F. T. Ramsey and His Siblings

Mary Anne Ramsey Robert Emmet Ramsey

1850-1871 1852-1905

Ella Minerva Ramsey McBurney William Alexander Ramsey

1854-1935 1856-1920

Clara White Ramsey Alexander Frank Taylor Ramsey

1858-1938 1861-1932

Mary Anne Ramsey
1850-1871
According to a note in the family Bible, Mary Anne was born on 25 Jul 1850 in Fallston, Penn, and died from drowning on 9 Apr 1871 at the age of 20. The 1870 US census for Burnet Co., Tx on AM and Ellen Ramsey noted that Mary was 'idiotic.' I assume that means she was retarded. She is not buried in the family cemetery in Mahomet. She may have died while visiting family in another city.


Robert Emmet Ramsey
1852-1905
Robert Emmet was born on 27 Oct 1852 in Bridgewater, Penn and died in Tampico, Mexico on 26 Apr 1905. In the 1870 census, he's listed as Robert but in the 1900 census, he is listed as Emmet, living in Elgin, Tx with wife Eliza and daughter Ella. He was an engineer in a brick yard. I have correspondence between Robert's widow and FT, asking if FT could help her pay to have Emmet's body shipped back to Texas for burial. It was going to cost around $200 dollars, that's over $4,000 in today's dollars, a lot of money for a poor widow back then. I don't know what Emmet was doing in Mexico or if the reburial ever happened. Emmet and Eliza's daughter Ella Ramsey was born in Mahomet in 1882. My records show she had three children, but I don't have any more information on that line or current contacts. Sadly, at this point I have no photos of either Mary Anne or Robert Emmet nor do I know where either of them is buried.


Ella Minerva Ramsey McBurney

1854-1935

Ella Minerva Ramsey was born on 8 Nov 1854 in Jackson, Miss, showing the migration route AM and Ellen took on their way from Pennsylvania to Texas. She's been described as a blue-eyed Irish girl and from her photo, she was very pretty. She married Samuel Fergus McBurney in 1873 in Burnet Co., Tx. He, like the Ramseys had come from Pennsylvania. In fact, a James McBurney lived next to John Ramsey in Washington County, Penn according to the 1810 US census. How Sam ended up in Texas and met Ella isn't clear, but one family story was that he was sent by his mother to look for his father who appeared to have abandoned his family! Records indicate Sam had a farm and a sheep ranch in Burnet Co,. One of their kids remembers sometimes being poor, because when things were hard, they were hard and when crops and stock were good, Sam was quick to help his neighbors who had less. Ella and Sam had nine children, eight of whom lived to adulthood. Three were born in Mahomet, probably at the Ramsey home. Five were born in Lampasas and one in Zephyr. Sam was postmaster of Zephyr for four years, just like AM was postmaster of Mahomet. All eight of the children married. In the booklet, The Descendants of William and Ann Taylor, Ella was still living in 1925, had 31 living grandchildren and 5 great grandchildren. It was some of her descendants who created the Ramsey-McBurney organization that met annually in Salado, Tx. for so many years. Ironically, Sam suffered from Bright's disease, the same thing that killed Noah Cushman Perkins, Grandma's father. And Sam died in 1910, the same year, Noah C. Perkins, Grandma's brother died. Ella lived in Zephyr for 25 more years and died on 31 Mar 1935 at the age of 80.

William Alexander Ramsey
1856-1920
William Alexander Ramsey was born on 29 Jul 1856 in Jackson, Miss. He signed his name either Willie or W. A. Ramsey. According to the 1870 US census listing, William was 'deaf and dumb.' One of William's great great granddaughters through his daughter, Mary Euphina, called 'Euphie,' remembered her grandmother commenting that both William and his wife Mary, called Mollie were deaf. None of their children were, but they all learned to sign to communicate with their parents. In the 1880 US census before his marriage in 1881, William was listed as a farmer. (For the first time, AM's occupation was noted as nurseries.) I have several letters written by Willie to his father and brother. The handwriting is nice, but the grammar is a bit strange. In a letter he wrote his father in Apr 1895 he said, "sorry to hear that you was suffered much with your head and heart disease." He also talked about having to drive his stock two miles to a creek because his water was nearly out, but that his "corn and oat look pretty good." In the 1900 census for Lampasas Co., Tex, he was living with his wife, Mary and children Euphie, William Murray and Oliver 'Ollie' Frank Ramsey. He wrote a letter to his brother, FT Ramsey in Jan 1901 in which he said, "I have not news much to write. My shop still pretty good." I don't know what shop that refers to or if it might  be a euphemism for his life. In 1909 the family was living in Zephyr, Brown Co., Tex, like Ella, and tragedy struck. The infamous Zephyr Cyclone swept through the town and killed many people including Mollie and Ollie who was only 14. WA later married Ida Churchill, but they didn't have any children. William died in 1920.

Clara White Ramsey Alexander
1858-1938
Clara White Ramsey was born on 5 Aug 1858, also in Jackson, Miss. (FT was the only child born in Texas.) In 1881 she married William E. Alexander in Burnet Co, Tx. (She had a brother named William Alexander and she married a William Alexander!) In The Descendants of William and Ann Taylor, he was described as a farmer who with Clara and their children, Bessie M, Ella M. and William D. Alexander, lived in Bertram, Burnet Co., Tex. The 1910 US census for Burnet Co. noted that Clara had given birth to six children only three of whom survived. I have two poem/songs Clara wrote, one signed and dated 1877. I also have a letter she wrote FT in 1896 thanking him for the check he'd sent her. (In 1895 FT sent documents to all his siblings saying on or before the death of AM Ramsey, FT Ramsey would pay $200 for his/her undivided interest in the homestead of their deceased mother. I assume FT was consolidating and taking full control of the nursery and its property.) In the 1896 letter Clara said the check couldn't have come at a more needy time and "if it wasn't for debts, wouldn't it be nice." She reminded Frank that they owed him for a cow they'd gotten from AM, that she didn't think she'd be able to get down to get the organ he must have offered her nor the bureau that she "could make such good use for in our bed room this winter that I can think of nothing else but wanting it." Clara died in Burnet Co., Tx in 1938. I have not been able to communicate with anyone from her line. Her daughter Ella married a Mr. Smalley and had a son, Francis J. Smalley who was the representative for Clara's line with the Ramsey-McBurney Association and lived in Austin, but I haven't been able to contact any of his descendants.