Friday's Photo: My Great-Grandmother, Lodema Criswell Hairston with Family in Falls County, Texas 1919

The above photo shows my great-grandmother, Lodema Criswell Hairston (right), with her sister-in-law, Amy Myrtlene Manning Criswell. The photo is dated 1919 and is said to have been taken on the day of Amy's husband's funeral. Amy's husband was John Carson Calhoun Criswell, son of William M. and Mary Ann Evans Criswell and brother to Lodema. John died on 25 February 1919. John and Amy lived in the Odds Community in Limestone County, but their brother Thomas LeRoy "Whit" Criswell lived a few miles away in Marlin, Falls County. He is pictured with Lodema in the next two photos. 

I suspect that the following two photos were taken in Falls County, as I remember being told about the water tower by Whit Criswell's home that can be seen behind Lodema in the second photo below. The children's identities are unknown. 

Lodema spent some of her youth, was married, and had her children in Falls County. I imagine this was her last trip home. In the fall of that year, she fell ill and died on 3 October 1919 at home in Seymour, Texas. 

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Diana

© 2023 

Lodema Criswell Hairston, photographs,1919; scanned images, from the privately held photo collection of Lena Stone Criswell, NM, 2001.