to John Stewart.  That’s how he made his spending money.  He liked that.  He was business minded.  Setting old hens and raising little chickens.  They were all his too.”

          Retha:  “Didn’t you say he would work so long, and…”

          Grandmother:  “Oh yes.  He was just quiet and went at everything gently.  He was never worried and there wasn’t no fuss about him.  And mother said, he raised as good a crop as any of them.  Without any trouble.  Yes, Ellis was always quiet.  Steady.”

Ellis James Smith

June 15, 1887 – Feb 20, 1982

          On a July 11, 1988 tape I stayed with Grandmother while Darrell and Eula Mae went to take Eula Mae to the doctor for a stress test.  Grandmother described their old and new house to me: 

         “We had about one acre orchard.  The first barn was great big, and was pretty old.  When it fell in, they built a new barn with a driveway through it for the wagons.  The shed was it and had a driveway through it for the wagons, and it had stalls on both sides and troughs fixed for each stall, and a gate to go in and out and around the barn, and you open it and throw in the corn in and was fixed that way so the horses couldn’t kick you with their heels when you went around to fee them.

          “The barn had a loft without a banister, and Ellis walked off it one time.  He and our cousin, George Taylor, had gone to church and had come back by the barn.  The loft just had a ladder, and Ellis thought he was stepping down where the ladder was, but in place of that, he just stepped off the loft into air.

        “It knocked him unconscious, but George didn’t bring him to the house until he revived.  And it left a gray spot on his head where his hair just turned grey.  They were young men at the time, old enough to be going with the girls.”

~.~

 Obituary for Ellis J. Smith from the Times-News, Hartford, KY, dated February 25, 1982, Page 2-A

                                               Ellis J. Smith

Ellis J. Smith, 94, of Cromwell, died Saturday, February 20, 1982, at Ohio County Hospital, Hartford.

He was born in Ohio County and was a member of Pleasant Hill United Methodist Church.

 

Survivors include a son, Glenn Smith of Jupiter, Florida; two daughters, Mrs. Oren Davis of Cromwell and Mrs. Kenneth Barnard of Owensboro; four grandchildren; eight great-grandchildren; three great-great grandchildren; a brother, Harb Smith of Cromwell; and a sister, Eva Cox of Troup, Texas.

 

Services were Tuesday at William L. Danks Funeral Home, Beaver Dam.  Burial was in Sunnyside Cemetery.

 

~.~

 

         One time when we were talking about family, Grandmother remembered that Uncle Ellis’ wife was called “Nettie”.  Grandmother said that she had never known that her name was really “Jenetta”.

        She said, “Well, I never did know that.  And her name was Jenetta?”  That’s the first time I ever heard that.  And she was a nice looking girl, and could always fix her hair so pretty.  And she was a good housekeeper, too, believe me.  They had two daughters, Gladys and Edith.”

         “Edith was born before Gilbert was.  And before Eula Mae.  Edith and Gilbert were babies together.  We lived pretty close together.  We would go spend the night with each other.  Saturday evening until Sunday.”  Retha said, “Edith was born on the old Chancellor place.  That mama got when they divided up, you know. ”

Obituary from The Ohio County News, Thursday, 25 December, 1969, page 11:

 "Mrs. Nettie Smith"

 "Cromwell -- Mrs. Jeanette (Nettie) Smith, 78, died at 10 p.m.  Monday, December 22, at the Ohio County Hospital, following  a brief illness.

Mrs. Smith was born in Ohio County on July 26, 1891.  She was the daughter of the late Jim and Eliza Shields Drake.  Mrs. Smith  was a member of the Pleasant Hill United Methodist Church.

Survivors include her husband, Ellis Smith, two daughters, Mrs. Oren Davis of Cromwell, and Mrs. Kenneth Barnard, Owensboro; one son, Glenn Smith of Richmond; two sisters, Mrs. Evelyn Reynolds of California, and Mrs. Mary Routh of Depauw, Ind.; one brother, Clay Drake of Beaver Dam; four grandchildren and seven great- grandchildren.

Services were set for 2 p.m. Wednesday, December 24, at the William L. Funeral Home, Beaver Dam, conducted by Rev. Arnett Williams, pastor of the Concord Baptist Church, with burial in Sunnyside Cemetery."

 Thanks to Janice Brown.

The James Thomas Smith Family - Part 9

 Mary Elizabeth Smith

Born May 10, 1885 – Died July 8, 1975

 and husband

 Everett Sandefur

August 23, 1885- June 21, 1954

          Mary Elizabeth Smith, called “Lizzie” by her family, was the second daughter born to James T. and Sarah (Sanders) Smith.  She was lively and fun, always getting into mischief and pulling pranks, and married when she was twenty to Everett Earnest Sandefur, also twenty, the son of Lucian A. Sandefur and Mary Emily Beck. 

          Everett and Lizzie went to Texas on their honeymoon, and I have a good studio picture of them sitting in a buggy in front of a store in Beaumont.  At one time they lived in Edgerly, Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana for a period of several years, before moving to Palestine, Texas. Everett went to work in a store there, and in later years owned his own grocery store in Palestine.

          This couple had one child, a daughter, Joye, who married Frank Moore, in 1931.  They had no children.

          My grandmother and her older sister were very close and their two families lived together in a number of different places.  Joye was like another sister to my dad and his three sisters.

          Tape March 7, 1977 – Retha:  “Tell about Auntie (Mary Elizabeth) fighting at Bunker Hill when you started home from school.  (Laughter)” 

          Grandmother: “Well I was quite small, and Auntie was four years older than me.  But from the time we got out of school after we had started home, and there was boys and girls all the way, and they would have a fight.  They chunked at each other, playing, you know.  Not really fighting…just scuffling.  And I think they called it Bunker Hill.  Auntie would pull off her fascinator (that you put over your head and tied them under each end to keep you warm.) …Auntie would pull off her fascinator and that’s where they would have their last battle on their way home.  They would get her fascinator and throw it up in the trees…so it would catch up in the trees.  There were three roads, and they turned one way and we turned the other.  And she would get their cap…and no telling what she did do with that…probably went higher than the trees, knowing Auntie.”

          “Oh, at Easter we always got new hats and shoes, and clothes.  And Ella and I both got us an Easter hat.  And it was called leghorn.  And it was white and had red roses on it…for Easter.  And it was real broad-brimmed.  And the next Easter, I believe it was, I got one that was real pretty…it was kindly turban shaped, straw…pretty straw, and it had a veil over the crown and then inside, it had a whole wreath of forget-me-nots.  Blue ones and pink ones.  It was real pretty and I really liked that hat.  Yes, that’s what we wore.  We always had new dresses and new slippers…new clothes for Easter.  Ma made all of those dresses because she had a sewing machine.  That’s why Della did a lot of the house work, because Ma did all the sewing.  Della was real good.”

          Auntie told me a number of stories about growing up that I wish I had recorded but did not.  One of the things she told was about her grandmother, Kitty Ann Smith, and her children, sitting around in chairs picking cotton seeds out of cotton bolls and putting the seeds in cups.  Each child had a cup.  They were doing this when the Rebels came and invaded their farm and took their wagon and blue geese, and tried to find her money.  However she had it wrapped up in her quilt scrap pieces in her lap and they didn’t find it.  I do have this story below that Auntie told me:

          "Auntie said their house was a big two-story house, painted white, with pretty wall paper.  The bedrooms were all upstairs and they had one bedroom downstairs.  They had a lot of flowers and the prettiest garden with peonies that looked like wax - red and white.  At the end of the garden walk, the landscape stair-stepped, and they had a grape arbor with slatted roof-top.

          Auntie said that Grandma Sanders' house had a summer kitchen where they cooked and canned.

          She also said they had a dog, named Old Sport that bit Grandmother once by the chimney.

          They had a smoke house out behind the house.  She could remember that her father killed 16 hogs one cold winter day, and there are lots of people there.  They let her walk to Grandma Sanders' house to get a knife to use in the hog-killing.

          Lilacs arrived in the early spring and those hardy shrubs filled spring with its delicate scent and profusion of blooms - white and purple. 

          When Auntie and Uncle got married in 1905, they came to Texas on their honeymoon - and Joye gave me a picture of them taken in Beaumont, sitting in a fine looking buggy  - and they were a good-looking young couple.  

         They moved to Palestine, Texas in 1929 - probably from Mexia in Limestone County.  At one time, Uncle had a filling station, and Frank worked in it after school.  I've forgotten who told me that.  He next had a grocery store.  Uncle's Grocery Store,"Sandefur's Grocery" store was located at 601 West Reagan Sreet, Palestine, according to the 1937-1938 Palestine City Directory.  Their residence was in the Southview Addition.  Ten years later in the 1947-1948 directory, both addresses remained unchanged.

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Obituary from the Palestine Daily Herald,

Tuesday, June 22, 1954

                                                                  <<~~>> 

E. E. SANDEFUR RITES WEDNESDAY 

           Funeral services for E. E. Sandefur, 68, will be held in the Bailey Funeral Chapel at 6 p.m. Wednesday with the Rev. Morris House, pastor of First Methodist Church, officiating. 

 

Burial will follow in New Addition Cemetery.

 

          Mr. Sandefur died at 7:15 p.m. Monday in Memorial Hospital, following an illness.

 

           Born in Beaver Dam, Kentucky, he came to Palestine to make his home in 1929.  He had operated Sandefur Grocery Store here for the past 19 years.

 

          Pallbearers will be Fred Rogers, J. D. Glenn, Lacy Kendrick, Robert Bristow, Bill Presley, O. R. Williams, Weldon Bynum and Ed Lockey. 

          Survivors include his wife; one daughter, Mrs. Frank Moore of Palestine; three brothers, C. W. Sandefur of Mexia, Adrian Sandefur of Pasadena, Calif., and John Sandefur of Alamosa, Colo; and one sister, Mrs. Virginia Taylor of Beaver Dam.

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Obituary from The Palestine Daily Herald,

Wednesday, July 9, 1975

                                                     Mrs. Sandefur                                                                                                  

Mrs. Mary Elizabeth Sandefur of Palestine, died Tuesday morning in a local hospital following a long illness.  

 

Funeral services will be held in Bailey Memorial Chapel at 2 p.m. Thursday with the Rev. Jim Crawford officiating.  Burial will be in New Addition Cemetery.

 

Pallbearers will be J. D. Glenn, W. A. Fuller, Jr., Robert Bristow, Weldon Bynum, Herbert Schuler and David Dial.

 

Mrs. Sandefur was born May 10, 1885 in Ohio County, Kentucky, to James T. and Sarah Sanders Smith.  She had resided in Palestine for the past 46 years and was preceded in death by her husband, Everett E. Sandefur, on June 21, 1954.  Mrs. Sandefur was a long standing member of the First United Methodist Church and Women's Society of Christian Service. 

                               

Survivors include one daughter, Mrs. Frank Moore of Palestine; three sisters, Mrs. J. N. Cox of New Summerfield, Mrs. Della Taylor of  Beaver Dam, Ky., and Mrs. Roy T. Stewart of Cromwell, Ky.; two brothers, Ellis Smith and H. X. Smith, both of Cromwell, Ky. and several nieces and nephews.

WWI Draft Registration

WWII Draft Registration

Thanks to Janice Brown.