Friday's Photo: Who Is This Pretty Young Woman?

This photo was passed to me by my cousin, Jackie. I assume that it originally belonged to my father's parents. The hairstyle is indicative of those of the 1890s.There are no markings on the back of this delicate paper photo.


Could she be a family friend? If family, is she related to my grandmother's Hairstons or my grandfather's Bryans? 

Surnames include Bryan, Hairston, Criswell, Evans, Selman, Albritton, Biggs, Chisum, Gilbert, Gresham, Hammett, Keith, Latta, Noah, Pitman, Regan, Thompson, Watts, Wimberly, Wylie, and many more. 

Diana

© 2016

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: #51 Eliza Hairston, My Great-Great-Grandmother

The solid lines indicate that the connection to the family is documented while
the dotted lines indicate that direct evidence has not yet been found to
make the connection. Click on the family tree to see a larger image.

My great-grandfather, Phillip A. Hairston was born in Hinds County, Mississippi in 1852. His father was John L. Hairston, born in South Carolina, and his mother, Eliza, thought to be born in Georgia.  Eliza's maiden name is unknown and a marriage date and place for John and Eliza cannot be found. 

No Story Too Small

Eliza Hairston's first name has only been seen in four places; the 1850 United States census record as Eliza,  Liza on the death record of Phillip A. Hairston in 1917, as Eliza on the death record of Permelia Hairston, and as Luiza on a deed record. 

There are family stories about a Native American ancestor in the Hairston family and Eliza appears to be a good candidate. According to my father, "one great-grandmother was a full-blooded Cherokee." Distant cousins (Noahs, Thompsons, Greshams, and Chisums) had heard family stories about Native American heritage. One Thompson cousin said that her father treated it as a family secret. In an old Bryan family letter, my grandmother was referred to as "an Indian woman named Hirston."

Eliza is first found on the 1850 census. Her age was 30 years old, her birthplace was recorded as Georgia, and it was reported that she did not read or write. 

In 1860, Eliza was seen as E. Huston and her age was reported as 39, giving her a birth year of 1820 or 1821. 

Eliza and John had the following children indicating that they lived for a time Arkansas and possibly spent some time in Alabama.

Mary Ann Hairston was born about 1840 in Alabama or Arkansas

Permelia Hairston March 15, 1843 in Bradley County, Arkansas

Sarah Jane Hairston born about 1845 in Arkansas.

William born about 1846 in Mississippi.

Adeline Hairston born about 1849 in Mississippi.

Phillip A. Hairston born on May 17, 1852 in Mississippi

Martha Elizabeth "Mattie" Hairston born on August 2, 1858 in Mississippi.

On October 10, 1865 John L. Hairston and wife sold his land in Hinds County to George W. Prince for $600. John's wife's name is clearly written as Luiza. I would guess that this was a transcription error made when copying from the original deed, but we will never really know.

Hinds County to Bradley County to Falls County
Click here to see a larger version of this map at Google Maps.

A story from Permelia Hairston Noah's descendants was that, after the war ended, the Hairston family left Hinds County, Mississippi for Falls County, first stopping in Bradley County, Arkansas. No mention is made of what happened to Eliza. The family was in Falls County, Texas by 1867 and on September 21, 1868, John L. Hairston married Cynthia H. Moffitt.

Diana

© 2014


Sources

Ancestry.com. Texas, Death Certificates, 1903–1982 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013.

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

Deed of Sale from John L. Hairston and Luiza Hairston to Geo. W. Prince, 10 Oct. 1865. (filed 15 Nov. 1865), Hinds County, Mississippi, Deed Book 28, page 697. Chancery Clerk's Office, Raymond, Mississippi.

Houston, John L. and Moffitt, Cynthia, Falls County Marriages, County Clerk's Office, Marlin, Texas.

Year: 1850; Census Place: Hinds, Mississippi; Roll: M432_372; Page: 165A; Image: 336

Year: 1860; Census Place: Hinds, Mississippi; Roll: M653_582; Page: 674; Image: 206; Family History Library Film: 803582

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: #50 Walter Alexander Chisum, Son of James C. Chisum and Martha Elizabeth "Mattie" Hairston

The solid lines indicate that the connection to the family is documented while
the dotted lines indicate that direct evidence has not yet been found to
make the connection. Click on the family tree to see a larger image.

Walter Alexander Chisum
Photo taken in Erath County
Courtesy of Max Sinclair

No Story Too Small

Walter Alexander Chisum was born on August 20, 1876 in Falls County, Texas. He was the son of Martha Elizabeth "Mattie" Hairston and James C. Chisum. When he was about age seven, Walter's family moved to Erath County, Texas. 

The next time that I found Walter is when he married Laura Elvira Pitts in Erath County on November 9, 1897. Laura was from Lincoln County, Tennessee and the daughter of James Carroll Pitts and Martha Elizabeth Hague. Her father died in 1889 and between 1892 and 1900, all of Laura's siblings could be found in Texas or Oklahoma. Her mother was living in Oklahoma Territory in 1900. 

About 1902 - Walter with James Clayborne,
Laura, and Dorsey
Photo courtesy of Max Sinclair

It is presumed that Laura met Walter Chisum in Erath County as she had siblings who lived in Erath County. Her sister, Stella Pitts King, was in Erath County by 1893 and another sister, Louisa, married William L. Kiker in Erath County in 1895. 

One family story passed down to my third cousin and fellow researcher, Max Sinclair, was that Laura was disowned by her mother when she married Walter as he was of Native American descent . 

In 1900, Walter, Laura, and their first child, Dorsey Wilmer Chisum, were living in Palo Pinto County. Walter was working as a section hand for a railroad company. 

Both James Clayborne Chisum and Blanch Edith Chisum were born in Erath County. James Clayborn in 1901 and Blanch Edith in 1903. 

In 1905, daughter, Chessie Chisum was born in Quanah, Hardeman County, Texas.

By 1908, when daughter Mattie Elizabeth Chisum was born, the family was living in Greer County, Oklahoma. Son, Houston Pitts "Buster" Chisum, was born in 1910. Several of Walter's uncles and cousins lived in Greer County throughout the early 1900s. In 1910, the census indicated that Walter was working as a laborer doing odd jobs.

Son, Cloyd Chisum was born in Newlin, Hall County in 1912. Newlin was also the home of Walter's sister, Stella. 

Walter died of pneumonia at age 39 on March 19, 1916 in Wilbarger County, Texas. He is buried in the Harrold Cemetery. 

Walter and Laura's youngest child, Rita Walter Chisum, was born after the death of her father on June 3, 1916 in Harrold. 

Laura and all seven children were living in Harrold in Wilbarger County in 1920. 

I like to look at Google Maps to get an overall picture of where families lived and to determine their proximity to other family members. On this map, I added in all of the known places that Walter lived, where his children were born, my Hairston/Bryan family home of Baylor County and Jackson County, OK as some of Walter's family were found there. Click here to see a larger version of this map at Google Maps.

In 1930, Dorsey Chisum was reported to be head of the family living in Wilbarger County. He lived with his wife Eula, three children, his mother, and siblings, Houston, Cloyd, Reta, and Chessie and three of Chessie's children. Son, James Clayborne, was living in Wichita County, Texas and daughter, Blanch Edith, was married to Charles Burchfield and lived nearby in Wilbarger. 

On August 19, 1930, Edith Chisum Burchfield died following an operation to remove a kidney. She was twenty-seven years old and left a husband with three young children. One of those children, Glen, later purchased the marker that is on Walter Chisum's grave in the Harrold Cemetery. 

Laura Elvira Pitts Chisum Sanders
1950
Courtesy of Max Sinclair 

The 1940 United States Census shows that Dorsey Chisum, his mother, and two nephews were living in Maricopa, Arizona by 1935.  Also living in Maricopa in 1940 were Chessie Chisum Wilkerson, and her family, James Clayborne Chisum and family, Mattie Elizabeth Chisum Young and family, Houston Pitts Chisum and family, and Rita Walter Chisum Suggs and family. 

Laura Chisum remarried at age 65 to James C. Saunders in Phoenix, Maricopa County, Arizona on December 19, 1942. Laura died on November 18, 1958 and is buried in Greenwood Memory Lawn Cemetery in Phoenix. 

Thank you to Max Sinclair for permission to use his photos, the documents that he sent me several years ago, and his very thorough Public Tree at Ancestry.com. 

Diana

© 2014

Sources

Ancestry.com. Web: Arizona, Find A Grave Index, 1861-2012 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012.

Ancestry.com. Public Member Trees [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2006.

Ancestry.com. Texas, Death Certificates, 1903–1982 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013.


Burchfield, Glen. "Message Boards." Re: Laura Elvira Chisum. 29 Aug. 2002. Web. 27 Dec. 2014. <http://boards.ancestry.com/surnames.chisum/70.74.115.1/mb.ashx>.

Certificate of Marriage, James C. Sanders to Laura Chisum, 19 December 1942, Maricopa, Arizona. Clerk of the Superior Court's Office, Phoenix, Arizona. Copy in possession of Diana Quinn, Virginia Beach, VA.

King, Dee Dee. Erath County, Texas, Bride Index and Groom Index, Volume 1: 1869-1900. N.p: Dee Dee King, 2005. Print.

"Texas, Deaths, 1890-1976," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1951-25241-7927-97?cc=1983324 : accessed 27 December 2014), Death certificates > 1930 > Vol 085, certificates 042001-042500, Aug-Sep, Uvalde-Bell counties > image 270 of 522; State Registrar Office, Austin.

Year: 1900; Census Place: Justice Precinct 4, Palo Pinto, Texas; Roll: 1663; Page: 1B; Enumeration District: 0122; FHL microfilm: 1241663

Year: 1910; Census Place: Granite Ward 1, Greer, Oklahoma; Roll: T624_1253; Page: 3A; Enumeration District: 0113; FHL microfilm: 1375266

Year: 1920; Census Place: Justice Precinct 2, Wilbarger, Texas; Roll: T625_1855; Page: 4B; Enumeration District: 137; Image: 372

Year: 1930; Census Place: Precinct 4, Wichita, Texas; Roll: 2410; Page: 1B; Enumeration District: 0054; Image: 468.0; FHL microfilm: 2342144

Year: 1930; Census Place: Precinct 2, Wilbarger, Texas; Roll: 2410; Page: 6B; Enumeration District: 0008; Image: 909.0; FHL microfilm: 2342144

Year: 1930; Census Place: Precinct 2, Wilbarger, Texas; Roll: 2410; Page: 6A; Enumeration District: 0008; Image: 908.0; FHL microfilm: 2342144

Year: 1940; Census Place: Maricopa, Arizona; Roll: T627_109; Page: 16B; Enumeration District: 7-167

Year: 1940; Census Place: Maricopa, Arizona; Roll: T627_109; Page: 14B; Enumeration District: 7-167 

Year: 1940; Census Place: Maricopa, Arizona; Roll: T627_109; Page: 1B; Enumeration District: 7-169 

Year: 1940; Census Place: Maricopa, Arizona; Roll: T627_109; Page: 81A; Enumeration District: 7-167

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: #43 Stella Rhoetta Chisum Gresham

The solid lines indicate that the connection to the family is documented while
the dotted lines indicate that direct evidence has not yet been found to
make the connection. Click on the family tree to see a larger image.

Stella Rhoetta Chisum Gresham was the daughter of Martha "Mattie" Elizabeth Hairston and James C. Chisum. She was born in Falls County, Texas on February 20, 1879. Before the age of five, her family moved to Erath County, Texas. Her father is said to have died and Stella's mother married John A. Thompson in 1884. 

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: #40 Edgar Richard Thompson, Son of Mattie Hairston

The solid lines indicate that the connection to the family is documented while
the dotted lines indicate that direct evidence has not yet been found to
make the connection. Click on the family tree to see a larger image.

Edgar Richard Thompson
Mattie Elizabeth Proctor

No Story Too Small

I searched for two years before I found Nadine, the daughter of Edgar Richard Thompson. She was my first link to the descendants of Martha Elizabeth "Mattie" Hairston Chisum Thompson. 

In the 1990s, the "new" and limited Internet, purchased CDs, a family bible, and my father's collection of family documents and photos were my sources for genealogical research.

My father's Bryan family Bible, preserved by four generations, contained photos, obituaries, and much more. More questions than answers were generated as I browsed through the bible. Who was Rex Gresham? His obituary was tucked carefully between pages in the bible. Dad said that Rex was a cousin, but didn't know how they were related. The same was said about Floyd Thompson - his name was on the back of a photo.

From my collection of Family Tree Maker CDs, I was eventually able to determine that Martha Elizabeth Hairston first married a Chisum and later a Thompson. Her daughter, Stella Chisum, married a Gresham.  Finding descendants was much harder.

Thompson was too common and Chisum had many different spellings so my search focused on finding Gresham descendants.

Mattie, Nadine, and Edd

After months of looking for Greshams, I found the Rootsweb Surname List and wrote to 23 Gresham researchers who had connections in Texas. My best response came from a woman who wrote a Gresham newsletter. She knew someone in Stephenville, Texas who researched Greshams. He called me the next day and told me that he was only related to the Greshams by marriage, but that one of his neighbors was a descendant of the Thompson family. I had found Nadine.

Nadine was happy to learn that her grandmother's maiden name was Hairston. She wrote, Grandmother lived with us. I remember when she died. I was 5. We loved her. We was so poor back then. Daddy had a hard time for her funeral.

Nadine's father, Edgar Richard Thompson was born November 9, 1896 to Mattie Hairston and her husband, John A. Thompson. John A. died in 1899, leaving Mattie to raise their five children. "Edd" lived with his mother and worked by farming her land until at least 1920. In the early 1920s, he married Mattie Elizabeth Proctor. They resided in Erath County until their deaths. Edd and Mattie are buried in West End Cemetery in Stephenville. 

Other posts about Edgar Richard Thompson's family:

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: #39 John A. Thompson, Husband of Mattie Hairston and His Surprising Link to John Neely Bryan, Founder of Dallas, Texas

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: #34 Martha Elizabeth "Mattie" Hairston Chisum Thompson - A Timeline and Surprising Information about a Well Circulated Photograph

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: #38 Jessie Mae Thompson Hicks, Daughter of Mattie Hairston

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: #37 Aaron W. Thompson, a Farmer in Erath County, Texas

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: #36 Philip Chisum Lived in Erath County, Texas.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: #35 Claud Clarence Thompson Left his Brother's Home And Was Never Seen Again

Friday's Photo: Clint Smith's Daughter

Diana

© 2014

Sources

Family photographs from the collection of Nadine Thompson Waugh. Accessed September 2001. Used with permission. 

"Find A Grave - Millions of Cemetery Records." Find A Grave - Millions of Cemetery Records. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Oct. 2014. <http://www.findagrave.com/>.

Year: 1900; Census Place: Justice Precinct 1, Erath, Texas; Roll: 1631; Page: 36A; Enumeration District: 0064; FHL microfilm: 1241631.

Year: 1910; Census Place: Justice Precinct 1, Erath, Texas; Roll: T624_1550; Page: 5A; Enumeration District: 0020; FHL microfilm: 1375563.

Year: 1920; Census Place: Morgan Mill, Erath, Texas; Roll: T625_1801; Page: 8B; Enumeration District: 17; Image: 453.

Year: 1930; Census Place: Precinct 1, Erath, Texas; Roll: 2326; Page: 7B; Enumeration District: 0006; Image: 187.0; FHL microfilm: 2342060.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: #34 Martha Elizabeth "Mattie" Hairston Chisum Thompson - A Timeline and Surprising Information about a Well Circulated Photograph

The solid lines indicate that the connection to the family is documented while
the dotted lines indicate that direct evidence has not yet been found to
make the connection. Click on the family tree to see a larger image.

The woman in this photo is probably not Mattie Hairston. 
The girl may be Mattie Hairston. The girl is not Stella Chisum. 

Click on the timeline to see a larger image.

No Story Too Small

Diana

© 2014

Ancestry.com. Public Member Trees [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2006. Original data: Family trees submitted by Ancestry members.

Ancestry.com. Texas, Death Certificates, 1903–1982 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013.

Chisum, Stella Rhoetta, Certificate of Birth (1942), Texas Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics. 

Chisum, J. C. and Hairston, M. E., Marriage Certificate, The State of Texas, County of Falls. 

"Find A Grave - Millions of Cemetery Records and Online Memorials." Find A Grave - Millions of Cemetery Records and Online Memorials. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Sept. 2014. <http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=24032035>.

"Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective." Finding family history in your picture mysteries.. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Sept. 2014. <http://www.maureentaylor.com/>.


"Texas Items." Galveston Tri-Weekly News.  13 Apr. 1870, 97 ed.: 1. GenealogyBank.com.

"The Moses S. Thompson Family." RESEARCHING BRYAN, HAIRSTON, CRISWELL, DAVIS, GLYNN, GIDDENS, MURRAY, DRISCOLL, STAUBACH, AND QUINN. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Sept. 2014. <http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~bryanquinn/Thompson,%20Moses.htm>

Year: 1860; Census Place: Hinds, Mississippi; Roll: M653_582; Page: 674; Image: 206; Family History Library Film: 803582.

Year: 1870; Census Place: Precinct 2, Falls, Texas; Roll: M593_1584; Page: 31B; Image: 66; Family History Library Film: 553083.

Year: 1880; Census Place: Falls, Texas; Roll: 1302; Family History Film: 1255302; Page: 190B; Enumeration District: 038.

Year: 1900; Census Place: Justice Precinct 1, Erath, Texas; Roll: 1631; Page: 36A; Enumeration District: 0064; FHL microfilm: 1241631.

Year: 1910; Census Place: Justice Precinct 1, Erath, Texas; Roll: T624_1550; Page: 5A; Enumeration District: 0020; FHL microfilm: 1375563.

Year: 1920; Census Place: Morgan Mill, Erath, Texas; Roll: T625_1801; Page: 8B; Enumeration District: 17; Image: 453.

Year: 1930; Census Place: Precinct 1, Erath, Texas; Roll: 2326; Page: 2B; Enumeration District: 0006; Image: 177.0; FHL microfilm: 2342060.

Year: 1930; Census Place: Precinct 1, Erath, Texas; Roll: 2326; Page: 7B; Enumeration District: 0006; Image: 187.0; FHL microfilm: 2342060.

Year: 1930; Census Place: Precinct 1, Erath, Texas; Roll: 2326; Page: 8A; Enumeration District: 0007; Image: 218.0; FHL microfilm: 2342060.

Friday's Photo: Goats

This is from my father's family's photos. The picture belonged to my grandparents, Redic Bryan and Myrtie Hairston. At first glance, I thought that it was a boy with puppies, but now am sure that they are goats or sheep. This is probably a boy - I'm looking at the overalls and haircut, but you never know. 

Does anyone else in the Bryan/Hairston family have this picture? Family names are Bryan, Hairston, Noah, Thompson, Hammett, Chisum, Gresham, Wylie, Biggs, Keith, Gilbert, Latta, and Criswell. 

Diana

© 2013

Friday's Photo: Another Photo Identified

Two summers ago, a Hairston descendant, Carla, gave me this tiny baby picture when meeting other Hairston descendants in Texas.  Written on the back is "Stella's or Myrtie's." 

Stella was Estella Chisum Gresham daughter of Martha "Mattie" Hairston Chisum Thompson, the sister to my great-grandfather, Phillip A. Hairston.  Johnie Myrtlene “Myrtie” Hairston Bryan was the daughter of Phillip Hairston and my grandmother. Myrtie and Stella were cousins. 

The baby looked like another baby picture of Myrtie's daughter, DeRay Bryan, but I could not be sure. However, while re-organizing my genealogy papers and photos last week, I found some copies of Bryan/Hammett family pictures that I made during a research trip to Texas in 2001. This baby picture was one of those pictures and the owner of these pictures is a descendant of my grandfather's Bryan family. 

So, I can presume that due to the fact that both of my grandparent's families had this picture, and that the Bryan/Hammett family would probably not have a picture of Stella's baby, that this is of one of Myrtie's children - probably DeRay. 

Diana

© 2012, copyright Diana Quinn

Get Your Flu Shot!

From the Baylor County Banner - October 24, 1918
However, this was not the end. Influenza continued its deadly campaign into 1919. 

Last year, I looked for information about some soldiers from Baylor County, Texas who died during World War I. Not surprisingly, about half of them died from disease rather than from fighting overseas. By 1918, the influenza had spread around the world. Most families would not make it through the pandemic untouched as it is estimated that at least a quarter of the United States population fell ill and more than 50 million died worldwide before its end in 1920.

My father's Hairston family lost a family member.  Hugh Gresham, of Estelline, Texas, was just 19 years old when he died of influenza in 1919. 

In NYC, my great-great grandmother, Julia Harvey Glynn died of bronchial pneumonia on February 12, 1919. Could influenza have been a contributing cause of the pneumonia?

Schools, church services, lodge meetings, theaters, bars, factories, and even courtrooms were closed to limit the spread of the disease. In Baylor County, Texas, where my grandparents lived, 29 deaths* were reported by the Baylor County Banner on December 19, 1918. In the months ahead, many more in that community and millions worldwide would lose their lives to influenza. 

To learn more about this pandemic, watch Influenza 1918 at the American Experience from PBS. 

* Deaths reported by the Baylor County Banner on December 19, 1918 occurred between October 18 and December 15, 1918. 

• Ben F. Martin - 1/2 year
• Mrs. Orval Cox - 19 years
• Henry E. Lewis - 31 years
• J. Covington - 30 years
• Katie Jones - 10 months
• Grace Lowry - 17 years
• J. H. Patterson - 68 years
• Mrs. Rosa Tipps - 23 years
• Luther Jones - 15 years
• E. E. Breedlove - 38 years
• Mrs. W. T. Wheeler - 46 years
• Infant of Mrs. and Mrs. Tim Nix - 1 month
• Mrs. H. A. Lowry - 29 years
• Burnett Bailes - 18 years
• Mrs J. A. Bailew
• Annie Lee Caldwell - 14 years
• D. A. Holman - 84 years
• Albert Wirz - 22 years
• Mrs. T. J. Praytor Jr. - 36 years
• Frida Wirz - 15 years
• Mrs. C. B. Daniel - 32 years
• Mrs. H. C. Harrison - 29 years
• W. H. Strange - 37 years
• N. B. Williams - 39 years
• Leonard E. Hill - 32 years
• J. N. Cassle
• Claude Clouse - 3 years
• Mrs. Claude Clouse
• Mrs. John McCauley

Diana

© 2012

_________________________________________________________________

Sources: 

John M. Barry, The Great Influenza, The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History (Penguin Books, 2005).

Influenza at Camps. The Baylor County Banner [Seymour, Texas] October 24, 1918.

Harvest of Death. The Baylor County Banner [Seymour, Texas] December 19, 1918.