Poverty in Texas

As I traced the children of William Dean Rutledge and his wife, Susan Virginia Johnson, I was struck by his daughter Mary's life. She married William Brooker Courtney in Richmond County, Virginia on 1 November 1887 and, like so many others, moved to Texas.

The 1920 and 1930 censuses shows William, his children and some of Mary's siblings working in cotton mills in Texas. Since so many of them were working in the mills, I couldn't help but wonder if they were struggling financially.

Mary's death certificate confirmed my suspicion.

She died of pellagra in 1930, in Bell County, Texas.

The Coolest Occupation I've Found Yet

Enough with the deaths. There are other interesting things one finds in genealogy. Like occupations. Today I found one of the best.

Eula Rutledge married James A. Haubenrich in Shelby County, Tennessee on 27 February 1922. And, unbelievably, the census enumerator spelled his last name correctly so he was easy to find in the 1930 census.

They'd moved to Louisville, Kentucky, where he was employed as an inspector in a baseball bat factory.

Women Did Die From Clothes Catching Fire

I'd always heard women died when their clothes caught fire, but thought that happened in the 18th century. Well, it wasn't a problem just in the ancient past. Willie Ruth Reyno Varner died in 1958 from third-degree burns after her clothes caught fire when she brushed against a wood stove.

The Gilmore Mirror tells the whole sad story. On 12 February 1958 she was holding her sick two-year-old son when it happened. She kept her wits about her, wrapping a blanket around herself, only to have it catch fire too. She ran outside and rolled in the snow and that killed the fire. By sheer chance her husband came home very shortly after she put out the fire, and drove her to the hospital. She received many blood transfusions, but medical science wasn't advanced enough then to save her.

Who Does This Child Belong To?

Often one will ask a census search to give you everyone of a specific surname in a county. Sometimes odd things crop up when you do. Over a month ago the results of a1920 census search of Rutledges in Upshur County, Texas, turned up a stray. A one-year old boy, Dean Rutledge, is listed as "grandson" in the William T. Foster family. So I made a note of him, a mystery to be solved. In the 1930 census a "Dan Rutledge" of the age Dean would have been 10 years later was living with the Oliver Carmack Rutledge family.

However, the marriage information on the 1930 census for Oliver and wife Viola, and the ages of the other children led me to believe Dan was the son of a first wife. And a search of the Texas Birth Index located a Dean March Rutledge born in Upshur County in 1918.

Were Dean and Dan the same person? Today I think so because a Georgie F. Rutledge is buried in Morris Cemetery, Pritchett, Upshur County, Texas. The dates on her grave marker are 1896-1918. In the 1910 census Georgia Ann Foster is living with her father, William T. Foster, on the farm next door to Oliver Rutledge. Coincidence? I think not.

Oliver was single when he registered for the World War One draft on 5 June 1917. My best guess is he married Georgie shortly afterwards and she died when her son was born. Maybe someday someone will read this entry and confirm it.

Suicide by Shotgun: Susie Pitman Rutledge

The grave marker transcriptions for Morris Cemetery, Pritchett, Upshur County, Texas on line at TXGenWeb had a curious little notation: "Rutledge, Susie Lee, unmarked (info from old records)" This was unusual because there were so many Rutledges in the cemetery with lovely gravestones. The son of one of them, Elbert Thurston, had a wife named Susie in the 1930 census. Her age in that census would make her a suitable candidate for this burial.

Off to the Texas Death Records online at FamilySearch.org. Sure enough, there's Sue Rutledge, died in Harrison County, Texas, on 6 Sep 1938, 2 days later than the notation on the cemetery site, but with a birthdate that matches it.

She was 27 years 11 months and 14 days old when she died. Well, "died" is the wrong verb. According to the death certificate the cause of death was suicide by gun shot, from a 410 gauge shotgun, in her home in New Hollisville, Harrison County, Texas. She left her husband with three small children, the youngest only 2 years old. Newspaper accounts say she left letters to various members of her family.

She was living at a tourist camp near Lubbock when she shot herself. She and her husband started out farming in Upshur County (at least that's what they were doing in the 1930 census). Later they moved from Upshur County to Gregg County, where two children were born, then on to Harrison County.  In 1940 Elbert was an inmate at a State Prison Farm in Fort Bend County, Texas. I coul

Thousands of farmers lost everything in the Great Depression. This family was one of them.

A Freak Accident on a Swing: Kenneth Lee Rutledge

There has to be a tragic story connected to the death of an 8-year old boy in 1964. Kids in the 1960s didn't die often, not like in the 1860s.

While going through the grave markers at the Gilmer City Cemetery in Upshur County, Texas (with much gratitude to the Upshur County Historical Commission, Eva Joyce Richardson, Geraldine Little Braswell ; Sandy Spann for their efforts), I came upon Kenneth Lee Rutledge, 10 May 1956-8 June 1964.

There was no death certificate in the online archives, so he must not have died in Texas. But why is he buried there? And whose child is he? Some poor family lost a child.

Kenneth was born too late to appear in any census records. NewspaperArchives.com has The Gilmer Mirror online for the 1950's and 60's. Nothing beats newspapers for finding the stories behind a tragic event. And this paper was no exception.

Poor Kenneth died in a freak accident at a day nursery in Las Vegas, where his family lived. He was on a swing that hung from chains. It seems they became twisted. Somehow his head was caught up in the twists, and he fell off the swing and broke his neck. He was probably buried in Enon Cemetery because his parents and grandparents were from Gilmer, and his family wanted him buried back home.

The Lost Children of Mr. and Mrs. Marion & Lillian Petty

My heart goes out to Marion Lee Petty. His family is buried in Enon Cemetery, near Gilmer, Texas. He shares a grave marker with his two wives, and his first is buried with an infant son. They both died in 1920.

Poor L.P. Petty, son of Marion and his second wife, Lillian Lansdale, died of appendicitis 17 July 1939. The poor little boy was just three years old. I wish I knew the little boy's first and middle name. Both his birth record and the death certificate list him as L.P.

His sad little grave marker in Enon Cemetery, outside of Gilmer, Upshur Co., Texas has a simple but heart-breaking inscription:

L.P. Petty

Son of

Mr. and Mrs. M.L. Petty

Feb. 14, 1936

July 17, 1939

Darling

We Miss Thee

As if his family hadn't experienced enough anguish, they lost another child in 1943:

J.W. Petty

Son of

Mr. and Mrs. M.L. Petty

April 24, 1943

April 24, 1943

Asleep in Jesus