Those Day Lilies! (and the insane GOP convention of TX)

 

As you can see, these beds are partially shaded, especially from the afternoon sun.

I've been spending hours working on a birthday celebration post on my ancestry blog "Three Family Trees," for my great grandmother on my mother's father's side...Annie Elizabeth Williams Webb...born 1862 in MO, and married and lived the rest of her life in Texas, dying one month before I was born in 1942 (also in Texas). Come on over and learn a bit about her and her family! 

And I once was proud to be a Texan, as well as a Republican during Eisenhower's era.

What's the matter with these people? G.O.P. belongs on a desert island where they can rule in their own strange way...it sure ain't American!!

"...delegates to a convention of the Texas Republican Party today (June 19, 2022) approved platform planks rejecting 'the certified results of the 2020 Presidential election, and [holding] that acting President Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. was not legitimately elected by the people of the United States”; requiring students “to learn about the dignity of the preborn human,” including that life begins at fertilization; treating homosexuality as “an abnormal lifestyle choice”; locking the number of Supreme Court justices at 9; getting rid of the constitutional power to levy income taxes; abolishing the Federal Reserve; rejecting the Equal Rights Amendment; returning Christianity to schools and government; ending all gun safety measures; abolishing the Department of Education; arming teachers; requiring colleges to teach “free-market liberty principles”; defending capital punishment; dictating the ways in which the events at the Alamo are remembered; protecting Confederate monuments; ending gay marriage; withdrawing from the United Nations and the World Health Organization; and calling for a vote “for the people of Texas to determine whether or not the State of Texas should reassert its status as an independent nation.'”

Thanks Heather Coxe Richardson

Chauncey Granger Sweet, 1865, Chapter I

Born on Feb. 6, 1965, Beaumont, Texas.

In early Galveston, (and Sabine Pass, and Beaumont, Texas) especially through the Civil War, my family was caring for each other, especially the orphaned children.  My grandmother's mother Zulieka and her sister Ada's parents died early during the Civil War.  They may have been raised in the home of their aunts, one of whom was Elizabeth (Lizzie) Granger Sweet.  Lizzie's husband was Sidney Sweet and he died in 1875 leaving her to raise her own children, Chauncey Granger Sweet (10) and his sister Lucy Azalea Sweet (7). T

he other aunt was Lucy Granger Wakeley (or Wakelee) and I believe my great grandmother may have lived with them as well. More information about their lives will come soon.

Chauncey G Sweet was my grandmother's great-Uncle Chauncey.  My grandmother named one of her sons after him, Chauncey Sweet Rogers.  His mother was my grandmother's grandmother's sister.

OK, the fun begins...census searches:

In 1870 Census of Sabine Pass, Texas, Chauncey G. Sweet is part of a family with his father, Sidney J. Sweet, (48) listed as a Tinner, born in MA.  Mother Elizabeth Sweet (36) was also born in MA.

There are 4 children listed, and I only knew of the younger two until this discovery looking at the original documents. Ancestry didn't have them part of their chart yet.  Mary E. is 16 in 1870.  Fanny A. Sweet is 8.  Chauncey G. Sweet was 5, and Lucy A. was 2.  All the children were born in Texas. However, the two elder children must have died fairly young, because they don't appear in later census lists.  However, a girl of 16 could also have married, which was frequently done.  Fanny at 8 is the missing member of that family.

Chauncey G. shows up next in the 1880 Galveston Census.  C.G. Sweet (15) was a clerk and living as a boarder with his Aunt and Uncle Wakely.  At that time Alex (sic) Wakely was a Ships Chandler (age 45) and his wife Lucy (Lizzie's sister) was listed on the census as L.E. at 40.  Also in the household were my great-grandmother Zulieka (21) and her little sister Ada (19).  Mr. Wakeley was actually named Augustus, but it was written wrong on the census sheet.

Also on that census report, C.G. Sweet's father is reported from Mass, as well as his mother who was born in Newburyport, MA.  C.G. was also listed as having been born in Sabine Pass, TX. Other sources say Beaumont.  I just found a photo of a marker for Chauncey's father, Sidney J. Sweet in Sabine Pass, TX.  Here's the picture of the memorial to C.G.'s great aunt, Julia Sweet (Burgett) and Sidney J. Sweet in Sabine Pass, TX.  Unfortunately this marker memorializes several family members who died of yellow fever in 1862.  Julia Sweet Burgett had already lost her first husband, Maj. Sidney A. Sweet, who is included on this marker. He would have been C.G.'s grandfather's brother, I believe. Most of this information came from Texas Find-A-Grave, where the story surrounding that yellow fever epidimic was told.

More in the next Chapter...soon.

Samuel James Webb, Ancestor Wednesday

A few weeks ago I talked a bit about Leroy (Larry) Francis Webb.  Samuel James was his father, from Maryland.

I include this as a Sepia Saturday post, though it doesn't have a thing to do with the theme of snow.  Sorry about that, maybe I can get on theme again soon.  But if that's of interest to you, please go to this link, then go to the bottom of the page and see what all those other people have posted.  It's really interesting! 

He had been born Jan 28, 1827, in Vienna, Dorchester County, Maryland.  In the Census of 1850 he lived with 2 other young men also by the name of Webb, in Baltimore in a home of a married barber with 5 children, named Phelan.  Samuel was 21, and his probable brothers were James, 22, and Edward, 17.  Their occupations were listed as Machinists.   They all were born in Maryland.

DeWitt County, Texas

In 1856 he married Ellen Ann Delemater, also from Maryland, but by then they lived in DeWitt County, Texas.  He was 29 and she was 14.   They raised their family there.  My grandfather's father was their eldest son, Leroy Francis Webb, born 11 months after their marriage.

Flag of Wauls Legion

Samuel Webb fought for the Confederacy in Company B, as a private, in Waul's Texas Legion..  (see Thomas Waul)

...in the spring of 1862 (Thomas Waul) recruited Waul's Legion, for which he was commissioned colonel on May 17. He and his command were captured at the surrender of Vicksburg on July 4, 1863, but he was soon exchanged. Waul was promoted to brigadier general on September 18, 1863, and given command of the first brigade, formerly that of Brig. Gen. James M. Hawes, of Maj. Gen. John G. Walker's Texas Division, which he led during the Red River campaign of 1864. After the battles of Mansfield (April 8, 1864) and Pleasant Hill (April 9, 1864), Waul and his brigade were transferred to Arkansas, where, at the battle of Jenkins' Ferry on April 30, 1864, they helped to repulse federal major general Frederick Steele's attempted invasion of Texas and where Waul was wounded in action

Waul's Texas Legion Monument, Vicksburg National Military Park

I don't know how much Samuel James Webb was involved in these battles.  For a man from Maryland to fight in the Confederacy it seems he must have really believed in some of the values of the south where he had made his home.

Of their 8 children, the three born in 1859, 1864, and 1866 all died between 1865 and 1866.

Samuel died August 15, 1877 and is buried with his wife and at least one daughter in the Old Clinton Cemetery, DeWitt County, Texas.  His wife Ellen Ann was only 34 when she died in 1876.  Her youngest son, Samuel Jr. was born in 1876, but I don't know the month.  He lived to be 16.

Old Clinton Cemetery, SJW Cemetery according to a relative who took the picture

Happy San Jacinto Day

I doubt that you've ever heard of it...but this is the day that commemorates the Battle of San Jacinto 187 years ago, which meant that Texas was free of Mexican rule.

San Jacinto Monument, with bridge in background between La Port and Baytown, TX

The Battle of San Jacinto, TX followed the Alamo battle (loss of Americans to Mexicans) and the Goliad massacre (again, loss of 350 American prisoners being murdered by the Mexican army.)  Actually a few prisoners escaped and ran to Sam Houston to tell him what had happened, and this led to rescuing many families in the path of the Mexican army, on it's way to fight Sam Houston and his forces who continued to retreat.

A mention must be made of how the independent-minded and hard-working settler Texans had difficulty with many issues, whether to sue for peace, to fight on one front, or where, who to follow, and how. Americans were originally invited by Mexicans to settle the territory. Mexicans had a political mish-mash of many different Presidents, with as many ideas about how to treat Texans. Thus early Texas leadership was difficult at best, and the decisions were often made by the individual Texas men, (not a political leader or a military leader) as to who they would follow into battle.

Sam Houston was not very popular with many of the people who were trying to form an independent Texas, until he finally led his 900 men into this 18 minute battle which turned the tide.  He became a hero, though he had suffered an injury to his ankle, and lost 2 of the horses he was riding in the battle.

At San Jacinto, Mexican President and General, Santa Anna led a force of 1400 men. When Santa Anna was captured at San Jacinto, he was wearing a beggars clothes rather than his highly decorative uniform.  But one of the surviving Mexicans gave Santa Anna away, and he did surrender.  There were many Texans who had spent the hour after the battle was won, chasing the wounded Mexicans and making sure they had the same fate as the Mexicans had recently given to so many of their Texans' neighbors.


By the end of 1836, Texas was an independent republic, not yet a state belonging to the US.

On May 14, 1836, Santa Anna signed the Treaties of Velasco, in which he agreed to withdraw his troops from Texan soil and, in exchange for safe conduct back to Mexico, lobby there for recognition of the new republic. There were two treaties, a private treaty and a public treaty. In the private treaty, Santa Anna pledged to try to persuade Mexico to acknowledge Texas' independence, in return for an escort back to Mexico. However, the safe passage never materialized; Santa Anna was held for six months as a prisoner of war (during which time his government disowned him and any agreement he might enter into—which he knew full well would happen) and finally taken to Washington, DC. There he met with President Andrew Jackson, before finally returning in disgrace to Mexico in early 1837. The independent Republic of Texas received diplomatic recognition from the United States, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and the Republic of Yucatán. Even after the Republic had joined the United States in 1845, Mexico still maintained claims on Texas until the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended the Mexican-American War in 1848.

But I digress (or rather Wikipedia did).

As a young Texan, (age 4-7) I would go with my family from Houston to the Inn at San Jacinto for a Sunday dinner, about an hour's ride away.  The food was excellent, and it was in a huge dining room with wood floors, and we could all sit around a long dinner table (my grandparents, uncles, and cousins.)  I had no clue what the monument was about.  And I left Texas before learning state history.

I have read a lot, watched the movies, and just this week decided to review my Texas heritage.  Last night (April 20) I read about this battle, which has its anniversary today.  I thought that was enough of a push for me to share it with someone. (Incidentally, my family always said the hard "J" sound of an English speaking person, when saying San Jacinto, rather than the soft "H" sound of the Spanish "J")

On my last visit to the San Jacinto Inn and Restaurant,  my family was waiting to go upstairs for a lunch.  This visit was in the summer of 1978.

The terrain is still flood prone, with the bayous and the Houston shipping canal nearby.  (See the bridge behind the monument above)  And as you notice, the battle took place in the springtime flooding season.  This was an advantage to the Texans.

I seldom like to think of war and battles.  But as I've been looking at my genealogy, I see how many men were pulled in as volunteer soldiers, and many lost their lives fighting for what they believed in.  So today I celebrate the anniversary of this battle which led to the freedom of Texas.  That was a good thing.