Tombstone Tuesday: Oliver's Tomb, Then And Now ~ Sarah's Return

Sonora Cemetery, Sonora, Sutton County, Texas

My great grandfather Oliver Morton Wallen died from Tuberculosis in 1907 at the age of 37 years. He and his family left Kentucky with the hope that the drier climate of Texas would slow the progression of the disease that had affected his lungs for years. Sadly, it was in vain as he died within two years of moving.

Below is the picture of Oliver's tomb just after he was buried. Pictured left to right: his brother Jesse Uriah, his widow Sarah Francis (Davis), twins James Hobart and Charles Homer, twins Sula Susan and Thomas Miller, and my grandfather William Jesse. This is the only existing picture of Jesse Uriah that I am aware of. Jesse Uriah also died of Tuberculosis ten years later.

Pictured below is the same stone taken within the past couple of years. This photo and the top photo were taken by my cousin Larry Martin and his wife Kathy of Somerset, Kentucky.

My great grandmother Sarah returned to Mt. Vernon in Rockcastle Co., Kentucky after Oliver's death but before she returned she went to Victoria, Texas to visit with other family members, probably Oliver's father, stepmother and half siblings. Dale R. Wallen, son of twin James Hobart, wrote to his uncle Charlie and told him this story that I have transcribed verbatim:

"Dear Charlie,

     This is the story, as best I can remember, that Uncle Bill told me, when I took him to see his Father's grave in 1961.

     He said after the funeral of his Father, Uncle Jessy, put Mother and the two sets of twins Tom and Sula and Hobert and Homer on a train to Victoria, Texas. Uncle Jessy, took him (Uncle Bill) and most of there belongings in a wagon and left for Victoria, befor the train. (I think they may have left a day befor their mother). The night the train passed the wagon Uncle Jessy lit a handful of matches so that mother could tell how far along in the trip they were. (He did not tell me how long the wagon trip took.) In Victoria other relatives were waiting for them. (He did not tell me about the return trip to Ky. other that it was 3 to 4 months, after the funeral.)

Dale R. Wallen"

Oliver died on January 19, 1907 and on August 16, 1907 this announcement was made in the Mt. Vernon Signal: "LEVEL GREEN NEWS: Mrs. O. M. Wallen and children who migrated to Texas two years ago have returned to old Kentucky."

A year and a half later we find this announcement in the Mount Vernon Signal on January 22,1909: "GRIFFIN'S MILL NEWS: Mrs. Sarah Wallen is preparing to send her children to the Masonic Home."

Sarah taught school in Louisville until she removed the children from the Masonic Home.  See my blog Wordless Wednesday: At The Louisville Widows And Orphans Masonic Home for more information and photos. She then went on to teach in Rockcastle Co., Kentucky.

I have copies of the original entry and dismissal papers from the Masonic Home in Louisville which they sent to me in September of 2000. All five children were received on Saturday, May 1, 1909, 11 a.m. on the recommendation of Ashland Lodge #640, "children of deceased Master Mason". They were discharged on October 6th, 1911 to their mother. According to Frances Caroline (Wallen) Towner, her father (twin Thomas Miller Wallen) told her that his mother Sarah had said that even if they had nothing to eat they would never be separated again and sometimes, he said, they went to school with only a piece of bread in their lunch pails.

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Silly Saturday Scans - My Parents 1942

I am undergoing a major project (one of many) where I am scanning my family's photo albums. Today I started on the Album simply titled "1939-1950". I am working on the pages of 1942 and, considering my sober post of yesterday, these three light hearted and cheerful photos were quite uplifting! My parents, Robert L. Wallen and Janet E. Runyan were married in 1943, so these were taken while they were dating.

The picture of my Dad in the Spanish Moss brassiere below was taken in Huntsville Internment Camp in Walker Co., Texas where he was an Army guard for German POWs. The man with him was his friend Joe Wilkes. I wonder if they got chiggers?

Bicycle built for two!

Hillbillys? Moonshiners?

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1920s Beeville, Texas: Shades of the Ku Klux Klan

1914 Beeville

My second great grandparents William M. and Serena Sutton Wallen were married in Rockcastle Co., Kentucky in 1869. My great grandfather Oliver was the oldest of their 9 children. Serena died in 1886, and in 1892 William married Sofa Thacker. Sofa had a young son named Brack from a previous "relationship". William and Sofa had 6 children together, the last being born about 1906. In August of 1908 Brack, now married, went and got himself shot and killed by John Calvin Graves and I believe that is why Sofa and William packed up their family and left for Texas.

They settled in Bee county and for a number of years William was a night watchman for the city of Beeville. He died February 14, 1922.

Ten years ago I wrote to the South Texas Genealogical Society for help in locating information on William. An obituary was found and a death record. He was buried in the Glenwood Cemetery but there was no stone. The Recording Secretary at the time, Kay Pacheco, went above and beyond the call of duty for me going through records and newspapers on microfilm and making trips to the library. Nothing else was found. She was copying the obituary from the "Beeville Picayune" when another article on the front page caught her eye. She e-mailed me right away to tell me about it and copied that page and included it in the package she sent me. For 10 years my dad's first cousin Charlie and I puzzled over that front page article...what did it mean? What did Sofa DO to "assist" the Klan?

Beeville Picayune for Thursday,

16 Feb 1922 Front page:

"Bereaved Widow Very Grateful to Klan for Donation - Writes Note"

The Picayune is in receipt of the following letter from the Ku Klux Klan organization, at the bottom of which the recipient of the latest donation from this organization pens her appreciation:

Beeville, Tex., Feb. 15, 1922

Mrs. W. M. Wallen

City

Dear Mrs. Wallen:

Enclosed you will find $25.00, which is a donation from the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan for your assistance, as well as to show our respect for your deceased husband. We hope you will accept the same in the spirit in which it is given. If so, will you kindly acknowledge the receipt of same by handing this letter to one of the local papers for publication? 

Done by order of the Exalted Cyclops, Bee County Klan, No. 121, Realm of Texas. (SEAL)

----

Beeville Picayune

Beeville, Texas

Gentlemen:

I accepted the above well placed donation in the spirit in which I feel sure it was given, and shall ever feel grateful to the members of the klan. May the helpful work the klansmen of Bee county are doing continue successful.
 

Very respectfully,

Mrs. Wallen"

Naturally, I hope William was not involved in any way with the KKK, although I suppose it's entirely possible. ...but I'll think about THAT tomorrow!

Comments and speculation welcomed!

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Pioneers To Indian Territory 1881

~A 1938 INTERVIEW WITH FANNY SUTTON WALLEN~

From Kentucky, to Texas, to Indian Territory 1881-1938

Mary Frances "Fanny" Sutton was married to my 3rd great uncle, Isaac Newton "Ike" Wallen. Ike and my third great grandfather Jesse B. Wallen were brothers. Fanny was also related by blood through our common ancestors Jonas Sutton, Jr. and his wife Sarah. Jonas's son Micajah is mentioned below. Micajah was married to Eleanor Haggard and he and another of my 3rd great Grandfathers, Uriah Sutton, were brothers.

Ike was probably a practical joker of sorts considering a picture we have of him posing naked.  Now I know where my dad and my brothers got their "Wallen" sense of humor! This picture was probably taken between 1885-1895 in either Cooke Co., Texas or Chickasaw Nation, Indian Territory (Oklahoma). 

     The Interview

INDIAN PIONEER PAPERS

Interview 10593

Interviewed by Ethel B. Tackitt, dated 22 April 1938 (8 pages)

Lone Wolf Kiowa County

Mrs Mary Francis Sutton Wallen, Hobart OK

Born 8 December 1856, Pulaski County Kentucky

Father: Andrew Jackson Sutton, born in Kentucky

Mother: Martha Ann Gasteneau, born in Kentucky

        "I was born in Pulaski county Kentucky December 8, 1856.  My father Andrew Jackson Sutton and mother Martha Ann Gasteneau were both natives of Pulaski county Kentucky and member of pioneer Kentucky families.


My Father's Father, Micajah Sutton had established a tan yard for making leather and leather articles at a very early date in the history of Kentucky in a valley 6 miles East of Somerset, Pulaski county Kentucky and here grandfather reared his family teaching each one to work in the tan yard and thereby providing a living as all work was done by the family.


This valley was well watered not by creeks but by wells of wonderfully sweet good water and when I can first remember there were 300 tanning vats and sheds with all the equipment which went with such an extensive plant.  All parts were operated by hand as there was not one bit of machinery in the whole establishment.  


The hides were lowered into these vats which were about 15' deep by 10' square boarded up on the inside with heavy timbers while at each corner was a heavy piece of square timbers called a plug which was raised when it was desired for that the vat be drained and cleaned to make ready for another pack of hides.  These vats were dug into the ground but were so constructed that the stale water would run out at the bottom.

              After the hides were well soaked so that the flesh adhering to the under side and the hair would slip off when the hand operated scraper was used on tem they were ready for the leather making process which was that of the old German kind which was used in Germany and put in practice by my grandfather Micajah Sutton.


            My father purchased 800 acres of land near him just to secure the tan bark off the chestnut, oak and read oak trees as this bark is what they used for tanning.  Lamp black and fish oil were also used on the leather.

             I worked in the tan yard also, when a child and a young woman.  Harness and leather horse collars were also made here by hand.  I have stuffed the wheat straw into many, many horse collars as that was usually my job.  I can think of nothing that stinks like that tan yard and if a person was not accustom to the smell he or she could hardly endure working there, but of course, our family was brought up to do this sort of work.


When the civil war came up my father was not drafted because of his operating this tan yard, neither was it ever destroyed by either army.  I remember on one November 23 during the war that twenty five Union soldiers came to our home, all very ill of dysentery and remained two days and 2 nights until all but one was well enough to travel.  The one was left and we took care of him the best we could, until some Confederate soldiers came and took him away and father feared that the man would be killed but eight months later, we received a letter from him stating he had been freed and sent to his home.

       After the war my Folks hired Negroes to work in the tan yard and there were two who worked there a long time but the most of the work was still done by the family. When I was 24 and had married, my husband and I left Kentucky and came to Texas, there we lived until 1889 and then in 1890 we moved three miles south of Ardmore in the Chicasaw Indian Nation and with us we brought a wagon loaded with hogs and chickens and nothing else and in the other covered wagon we had our bedding, cooking utensils and our clothes. We leased land from the Jackson Brothers who controlled twelve thousand acres of land in Clear Creek bottom. The land was very productive, the corn grew fine, long ears and the cotton was also fine, but prices were low and there was so little market for either corn or cotton that there was no money in the country.

        Having grown up as I have told you about, working in the tan yard and doing all kinds of farm work. I was able to look after my children and to plant a garden to help provide food. I would take the children and go out into the woods and gather post oak grapes, wild plums and currants for we were accustomed to having plenty of fruit and doing with out fruit was a hardship to me. There were very few orchards in the country at that time and those which were growing were on old home places that had belonged to the Indian families.

        I was not very happy for the country was so wild and unsettled that there was nothing for women and children but loneliness and work as the land could not belong to the white people there was no incentive to build more on a place than was required by the lease, which was for so many years, usually five, and then a person would either have to rent it or move to another lease and improve it in the same way.

        Our stock did well as they ran at large but it was several years before the country settled up and we could have a subscription school and that was for only two or four months in the year and for that reason my children were able to get little education which was of great grief to me. I am now 81 years old and 48 of those years have been spent in Oklahoma. My husband has passed on and I am living with my daughter Mrs. Lillie Hulsey, who was born in Oklahoma and has lived here all her life. Some things are better now than when I first came to the country but I think it is harder for people to make a living at this time."

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The "Saga" of Oliver's Diary

In my very first blog post I said I would tell about the saga of the original Diary of Oliver Morton Wallen, my paternal great Grandfather. Rather than tell the story myself I will relate the story that my Dad's first cousin told me, in his own words. Charlie gave me permission back in 1999 to post the following as I saw fit. It is a revision of Charlie's first efforts. He and I worked on it together to make it more readable. This "History" in it's entirety was to be included with the newly completed transcription of the Diary when I was finished with it. I have omitted here most of the full names to help protect the privacy of the living.

A HISTORY OF THE DIARY OF OLIVER M. WALLEN

As told by Charles Homer Wallen Jr.

"When Oliver died in January 1907 his diary remained in the possession of his Widow Sarah until her death in August 1939. I don’t know the details of why, but when Sarah died the diary went to her youngest son Hobart, where it remained until his death in June 1987.

When Hobart died his second son David acted as the executor of his father’s estate. For reasons known only to him, David gave the diary to Debra, the oldest child of Darrell. Darrell is Hobart's fourth and youngest son.

I first became acquainted with the existence of Oliver’s diary in 1982 when I received a condensed version of it from my aunt, Sula. Sula had transcribed this copy from the original diary, omitting parts of it at her discretion. (I credit this copy of the diary from Sula as the beginning of two things: my interest in the genealogy of my family and my interest in locating the whereabouts of the original, handwritten diary.) Hobart, I was to discover later, made a second, fully complete transcription of the diary.

So, I began my hunt. Sula told me the diary was still in Hobart's possession so I made requests by mail and telephone asking him if he would mail it to me that I might copy and return it. These requests were refused, no reason given. Years passed and so did Hobart.

During a telephone conversation with David in March 1999 I learned how he had given the diary to Debra after his father died. At my request David gave me Debra’s address and telephone number. In the meantime Dale, Hobarts’s third son graciously sent me the transcription of the diary done by his dad to copy and return at my leisure.

I called Debra and talked to her about giving me the opportunity to make a photocopy of the diary. Debbie made it very clear that she would not allow the diary to leave her possession. After a number of telephone calls, covering a period of about three months, Debbie agreed to go to a professional copying business and have a copy made provided I would send her the money to cover all expenses. I agreed and on June 22, 1999 my quest was ended with a photocopy of the original, handwritten diary in the mail from Debra."

Charles Homer Wallen, Jr.

June 25, 1999

The original diary was contained in four separate “books”. These books consisted of three English composition books and a small ledger style book. 

As family research colleague of Charlie Wallen (now deceased), I am presently working on a new transcription of Oliver's diary. Nothing will be omitted. All wording and spelling will be left as they were written and it will be fully indexed. The first three "books" are completed and were done with Charlie's help. I have the fourth book, the book that includes Oliver's move to Texas to complete and the index will be done after that. This has been a slow and painstaking effort. Each new person mentioned has been fully investigated to see what connections might be found, friend or family. This practice has led to many discoveries of family connections that I might not have made otherwise. It is my hope to finish this diary in 2010 and to publish it in some way so that other researchers will have free access to it. The Diary contains hundreds of names from the Rockcastle and Pulaski county areas of Kentucky and the fourth book has many references to people from the Cooke, Denton and Sutton counties of Texas. 


I have been encouraged by some that I should make money from my work, but in the spirit of genealogists everywhere, and in the spirit of "what goes around comes around", I will resist that temptation even though times are hard. I feel certain Oliver would have wanted it that way.

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