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 living children:
Madeline Mercy, born 11 July 1944; Catherine Elizabeth, born
30 October 1945; and Charlotte Christine, born 26 August 1950.
There was another child, but sadly she was still-born on 30
June 1941. Had she lived, she would have been named Priscilla.
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 Becca
Neon and Dadders
Badminton in the back yard
Her birdie bath :). Oh her birds were happy birds!
Neons aprons in her closet
Dadders recording us/interviews
The airplanes flying over so low and loud
Feeding the kitty's
The play house
The pumpkins growing along the fence
Rolling the trash out w Neon
Exploring the adict
The door bell that had a draw string
The intercoms that sometimes worked
Dadders pipe collection
Listening to my first record Flashdance in Dadders office
The goldfish tank that was packed w algae
Big Red soda
Walks to Mc Callaum High School
The smell of Neons car. SO hot. Sometimes we got to ride on
the armrest in the front!
How about Neona hair-cur-chiefs!
I loved Neons laugh
And the way she would clear her throat when she walked down
the hallway.
All the calamine lotion under the kitchen sink
The sippy cups we drank out of until we were 10+
The growing years board in the kitchen
Dadders smoking and his station at the end of the kitchen
table
The kitchen chairs Dadders and Neon recovered
Neon and Dadders picking us up at the airport
Swimming at the local pool
Feeding squirrels at the capital
Ice cap-aides w Aunt Charlotte and Neon
Visiting a fun place where there were people dressed up as
clowns swimming under water.
Playing dress up w Bev and her friend and we were dazzled head
to tow in Neon's costume jewelry and we used the TV
trays as props
Tape under gifts w dates and names of people who gave the
gift.
From Catherine:
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.
______________________________________________________________________________
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.'
______________________________________________________________________________
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.'
______________________________________________________________________________
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.
