1934 :: Victim of Kidnap and Murder, Waco, Former Rockdalian

James Malcolm Stewart, 25, of Katy, Texas, was kidnapped and brutally murdered near Waco last Saturday, his body being found in his car on a country road.

Young Stewart was the only son of Dr. and Mrs. J.M. Stewart, citizens of Rockdale in the early days. His father died on September 7, as recounted in these columns at the time. Young Stewart had been identified with the motion picture industry in California, but came back to Texas on the death of his father. He had driven his mother to Waco and placed her on a bus for a trip to visit relatives at Comanche. The next seen of him he was found dead as above stated.

Joe Averett, 23, and Roy Curry, 26, of Hubbard, were arrested Tuesday in connection with the murder and a series of car thefts and kidnappings which followed the death of Stewart. The Rockdale Reporter and Messenger (Rockdale, Tex.), Vol. 62, No. 41, Ed. 1 Thursday, November 22, 1934 Page: 8 of 8

1930 :: Burial of Mrs. John Redding

The remains of Mrs. John (Kidd) Redding, who died one year ago in Hollywood, California, at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Ida Penn, were brought to Rockdale from California Wednesday afternoon on the Sunshine Special, under escort of a grand-daughter, and placed in a granite mausoleum in the Old City Cemetery. . . . Mrs. Redding resided here with her interesting family for many years. Her husband, John Redding . . . died here suddenly many years ago, so bringing the body here was only a final homecoming to the family. . . . The Rockdale Reporter and Messenger (Rockdale, Tex.), Vol. 58, No. 37, Ed. 1 Thursday, October 30, 1930 Page: 4 of 8

1961 :: Death of Edmund Wolf

A message received by Mrs. A.E. Ryan Wednesday from California informed her of the death of her uncle, Edmond Wolf, a former Rockdalian. Wolf was the son of Mr. and Mrs. A. Wolf, who came to the United States from Vienna, Austria, when the son was a small child. Soon after they located in Rockdale. Wolf had been in business with his father when a young man, and before going to California in the early 1920's, he operated the Wolf hotel, located on the corner where the American Legion building now stands. Rockdale Reporter and Messenger, March 16, 1961

1944 :: Dana Andrews Remembers Rockdale

"Dana Andrews' most vivid and lasting impression of a home is the parsonage in Rockdale, a two-story frame house of the vintage 1910."

The above quotation is from a story, "Portrait of a Minister's Son," in a recent issue of Photoplay Magazine. The writer was speaking of Dana Andrews of the films, who might be better known in Rockdale as "Hoddy" Andrews, who spent his young boyhood in Rockdale when his father, the Rev. C.F. Andrews, was pastor of The First Baptist Church of Rockdale a number of yeras ago. 

The Rockdale parsonage, a two-story frame house, which the Andrews family lived in, is now a modern white bungalow and would probably not be recognized by Andrews should he visit it now.

Dana's father, Rev. C.F. Andrews, died in 1940. He served as Baptist pastor in Rockdale, as well as in San Antonio, Uvalde and Huntsville. Dana's full name is "Carver Dana Andrews," and Rockdale citizens remember his as Carver, or the nickname "Hoddy," given him by his father for the way he said "Howdy" as a youngster.

Young Andrews graduated from Sam Houston State Teachers College, Huntsville, worked as a plumber's apprentice between high school and college age, worked for an oil company in Houston, and was working for a filling station in Van Nuys, Calif., when his first break for the movies came. Among his pictures was 'The Purple Heart,' in which, according to the Photoplay magazine writer, he gave a "magnificent performance."

Andrews told the magazine author that he visited his old home in Rockdale fifteen years ago at which time he visited the old two-story frame house and a favorite childhood hiding place -- underneath the ground floor, between the central beam and the floor, where he found undisturbed after fifteen years things he had cached there: a monkey wrench, a jackknife and a mess of marbles. Rockdale Reporter and Messenger, November 16, 1944 

1850 :: The Census Taker

On this date in Milam County, Texas . . . the 21st day of October . . . in the year 1850 . . . T.J. Allen is acting as "the census taker" and is busy visiting residents of Milam County . . . this particular Mr. Allen just happens to be the third husband of Matilda Connell Allen Allen nee Roberts . . . who is an older sister of our Mahala . . . who is a 3rd great grandma to the Keeper of this Rockdale history blog . . . regarding the job of "the census taker" it has been written that . . . 

It was the first day of census,

and all through the land;

The pollster was ready,

a black book in hand.

He mounted his horse

for a long dusty ride;

His book and some quills

were tucked close by his side.

A long winding ride

down a road barely there;

Toward the smell of fresh bread

wafting up through the air.

As an enumerator for Milam County, one of the households Mr. Allen documented on this date contained the following family members . . .

Charlotte Dougherty 47

Lucinda Dougherty 3 [sic]

Elijah Goodnight 17 [sic]

Elizabeth Goodnight 16

Charles Goodnight 14

Cyntha Goodnight 12

The woman was tired,

with lines on her face;

And wisps of brown hair

she tucked back into place.

She gave him some water

as they sat at the table;

And she answered his questions

the best she was able.

He asked of her children

Yes, she had quite a few;

The oldest just turned nineteen,

the youngest is still two.

He noted the sex,

the colour, the age.

The marks from the quill

soon filled up the page.

They came from Illinois,

of that she was clear;

But she wasn't quite sure

just how long they'd been here.

They spoke of employment,

of schooling and such;

They could read some and write some,

though really not much.

When the questions were answered,

his job there was done;

So he mounted his horse

and he rode back toward home.

We can only imagine

his voice loud and clear -

"May God Bless you all

for another ten years."

As it turned out, by the time the next census is taken (1860), T.J. Allen has died of yellow fever while working as editor for The Galveston Journal . . . most of the members of this branch of the Goodnight and Daugherty family have moved on to other parts of Texas . . . and the above mentioned "Charlie Goodnight" has been a member of the Texas Rangers (1857) . . . 

Before another census comes around in 1870, Charlie has been involved in a near state-wide round-up of feral Texas longhorn cattle that have been roaming free during the years of the war between the states . . . he has invented the "chuck wagon" . . . 

and he has used that early version of a "food truck" when he and Oliver Loving drove their first herd of cattle northward out of Texas along what would become known as the Goodnight-Loving Trail (1866) . . . 

Now picture a time warp -

it's now you and me;

As we search for the people

on our family tree.

We squint at the census

and scroll down so slow;

As we search for that entry

from long, long ago.

Could they only imagine

on that long ago day;

That the entries they made

would effect us this way?

If they knew, would they wonder

at the yearning we feel;

And the searching that makes them

so increasingly real.

We can hear if we listen

the words they impart;

Through their blood in our veins

and their voices in our heart.

Slightly adapted

from

original poem

by

Darlene Stevens

P.S. . . . as an additional tidbit . . . on this date in the year 1899 . . . Noah Smithwick dies in California . . . but back in 1850 he was also living in Milam County, Texas . . . and on the 11th day of September in that year, he was also enumerated by T.J. Allen . . . this Noah Smithwick is the author of Recollections of Old Texas Days . . .

1975 :: Death of C.W. Matson

C.W. Matson, 88, of Rockdale died Thursday in a Rockdale hospital after a long illness. Funeral was at 10 a.m. Saturday in the Murray Street Church of Christ with Minister George Hall and Minister Milton Pogue officiating. Burial was in Laurelland Cemetery in Dallas. Mr. Matson had lived in Rockdale since 1921 and was owner of the Matson Theaters in Rockdale and other Central Texas cities until his retirement several years ago. Surviving are a granddaughter, Dorothy Ann Wallis of Rockdale; his sister-in-law, Miss Lilly Hardeson of Rockdale; two brothers-in-law, Joe Hardeson of San Francisco, Calif. and W.F. Hardeson of Dallas. Cameron Herald, January 6, 1975

1892 :: Death of Jason Carter

The Rockdale Messenger chronicles the death of Mr. Jason Carter [sic] Wilson aged 88: He was born in Williamson county, Tennessee, Feb. 13, 1804. That country, then was infested with Indians, and he was born and the family often lived while he was a child in a blockhouse for protection. His recollection of those perilous times was vivid to the last. In 1842 in company with the celebrated Kit Carson and a party of about eighty, he went on a hazardous trip across the plains to New Mexico. After many exciting and bloody adventures he found himself in Texas at that early day. He was in California in 1849, and could interest one for hours with personal reminiscences of those days. Ten years before the war his home was at Marshall, Tex. Dallas Morning News, February 2, 1892 

1928 :: Death of J.H. Richardson

Rockdale, Milam Co., Texas, April 1. -- Relatives are in receipt of a message announcing the death of J.H. Richardson of Whittier, Cal. Richardson made frequent return visits to Rockdale where, together with a brother, he was interested in the Rockdale oil fields. Dallas Morning News, April 2, 1928

1930 :: Rockdale War Veteran Dies from Shell Shock

Rockdale War Veteran Dies From Shell Shock. Special to The News. Rockdale, Texas, March 13. -- A telegraphic message was received by Mrs. J.A. Phillips of this city that her eldest son, James Kolb Phillips, had died in a hospital at Chattahooche, Fla. The immediate cause of his death was a recurrence of shell shock, resulting from his service with the American Expeditionary Force in France.


Young Phillips was brought home from France in 1919, and remained in Government hospitals at Newport News, Va., and California, for some months before being discharged as cured. After two years in New Mexico, he returned to Texas and resumed his studies at Texas A.&M. College, where he graduated in the class of 1924 with his younger brother, Charles. For the last few years he had been engaged in the citrus fruit and nursery business at St. Petersburg, Fla., with his uncle, C.L. Kolb.


He was the son of the late Dr. J.A. Phillips, and is survived by his mother, Mrs. J.A. Phillips of Rockdale; a sister, Mrs. Clyde Franklin, Rockdale; a brother, Charles C. Phillips of Vicksburg, Miss.; an aunt, Mrs. Maie Vanderventer, and an uncle, O.K. Phillips of Rockdale. The body will be brought to Rockdale for burial. Dallas Morning News, March 14, 1930

1960 :: Lucy Hill Patterson

Los Angeles Times
March 18, 1960

PATTERSON, Lucy Hill, beloved mother of Dr. George Hill Patterson. Services at 1 p.m. Saturday, Faith Chapel, Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale, Forest Lawn Mortuary in charge. 

• findagrave 
• Lucy Hill Patterson Memorial Library