#52ancestors Post Seventeen: William W. Noah Is Buried in the Bethel Cemetery in Erath County

This week's writing prompt for #52ancestors is cemetery. One of my favorite visits to a cemetery was my 2003 visit to the Bethel Cemetery in Erath County, Texas. This was not because I found a lot of family in the cemetery. William W. Noah is the only one. But, because my grandmother grew up in the very small community of Bethel. The Hairstons, Noahs, and Thompsons left Falls County to live in Bethel in about 1883. Phillip A. Hairston, my great-grandfather, and his sisters, Permelia Hairston Noah and Mattie Hairston Chisum Thompson, all settled in the Bethel School Community. This community no longer exists, but seeing the landscape and the surrounding areas added a little more to my family history. 

William W. Noah was born April 7, 1866. According to the 1880 census record, he was born in Texas.  He was the first child of Permelia Ann Hairston and Joseph Sydney Noah. His only sibling was Oscar Edward Noah born in 1871. William, also seen as Willie, was about seven years old when his father died in Falls County. Ten years later his family moved to the Bethel School Community. 

William died only about a year after arriving in Erath County on November 15, 1884. It is said he took arsenic to control his epilepsy and died as a result of too much arsenic. 

Visit Find A Grave to see more of the Bethel Cemetery and learn a little more about the Bethel School Community. 

Click on the family tree to see an enlarged version. 

If you want to know more about the families I research, click here to like my Facebook page where you will see each post and other genealogical finds. 

Diana

© 2018

Sources

Family photographs and documents from the collection of Diana Bryan Quinn.

Friday's Photo: Plymouth Rock

Bill and I visited Plymouth in 1985.
We were looking at historical landmarks and buying
bargain antiques - NOT thinking about ancestry. 

I started two posts this week, one for my NC Giddens family and one for Bienville Parish families, but got a little distracted and haven't finished them as I found I am only one generation away from connecting my mother's Reed family to a Mayflower Passenger. 

I have been researching for 20 years and never looked at this family beyond what my mother found when she was searching in the 1980s. What a surprise to see other family trees at Ancestry.com connecting my family to Francis Cooke, a Mayflower passenger. 

I sent $35 to the General Society of Mayflower Descendants and learned the first five generations were proven and I would have to document the remaining. I have documentation for all except one generation. I will need to work on that one with hopes I can do most of it from home. However, another trip to Plymouth might be fun.  

So, if you are one of my cousins, who descends from Charles Giddens and Mary Lucy Glynn, this may be your family. 

Francis Cooke

Mary Cooke (his daughter) married John Tompson/Tomson

Hester Tomson married William Reed

John Reed married Mary Wheeler

Peter Reed married Lucy Hugens

Benjamin Reed married Huldah Pratt 

I need to prove Benjamin Reed (born about 1752) is the son of Peter Reed.

Nancy Reed married Joseph T. Glynn

Mary Lucy Glynn married Charles Giddens

My grandmother

My mother

Me

If you want to know more about the families I research, click here to like my Facebook page where you will see each post and other genealogical finds. 

Diana

© 2018 

Sources 

Family photographs and documents from the collection of Diana Bryan Quinn.

Reed, John Ludovicus. Reed genealogy: descendants of William Reade, of Weymouth, Mass., from 1635-1902.  Internet Archive. Web. 27 Apr. 2018. <https://archive.org/details/reedgenealogydes01reed>.

From the Files of Marguerite Cook Clark: A Young Crowd in Bienville Parish

This photo, found in the Marguerite Cook Clark Collection, shows a group of young people in the late 1800s or very early 1900s. The location is not written, but the names lead us to Bienville Parish. For some of these young people, more can be found in Marguerite Cook Clarks file's and I will post that information in the next week or so. 

I've enlarged the faces (to the best of my ability) and they are posted below. 

Jessie Huckaby and John Wimberly

Hugh Lawson and Josie Allums

Henry Wimberly

Allen Woodard

Mary Huckaby

Belle Stevens (Lawson)

Matt Allums

? Allums

Will Huckaby

Ida Stevens (Lawson)

If you want to know more about the families I research, click here to like my Facebook page where you will see each post and other genealogical finds. 

Diana

© 2018

Source
Family photographs and documents from the collection of Marguerite Cook Clark. Accessed April 28, 2014, September 14, 2014, and November 9 to 11, 2016. Used with permission.

#52ancestors Post Sixteen: A Dust Storm in Borger, Texas

On the back of the photo is Dust Storm - Borger, Texas 1936. Dad and his sisters lived in Borger, Texas during the Dust Bowl of the 1930s. 

In the Dust Bowl states (Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, and Oklahoma), farmers lost livestock and crops were ruined. Dust filtered into homes and buildings making it hard for some to breathe. About 2.5 million people left those states - most headed west. 

One of the largest dust storms of 1936 in Borger occurred in April of that year. Could this be a photo of that storm? Who would have left the house to take the photo?

Dust Storm in Texas 1936 · Fri, May 8, 1936 – Page 12 · The Hearne Democrat (Hearne, Texas) · Newspapers.com

I never asked Dad about the dust storms. He moved to Borger in 1929 and left in 1940. He must have grown up living with the dust.  

If you want to know more about the families I research, click here to like my Facebook page where you will see each post and other genealogical finds. 

Diana

© 2018

Sources

Dust Bowl - Facts & Summary - HISTORY.com.Web. 19 Apr. 2018. <https://www.history.com/topics/dust-bowl#section_6>.\

Family photographs and documents from the collection of Diana Bryan Quinn.

#52ancestors Post Fifteen: Tax Records Helped Me Find Hairston Family

Phillip Hairston and Lodema Criswell Hairston with daughter, Myrtie.
Tax records show Phillip Hairston and his family were
in Erath County by 1884. 

This week's writing prompt is taxes. Taxes have helped me find family. 

I have been looking for connections between John L. Hairston and his said to be family for years. Every six months or so, I look for Hairston family members at Ancestry.com, newspaper sites, FamilySearch.org, Google and other appropriate sites. Content is constantly added and you never know what new information you will find. 

Since beginning my research, I have always known John L. Hairston was in Hinds County, Mississippi in 1850 and 1860. I have land records placing him in Georgia in 1838  but was unsure about the time between 1838 and 1850. 

A few years ago, I found tax records at FamilySearch.org showing John L. Hairston was in Hinds County, Mississippi by 1847. AND, other Hairstons listed with him were two men, Robert and Vincent/Vinson Hairston, I had been researching as I thought they might be brothers of my John L.  This put me a little closer to finding family. 

Samuel B. Hairston is another thought to be brother of John L. Hairston. Although thought to be in Alabama from the end of the Civil War until his death, he was found in Falls County, Texas tax records (with his children) in 1887 and 1888. 

Oral family history indicates John L. Hairston left Mississippi for Texas after the Civil War, first stopping in Arkansas. John L. Hairston cannot be found in the 1870 census but tax records show he was paying taxes in Falls County in 1868. 

It is said my great-grandfather, Phillip A. Hairston, and his family left Falls County in 1883. Finding Phillip A. Hairston on the Erath County, Texas 1884 tax rolls proved this family story. 


If you want to know more about the families I research, click here to like my Facebook page where you will see each post and other genealogical finds.
 

Diana

© 2018

Sources

Family photographs and documents from the collection of 

"Mississippi, State Archives, Various Records, 1820-1951." Database with images. FamilySearch. http://FamilySearch.org : 14 June 2016. Mississippi Department of Archvies and History, Jackson.

"Texas, County Tax Rolls, 1837-1910." Database with images. FamilySearch. http://FamilySearch.org : 21 July 2016. Citing Comptroller's Office. State Archives, Austin.

From the Files of Marguerite Cook Clark: Reuben K. Bryan

Reuben K. Bryan was the son of John Wesley Bryan and Francis Elizabeth "Lizzie" Sheffield Bryan. He was born August 24, 1897 and died on October 8, 1980. 

Reuben Bryan is one of many descendants of Reddick and Elizabeth Regan Bryan. His grandfather was their son, Tillman Bryan. 

Reuben was a mechanic in Shreveport. The picture below was published in 1952. Click on it to see a larger version at Newspaper.com.

If you want to know more about the families I research, click here to like my Facebook page where you will see each post and other genealogical finds. 

Diana




© 2018

Sources

Family photographs and documents from the collection of Marguerite Cook Clark. Accessed April 28, 2014, September 14, 2014, and November 9 to 11, 2016. Used with permission.

#52ancestors Post Fourteen: Monte DeRay Bryan

This week's writing prompt for #52ancestors is The Maiden Aunt. The Cambridge Dictionary defines maiden aunt as an aunt who is not married and is no longer young. My father's two sisters, Monte DeRay Bryan and Myrtie Marie Bryan, were my maiden aunts. I wrote about both of these aunts in 2014 and chose to write about DeRay today as I have additional information to share. 

My aunt went by her middle name, DeRay. Dad sometimes called her DeeDee and we knew her as Aunt DeeDee. DeRay was born in Erath County, Texas on March 11, 1904. She was the second child born of Myrtie Hairston and Redic Bryan. Her family moved to Baylor County in 1905. She spent most of her childhood in Baylor County. 

In addition to school activities, DeRay was an active member of the B. Y. P. U. (Baptist Young People's Union), the Woodmen Circle, and a member of the Baylor Bridge Club.

DeRay graduated from Seymour High School in 1920. The photo above was found in her high school yearbook. 

She attended Simmons College in Abilene for one year. At the beginning of her second year, she accepted a job teaching for the Corn community in Baylor County. I wonder if this was out of financial need or obligation. Would she have earned a degree if given a choice?

DeRay taught in the Corn community, in Seymour, and in Lamb County, before settling in Borger, Texas where she taught until 1941. 

According to History of Hutchinson County, Texas: 104 years, 1876-1980, DeRay arrived in Borger, Texas in 1927. This was shortly after her mother died. After her father's death in 1929, her siblings joined her and she was the primary wage earner. 

Dad (Whit Bryan) and his sister, DeRay - about 1942

DeRay continued her education by attending classes in the summers and served in several leadership roles before leaving teaching due to financial needs.

DeRay was active in her church, a Red Cross Volunteer, and served as an election official. 

DeRay never married. I know about two serious boyfriends. One died while he and DeRay were dating and I only have little information about the other. 

DeRay had more family obligations than most young women her age. By age 25, both of her parents died. My father, her youngest sibling, was only eight years old. She became his guardian and with little money, and the help of her sister, Marie, cared for my father until he joined the Navy in 1940. 

Whit sent flowers to his sisters for Mother's Day when
stationed at Pearl Harbor during WWII.
This was such an appropriate gesture and the fact this
card was saved showed how much it was appreciated. 

For more about DeRay, check my 2014 post - 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: #3 Monte DeRay Bryan.


If you want to know more about the families I research, click here to like my Facebook page where you will see each post and other genealogical finds. 

Diana

© 2018

Sources

Family photographs and documents from the collection of Diana Bryan Quinn

#52ancestors Post Thirteen: The Giddens Home in Phillipsburg, New Jersey

310-312 South Main Street, Phillipsburg, New Jersey
1975

310-312 South Main Street -  City Directories indicate that 310 was the store, while 312 may have been the upstairs residence.

Last week's writing prompt for #52ancesters was "The Old Homestead." I have always been interested in family homes and have written about the homes of several families I research. This building above is the childhood home of my grandmother, Edith Giddens. She and her family lived in the rooms above her father's store in Phillipsburg, New Jersey. 

Charles Giddens was born
in 1865 in Sampson
County, NC.

Mary Lucy Glynn was born in
1865 in Putney, VT. 

Photos seen in the post Friday's Photo: Inside the House show the inside of the Giddens home in the early 1900s.  The photos above, taken by my mother, show the outside of the store as it looked in 1975. 

Charles Giddens came to Phillipsburg with his family in 1894 after living in Crewe, Virginia for three years where he owned a store.  Charles, his wife (Mary Lucy Glynn Giddens) and their children were living on 182 West Mercer Street while he was working as a laborer. 

By 1898, Charles Giddens had a dry goods store at 322 South Main and his family was living at 75 Mercer Street. 


In 1906, his store was described as a clothing and dry goods store at 310-312 Main Street and his family lived upstairs. By 1908, his store was described as an "Outfitter to Men and Boys, Clothing, Hats, Shoes, and Haberdashery." 

My grandmother,
Edith Giddens.

Charles Giddens continued to run the store until he divorced his wife and left for St. Louis, Missouri in 1922. Lucy rented out the store to John and William D. Myers (Myer Brothers Clothiers) for $80 monthly and continued to live upstairs with daughter, Edith. Son, Warren, and his wife, Calla, were living with Lucy and Edith just prior to Lucy's death in 1926. 

My grandmother, Edith, inherited and sold the building. 

Other posts about homes of families I research can be found by clicking on the links below. 

These posts, Looking for the Murray Family Home in County Clare and The Irish Uprising: The Quinn Home, are about my husband's Irish families' homes. 

Friday's Photo: Borger, Texas and Family Photos: The House in Seymour – Part I are posts about my father's homes in Texas. 

The Bryan Log Cabin in Bienville Parish was the home of my great-grandparents, Reddick and Elizabeth Regan Bryan. 

If you want to know more about the families I research, click here to like my Facebook page where you will see each post and other genealogical finds. 

Diana

© 2018

Sources

Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1821-1989 (Beta). Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.

Family photographs and documents from the collection of Diana Bryan Quinn.