A while back I bought this article from an eBay seller. It contains Texas Rangers history in and around the Menard County area. It is a good read and contains photos and facts in our central Texas San Saba River valley written by James B. Gillett. There were hard times for settlers of which we have many family members. Enjoy!
We are lucky to have many family photos in our collection. Facebook works for sharing but makes it hard to find in the future.
Here are three Allen Studio, San Angelo, Texas photos of Wilson Lamar and Mayme Turner Wilkinson and their only child, Francis Lamar Wilkinson, estimated to be 1923. F.L. would have been about 8 years old. They were living in Sutton County on the Riley Ranch when these were taken.
This precocious young boy, Francis Lamar, enjoyed riding his pet Angora goat in the pasture at the Riley Ranch in Sutton County, around 1923. He was my children’s grandfather and was precocious until his death in 2000.
Saturday, March 16, 2019, the Menard County Historical Commission with Chairman, Col. USMC Terrell Kelley (ret.), the Presidio de San Saba Restoration Corporation board members and Menard’s Sacred Heart Catholic Church, along with many commission members, locals and out of town guests attended a wreath laying ceremony to commemorate the 261st anniversary of the attack and destruction of the Mission Santa Cruz de San Sabá and the Martyrdom of the Fathers Alonso Giraldo de Terreros and Jose de Santiesteban Aberín.
The site of the Mission has a Texas State Historical monument which was dedicated during the Texas Centennial in 1936. The Mission was located between the San Saba River and extended to where the historical marker is now located on the north side of Highway 2092, about two miles east of town. We thank Monte Lyckman and his family for allowing us access to the site during the ceremony. Attending the event was Drue Lyckman Bearden and her daughter Chel with her three children from Mason.
We were especially honored that Mark Wolf read his cousin’s first-hand deposition of the attack during the ceremony. Mr. Wolf is a direct descendant of Juan Leal, the principal assistant at the mission to Father Terreros. Leal was wounded during the attack, but fully recovered. Mark helped in the re-discovery of the lost mission site and was also a key contributor to the Phase I restoration of the Presidio site. [The Presidio de San Saba Restoration Corporation is working on their Phase II now and welcomes donations and sponsors for our wonderful historical site.]
The short ceremony included a wreath laying and a blessing of the site by Father Innocent Eziefule from Nigeria, pastor of Sacred Heart Catholic Church Parish. The wreath made by Cee Cee Kelley included the Coat of Arms for Cortegana, Spain, our Sister-City. Cynthia Jordan, composer, singer and songwriter from San Angelo, Texas, famous for her song ‘Jose Cuervo’, sang her original ballad, “El Corrido de San Saba”.
We were again honored to have as part of the ceremony, reenactor José L. González, portrayed Fray Miguel de Molina, who was a member of the Mission in 1758. Mr. González plays this part in the ‘A Walk through Time’ historical event which will be held at the Presidio de San Saba on Saturday, April 6, 2019. Also appearing will be Cynthia Jordan singing her ballad about the San Saba Mission and local Rhome Hill and his Song of Silver.
I have found many photos of postcards of the San Antonio River and its bridges and wanted to share them for your reference. I love history and especially photos. Wagons would drive into the river to soak their wheels to tighten them up.
Paper and oral history by Jan Powell Wilkinson for the Edwards Plateau Historical Association meeting and publication.
Those of us here today love history and are proud of the stories our ancestors have told us. We have all traveled down these crooked paths but today I will attempt to keep on the straight path of my family history. I have been working on bits and pieces of the facts for many years about our family legend and my great-great grandfather, Joshua D. Brown.
My mother was Joan Auld Powell, and her mother was Gussie May Brown Auld, and her grandfather was Joshua D. Brown (1816-1877) [my 2nd great grandfather]. He is unfamiliar in most local historic accounts; but he was very important to the settlement of Kerrville and Kerr County. There is no school or street bearing his name, but he was the first Anglo-American pioneer to this, the upper Guadalupe River, and should rightly be known as the “Father of Kerrville.”
Joshua D. Brown was a frontiersman, a patriot, a Mason, a father, and a shingle maker. He descended from old English stock who settled in Baltimore and Carroll Counties, Maryland during the U. S. Colonial Period.
Edward [my 3rd great grandfather] was the father of Joshua D. and was the son of Joshua [4th great grandfather] (1757-1826) and Honour Durbin (1761-1848). It is believed that Joshua was named after these grandparents. I believe the middle initial “D.” is for Durbin, but I cannot find any signature by him other than Joshua D. or J. D., so this is not yet proven. Others think it is David. The many ancestors in the Brown family repeat the same name each generation and it has been very difficult to keep them straight.
Our family’s first known genealogical records begin with my 7th great grandfather, who was George Edward Browne (with an “e” on the end), born in either England or Scotland in approximately 1685. He married Mary Nancy Stevenson and they have two sons, Edward George and Richard, both born in Baltimore, Baltimore County, Maryland. Edward was my 6th great grandfather, born 1714 in Baltimore, who died in 1770 at Pipe Creek, Frederick County, Maryland. He married Nancy Stevenson, who was born in 1716 and died in 1776. Their son, Edward is my 5th great grandfather, born in 1734, died in 1823, and married Margaret Durbin in 1753 in Baltimore. Their son Joshua was my 4th great grandfather, born in 1757 in Frederick, Frederick County, Maryland, died 1826 in Madison County, Kentucky, and married to Honour (Honora/ Honor) Durbin, daughter of John Durbin and Ann Logsdon, in 1780 in Maryland. The couple migrated to Madison County, Kentucky and had seven children before dying there. Their son Edward is my 3rd great grandfather who was born 1789 in Kentucky but died in 1846 in the former DeWitt Colony, Gonzales County, Republic of Texas.
The Brown-Comly Families Genealogy book (on page 6) states Edward was a farmer, and the owner of a grist mill and distillery. He was an earnest Episcopalian and a patriot. He was born in Pipe Creek, Frederick County, Maryland (which is now Carroll County). During the American Revolution, he enlisted 18 July 1776 and served under Captain John Reynolds in Maryland. He is listed under Daughters of the American Revolution No. 248941. It is evident that he moved to Berks County, Pennsylvania and then to Cumberland County; and after the close of the war, in 1785, he moved to Burgestown in Washington County, Pennsylvania. From there he moved to Holliday’s Cove in Brook County, West Virginia. Then about the year 1795 he moved to Madison County, Kentucky, where he remained until his death on August 14, 1823. His first wife, Margaret Durbin, was born in 1736 to Samuel Durbin and Anne Prudence Logsdon. She died at Holliday’s Cove, West Virginia on March 20, 1795. He married his second wife, Sarah Callaway, the widow of Major Hoy, on November 27, 1797; and they bought a parcel of land on Tate’s Creek, Madison County, Kentucky. There were no children of this marriage. He was 89 years old at the time of his death in 1823. Also found in The Brown-Comly Families Genealogy book (on page 7), Joshua spent his childhood in Frederick County, Maryland. We find that in the years 1780-1782 he was captain of a company in the 8th Battalion of the Cumberland County Militia, of which Alexander Brown was the colonel. [See page 562, volume six, Penn Archives, 5th series]
The impetus for the family of Edward Brown to depart for Texas occurred in Saltillo, Mexico: the colonization law of the joined States of Coahuila and Texas, enacted on March 24, 1825. Under empresario grants issued from April 14, 1823 until the last issued, May 11, 1832 (twenty-six in all), DeWitt’s Colony was granted on the 15th of April 1825. Green DeWitt of Ralls County, Missouri had the right to settle four hundred families west of Austin’s colony and north of Don Martin DeLeon’s Colony. Before these grants were finalized, Major James Kerr resigned his seat in the senate of Missouri, and with his wife, children, and servants, he moved to Texas under an agreement with DeWitt to become surveyor and administrator (temporary) of the colony. He arrived a full month before the concession was made to DeWitt at Saltillo. Kerr was surveyor of the colony (and also surveyed DeLeon’s Colony) and had charge of it when DeWitt was absent. He surveyed the ground and built log cabins a mile west of the present town for the capitol and named it Gonzales in honor of the first Governor of Coahuila and Texas. Each capitol was allowed four leagues of land. After Indian troubles, the colony was moved to the Lavaca River and block-houses were built for defense. Their little fort was called “Old Station.” Later, DeWitt and others returned to Gonzales. Seven years later, this part of Texas was to become the “Lexington of Texas” in the revolution against Mexico.
Edward Brown and Janey Campbell – August 8, 1815 _ Marriage Ledger, Kentucky Clerk Office
In Kentucky, Joshua D.’s father, Edward’s first wife was Rosanah Campbell and they married on August 31, 1812. They had a son, Honor A. Brown, born about 1813 in Madison County, Kentucky. I am unsure what happened to Rosanah, but on August 8, 1815, Edward married Janey Campbell (born about 1793; unsure of death) (believed to be the sister to Rosanah) in Madison County, Kentucky. Their only child, Joshua D. Brown, was born sometime in 1816. I have been unable to find JDB’s birth month or date record or any reference to when his mother died.
His father Edward married his third wife, Anastasia Worland (abt. 1784-1837), but I do not know what date they married. They had seven children, all born in Kentucky: James Steven Brown born 24 Apr 1817, John C. Brown (1823-), daughter Mary Jane Brown (1824-1857), Edward W. Brown (1826), Diana J. Brown (1827-1906), Honer Anne Brown (1828-), and Anastasia Brown (1830-1913). After the death of his wife Anastasia, in Gonzales, Texas in 1837, Edward married Sara Goss (1789c-1843) in 1837 in Sabine County, Texas and they had a son, John Caleb Brown (1838-1919).
Joshua D. Brown, at approximately age 21, came to Texas before October 1, 1837. He was following his father Edward (1789-1846) and step-mother Anastasia Worland Brown (1779- 1837) to Sabine County, Mexico/Texas where they emigrated before in 1831. He, along with his father and third wife and children, all moved to Gonzales.
An unconditional certificate No. 90 was issued by the Board of Land Commissioners of Gonzales County to Joshua D. Brown for 640 acres dated 8th Nov 1837 and issued 5th Jul 1844, witnessed by R. E. Brown and W. M. Phillips. Joshua D. and Rufus E. Brown were witnesses for the William M. Phillips certificate. Rufus Easton Brown was a year older than Joshua and was the son of Henry Stevenson Brown and Margaret “Peggy” Kerr, who was sister to James Kerr. Joshua D. was close to the Kerr family. They were together in DeWitt Colony and later R. came to the Center Point area of Kerr County in 1856. Henry Stevenson’s father Caleb Brown was a younger brother of Joshua in Maryland.
Certificate Ledger, Sabine County, Texas, 8 November 1837
As a patriot, Joshua D. Brown endured the hardships and perils of war by participating in military service for Texas Independence during 1839-1842. He later was a minuteman responding to and defending against Indian raids and performed military duty against Mexico for the Republic of Texas, serving in the Cherokee Expedition under General Rusk in 1839. He was a private soldier in the Company of Mounted Volunteers commanded by Captain Adam Zumwalt in an expedition of the Woll Campaign in 1842; and he was in the battle fought against the Mexican invading army on Salado Creek in Bexar County near the City of San Antonio on or about the 11th of September 1842, during the Dawson Massacre. Joshua D. was also in the Somervell Campaign known as the Mier Expedition in the year 1842, under the command of Captain Isaac N. Mitchell (who was married to James Kerr’s daughter), serving in the Regiment of Col. James R. Cook, and returned after having crossed the Rio Grande at Laredo. Joshua D. was in Col. Ben McCulloch’s Spy Company in 1846. An application for a pension was filed by Joshua D. Brown in 1875. One affidavit dated the 23rd of March 1875 says that during the night before the Battle of Salado, Joshua D. rode in company with Private Tilberry who the bearer of a dispatch from Captain Dawson to Colonel Caldwell. That he was one of the volunteer detail sent by Colonel Caldwell to the scene of Dawson’s Massacre. He, with said detail, found the men of Dawson’s command yet warm in their blood upon the field of battle. Later, Joshua D. Brown served the Confederate forces during the Civil War under Captain Henry T. Davis for the Texas State Troops, mustering in during April 1862, and ending service in July 1863.
De Cordova’s Map of the “State of Texas -1850”
After his military duties were over, Joshua D. Brown left the town of Gonzales to learn a new trade. He moved west to what is now a part of Kendall County north of Waring, Texas on Curry’s Creek. The site, known as Brownsborough or Brownsburg settlement, was approximately four miles from what is now Comfort on the Guadalupe River. After a few months of learning to make cypress shingles out of the bald cypress trees he decided to move up river to make his own shingle camp. He went west to the headwaters of the Guadalupe and found abundant cypress trees and a large spring to build his camp. In 1846, he, along with nine other shingle makers, established the first known business, a shingle making camp, near what is now downtown Kerrville, Texas.
This shingle camp was able to work peacefully and provided some safety to the others living in the area. It is said that half the men stood guard and the others worked. When the ox wagon was full of shingles, they would take them to San Antonio or Austin to trade for supplies. The journey required about four days. Shingle making was a new industry and there were also good markets in Gonzales and San Antonio. The 1,000 shingle bundles were packed and sold for $5 to $8 per bundle. During this time, there was little or no money in circulation and everything a man had to sell was traded for something he needed or did not have. When Indians became overly troublesome, these men returned to Kendall County settlements or to their former homes in Gonzales; but they came back to Kerrville in 1848.
After returning to Gonzales, Joshua’s father Edward died December 1846 and Joshua was the executor for his estate. He married his first wife Eleanor Smith on 20 July 1846 and they had a daughter, Mary Louisa Brown, on 21 December 1847. Unfortunately, Eleanor died in Gonzales on 8 July 1848. But, on 20 May 1849, Joshua married Sarah Jane Goss (1834-1892), daughter of Rev. John Frederick Goss (1811-1892) and Mary Lee “Polly” Dear (1808-1892), originally from North Carolina, and they had seven children.
Their first born was a daughter, Eleanor Ann “Ellen,” who arrived 7 Feb 1851 in Gonzales. On 16 Jan 1868, she married Peter Osborne Alonzo Rees and they had 13 children in Center Point, Kerr County, Texas. John William Brown born 8 Dec 1854, married Frances Henley on 19 Aug 1877. Mary E. L. A. Brown was born 31 Mar 1857 and died sometime after without confirmation. James Stevens Brown born 16 Apr 1859 in Center Point, married Martha Ann Witt on 25 Nov 1879 having eight children; and he died 18 Apr 1941. Nicholas J. Brown, born 1861 in Center Point, married Elizabeth Fenley and he died about 1906. Virginia A. Brown, born 10 Sep 1868 in Center Point married Charles Barlemann 15 Sep 1887, and she died 7 Apr 1890. Joshua D. and Sarah’s youngest child was Alonzo Potter Brown, born 17 Apr 1870 in Kerr County and married Grace Ida Stulting on 18 Nov 1891. They had three children and were my great-grandparents.
1873 tin-type of Joshua D. Brown and wife Sarah Jane Goss Brown with youngest child, Alonzo Potter Brown
Joshua sold his property in Gonzales and moved his family permanently to what he called “Kerrsville,” which he named after his cousin and friend, Major James Kerr, veteran of the War of 1812 and the Battle of San Jacinto; during the period of the Texas Republic. James Kerr was Joshua D. Brown’s father Edward Brown’s first cousin by marriage. His first cousin Henry Stevenson Brown’s wife was Margaret Kerr. James Kerr was her brother, and because Kerr was the first Anglo-American to settle on the Guadalupe River at Gonzales before the state was the Republic of Texas. Major James Kerr had an important role of Texas’s beginning and played a key role in the break with Mexico and the struggle for establishment of an independent Republic of Texas. Joshua D. Brown participated in the founding of Texas along with Kerr in many military campaigns. Major Kerr represented Jackson County in the House of the Third Congress and introduced anti-dueling legislation as well as a bill to make Austin the State Capitol. Kerr never came to Kerrville because he died in 1850 in Jackson County on his farm seven miles north of Edna on Kerr’s Creek and was buried in the Kerr Cemetery. Engraved on the vault over his site is:
“Sacred to the memory of Dr. James Kerr, born in Boyle County, Kentucky, September 24, 1790. Emigrated to Missouri in 1808, then to Texas in the year 1825. Having participated in most of the trying scenes of the struggle for Texas Liberty, he died in Jackson County, December 23, 1850.”
Kerr was a life-long friend of Stephen F. Austin, the most successful Texas empresario, who was instrumental in bringing American settlers to this new land, known as “Original Three Hundred”, and Kerr followed him to Texas from Missouri.
Major James Kerr (a Lieutenant in the War of 1812) was surveyor-general of the Green DeWitt Colony, whose grant was awarded by the Mexican government on April 15, 1825, to settle 400 colonists on the Guadalupe River, and also the DeLeon Colony. Kerr, like Austin, above all other interests, was an unwavering and loyal Anglo-Mexican patriot, working for the welfare of the Texian colonists, and their economic and political freedom as adopted citizens of Mexico. His name has been honored on our town (Kerrville) and county (Kerr County).
In 1850, Joshua D. Brown moved his family to what was known as the old Brown place behind the present-day Kerr County “Ag Barn” on State Highway 27 on the north side of the Guadalupe River. He built a log cabin and two story log barn with fine chinking. His brother-in- law Spencer Goss’s barn, just below his, was not chinked, and during an Indian raid, even though they could not open the barn door, they shot through the walls and killed all the animals. This is where the youngest son, A. P. (Alonzo Potter) built his home when the old homestead burned in 1877. To help understand the value of the land; Joshua gave approximately 100 acres to his son Nick Brown and he traded it for a horse. Most of the land was sold for 50 cents an acre. Today, the name Joshua D. Brown is found throughout the land titles in Kerrville. He was the first real estate broker in Kerrville. The first 88 pages of Book 1 of the Kerr County Deed Records are for lots for businesses and homes sold by Joshua D. Brown.
In 1855, Joshua D. Brown, along with many other locals, petitioned the State of Texas to form a new county out of Bexar County, and on January 26, 1856, Kerr County was formed by the 6th Texas Legislature.
Joshua D. Brown’s log cabin, 40 feet by 25 feet, with rock lined cellar, built after 1850, near present location of VA Hospital on Comfort Highway (Collier Brown Book, 1980)
On May 15, 1856, Brown bought 640 acres for $2 an acre from Alfred D. Beck of Gonzales, all of Survey 116 in Kerr County which was awarded by the State to Benjamin K. Cage (Beck’s half-brother) for his service at Battle of San Jacinto. Four days later Joshua D. Brown asked the very first Kerr County Commissioners Court to make “Kerrsville” the seat of county government. The next day, May 20th, the court accepted Mr. Brown’s proposal to locate the county seat of Kerr County on Survey 116, owned by said Brown and “that said Brown shall make a good and satisfactory warranty deed to said county to at least four acres of land for a public square; and all the streets that may be laid out in the town plat, said streets leading out from the public square for county use to be eighty feet wide, and all cross streets to be sixty feet wide; one choice good sized lot fronting on the public square for county use, one lot suitable for public church, one lot suitable for public school house, one lot suitable for public jail, and that the above be received on the above named conditions.” There was also a stipulation in the deed that the “water privileges of the river front of said river” belong to the public. We need to thank him for his foresight to make our streets the width they are so our town could grow and expand without problems. I want to thank Joshua D. Brown for coming here in 1846 and becoming the “Father of Kerrville.”
REFERENCES
Brown, John Henry, Indian Wars and Pioneers of Texas, [1880]; digital images, (http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth6725/ : accessed May 01, 2014), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, http://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries, Denton, Texas. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924104081736/; http://www.archive.org/details/historyoftexasfr01brow
Bennett, B. Kerr County, Texas, 1856-1956. (1956). San Antonio, TX: Naylor.
Brown, Rev. George D. D. Recollections of an Itinerant Life, http://www.archive.org/details/recollectionsofiil00brow
Brown, James Comly. 1912. The Brown-Comly Families Genealogy
http://www.archive.org/details/browncomlyfamili00brow
Chavez, Michael R., B. A. 2010. Exploring Patterns of Historic Settlement in Kerr County, Texas From 1846 to 1875: A Case Study in Predictive Settlement Modeling. M.A. thesis, Texas State University-San Marcos.
DeWitt Colony Militia Captains, Isaac N. Mitchell, (http://www.tamu.edu/faculty/ccbn/dewitt/captainsframe.htm). Sons of DeWitt Colony Texas. http://www.tamu.edu/ccbn/dewitt/dewitt.htm. (Wallace L. McKeehan, ed.) [April 1, 2014].
Dodd, Jordan. Kentucky Marriages, 1802-1850 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc., 1997.
Edward A. Lukes, “DEWITT, GREEN,” Handbook of Texas Online (http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fde55), accessed April 08, 2014. Uploaded on June 12, 2010. Modified on June 18, 2012. Published by the Texas State Historical Association.
Herring, Joe, http://joeherringjr.blogspot.com/2012/04/photo-of-founder-of-kerrville-along.html. On-line.
Texas Historical Commission (THC). 2014. Texas Historic Sites Atlas. Database on-line. http://atlas.thc.state.tx.us/ . Texas State Historical Association. The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 4, July 1900 -April, 1901. Austin, Texas. The Portal to Texas History. ( http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101018/). Accessed April 28, 2014.
Texas State Historical Association. The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 12, July 1908 – April, 1909, George P. Garrison, editor, Journal/Magazine/Newsletter, 1909; digital images, (http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101048 / : accessed May 01, 2014), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, http://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association, Denton, Texas. Reminiscences of Jno. Duff Brown
Texas State Library and Archives Commission. 2014. Republic Claims. Database online. https://www.tsl.texas.gov/apps/arc/repclaims
Watkins, C. 1975. Kerr County, Texas, 1856-1976. Bicentennial Edition. Kerrville, TX: Hill Country Preservation Society, Inc.
Just got another one of my glass-plate negatives identified. It was made by an unknown photographer during late 1880’s. I have three boxes and most of his pictures are taken in Texas and a few in Tennessee.
You can see more at these links:
https://blog.wilkinsonranch.com/2011/06/26/help-me-to-identify-texas-1800s-glass-negatives/
https://blog.wilkinsonranch.com/tag/glass-negative/
The Nashville City Reservoir, located at 1401 8th Avenue in Nashville, Tennessee. The reservoir was built between 1887 and 1889. The structure was constructed on top of Kirkpatrick Hill, the site of Federal Blockhouse Casino during the Civil War, built by the Federal occupation forces as part of the fortifications surrounding the city to the south and the west. The structure of the reservoir is elliptical in shape, and major axis is approx. 603 feet. The distance around the reservoir at the top of the wall is about one-third of a mile. The capacity of the big water basin is approx. 51,000,000 gallons. The reservoir was built when Charles P. McCarver was Mayor, and the Board of Public Works was composed of Messrs. Ewing, Nestor and Kercheval. J. A. Jowett was the City Engineer. Forms part of Record Group 3, Metro Davidson County Photographer. 1 photograph negative : b & w ; 2.5 x 2.5 in.
Here is a great video of the building of this structure: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3Gt2uYB_WM&feature=youtu.be
Thanks to the help from the Random Acts of Genealogy Kindness on Facebook for finally finding this photo’s location. https://www.facebook.com/groups/raogkUSA/
Hope you enjoy these little gems!
My husband’s maternal grandmother was Laura Forrest Harryman, in 1921 married to George H. Bradford; her mother was Margaret Isabelle “Maggie Belle” Pate wife of William “Willie” Albert Harryman (she is a sister of Martha Jane Pate) and their mother was Theresa (Allen/Evans) Pate, wife of Harmon Pate.
We have a shoe box of photos from my husband’s Great Aunt Nora Harryman Scruggs’s house. I have been fortunate to have discovered cousins on Ancestry that helped me put names and faces with photos in my husband’s family.
Some of these cousins have their thoughts on the attached tintype photo, but I believe it was taken at the wedding of William H. H. Martindale and Martha Jane Pate on 20 August 1879 in Victoria, Texas.
William Henry Hubbard Martindale married the younger sister of his first wife, Martha Jane Pate. Mary Ann Pate Martindale died at age 30 in 1877. She is buried in Monkstown Cemetery, Monkstown, Fannin County, Texas. (1847-1877). Her son, Harmon Bea Martindale was 2-1/2 when his mother died.
back row l to r: William Fletcher Pate (1863-1948), groom Wm. H. H. Martindale (1846-1900), bride Martha Jane Pate Martindale (1851-1950) and Margaret Isabelle “Maggie Belle” Pate (my husband’s ggrandmother) (1860-1955).
front row l to r: Elijah Columbus ‘Lige’ Lively (1852-1937), James Louis ‘Jim’ Pate (1869-1957), father of the bride-Harmon Pate (1826-1889), mother of the bride-Theresa (?Allen/Evans) Pate (1826-1913) holding grandson, Harmon Bea Martindale (born 1874 son of Wm H.H. and Mary Ann Pate Martindale), and, Sally Pate Lively holding her daughter, Lula D. Lively (1879-____).
Another one shared on ancestry. So glad to have the tintype of this family.
How lucky to finally know all these folks names with their faces.
How many of us have memories of the sounds and smells of Christmas and what we think about Santa Claus and the holidays. I have always loved Santa especially the way he is drawn by Mr. Sundblom. These pictures evoke memories of my childhood and make me happy. Just think the image and colors we use today for Santa all came from the art of Haddon Sundblom and advertising by Coca-Cola. Enjoy the ones I have found, and of course, Merry Christmas!!
Great history is found at the coca-cola company website, excerpt:
“In 1931, Coca-Cola commissioned Michigan-born illustrator Haddon Sundblom to develop advertising images using Santa Claus showing Santa himself, not a man dressed as Santa.
Sundblom’s Santa debuted in 1931 in Coke ads in The Saturday Evening Post and appeared regularly in that magazine, as well as in Ladies Home Journal, National Geographic, The New Yorker and others.
In the beginning, Sundblom painted the image of Santa using a live model his friend Lou Prentiss, a retired salesman. When Prentiss passed away Sundblom used himself as a model, painting while looking into a mirror. Finally, he began relying on photographs to create the image of St. Nick.
People loved the Coca-Cola Santa images and paid such close attention to them that when anything changed, they sent letters to The Coca-Cola Company. One year, Santa’s large belt was backwards (perhaps because Sundblom was painting via a mirror). Another year, Santa Claus appeared without a wedding ring, causing fans to write asking what happened to Mrs. Claus.
The children who appear with Santa in Sundblom’s paintings were based on Sundblom’s neighbors two little girls. So he changed one to a boy in his paintings.
The dog in Sundblom’s 1964 Santa Claus painting was actually a gray poodle belonging to the neighborhood florist. But Sundblom wanted the dog to stand out in the holiday scene, so he painted the animal with “black fur.”
http://www.coca-colacompany.com/holidays/5-things-you-never-knew-about-santa-claus-and-coca-cola/
Haddon Hubbard “Sunny” Sundblom (June 22, 1899 – March 10, 1976)
1930
1931 – My Hat’s Off to the Pause that Refreshes The magical transformation of the Coca-Cola Santa happened in 1931. Archie Lee, the ad agency creative director for the Coca-Cola account, was inspired to show a wholesome, kind Santa. He turned to artist Haddon Sundblom to create the image.
1932 – Sundblom’s second painting features a note in which a child, Jimmy leaves a Coke for Santa instead of cookies.
1934
1935 – This ad shows that if drinking Coca-Cola is good enough to refresh Santa, it is good enough to refresh everyone else.
1936: “Me too!“ In this painting Santa enjoys himself in the midst of his bounty of toys and a Coca-Cola.
1937: “Give and take, say I”
1938 – a child first showed up in a family living room
1939
1941 –Santa relaxes next to a cooler of Coca-Colas. Used in calendars, cut outs and in print ads. In 1941 trademarked the name Coca-Cola.
1942
1943
1944 – Santa and Sprint boy saluting the troops.
1945 – at the end of the Second World War.
1946
1947
1948
1949 – Sprite boy and eight reindeer referencing the Twas the Night Before Christmas poems of Clement Clarke Moore
1950
1951 – “Now It’s My Time” using his own model from self-portraits from photographs according to his wife Betty.
1952 – next door neighbor in Tucson Arizona, Lani & Nancy Nason sisters, but Sundblom changed one to a boy to balance the scene. Also appeared in 1952 and 1953 works.
1953
1954
1955
1956 – artwork is a cleaned-up version of the 1953 painting. Work bench and helper removed. Produced by a new advertising agency for Coca-Cola McCann-Erickson
1959- shows a departure for Sundblom, from this year forward Santa plays an important role but elves, children, pets and toys also play significant roles.
1962 – Season’s Greetings impish child-like personality, as in the 1936 with a train also a helicopter something that didn’t exist until 1940.
1963 – Dear Santa, Please Pause Here, Jimmy” is at it again. First in 1932 then again in 1945, Jimmy leaves a note for Santa and a Coke. In the 2001 ad this 1963 Santa comes to life in an animated holiday commercial created by Academy Award-winning animated Alexandre Petrov.
1964 – “Things Go Better with Coke” The last year that a tradition, original Sundblom Santa was used in the advertising for Coca-Cola. Two children and black poodle.
1966
Thank you for reading my blog and hope you enjoyed the amazing artistic abilities of Haddon Sundblom. His career covered other illustrations and can be found doing a search. I am providing this for research purposes only.
Here are flood photos of the San Saba River that happened in Menard, Menard County, Texas. I have shared to a Facebook group page; Menard County, Texas ~ History and Genealogy. Please join the group to read and share information. It is a good reference and resource.
Photos of the July 23, 1938 San Saba River flood in Menard, from the Don Wilkinson collection.
Looking West on Bevans Street toward the Bevans Bank building. Old Catholic Church on the ditch on the left of photo.
Looking North on Bevans Street toward the old Paddy Mires Courthouse and old Luckenbach store. Bevans Bank building on left and Mission Theatre on right.
Looking West down East San Saba Avenue. Old courthouse and Luckenbach building on your right.
Looking West toward the Bevans Bank on East San Saba Avenue.
Looking East from in front of Bevans Hotel down East San Saba Avenue.
This is the old Methodist Church looking north with the Bevans Hotel on the left at the top of the block.
This is a page from the album of Don Wilkinson, and as you can see, I scanned each one individually to share.
Menard News article published May 16, 1963, interview of Kate Glasscock Bradford at the age of 90.
When Catherine Ann Glasscock was born on May 7, 1873, in Burnet, Texas, her father, Joseph Glasscock, was 37 and her mother, Eliza Ruth Bowmer, was 34. She married James Carberry Bradford (1863-1943) on July 7, 1887, in Menard, Texas. They had six children in 19 years. She died on September 15, 1967, in Menard, Texas, at the age of 94.
Wonderful memories of our little San Saba river valley town.
