Annabelle Sinclair Ramsey

3 Jun 1855 - 19 Feb 1927

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. John and Jessie both came from Scotland to Canada and were married there in 1849. 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). 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. An article in the 8 June 1929 issue of Farm and Ranch summed up F. T. 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.' The fact that Belle 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 five 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, drowned at a family picnic.)

According to Annabel Murray Thomas, Jessie Ramsey's daughter, Belle had a very challenging household to run. It was located at 4312 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.

There is a very poignant entry in FT's diary when Belle died. 'Feb. 26, 1927 My Annabel, the mother of my dear children, my companion and comfort for 42 1/2 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, Feb. 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.'