1896 :: Confederate Veterans Reunion at Rockdale

Galveston Daily News
Galveston, Texas
24 July 1896

Confederate Veterans. 
Reunion at Rockdale. 
Selecting a Burying Ground. 

Rockdale, Milam Co., Tex., July 22.-- Second day's programme Camp Ben McCulloch No. 29, United Confederate Veterans opening this morning. 

The camp was called to order at the stand at 10:30 a.m. Music by the choir. Colonel W.B. Woody, who attended the reunion at Richmand as a delegate from this camp, was called upon for his report. His report was received and adopted. The camp then went into the annual election of officers, which resulted as follows:

Commanding officer, Colonel N.H. Tracy; adjutant major, J.B. Moore; treasurer, Captain J.B. Wolf. Rev. James Peeler had heretofore been elected permanent chaplain, which was ratified.

Adjourned for dinner.

At 2 p.m. the camp assembled again for business. It was proposed that the camp buy two acres of ground on the opposite side of the river, adjoining the plot on which the camp is situated, which belongs to the city of Rockdale, and build a pavilion and make it a permanent meeting place for the camp. In furtherance of this plan the camp elected Captain J.W. Perry, Messrs. D.S. Harriss, J.H. Sparkman and W.M. Gill as trustees to consummate the purchase and receive the deed to the property.

Major J.B. Moore and Captain J.B. Wolf were appointed to receive the deed from the cemetery association at Cameron to a plot of ground donated to the camp by the ladies of Cameron for a burying ground for indigent ex-confederate soldiers.

Captain J.J. Irwin, R.C. Turnham, D.S. Harriss, H.E. Joiner, Captain L.L. Lee, M.M. Caldwell, Captain G.W. Adams and B.V. Arnold were appointed as a finance committee to solicit funds to be used for the different interests of the camp, especially for the burial of indigent ex-confederate soldiers, it being one of the principles of this camp that an ex-confederate shall never be buried as a pauper.

The business interest of the camp was then adjourned, to meet on the same grounds on July 21, 1897.

1901 :: Death of B.F. Ackerman

Mr. B.F. Ackerman died suddenly Tuesday morning of heart failure, superinduced by chills. He had eaten a hearty breakfast and apparently was all right. A little later he complained of having a chill and was assisted to his room. Shortly after a friend entered his room to see how he was getting along and found him sitting in a chair dying. The friend immediately went for a physician and summoned Dr. Monroe, but Mr. Ackerman was passed all human aid when they arrived. 

The body was removed to the residence of his step-son, T.G. Sampson, from where on Wednesday morning the funeral procession formed and followed the hearse to the Goodhue Wilson grave yard, where the mortal body of Mr. Ackerman was returned to earth. "For dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." 

The deceased was 72 years of age and was an old citizen of Cameron, and was at one time worth considerable money. He was liberal hearted and well liked by all his friends. 

Three children survive him, B.F. Ackerman, who is married and lives in Palestine, Will Ackerman, who lives in Cameron, and Mrs. G.B. Tracy, who lives with her husband about five miles in the country. Our sympathy goes out to all in their affliction. Cameron Herald, March 21, 1901

1904 :: Death of Col. N.H. Tracy

Cameron, Tex., Nov. 23. -- News was received here last night from Rockdale of the death there at 9:30 of Col. N.H. Tracy, who has resided in that city for several years and who has been a member of the Milam County bar a long time. He was a member of the Legislature from this county and Mayor of Rockdale for some time. A number of Cameron people left this morning for Rockdale to pay their last respects to the deceased. He was also a soldier in the Confederate Army. Dallas Morning News, November 24, 1904

1921 :: Funeral of Mrs. Elizabeth Simms

Dallas Morning News. December 20, 1921. SIMMS. -- Rockdale, Texas. Dec. 19. -- The funeral of Mrs. Elizabeth Simms, who died Saturday, was held at the family residence Sunday afternoon, with a large concourse of sorrowing friends and relatives in attendance. Funeral services were conducted by the Rev. E.D. Hamner of Austin, a former pastor, assisted by the Rev. Mr. Weaver, present pastor of the Christian Church, of which Mrs. Simms was a member. Mrs. Simms was married to E.C. Simms and moved to Milam County in 1899, living on a farm near Tracy, but later removing to Rockdale, where she has since resided. She was a daughter of J.A. Hargrove and was born near Chappell Hill, Washington County. She leaves seven children, all living, all of whom were present at the funeral. her findagrave page

1946 :: Rockdale Undertaker Dies

Dallas Morning News. August 14, 1946. Rockdale Undertaker, P.E. Luckey, Dies. Rockdale, Texas, Aug. 13 (AP). -- P.E. Luckey, 67, senior partner of the Phillips & Luckey funeral establishment here, died at his home Tuesday. Burial will be here Wednesday afternoon. Survivors include his wife, four sons and a daughter.

---

Perry Emmett Luckey, the son of John Millard and Rachel Garner Luckey was born February 28, 1879 in the Millerton Community of Milam County. The old Luckey homestead was located on much of the land where the Sandow Strip mine is now located. On June 1, 1902, he was married to Mary Draper Carter. Her parents were Sinclair Blake and Tennie Love Carter who immigrated to Texas from Mississippi in 1877 and settled in the Tracy Community of Milam County. Mr. Carter was a Confederate veteran and he and his wife had experienced much hardship during the Civil War.


The Luckeys were parents of four sons: Darrell Emmett, Harold Milton, Donald Carter, Edward Earle; and one daughter, Bertha Lucille. The Luckeys were members of the Methodist Church. For a number of years, Mr. Luckey was associated with Henne and Meyer Hardware and Undertaking Company in Rockdale. These two men were pioneers in the burial insurance business and worked toward the enforcement of having burial insurance legalized in Texas. Later they founded the Phillips and Luckey Burial Association.


Mr. Luckey was a quiet and unassuming man and he had a steadfast devotion to principal. His heart was supercharged with love for his fellowman. He was a greatly beloved citizen of Rockdale.


From Matchless Milam, History of Milam County Texas, compiled and edited by Milam County Heritage Preservation Society, A Texas Sesquicentennial Edition.

Milam County Ex-Confederates

The Galveston Daily News, (Houston, TX)
Tuesday, October 14, 1890; Issue 168; col D.

Ex-Confederates
The Old Soldiers of Milam County Organize —
A Call for State Organization

Cameron, Tex. Oct. 13. -- The ex-confederate soldiers of Milam county effected permanent organization here to-day. Over 400 names were enrolled. By invitation, Judge X.B. Saunders of Belton delivered an address, which was greeted with cheers.
The following resolutions were adopted and proper provision in the charter and constitution made to carry the objects to success:

Resolved, that it is the sense of this association that the ex-confederate soldiers residing in Texas should effect an old soldiers' state organization, the same to be composed of camps or associations of the several counties of the state, and we therefore call upon every camp or county ex-confederate association in Texas to enlist as a regiment in this association, that the ex-confederates of Texas may possess the power to move as a disciplined army toward the accomplishment of the task of caring for those of us who are needy; of providing aid to the indigent widows and orphans of the confederate dead; of preserving and maintaining the sentiment and fraternity born of a common affection for a common cause, and the hardships and dangers shared in the march, the bivouac and the battlefield, and of making an authentic history of the war between the states, that we may transmit to posterity the causes which stripped our allegiance and affection from the flag of the union and intertwined it with the destiny o the flag of the stars and bars.

The following resolution, directed against the histories now taught in the schools of the county, passed:

Resolved, that a committee be appointed whose duty it shall be to guard the historical literature taught in our schools against all encroachments calculated to misrepresent the part taken by the confederate government in defense of the rights of the people.
All county associations of ex-confederates in the state are requested to correspond with N.H. Tracy, Rockdale, Tex., with the view of effecting a state organization.