Remember the group Shocking Blue who did Venus? Here they are on youtube singing Never Marry A Railroad Man:
Of interest to a limited audience, are two articles:
Texas has a wonderful free database for newspapers from 150+ years ago. I hope you check out The Portal To Texas History at URL: https://texashistory.unt.edu/ A big fan of archives, I'm very grateful for this database.
My family once lived near Trinity Bay, Turtle Bayou and Double Bayou in southeast Texas. My 2xGreat-Grandmother received "bounty land" from her second husband's military service in the Battles of Bexar and San Jacinto. Several decades of Texas papers have brief mentions of Leaper or Leeper land transfers as the bounty land was sold off. Hannah and Sam Leeper were married but two years before he died in April of 1855. I have yet to find an obituary or a death notice for this veteran of Texas' early battles, but I've instead learned a bit about my ancestors' time. Please see a few peculiar examples below. Remember to click once to enlarge an image. Click once more to return to this page.
1. HERE'S THE MATTER WITH K-STATE: Kansas was in need of missionaries called "Divines."
( Ahem. If I may, see my prior post on women as chattel: http://treepig.posthaven.com/when-women-were-chattel )
3. LOCK UP YOUR DAUGHTERS: Jews were referred to as "Israelites" in some articles. Respectable chattel--I mean, married females were called ladies, while citizens of ill repute were just "women." The evangelical movement of Mormonism was a popular topic. Non-Mormons were called Gentiles by Mormons. Some rural communities became ghost towns as people packed up and moved to Utah with like-minded brethren. Local ("Gentile") papers contained articles warning people against Mormons. This is one salacious piece. Creative license, much?
5. TO THE PEOPLE WHO BROUGHT US GUINNESS, WE SALUTE YOU: Back when America hated Irish immigrants, I find articles of their famed potato famine littered with anti-Catholic sentiment. My own paternal grandmother would speak disparagingly of her "papist" mother-in-law's French heritage. Apaches, papists, Mormons, Know-Nothings, abolitionists--there was much to fear in our nation according to early mainstream media. This article I call Brexit's Loss; America's Gain.
My Mom's first cousin twice removed was Coke Stevenson. A distant cousin, who uses the moniker "GoneToTXas" on Ancestry.com, kindly shared a 1942 news item that I was happy to find today. This article from an Austin, Texas newspaper tells how escaped prisoner Clarence Andrew Mann Parker was NOT shot by the law one hot August night.
Born in Mason County, Texas in 1888, Stevenson received seven years of formal schooling. As a teenager, he worked as a janitor at the Junction State Bank while studying bookkeeping. He became a bank cashier at age 20, studied law and passed the bar in 1913. Served as prosecutor and county judge in Kimble County and was elected to the Texas House of Representatives in 1929.
Coke's wife Fay died after a long illness in 1942, leaving a young son. See Coke and his First Lady Fay at the Governor's Mansion:
As a shipping and manufacturing center, Beaumont had boomed during the war, with 18,000 newcomers in 1942-43 alone. Because of the overcrowding, segregation could not be enforced. For the first time, whites and blacks found themselves living in close quarters, rubbing elbows on crowded buses, and competing for the same jobs. In the summer of 1943, those of both races also had to deal with severe shortages of meat and canned goods. And, to make matters worse, the Ku Klux Klan had invited thousands of their members to Beaumont for a regional convention, just as thousands of African Americans from East Texas were arriving in town for Juneteenth festivities.
SOURCE: https://www.tsl.texas.gov/governors/personality/stevenson-beaumont.html
Stevenson too ran for a Senate seat in 1948 against LBJ--and lost. My grandfather used to speak with great disgust at how Lyndon Johnson had cheated Coke. I found an excellent summary of this contentious campaign on P. S. Ruckman, Jr.'s blog. Please click and read this bit of thuggery that occurred 68 years ago:
http://www.pardonpower.com/2010/10/speaking-of-all-time-great-election.html
"The election was the closest senatorial race in the nation's history. Stevenson appeared to be the winner when an amended return was filed from Jim Wells County giving Johnson enough to win by 87 votes. Stevenson contested the election all the way to the United States Supreme Court." -- Texas State Library & Archives Commission
Coke returned to Kimble County and took up ranching. He remarried and they had a daughter. Cousin GonetoTXas on Ancestry writes this about her grandmother, born Marguerite King:
...she attended Baylor, taught school in rural Kimble County, then moved to Midland to work for an oil company. Her first husband, Lt. Gordon Marshall Heap was killed in action in 1944, leaving her widowed with an infant son, Dennis. She later served as Kimble County clerk where she met Coke Stevenson, who had returned to Junction to practice law following his loss to Lyndon Johnson in the U.S. Senate race of 1948. They married in 1954.
This photo of Mrs. Stevenson was taken in 1934 when she was 16 years old. Isn't she lovely!
--This page is for a friend.
Beginning on Line 76, see George Hicks' family in the 1910 U.S. Federal Census for Gans, Sequoyah County, Oklahoma. Please be sure and CLICK ON each image to see it BIGGER. Click a second time to return to this blog.
A re-sized portion showing Mr. Hicks' family on that 1910 census page is here:
See George Hicks' family in the 1920 Federal Census beginning on Line 20:
Again, a partial blown up section of the 1920 census page is here:
See George Hicks' family in the 1930 Federal Census for Gans beginning on Line 45:
The re-sized partial section of that 1930 page is here:
And on Line 17, see George and his family in the 1940 Federal Census in Gans. Interesting to see who the neighbors were, too. A re-sized portion of the page showing the family is just below this image:
Census takers were held to certain guidelines. This link explains some of those standards over the years:
https://usa.ipums.org/usa/voliii/tEnumInstr.shtml
SEE SIX WISER BROTHERS' DRAFT CARDS: remember to click on the image to make it larger. CLICK AGAIN to return to this page
Odus Udel Weiser (27 Dec 1878 to 12 Dec 1942)
Jess Elmer Wiser (24 Oct 1884 to 16 Dec 1946)
Rufus Ira Weiser (7 Jan 1887 to 8 July 1956)
Emeal Lemuel "Amie" Wiser (23 Nov 1888 to 24 April 1968)
Urban Sylvester Weiser (19 July 1893 to 1 Oct 1966)
and Elton Sylvenus Wiser (13 May 1896 to 24 Nov 1976)
OLD MAN'S DRAFT OF 1942: I found five of six brothers' draft cards for World War II. Men of a certain age were required to report to the Board. And historians are glad they did, as it provides further data about our families. But first, this paragraph from familysearch.org's WIKI page explains it better:
Fourth Registration (Old Man's Draft)Included men with a date of birth from April 28, 1877 to February 16, 1897.On April 27, 1942, the Selective Service conducted the fourth of six draft registrations. The "World War II Selective Service Draft Cards: Fourth Registration, 1942" is often referred to as the “Old Man’s Registration” or the “Old Man’s Draft".This registration was different from the others conducted by the government. It's sole purpose was to gather information regarding manpower resources in the United States. The registration included men born between 27 April 1877 and 16 February 1890 - ages 45 to 64 - and listed their industrial capacity and skills that could be used for military support during World War II.
Odus Weiser's 1942 Draft Card: (two pages)
Due to copyright concerns, I can only share the link below. But ask that you please see Shorpy's photograph of the day of a young mother in Tulare County, California as captured by the renowned Dorothea Lange. As you will recall, Lange was commissioned by the Farm Security Administration to record images of families who struggled to survive during the Depression. I have family who also had a rough beginning in California after moving from Texas.
http://www.shorpy.com/node/21208
From the look of the scenery, you would think the house sits in Kansas or Texas. Yet this is in the same county that holds Sequoia National Park and Kings Canyon National Park--both beautiful places to backpack.
Be sure and click on the photo itself to see it in a much larger format. Lange left a splendid legacy!
This song is dedicated to my sisters, as a flash from our sectarian past.
http://oldtimemelody.yolasite.com/god-cares-for-me.php
The Dallas Morning News wrote of the wedding of my Great-Aunt May Willhelm to Luther Ray Alexander on the evening of December 7, 1926. May's sister Ollie was her maid of honor, and a Mr. Culpepper was the best man. Lucille and Louise Alexander were flower girls. The bride was 28, and her husband was 38. A reception with 250 guests was held at a friend's home.
The announcement begins under the sub-titled date "Thursday." Click on the image to resize it. Click again to return to this page. Below the article on the same page is an advertisement reminding us that Wise Men buy Buicks for gifts. I so enjoy reading old papers!
Source: Alexander-Willhelm Wedding, Dallas Morning News (Dallas, Texas), Thursday, December 9, 1926, Part 2, Page 19 via GenealogyBank.com/
