1920 :: Sam Houston's Daughter is Dead at Houston

A telegram received this morning by Rockdale relatives announces the death of Mrs. Nannie Morrow at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Davis E. Decker, in Houston, death occurring Wednesday night.

Mrs. Morrow was the daughter of General Sam Houston, and as such her death will be of interest to the whole of Texas. Her late husband was a first cousin of A.P. Perry Sr., of Rockdale, and Mr. Perry acted as "best man" at their wedding. She was about 75 years of age. The funeral will be held at Georgetown Friday at noon.

The Rockdale Reporter and Messenger (Rockdale, Tex ), Vol [48], No 12, Ed 1 Thursday, May 20, 1920

1932 :: The Passing of J.M. Luckey

With the passing of J.M. Luckey . . . another name has been added to the list of long-time residents of this section who have left the ranks for a more fulsome life and entered into "the joy of their Lord." . . . In 1871, at the age of 20 years, he came to Texas, making the trip from New Orleans to Houston by boat, and from Houston to Brenham by train, where he took passage in an ox-wagon for this section of the state. There was no Rockdale on the map or railroad then in Milam county. . . . The famous Sandow lignite property is now on his old homestead. . . . Mr. Luckey was buried in the family burial plot in Pleasant Hill cemetery, near the community where he had lived so long. . . . Here he rests in peace, after living out his life of more than four score years in helpfulness to his fellowman. . . . The Rockdale Reporter and Messenger (Rockdale, Tex.), Vol. 60, No. 34, Ed. 1 Thursday, October 6, 1932 Page: 2 of 4

1915 :: Death of Sam Worbington

S.H. Woreington, [sic] an inmate of the Harris county poor farm, was struck by a freight train and instantly killed Tuesday morning about 9 o'clock near Westheimer's dairy, east of Houston. According to the engineer of the train that struck him, Mr. Woreington, who was about 60 years of age, stepped from under a culvert and got on the track in front of the train. The pilot of the engine hit him, knocking him about 75 feet. He was returning to Houston afoot from Carthage, where he had been to visit relatives, and had in his pocket an express receipt for a package sent to Carthage. Monday afternoon he was noticed near the place of the accident by a negro woman who said that he was lying with his head on the track. She told him that it was dangerous and suggested that he go to the shade. He made no answer. Justice Ray held the inquest. Houston Post, May 19, 1915

1920 :: Death of Retta Daniel

Houston, Tex., Nov. 13. -- Mrs. Retta Daniel, wife of G.W. Daniel, civilian employee at Ellington Field, died early this morning at the post hospital from burns received Thursday when, mistaking gasoline for coal oil, she attempted to start a fire and an explosion resulted. Her body will be sent to Rockdale for burial. Hutchinson News, Kansas, November 13, 1920

1940 :: Death of Billy Colvin

Billy Colvin, 18 year old Freshman student at A&M College was killed at 6 p.m. Sunday on highway 79 a short distance from Gause when the car in which he was returning to college, crashed another machine. Maurice Ferrari of Rockdale, another Freshman at A&M who was returning to the college with Colvin, was critically injured and was rushed to a hospital in Hearne.


The students were riding in a car with Robert Grisom of Houston. The car was proceeding east on highway 79, and Representative Mason D. Harrell of Smithville and a companion, Mrs. Mary Helen Nash of Austin were traveling west. Shortly after the Grisom car crossed a bridge near the George Ditto home the crash occurred. According to information received by the Cameron Daily Herald, the Harrell car was being driven by Mrs. Nance. The representative had been spending the week end in Kosse with the family of Mrs. Nance. He was partially asleep but saw the Grisom car approaching and was unable to explain just how the crash occurred.


Colvin is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Will C. Colvin of Rockdale and Ferrari is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Max Ferrari of Rockdale. The driver of the car, Mr. Grisom, was only slightly injured. Mr. Colvin, father of the dead youth, is constable for Precinct 4.


Funeral services were to be held at 10 a.m. Tuesday from the funeral home of Phillips & Lucky in Rockdale. A detachment of Highway Patrolmen from Austin were in Cameron Monday and in conjunction with the office of Sheriff R.M. Kennedy, an investigation was being made. Cameron Herald, March 7, 1940

1942 :: Death of Harry Whipp

Harry Whipp of Houston, son of Mrs. C.M. Whipp, 812-A Avenue K, died at his home Friday night. A sister, Marguerite, and brother, Cecil, of Lubbock left Saturday night to attend the funeral services. Mr. Whipp's mother is visiting a daughter, Mrs. D.D. Stewart, in Louisville, Ky., and will go to Houston from there and another sister, Mrs. Ronald Shands of Oklahoma City, former Lubbock resident, will attend the funeral. Lubbock Avalanche-Journal (Lubbock, Texas), November 1, 1942, Page 7

P.S. . . . FYI . . . in 1952, Harry's daughter, Mary Sue (who was born in Rockdale), marries L Ron Hubbard, the founder of the Church of Scientology . . .

1944 :: Death of Madora Oxsheer Letcher

Dallas Morning News, April 2, 1944. Mrs. M.O. Letcher Dies at Houston. Mrs. Madora Oxsheer Letcher, 86, whose father was W.W. Oxsheer, early Texas legislator, a resident of Dallas from 1889 until a few years ago, died Saturday at her home in Houston. Her husband was Dr. Joseph Stephen Letcher, who practiced in Dallas until his death a number of years ago. She was born April 4, 1857, near Cameron. She was a member of the First Baptist Church here. Surviving are two daughters, Mrs. C.C. Slaughter, Dallas, and Mrs. G. Arnold Bailey, Houston; two grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. [her findagrave memorial page]

1899 :: Loewstein Travels

Joe Loewenstein, Jr., one of the most popular and worthy young men of Rockdale, left Monday for a pleasure and business trip to Houston, Galveston and New Orleans. Rockdale Messenger, March 16, 1899

1957 :: Perry Rites Set Tuesday

Perry Rites Set Tuesday. Rockdale, Texas (AP). -- Funeral services for George Sessions Perry, writer and native of Texas, will be held here Tuesday (19th February 1957). His body was found Wednesday in Connecticut after he had been missing two months. Tentative funeral arrangements were reported by J.B. Newton, a relative. The hour has not been set. Mrs. Perry is expected to arrive Saturday by plane in Houston, where she will be met by her brother, Bill Hodges, Beaumont. They will come immediately to Rockdale, near where Perry maintained a ranch. The body of Perry, an arthritis victim, was found in a tidal stream near his Connecticut home. Coroner James Corrigan said Thursday the circumstances of the 46-year-old writer's death are "consistent with suicide." Police said they believed Perry disrobed and threw his garments into the water before entering the stream himself. Dallas Morning News, February 16, 1957

1900 News Clippings

Rockdale Messenger, Thursday, December 6, 1900.

Cameron - J. B. McKinney was awarded the contract of keeping in running order the courthouse clock.

Marriage - Cameron - Frank Peoples and Miss Ethel Carter were married last Wednesday at the home of Tom Peoples in Cameron.

Marriage Licenses: Ben Burkely to Minnie Davis; James Riskup to Katerine Salac; B. F. Peoples to Ethel Carter; J. E. Griffin to Ora B. Little; W. T. Graves to Annie A. Powers; Solon Walker to Ella Keith; A. R. Rhodes to Sallie Harris; Spencer Brown to Lula Griffin; R. L. Coker to Lonie Gutherie; M. A. Taylor to Irene Westbrook; T. C. Westbrook to Annie Taylor; Pete Nichols to Ella Smith; A. T. Griffin to Marilla Donaldson

Suicide - Mrs. Edward Gandy of Lone Oak, a Dallas suburb, committed suicide by taking chloral. She and her husband had lived unhappily, and a short time ago, separated. Mrs. Gandy going to live with her mother. She grieved over her domestic troubles and left a written statement.

Assault - A desperate attempt, which may prove fatal, was made in Granger to murder Henderson Key. [very lengthy article]

Death - In a difficulty near Hempstead, Hez Harvey, Sr., about age 70, was shot and killed by John Renecke, who was badly wounded.

Death - Elmer Mayes, age 17, was found lying dead near a pond a few miles from Paris with a charge of shot in his breast. He was supposed to have met death while crawling after ducks and dragging his gun.

Death - D. W. Silvey, and old citizen of Milam county, fell while carrying a bucket of swill to his hogs and struck the bucket with his side, rupturing a gall cyst, from which he died within 24-hours.

Suicide - G. E. Ollard, a stranger, was found dead in his bed at a rooming house in Houston. An empty chloroform bottle was found on a table and it is supposed he swallowed the contents with suicidal intent.

Death - Bushdale - Twin infants of Henry Beckhaus were buried here last Wednesday.

Death - In this issue will be found a large ad on the 9th page of the Monarch saloon, which since the death of John Brown has been ably managed by T. E. Neeley.

MILAM COUNTY TEXAS - Newspapers: Gleanings from the Rockdale Messenger 1900. File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Lynna Kay Shuffield.

1931 :: Birth of future Mrs. L. Ron Hubbard

Eighty years ago today . . . on the 17th day of June . . . in the year 1931 . . . a baby girl is born in Rockdale, Texas . . . the proud parents are Harry Hughes Whipp and his wife, the former Mary Catherine Hill (born in Rockdale in 1898) . . . other members of the family living in Rockdale at the time include an older sister, Nancy Catherine . . . as well as the maternal grandma, Catherine M. Hill nee Walden . . . this baby girl is given the name Mary Sue . . . her maternal grandparents were in Rockdale before 1900, which is when her Grandpa Hill is enumerated as a book seller . . . in 1910, he is listed as the owner of a book store in Rockdale . . . by 1934, when Mary Sue's little brother, Harry, is born, the family is living in Harris County, Texas . . . 


Mary Sue Whipp would grow up to become the 3rd and final wife of Lafayette Ron Hubbard, the founder of the Church of Scientology . . . it has been said of the Hubbards that . . .  

They were indeed an unlikely couple – a flamboyant, fast-talking extrovert entrepreneur in his forties and a quiet, intense young woman twenty years his junior from a small town in Texas. But anyone who underestimated Mary Sue made a big mistake. Although she was not yet twenty-four years old, she exercised considerable power within the Scientology movement and people around Hubbard quickly learned to be wary of her. Fiercely loyal to her husband, brusque and autocratic, she could be a dangerous enemy. . . . 

1936 :: 4 Die in Texas Tornadoes

Dallas Morning News. April 29, 1936. Tornadic winds slashed through Southeast Texas Tuesday killing four persons and injuring at least a dozen others during a driving rainstorm which soaked most of the State. Freakish twisters took the lives of two Negroes on the Simms ranch, six miles northwest of Rockdale, and two others in Eastern Wharton County. . . . The body of a negro woman named Sullivan [sic] was found in the splintered ruins of her home on the Simms ranch. In a near-by field was sprawled the battered body of her son. . . .

---

New York Times. April 29, 1936. Rains Valued at Millions Help the Prospects for Crops. Dallas, Texas, April 28. -- Tornadic winds slashed through Southwest Texas today, killing four persons and injuring at least twelve as much-needed rains soaked most of the State, the "dust-bowl" area of Oklahoma and Southern Louisiana. As farmers and stockmen valued the rain at millions of dollars, twisters hit Eastern Wharton County and a ranch six miles northwest of Rockdale, Texas, killing four Negroes. Considerable damage was done in the affected areas. . . .