An Illustrated Family History

version 1.0*

with philosophical musings by

Charlotte Carl-Mitchell

November, 2002

* More information will be added as I go through more of the family papers

Part 1 - Mercy Ramsey Carl's family

Mercy Ramsey and Ed Carl were married on 12 June 1940 at the Central Christian Church in Austin, Texas. They were the parents of Madeline (Beall), Catherine (Dalferes) and Charlotte (Carl-Mitchell).

Mercy Annabella Ramsey was born on 22 November 1911 in a little house on 38th Street in Austin, Texas, the daughter of John Murray and Mercy Perkins Ramsey, long-time Austin residents and owners of Ramsey's Austin Nursery. She had a brother and two sisters. She was always proud of her family heritage, of being an "Austin girl" and a Mayflower descendent. After graduation from Austin High School, she attended UT Austin, graduating in 1932 with a major in English. While at UT she was president of her Phi Mu sorority, a member of the Sidney Lanier Literary Club, Orchesis, the YWCA Sophomore Cabinet, the Woman's Honor Council and Cap and Gown. She always said all she wanted was to be a wife, mother and teacher. She taught school in the Austin Independent School District for 23 years until her retirement in 1972. Mercy and Ed had three children: Madeline Mercy, born 11 July 1944; Catherine Elizabeth, born 30 October 1945; and Charlotte Christine, born 26 August 1950.

PICTURES OF MERCY AS YOUTH AND AS ADULT

In addition to being a mother and teacher, she was an active member of the Austin community all her life, participating and holding office in many clubs and organizations including president of the Hyde Park Reading club; member of the Austin Symphony Orchestra; member, Daughters of the American Revolution; Worthy Matron of Austin Chapter #304, Order of the Eastern Star; Worthy Advisor, Grand Worthy Associate Advisor and Past Mother Advisor, Austin Assembly #5, Order of the Rainbow for Girls, member Ruh Neb Temple #64, Daughters of the Nile; president, Rosedale PTA and officer of the Austin City Council, PTA and member of the Austin Woman's Club. She was raised in the Christian Church, but after her marriage she was an active member of the University United Methodist Church. She was also a charter member of a bridge club that met regularly for over 60 years. Her hobbies were bridge, working in the yard and watching sports on TV. She loved being with her children and grandchildren, Bev, Becca and Ben Beall and Holly and Rusty Dalferes, and always made their time together special. She also loved animals. In addition to the many pet cats and dogs she owned, for over 50 years she kept a record of when 'her' Chimney Sweeps would return and she would buy bread to feed the many wild birds that would flock to her back yard. She was kind and thoughtful and always rooted for the underdog. She had a high regard for education and was methodical and well-organized, even if her house and kitchen table didn't look it! She had a great sense of humor and loved to laugh. She also liked to take pictures. All these traits and more she passed down to her descendants. She died on 30 June 1996 in Austin and is buried in the Austin Memorial Park cemetery.

PICTURES OF MERCY AS TEACHER AND OES

Some fond memories: She was very creative and funny in the way she liked to surprise people. An example: she put a second sandwich in my lunch on an April 1 in Junior High that I almost traded away until I realized it had a slip of paper in it reading 'April Fool's!' After getting over the shock of adding Smoot to the family, she always treated him like the son she didn't have, better than his own family did. I always appreciated that as did he. She wrote down on little cards the components of every special meal she made (and I think they're all in with the family papers I have!). She didn't have time to fill in my baby book, but she did make little notes on funny things I (and Madeline and Catherine) said and did and put them in an old shoebox.

Memories from Beverly:

* making fruit pops with her in the kitchen

* feeding the birds with her bread crusts

* taking baths with her when I was young and we could both fit in the tub!

* watching ball games with her in the front room

* touring the (I believe the wonder bread) factory

* picking up tennis balls around the school

* going to Luby's with the whole family

From Holly about Neon and Dadders

It is interesting that I remember some of the things Bev references, but some I do not. I guess that is just another way that Neon and Dadders both tried to make each of our visits special. Some of my memories:

* Whenever they came to visit, we always got goody bags that included Bubble Yum. I also remember being able to spend $1-2 at the Montgomery Ward when we went shopping.

* Three kinds of Jello and the candy jars.

* Looking for the tennis balls with Neon and receiving a bag of them each Christmas.

* Not being able to enterthe Living Room before Easter or Christmas mornings so that we could make the grand entrance later.

* Sweet rolls and OJ from the yellow Tupperwar pitcher (which I now have).

* Swinging with Dadders and playing on the Whirly-Gig.

* Badminton in the yard.

* Piling into the dorm and exploring the closets for dress-up.

* When I would wake early, Neon always knew and would call me into her bed to snuggle.

* Rose Milk.

* Luby's (of course) and the annual visit to Benold's to update the Add-A-Pearl.

From Barbara Rugeley: Memories about Aunty Mercy (Carl),

One summer, after she had just graduated from college, Catherine was cutting a pattern in the kitchen and asked her mother if she bothers to read all the directions on the pattern.

Her answer was, 'Yes, in all languages!'

We had a good laugh.

Then I shared with them my mother's (Helen Ramsey Rugeley) favorite sewing tale.

When my brother Bill was just a little boy, she decided to make him a cute pair of pants out of corduroy. She couldn't understand why so much fabric was wasted and proceeded to correct their mistake. The result was a pair of pants with nap going up one way and down the other. He never wore the pants. She never sewed much after that.

Other family memories from Barbara Rugeley

Bill went to Europe as a high school graduation present. The first place he stopped was from the subway in Paris. He chose the subway stop 'Madeleine' because it sounded like a pretty name. Years later, he was recovering from spinal meningitis when Beverly was born. When he learned of the birth, he said, 'Beberly, that's a lovely name.' At that stage of the recovery he had trouble with some letters, 'v' being the biggest one.

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Previous Generation

Mercy Perkins and John Murray Ramsey were married on 24 September 1908 at the First Christian Church, Covington, Kentucky. They were the parents of Mercy Annabella Ramsey (Carl).

Mercy Briggs Perkins was born on 5 November 1885 in Ottawa, Illinois, the daughter of Georgianna (Georgia) Clara Beckwith and Noah Cushman Perkins, who was a prominent businessman in Ottawa. She had two brothers, Charles and Noah, and a sister Mary.

PICTURES OF MERCY AS A CHILD

[I had always wondered where the Briggs came from. Such an unusual middle name for a girl had to be a family name. But I could not connect the Briggs family (which is a big name in Mass. - Briggs & Stratten engines, etc.) with the Perkins clan. We have a photograph of an old man, one of the few with the person identified - Elijah Briggs at 90. We also have a postcard addressed to an M. C. Briggs. All this came together when I discovered that Major Noah Cushman Perkins, Mercy's grandfather had a younger sister named Mercy Cushman, b 6 Feb 1813 in Middleboro, Plymouth, MA, who married an Elijah Briggs, b about 1818 in of Rochester, Plymouth, MA. That would make her M. C. Briggs! Taa Dah! Noah C., Mercy B's father was born in Rochester, his parents seemingly having moved from Middleboro, so maybe he felt close to his aunt and uncle and wanted to honor them through his children. If so, it didn't quite work because I don't remember Mother knowing where it came from. Maybe since it was connected with the Perkins, Grandma didn't like to talk about it.]

Mercy's life changed when, in a six month period in 1900, her grandmother died, her father died, her aunt died, and after being declared insane and sent to an asylum, her mother died. At the age of 15 she was an orphan with her older brother and sister and younger brother. Her older brother Charles had earlier gone to Texas for his health and purchased land near Cisco; the three younger children joined him there. Her sister soon married and Mercy and her brother Noah attended schools in the area until in 1905 she enrolled at Texas Christian University in Waco as a freshman and Noah attended the Senior Preparatory School associated with TCU. Mercy excelled in school, winning the Freshman Scholarship, skipping her sophomore year and graduating with a BA in Latin in three years. From the beginning, she was active in the university community. She was secretary of her Freshman and Junior class. She played the violin in the school orchestra and was a member of the Student Volunteer Band for Foreign Missions, a group of people whose purpose was to enter or support the foreign mission field. She was also a member of the Add-Ran Literary Society and Assistant Editor of the literary magazine Collegian. In her junior year she was vice president and in her senior year she was president of the university's YWCA chapter.

PICTURES OF MERCY AS YOUTH AND SIBLINGS

In September 1905 at a conference in Nashville, probably of the Student Volunteer Movement, she met John Murray Ramsey from Austin and they began a correspondence. In March 1907 she stated her desire to work after graduation, to not be dependent on a husband, a very unusual attitude for the time. In May she told him she wanted to take a year off to learn to sew and cook, then tour the US delivering Human Rights lectures. In August she mentioned having said she didn't see how a woman could love a man enough to marry him. But he must have convinced her otherwise because after graduation from TCU she moved to Austin to be near him, and after attending UT for one year, earned another BA. In UT's 1908 Cactus, she is listed as a member of the Sidney Lanier Society and included in a list of 'Intellectual Giants' for receiving A+ in two campus courses. On 24 September 1908 Mercy and J.M. were married in Covington, Kentucky where her sister was then living. (In later years Mercy admitted to her daughter that she should probably have gotten married in Austin where all Murray's family were, that perhaps that would have improved her relations with her in-laws, but at the time she wanted to be with her sister whose new baby meant she couldn't travel. Her brother Noah seemingly didn't attend the wedding, perhaps because his university term had begun.)

PICTURES OF MERCY AND NOAH

Mercy and Murray had four children: Murray Perkins, Mercy Annabella (Carl), Jessie Mary (Cate) and Helen Georgia (Rugeley), ironically the same family structure as her in-laws - the oldest a boy and three younger sisters. Mercy had thought her fourth child would be a boy, giving her the same family structure as her own had been - a boy, two girls and another boy. She had planned to name the child for her brothers, but 'he' turned out to be a girl so she was given the name Georgia to honor Mercy's mother. Mercy was active in clubs and organizations including the Hyde Park Reading Club, the Order of the Eastern Star, Colonial Dames, DAR and Beta Sigma Phi. She seems to have traveled a good bit during her marriage, going to visit family all over the country and staying away from her husband and his family for weeks at a time. Murray died in December 1944 leaving her a widow for almost 26 years until her death on 19 July 1970 in Austin. She was buried in Austin Memorial Park cemetery.

PICTURES OF MERCY AND MURRAY AND FAMILY

Some observations: She was never able to do what she had dreamed of doing, never got to use her intellect and I wonder how that affected her life. She probably would have been pleased that her granddaughters and great granddaughters, unlike she, were able to follow their bliss.

Some insights from her letters: She mentioned in a letter that she hated her father and at one time all men. Her terrible car accident probably left her with a brain injury that brought those feelings back up, as possibly did the weakness of her husband. She also said that she was like her father, but liked her mother best, that Mary was her father's favorite of the two girls and Noah before her. In another letter, in December 1906, she commented on her sadness at Christmas 'longing to see those that are gone.' (To add to her sadness, her husband would later die in December as well.) In August 1907 she told Murray about having memories of her mother, wishing she were alive, thinking of the ways her mother could have helped her. In another letter in August 1907 she told him she'd never told anyone about 'Mama's sickness.' And in response Murray said he understood the awful strain that wrecked a life that was so dear to her, meaning her mother. He also said 'Do not feel that you could justly blame yourself for taking the doctor's advice in trying to make your mother well.She told Murray TCU had become her home since she didn't have another one. Murray was a member of the Democratic Party and Mercy said it would be hard for her to switch but she would. Her father had been a Democrat so therefore she considered herself a Republican. She was so estranged from her Perkins relatives that for years she refused to visit her Aunt Emily Perkins, her Uncle Lothrop's widow, when she returned to Ottawa. She relented though and did see her aunt before Emily's death.

In March 1907 she told Murray about submitting an application to Wellesley. Either she wasn't accepted or marriage derailed her plan. In May 1907 she told Murray she had a 'little fever for taking picturesthat she'd had a Kodak for over four years, one that Mary had given her for her 17th birthday. (So that's where the family obsession with picture taking came from!) In August 1907 Murray reminded Mercy of her story about visiting Ottawa and being recognized by the peanut vendor as the one who used to steal more peanuts from him than any other girl in town! (That is hard to imagine.)

Mercy didn't like her sister Mary's husband, Ernest Brewer and in April 1907 she had to lend Mary money so they could get out of Texas to escape his creditors. In February 1908 Ernest sent her a scathing letter calling her insulting names, complaining that her brother Charles had cut Mary out of his will (because of Ernest) and that Charlie was controlled by 'a dirty old prostitute.In another letter in February 1908 Mercy admitted she's 'afraid of 'darkies'.In July 1908 she told Murray about Mary's nightmares about their parents, that she would dream she was at the funeral of one and the other would be chasing her with an ax. Mary also said she saw a frightening man's face looking in the window at her when she was staying at the ranch after moving to Texas. She intimated that was the reason she married so young, to get away from the ranch and that face.

On 18 July 1908 Mercy was helping Mary with her new baby and with getting read to skip out on their creditors again, this time from Cincinnati to Kentucky (where Mercy and Murray would wed that September). Mercy told Murray sometimes she sits and wonders what she's living for and if she's living. If she cared for a house she might wake up and find she's alive. She cries when she thinks what has become of her family, 'There we were in Ottawa, in a fine house and without a care. Now only the three youngest children are living and are scattered to the four winds.Her sadness would be compounded when, in August 1910, her only living brother would die of Typhoid Fever.

Some memories: I can't say they're fond, because in this case they're not. Since I was the youngest of the three sisters, I would be left at Grandma's when the rest of the family did Rainbow things. Grandma and I would play games and it wasn't until I was older that I realized she was cheating so that she always won. I should have gotten over the trauma of that, but to this day I hate playing games and am a bad winner and a bad loser! I can better understand her now though. She was a very intelligent woman who had very few outlets for and validations of her abilities. I guess winning at games gave her some.

John Murray Ramsey was born on 31 October 1885 in Mahomet, Texas. (In later years his wife said that had he been a week younger than she rather than a week older, she would not have married him.) The son of Frank Taylor and Annabelle Sinclair Ramsey, he had three younger sisters. His family moved to Austin in 1894 when he was nine years old because his mother wanted her children to go to Austin schools. He attended UT between 1904 and 1908 studying law. Even though he didn't graduate, he passed the bar, but never worked as an attorney. In 1908, the same year he married, he joined the family firm becoming the third generation of Ramseys in the nursery business. He traveled all over the state by horse or horse and buggy, taking orders for the many plants and trees the nursery sold. He worked with his father until F. T.'s death in 1932 by which time his son, Murray Perkins Ramsey, had come into the firm. He brought the business through the Depression and World War II. One of his daughters remembers him as working very hard to keep the business going.

PICTURES OF J. M. RAMSEY as a child, and a young man.   The photo of JM as a baby has on the back "John Murray Frank Sinclair Ramsey age 11 months." I've never heard JM was also named Frank Sinclair. On the back of the other photo is written, "Aug 1889, age 3 years 10 mon"

Like his father and grandfather, he was not only a hard worker, but active in the community. He was a member of the city planning commission and received a citation from President Roosevelt for his service on the state draft appeal board. He served on numerous grand juries and was for many years precinct chair for his area. He was an elder in the Central Christian church and his daughter, Mercy, remembers him every year portraying one of the Wise Men for the Christmas pageant and singing We Three Kings as he walked down the aisle of the church. He was a member of several fraternal organizations including Austin Masonic Lodge No. 12, Scottish Rite, Ben Hur Shrine, and was past patron of the Austin chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star. He was president of the Rotary Club and of the State Nurserymen's association, and was a member of the executive council of the Texas chapter of the American Association of Nurserymen. He died in 1944 at the age of 59 and is buried in Austin Memorial Park cemetery.

PICTURES OF J. M. RAMSEY OLDER

Some observations: From reading his letters, it seems he was a conflicted man. On the one hand he truly loved his wife, but on the other hand he was a Mama's boy. In Grandma's letters before they married, she said she wanted a home of her own from the beginning of their marriage, no renting. He agreed, but then reneged. She reluctantly agreed to renting, but refused to consider moving in with his parents. So what happened - they came back from their honeymoon and moved in with his parents. Not only that, he went back to his extensive traveling, leaving her with her in-laws. On 29 July 1908, he told her of his intention to become a Mason, but that he wouldn't go to every meeting and stay out late, nor would he smoke, drink or gamble. On 5 September 1908, just a few weeks before they married, he told Mercy, 'I do believe in mutuality all the way through. .. and I feel further that neither of us will ever be or have to be in the least subordinate to the other'. A progressive attitude for a man of his day. On 9 September he wrote, 'I have often thought how many things there could be that would make you regret that you ever became my wife or rather keep your life from being all that it should be.'

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Previous Generation

Georgia Beckwith and Noah Cushman Perkins were married on 19 October 1870. They were the parents of Mercy Briggs Perkins (Ramsey).

Georgianna (Georgia) Clara Beckwith was born on 1 December 1850 in Duxbury, Bennington, Vermont. She was the daughter of Charlton Henry and Mary Wright Beckwith and had three sisters according to the family Bible, Elvira (Hart), Alma and Ida Emma. I haven't seen any mention of the last two sisters so they may have died young. We don't know much about Georgia because Grandma didn't talk about her very much. Georgia married Noah Cushman Perkins on 19 October 1870, probably in Ottawa, Illinois where they lived. She had four children who survived: Charles H.C., Mary Frank, Mercy Briggs and Noah Cushman. According to Catherine's research in Ottawa she also lost several children. According to Mercy's letters, they lived in a fine house without any cares. They were obviously wealthy enough to have servants do all the work around the house because Mercy admitted not being able to cook or sew. She was also used to having her clothes custom made, saying store bought didn't fit right. She not only had beautiful clothes but would have umbrellas and purses to match her outfits, according to her daughter Mercy Carl. She must have acquired those tastes at home, most likely from her mother. Pictures of Georgia show her in lovely clothes and jewels, but she seems very melancholy. She may have had an unstable personality, but if Mercy's comments in her letters to Murray are correct, she may also have been abused mentally or physically by her husband. Mercy loved her mother and hated her father and for a while all men. There must have been a reason for that.

PICTURES OF GEORGIA BECKWITH PERKINS AND NOAH PERKINS

Whatever Georgia's condition or cause of it before 1900, events that year pushed her over the edge. Within a three month period she lost her mother, husband and sister. (Her father had died in 1892.) I had always assumed she had had a nervous breakdown and that was the reason she was sent to Bellevue Place in Batavia, Illinois. (It was the same place Mary Todd Lincoln had been sent after the death of her husband. In a documentary on the Lincolns, Bellevue Place was described as a 'private sanitarium for disturbed but well-to-do women.') But Catherine's research uncovered that Georgia had been declared legally insane by the courts before she went to Bellevue. It is unclear what happened, whether she committed suicide, one story has her throwing herself down the stairs, but whether she did or not, she died on 6 December 1900, leaving her four children orphans. There was only a brief notice in the paper about her death. It said, 'Mrs. Perkins had been an invalid for some time and the death of her mother, sister and husband, all within the last few months, had preyed on her mental faculties to such an extent that she was recently taken to Batavia for treatment. Mrs. Perkins was a member of the W.R.C. (probably Women's Relief Corps) of this city and had a large number of warm friends who will learn of her death with sincere regret.Her children were devastated by her loss.

Noah Cushman Perkins was born 20 September 1846 in Rochester, Mass. He and his brother Lothrop, born in 1844, went West in 1865 and settled in Ottawa, Illinois. N. C. was active in business and civic affairs. According to his obituaries in the Ottawa newspaper, N.C. worked at first as a clerk in Gridley's general store, later in the Phipps shoe store. He then ran a knitting factory in a building where the city offices eventually were located, and later was manager of the gas company. For the decade before his death he was in the drug business with William D. Duncan, their store being located at 717 LaSalle street. N.C. died of Bright's disease (or chronic interstitial nephritis) on 10 September 1900 in Ottawa, just 10 days short of his 54th birthday. At the time of his death he was a member of the board of supervisors, the Democratic Town Central Committee, the Ottawa Fire Department, the Knights of Pythias and the Modern Woodmen of America. He was a charter member of and the first banker of local camp, No. 3, M.W. A. According to its website, the Knights of Pythias is one of the oldest fraternal organizations in North America, founded in 1864 during the strife of the Civil War, and dedicated to universal peace and goodwill and the practice of Friendship, Charity and Benevolence. According to its website, Modern Woodmen of America was founded in 1883 as a fraternal insurance society designed to provide financial security to families from all walks of life. It was a self-governing society whose members came from local camps (lodges) across America. The society and lodge system still exist today. (Ironically, during the deadly tuberculosis epidemic of the early 1900s, Modern Woodmen opened a sanitarium just outside Colorado Springs, Colorado., to provide aid to members stricken with the disease. Ed Carl was in an Army TB sanitarium in Colorado Springs.)

PICTURES OF NOAH CUSHMAN PERKINS

One death notice commented that N.C. 'was a stalwart Democrat .. a man of more than average intelligence and business acumen and a man of positive opinion, yet liberal in spirit and kind at heart. He had large interests aside from his drug business.He must have been a wealthy man because at his death he left a considerable estate. A letter to Mercy Perkins in 1908 stated that the balance of her inheritance was $11,726.14 which in today's money would be $234,520. Her guardian, Mr. H.W. Johnson commented that her brother Noah's estate was larger because he had spent less money on clothes! He also said that if she would save $10,000 and use only the income, she would never have occasion to want. If each of the four children received almost a quarter of a million dollars (equivalent), that would mean his estate had to have been worth almost a million dollars. Noah and Mercy received the remainder of Charles' inheritance after his death in 1902 and Mercy and Mary received the remainder of Noah's inheritance when he died in 1910. I had always heard that Grandma's money frequently saved the nursery and that the Ramseys resented her for that. It's clear she would have had quite a bit of money because of her father's large interests.' (Even with that, Mary was always in need of money either because of her profligate, deadbeat first husband or her own spending habits.)

Annabelle Sinclair and Frank Taylor Ramsey were married on 20 August 1884. They were the parents of John Murray Ramsey.

Annabelle (Belle or Annabel) Sinclair was born on 3 June 1855 in Georgia Bay, Ontario, Canada. She was the daughter of John and Jessie Black Sinclair who both came from Scotland to Canada and were married there. They had six children, two boys and four girls. The boys were Neil (who married Cora) and Malcolm, who died at age 30 after being struck by lightening. Belle's sisters were Jessie (later Mrs. Cady Davis), Flora (later Mrs. M. B. Moreland), and Euphie (later Mrs. Harvey Williams and the mother of Harvey Williams, Jr, Mercy Ramsey Carl's cousin). An article "Notes from Bertram" dated June 12, 1884 said Miss Belle Sinclair had been in charge of the school at Bertram for three months. On 20 August 1884 she married Frank Taylor Ramsey from Mahomet, Texas. The fact that she was a teacher explains why she wanted the family to move to Austin for better educational opportunities. They moved in 1894, the year Belle's mother, Jessie Black Sinclair died. Two of her sisters, Flora and Euphie and their families, also moved to Austin. Belle was 29 years old when she married, unusually old for a first marriage of a woman of her time. And her husband was six years younger than she, also unusual. She and F.T. had 5 children, John Murray, Malcolm Neil who died in infancy, Jessie Flora, Euphemia Ellen and Winifred Belle. (Malcolm seems to have been an unlucky name in the family. In addition to Belle's son Malcolm dying in infancy, her brother Malcolm died young, and Euphie Sinclair Williams' son Malcolm, Harvey's brother, drowned at a family picnic.)

PICTURES OF BELLE SINCLAIR RAMSEY

According to Annabel Murray Thomas, Jessie Ramsey's daughter, Belle had a very challenging household to run. It was located at 4412 Ave. B in the Hyde Park subdivision of Austin. F.T. would meet people on the street and invite them home for dinner. He would call Belle and say in an hour he was bringing over a group of people and she'd have to have dinner ready. That usually meant going into the chicken yard and killing and plucking a chicken. Often F.T. would invite these strangers to spend the night and at least once one of them disappeared into the night with F.T.'s wallet. Annabel remembers there being milk in big containers on the porch in the middle of the house. There were two pantries, one for dishes and the other had crocks full of lard. There was running water in the kitchen and a wood fired stove (later converted to gas). Belle and F.T. had their bedroom downstairs on the southwest corner of the house. There was a sitting porch downstairs outside their bedroom and a sleeping porch upstairs. The Ramsey's had the first telephone in Hyde Park and F.T.'s Ramsey's Austin Nursery was the biggest employer in the area. Because their house was close to the Insane Asylum' occasionally escaped inmates would make their way to her back door. She would recognize them as patients, invite them in for a meal and while they were eating, she would telephone the asylum and attendants would come take their resident back. Belle didn't waste any time in getting involved in her new community. In 1894, the year they arrived in Austin, she was instrumental in starting an ecumenical Bible School in Hyde Park sponsored by the Central Christian Church that later became the Hyde Park Christian Church. Annabel remembers Belle as a loving, devout woman, but both Mercy P. Ramsey and Mercy Ramsey Carl had different experiences with her. Belle was obviously devoted to her son but from comments in her letters, Mercy thought her mother-in-law expected him to put her and her interests ahead of his wife's, which sadly Mercy thought he often did. To Mercy Carl, her grandmother was a stern person, quick to punish any wrongdoing.  But according to another granddaughter, Margaret Murray Bailey, Belle was very loving and thoughtful. She remembered a time Belle asked her and her sister Annabel and cousin Helen Ramsey to come to her house, provided them with scraps of cloth and helped them make clothes for their dolls. Belle was obviously someone who left a strong impression on all who knew her.

PICTURES OF F. T. RAMSEY

F.T. Ramsey's bio from The Handbook of Texas said: 'Frank Taylor Ramsey, horticulturist, son of Alexander M. and Ellen (Taylor) Ramsey, was born in Burnet County, Texas, on June 15, 1861. His father was a pioneer horticulturist. Ramsey attended a local country school in Burnet County and at age sixteen became his father's partner in his nursery. By horseback and buckboard he scouted all Texas for native flora and introduced many choice wildings to cultivation. He married Annabella Sinclair on August 20, 1884, and they had four children. In 1894 the Ramseys moved their nursery to Austin, and Ramsey took over the business after his father's death in 1895. His establishment, the Austin Nursery, was a prominent and successful business throughout the early 1900s; it reached 430 acres at one time. Ramsey, nicknamed "Fruit Tree" from his initials, discovered or originated and introduced several domestic fruit varieties, including the Breck nectarine, the Leona peach, the Haupt berry, the Ramsey fig, a seedless persimmon, and the cluster apricot. He also developed several varieties of pecans, bred a Ramsey hybrid shrub, and introduced the Chinese jujube tree into the area. Ramsey contributed articles on horticulture to Southern Florist, Farm and Ranch, and Holland's Magazine. He also wrote his own verses in his nursery catalogs and produced a booklet of poetry titled 'Tis Sweeter Still and Other Poems. He was a Mason and a member of the Austin Public School Board of Trustees (1905-08). Ramsey died on December 28, 1932, and was buried in Oakwood Cemetery, Austin. Ramsey Park in Austin was named for him. '

PICTURES OF F.T. AND RAMSEY CLAN

In his day F. T. (nicknamed Fruit Tree because of his initials and business) was described as 'perhaps the most widely known nurseryman of the Lone Star Stateand 'one of the most active and effective Texas horticulturists.His granddaughter, Mercy, remembers being told that had he published more of his research and experiments, he could have been as famous as Luther Burbank. He was also an inventor and had several patents including ones for a land/water vehicle and a perpetual motion machine. In addition to his volunteer work on the School Board, he was on the Board of Trustees of the State Asylum for the Insane and served on the North Austin Volunteer Fire Department until a professional fire department was started. Her was also a member of Modern Woodmen of America. He and his family were friends of the famous sculptor Elisabet Ney. He was also a fiddler and enjoyed having friends over for an afternoon of fiddling accompanied by the howling of his dog. He used a raccoon penis bone as a toothpick! In turn of the century Austin, most businessmen felt it necessary to be a member of the Ku Klux Klan, but to his credit, he refused. He was not perfect, however. His granddaughter, Mercy, said he liked young girls and she made a point not to ever be alone with him.

He may have had faults, but he loved his wife. There is a very poignant entry in his diary when his wife died. 'Feb. 26, 1927 My Annabel, the mother of my dear children, my companion and comfort for 42!/2 years and my sweetheart for the two preceding years has gone to Paradise. [She] fell asleep on Saturday evening at 7:12 Feb. 19, 1927 and was buried under 160 lots of flowers on Tuesday, Fed. 22 (Arbor Day) at 3 p.m. .. I did not imagine a blessed good wife could be so grievously missed in so many ways. I pity any man who has to bid goodbye to a wife and he is to be pitied more if he has no son or daughter as I have. I have not a doubt but my soul or spirit will meet her soul or spirit, when this body falls asleep. It is so hard to leave the grave, especially late in the evening and feel she is left there alone.'

An article in the 8 June 1929 issue of Farm and Ranch summed up F. T. up this way: 'He is a poet and philosopher, artist and business man, and the link which connects the simple pioneer life of the past century with the rushing tide amidst which we live today. He can fiddle you a tune of the olden times or lay out a landscape that's an artist's dream with equal facility. He is the dean of Texas nurserymen.'

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Previous Generation

Mary Allen Swift married Major Noah Cushman Perkins. They were the parents of Noah Cushman Perkins.

Mary Allen Swift was born on 20 June 1817 and married Noah Cushman Perkins on 2 September 1843. Their first son, Lothrop was born in 1844 and our ancestor, Noah Cushman was born in Rochester, Plymouth, Mass. in 1846. Mary died on 19 March 1876. (In the records of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, she is listed as May Allen Swift.)

Major Noah Cushman Perkins was born on 28 May 1810 in Middleboro, Mass. It is through his mother's line that we have our links to the Mayflower and through his father's line we have a link not just to a soldier in the American Revolution, but to a Minuteman. His mother was Mercy Cushman. Mercy's father was Noah Cushman and her mother was Mercy Soule. Mercy Soule's ancestors were Mayflower passengers George Soule, John Alden and Priscilla Mullens. Noah's ancestors were Richard Warren and Isaac and his daughter Mary Allerton. Major Noah's father was Lothrop Perkins. Lothrop's father was Isaac and Isaac's father, also named Isaac served as sergeant in Capt. Amos Wade's 3rd company of Lexington minute men. Major Noah died in August 1880 in Middleboro. It is ironic that his granddaughter, Mercy Briggs Perkins, should have hated the Perkins so much and yet been so proud of her Mayflower and DAR heritage - since both came from the Perkins.

PICTURES OF PERKINS FAMILY AND MAYFLOWER BOWL

In 1998 Mercy Carl's daughters presented Pilgrim Hall Museum in Plymouth, Mass. with a carved wooden cup which was handed down according to tradition, back to the Allerton family. The cup is made of walnut, turned on a lathe and carved with this verse :

Lord help thy people that are in Destresse:

teach all true Christians for to help each other:

turne + the hard hart's that Doth the poore opresse:

teach them to know their needy Christian Brother:

Think on+the ritch mans flourishing estate:

Which cried out in hell+Blessed are the mercyfull+Wh-t was to late.

The date "1608" is carved on the bottom of the bowl. The museum has a picture of the bowl on their website, http://www.pilgrimhall.org/AllrtnCshmnCup.htm, along with this commentary: 'According to decorative arts historian David Bostwick, the cup is a wassail dipper cup, similar in concept to the modern glass cups which come with a punch bowl. Communal drinking of spiced wines and caudles (wine or beer mixed with egg, similar to egg nog) was a large part of the hospitality in the 17th century. The cup would have been kept on a sideboard or cupboard and used on special occasions.

According to family tradition, the cup was passed down the female line to daughters named Mercy. The earliest Mercy thought to have owned the cup is Mercy Soule Cushman (b. 1741) of Middleboro, Massachusetts. Mercy descended from such Firstcomers as John Faunce, Patience Morton and Alice Carpenter Southworth Bradford. Her husband Noah Cushman descended from Mary Allerton, Thomas Cushman, Robert Bartlett and Mary Warren. It is very difficult to authenticate a 'Pilgrim' object. Small wooden cups seldom show up in documents like probate inventories but, in 1633, Mary Ring left a 'footed cup' to her neighbor Elizabeth Warren. Elizabeth's daughter married Robert Bartlett, and Noah Cushman was one of their descendants. This cup just might have been Mary Ring's 'footed cup.'

Jessie Black and John Sinclair were married in 1849 in Canada. They were the parents of Annabelle Sinclair (Ramsey)

Jessie Black was born in 1822 in Mull Isle, Scotland. She came to Canada and married John Sinclair who died in 1864. Jessie was a widow with six children, and, desiring to escape the cold winters of Canada, she sent her oldest son to a World's Fair to choose a place to live. He had trouble deciding between the Georgia and Texas exhibits, but chose Texas. The two sons came first and bought land near Bertram in eastern Burnet County. They were followed by the rest of the family in 1881. Jessie Black died on 2 November 1894 and is buried in the Bear Creek Cemetery between Bertram and Mahomet, Texas.

John Sinclair was born in 1814 in Barglass, Scotland. He too has an interesting family history. Harvey Williams, Belle Sinclair Ramsey's sister Euphie's son, traced our Sinclair line back 9 generations to Dougald Sinclair whose dates would probably be in the 18th century if not late 17th century. Very little is known about Dougald or his son Duncan. But according to family lore, Duncan's son and grandson, both named John participated in the Battle of Culloden in 1746 against Bonnie Prince Charles. Duncan's great grandson was also John, and at 12 years old took messages from the field at Culloden to assure the family the men were safe. That John married Ann McKillop, moved to Barglass and raised seven children. One of those was Neil who was born in October 1774 near Mickairn, Argylshire, Scotland. As a young man Neil served in the British army and saw action near Capetown, South Africa against the Dutch. He returned to Barglass, married Ann McCowan, fifth daughter of Alexander McCowan in June 1810. Our John Sinclair moved to Dalnanen, near Oban, with his family before coming to North America in 1831. He married Jessie Black in Canada in 1849 and died in Ontario, Canada in 1864.

PICTURES OF A.M. RAMSEY, JESSIE AND JOHN SINCLAIR, AND WILLIAM AND ANN TAYLOR

Ellenor Taylor and A. M. Ramsey were married on 6 February 1849. They were the parents of Frank Taylor Ramsey.

Ellenor (Ellen) Taylor was born on 4 August 1823. She was the eleventh child of William and Ann Taylor. She too has an interesting family history. William Taylor was born at Ballymena, County Antrim, Ireland in 1777. (Smoot and I visited Ballymena when we were in Ireland in 2001. It is now in Northern Ireland) At the time of his birth (and unfortunately to the present day) there were uprisings and rebellion in the country. According to a book on William and Ann Taylor, many Irishmen who had not been in active rebellion, but had given aid and sympathy to the insurgents were marked for vengeance. Among these were William Taylor and James Wilson, near neighbors and about the same age. William had an additional reason for haste in getting out of the country. He knocked down a British officer who was berating the Irish. William and James decided to leave for America immediately. They landed near Philadelphia and William worked his way up into Northumberland county, Pennsylvania, where in 1802 he married Ann Wilson, a farmer's daughter. In 1808 in a two horse wagon, they embarked with their four children and all their possessions and moved to Beaver County, Pennsylvania.

In 1815 they bought a farm near Enon and that is where Ellen was born in 1823. Not only did they have to make their own clothes, they had to grow the material on the farm, flax for summer, wool for winter. William had not had an opportunity for an education so he was anxious that his children have one. There was no school house nearby so he helped build one in the woods near his home. Because they had no money to pay a teacher, the teachers would get room and board with the Taylors in lieu of salary. William was a man 'of liberal feelings and benevolent disposition - always thoughtful of the poor and needy. He had an inborn hatred of tyranny, oppression and slavery - hence was found among the early anti-slavery men of his day.Ann Taylor had excellent health and a fair education for the time, and a retentive memory. She was well read in the Scriptures and could quote from memory many of the Psalms. Both of Ellen's parents lived into old age. William was near 80 at his death 1856 and Ann near 83 at her death in 1863. Ellen married A. M. Ramsey on 6 February 1849. They had six children between 1850 and 1861, two were born in Pennsylvania, three in Jackson, Mississippi and the youngest, Frank Taylor was born in Burnet County, Texas. Ellen died on 19 April 1890 of consumption and is buried in Mahomet, Burnet County, Texas.

Alexander Murray Ramsey wrote a biography of his life and I'll let him speak for himself.

'Mahomet, Burnet County, Texas

April 14th, 1890

My Grandfather's name was John Ramsey and of Scotch-Irish parentage. About the year, perhaps about 1776 he removed from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, to Washington County, Pennsylvania, and settled near the town of Washington in that county and not far from Burgetstown. It must have been about 1800 he with his family moved across the Ohio River into Beaver County, (that portion which is now a part of Lawrence County), and settled in the woods where he with my father improved a good farm about five miles North of Enon Valley. He and my Grandmother died there and were buried by the Old Bethel Church about one mile from his farm.

He had four sons, James, Robert-(my Father), David, and John. James settled at Holliday's Mill in Liberty Township, Trumbel County, Ohio, within seven miles of the town of Warren, and I think his son William is the father of those sheepmen in Llano and San Saba Counties, named Ramsey. Uncle David, I suppose, died at or near Enon Valley, Pennsylvania. He went through the War of 1812 as a teamster. Uncle John died at Chilacothie, Ohio, when in the war of 1812.

Father sold the old farm and moved to Newburgh, a new village on the road from Enon Valley to Mount Jackson. (Two and one half miles from Enon Valley). From there he bought a small tract of land, (fifty acres), close to where the Depot now is on the P.F.W. & Chicago R.R. but sold out just before the Railroad was built and kept Hotel at the Old Brick Stage Stand at Old Enon Valley, which is on the Pittsburgh and Cleveland Pike. From there he went to Allegheny City, where he died of cancer on his throat just before the War of 1860.

Father had three sisters. One married Moses Ross and lived within seven miles of Steubenville, Ohio. One married a Smith and lived somewhere in the neighborhood of Washington, Pennsylvania. The other one never married and father maintained her until his death when she went to Ross' in Ohio. I never heard from her afterwards. Her name was Barbara.

My mother's name was Mary Moore. Her father was known as Old Scotch John Moore, who lived and died at his old farm near Coontown on the Beaver River. So my ancestors were mostly Scotch. Father and mother had eleven children, of which I was born first. Several died in infancy and only four are living at this date. Sinah E. Elliott and John in Texas and Sarah M. Yeagle in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania.

I married Ellen Taylor on Beaver Dam Run, near Enon Valley, Pennsylvania, whose father was William Taylor, who came to this country in an early day from Ireland. He married Anne Wilson of American birth East of the Allegheny Mountains before they moved to Beaver County. The old stock of the Ramseys were strict Associate Reformed Presbyterians, better known as Secedars. The Taylors were Old School Presbyterians.

I married Ellen Taylor at her old home February 6th, 1849, and moved direct to Beaver Falls, twenty five miles below Pittsburgh, where my daughter Mary Ann was born July 25th, 1850, and departed this life April 9th, 1871. Robert Emmet was born at Bridgewater, Pennsylvania, October 27th, 1852. Ella Minerva was born at Jackson, Mississippi, November 8th, 1854. William Alexander was born at Jackson, Mississippi, July 29th, 1856. Clara White was born at Jackson, Mississippi, August 5th, 1858. Frank Taylor was born in Burnet County, Texas, June 15th, 1861. After my marriage I was engaged in the Saw Mill Business until coming to Texas. We moved to Jackson, Mississippi, in 1852 and from there to Burnet County, Texas, in 1860.

I, A.M. Ramsey, was born at the old home in Pennsylvania June 4th, 1825. Ellen Taylor born at her old home near Enon Valley, Pennsylvania, August 4th, 1823. I was named after an old Secedar Minister, Alexander Murray. I was the oldest of eleven children and my wife the youngest of eleven. Six girls and five boys in each family and when we were married there were the same number of boys and girls living in each family. Two boys and two girls of each family are at this date alive, Viz. John Taylor and Mrs. Sarah Sampson, Thomas Taylor and my wife Ellen. John Taylor being the oldest and my wife the youngest of the family. Of the Ramsey family myself, Mrs. S.E. Elliott, Mrs. Sarah M. Yeagle and John.

My sisters and brothers names were Sinah E., Sarah M., Amanda, Jane and another infant sister name I do not remember and Minerva T., John, David E., Robert Smith and James Ross. Minerva R. died when about grown at Allegheny City. The other sisters died in childhood. Robert S. died at Enon Valley when a boy. James R. died in the War of the Rebellion in the Northern Army at Vicksburg, Mississippi, about 1864.

David E. crossed into Mexico during the War of 1861 and I have never heard of him. He left Gonzales going toward Mexico.

Since writing the foregoing my dearly beloved wife Ellen departed this life at our home at Mahomet, Burnet County, Texas, April 19th, 1890, at five o'clock A.M. after a long and lingering illness of consumption.

A.M. Ramsey'

Ironically, A.M. didn't talk about his primary business - his nursery. In 1852 he moved his family from western Pennsylvania to Jackson, Mississippi. In 1858 he sent peach seed to a brother-in-law in Texas to plant for him. In 1860 he moved his family to Burnet County, Texas and found a fine orchard already bearing. Four of those trees became the stock for his nursery. He sold trees all over central Texas. The sheep business and general farming had been his principal occupation for some years. But 'hard winters, absence from home while engaged in scout service against the Comanche Indians and the natural consequences of [the Civil] War left him in a poor condition financially.' During the Civil War he served on the Texas frontier. But his orchard produced peaches earlier and later and larger than any known before, out of which grew the demand for budded trees and the establishment of a nursery in Burnet County in 1875. 'His was one of the pioneer undertakings in the growing of orchard fruit in Western Texas,' according to the 1914 encyclopedia Texas and Texans.

The nursery was first known as The Lone Star Nursery until there was a disagreement with another nursery with the same name. He then changed the name to Ramsey's Nursery. By 1875, when his son Frank T. joined him, they had a stock of 5,000 trees to sell. A. M. would handwrite a list of varieties of fruit trees and Frank, at age 16, began traveling around central Texas on a pony to take orders. A. M. was also a civic leader, serving as county commissioner and president of the county school board. He was a Mason, foreman of many grand juries and a devout Presbyterian. In 1874 he and his wife helped organize the Presbyterian Church at Burnet. At that time he was elected, ordained and installed a ruling elder, a position he held until he moved to Austin. His wife died in 1890 and in 1894, A.M. moved the nursery to Austin with his son Frank T., changing its name to Ramsey's Austin Nursery. The business demanded lots of land and needed to be outside the city limits to avoid city taxes. So Frank T. built his house on the south side of 45th street, the city limits at the time, and put the nursery business across the street. A. M. died on 30 December 1895. A newspaper report at the time called him a horticulturist and florist hardly with an equal. It noted 'The disease that carried him off no doubt had its origin in an accident which happened long ago, and which is thought to have fractured his skull. In his last months, he suffered excruciating agony from his head, and could not sleep except in a sitting position.' He was buried in Mahomet next to his wife.