1933 :: Death of Uncle Billy Dykes

Uncle Billy Dykes, 96-year old negro citizen of the Liberty Hill community in Milam county, died at his home in that community Saturday. The burial was held Sunday afternoon and was attended by a number of white friends from Rockdale and other sections of the county. Uncle Billy had lived in this county longer than most local citizens can remember. He was a slave before the Civil War being owned by the Lee Williams family. He acquired quite a competency in lands and property, and was recognized as a leader among his race in the Liberty Hill section. Rockdale Reporter and Messenger January 19, 1933

1918 :: The "flue" in our community

Sandy Creek - Oct. 27 - The "flue" is thought to be giving away in our community. There have been three burials in the Sandy Creek cemetery this week. One very uncommon thing happened in regard to one of Lewis Blackman's children. An order was given for a grave to be dug for the child. But before anything was done about digging the grave, word came not to dig it as the child had come to and is thought to be improving. . . . Mr. Will Williams brought his wife back from Rock Port and she was buried in the Sandy Creek cemetery. Lewis Blackman has had two daughters buried this week. We are sorry to hear of one of our Sandy Creek girls death in South Texas -- Mrs. Annie Cloud Mullins, Mrs. D.A. Cloud's daughter. We extend sympathy to the bereaved ones. HAWK. Rockdale Reporter and Messenger, October 31, 1918

1901 :: Death of Long John Williams

Long John Williams, an old Confederate veteran died at his home near Rockdale on the 13th. inst. Williams was a noted character in that section. When the civil war broke out he swore he would never cut his hair till the Confederacy was established. Since 1861 he has never allowed his hair trimmed. He was a native Texan, 6 ft. 6 inches high, spare built, and as tough and wiry as a broncho. He was a good citizen, a brave soldier and a fearless fighter. Southern Mercury. (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 21, No. 26, Ed. 1 Thursday, June 27, 1901

1891 :: Morphine Suicide

Dallas Morning News, October 13, 1891. Mineola, Tex., Oct. 12. -- G.W. Williams of Rockdale suicided here last night by taking twenty grains of morphine. He came here from Rockdale on Friday with a cotton-planter, which he placed on exhibition at the fair. He was found on the steps of his boarding house at about 6 o'clock Sunday evening. The doctor worked with him until 3 o'clock this morning, when he died. The Knights of Pythias, of which order he was a member, took charge of the remains and wired the Knights of Pythias lodge at Rockdale of his death. They received a message to forward the body there, which was done at 4:40 on the International and Great Northern train. He told some parties that he was going to kill himself, but they thought nothing of his threats, and consequently he was not watched.

1960 :: Death of Johnny Horton

Dallas Morning News. November 6, 1960. Singer Dies In 2-Car Collision. Milano, Texas. (AP) -- Singer Johnny Horton, 30, who became famous for his recording of "The Battle of New Orleans," died as two cars collided head-on here Saturday.

The accident on an overpass here in Central Texas also injured guitarist Gerald D. Tomlinson, 30, of Shreveport, La., reported in serious condition; Tilman Franks, 46, also of Shreveport, who was Horton's manager, and James E. Davis, 19, of Brady, a Texas A&M student who was alone in the other car.

The injured were taken to a Cameron hospital. Franks and Davis were believed to have escaped serious injury. A doctor said Tomlinson suffered compound fractures of both legs and might lose one of them.

Horton was at the wheel as he and his companions left Austin, where he filled an engagement Friday night. He was en route to Shreveport to discuss plans for a movie.

The singer, a former star of the national radio program "Louisiana Hayride," originating in Shreveport, had made his home in the Louisiana city the past eight years. He was born in Hollywood, but spent most of his early life in Rusk.

Horton was the husband of Mrs. Billie Jean Horton, who was the wife of Western singer Hank Williams until his death from a heart attack in 1953.

Other survivors are the couple's two small daughters, Zanina and Melody; his step-daughter, Jerry Lynn, and his mother, Mrs. John L. Horton of Rusk.

The funeral service will be held in Shreveport. Arrangements were incomplete.

• His Find-A-Grave Memorial Page
  
• His bio page at tshaonline.org
  
• The eerie demise of Johnny Horton by Clay Coppedge
  
• Honky Tonk Man by Archie P. McDonald

1939 :: J.H. Bonds Buried

Dallas Morning News. October 30, 1939. J.H. Bonds Buried. Special to The News. Rockdale, Texas. Oct. 28. -- Funeral services for John H. Bonds, 86, citizen of Rockdale for more than fifty years, were held at the family home. Burial was in Oak Lawn Cemetery. Born in Columbus, he lived in Milam County since a boy of 14. He drove with his father and mother over the Chisholm Trail with herds of cattle. For a long time he was city marshal of Rockdale. Ten years ago he and his wife celebrated their golden wedding anniversary. Surviving are three daughters, Mrs. J.W. Garner, Mrs. Susie Williams and Miss Maude Bonds, Rockdale; a son, B.F. Bonds, Cameron; five brothers, W.A. Bonds, Cameron; M.M. Bonds, Rawlings, Wyo.; Boyd Bonds, San Gabriel; Thomas Bonds, Wilson, and Scott Bonds, Levelland; two sisters, Mrs. Fanny Anthony, Southland, and Mrs. Allie Pruett, Conoly. [his Find-A-Grave memorial page]

1958 :: Amelia W. Williams

Amelia W. Williams, educator and historian, daughter of Thomas Herbert and Emma (Massengale) Williams, was born in Maysfield, Texas, on March 25, 1876. 

Several generations of the family were planters in South Carolina until after the Civil War, when her father established a plantation on the Little River in the blacklands of Milam County.

Amelia, the oldest of seven children, was early recognized as a potentially outstanding scholar and so was given the best education available from local teachers. She attended Stuart Seminary in Austin and graduated from Ward (later Ward-Belmont) Seminary in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1895 with a liberal arts degree.

By the time she turned twenty-two both of her parents had died, leaving her the guardian of four younger sisters and manager of a 2,000-acre plantation. After rearing her younger sisters Amelia Williams was able at last to work toward her academic goals.

She passed exams for temporary certification and taught history and English in rural schools in San Gabriel, Marlo, Branchville, Baileyville, Calvert, and Cameron. Attending college during the summers, she earned a B.A. at Southwest Texas State Normal School in 1922, a B.A. and an M.A. from the University of Texas in 1926, and the Ph.D. in 1931. From 1925 until her retirement in 1951, Williams taught American and English history at the University of Texas.

As a student of Eugene C. Barker, she investigated Texas history, doing primary research on the Alamo. Her M.A. thesis, "The Siege and Fall of the Alamo," incorporating much of this material, was expanded into her Ph.D. dissertation, "A Critical Study of the Siege of the Alamo and of the Personnel of its Defenders," which established her as the authority on this subject. Five chapters of the dissertation were published in the Southwestern Historical Quarterly in 1933 and 1934. In 1935 she published Following General Sam Houston, 1793–1836. 

From 1938 to 1943 Williams and Barker collaborated on the eight-volume edition of The Writings of Sam Houston, 1813–1863. Her tact was credited for having convinced Houston's descendents to grant access to portions of his correspondence, an act that Barker's disdain for Houston had precluded for many years.

Williams was an honorary lifetime member of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas and also held membership in the Daughters of the American Revolution, the United Daughters of the Confederacy, and the Order of the Eastern Star. She was a Presbyterian and a Democrat. She died in Austin on August 14, 1958, and was buried near Maysfield. The Barker Texas History Center at the University of Texas at Austin contains her papers.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Milam County Heritage Preservation Society, Matchless Milam: History of Milam County (Dallas: Taylor, 1984). National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. 44. Vertical Files, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin. Jane Smoot [her niece, who is still living in Austin, Texas as of this date]
 
The following, adapted from the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, is the preferred citation for this article.

Jane Smoot, "WILLIAMS, AMELIA WORTHINGTON," Handbook of Texas Online (http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fwi83), accessed August 10, 2011. Published by the Texas State Historical Association.

1880 :: The Day the James Boys Rode into Rockdale

The Rockdale Reporter. June 6, 1974. The Day the James Boys Rode into Rockdale. It was back in the year 1880 that Frank and Jesse James and three members of their gang paid a visit to Rockdale . . . . but very few people knew about their visit or who they were. The following letter from Ruth (Williams) Wildman (1905-1993), a former Rockdalian now [1974] living at 5133 Lindsay in Houston, tells an interesting story about the visit of the James gang.

My father, Edward Williams, came to Rockdale as a very young boy. Having been born in Yazoo City, Mississippi, he crossed the Mississippi River on a ferry with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. John Shark Williams. The family settled on a farm near Schulenberg, but later looked for greener pastures. They bought a farm near Rockdale, and there my father grew up and lived his entire life, except for one brief business adventure. Yes, a business adventure. He came into town when he was 21 years old, the year was 1880. He opened a wagon yard, and the story he told was:

On a cold winter's evening, five men rode into his wagon yard and asked what he would charge to feed and keep their horses. He gave them his price, and they replied, "Sell us a barrel of corn, and we will feed our own horses." This he did, but he locked their saddles and bridles up for the night. Each saddle had a Winchester buckled to it.

The men told my father they were going to the telegraph office to send a wire. They left and did not return until late the next afternoon. They paid my father, but asked him if he would go buy them a loaf of bread. When he returned with the bread, they were saddled and ready to ride.

One of the horses began to act-up, and one man said, "Here, trade horses with me," so they traded. As they rode out of the gate, my father remarked to the one who was on the pitching horse, "I'd sure like to own that horse." The man replied, "Yes, and a lot of others." Then the man pulled his coat back and showed my father a big side gun, and said, "They don't allow this in this town, but I'd like to see them help it." Then they rode away unnoticed, as they had ridden in.

In the meantime, there was another businessman there, under the name of Bell. He ran a livery stable. About six months to a year later, Mr. Bell decided to leave town, but before he left he said the five men who rode in that day were Frank and Jesse James, and three of their gang. They had spent the night and the following day with him. He said they spent the night talking of old times, and they rested all day. They were his friends. He was a former member of the gang, and his name was not Bell.

My father said later, "I always knew they were the James Boys." He said, "It was Frank who traded horses with Jesse, and it was Frank who showed me the side gun."

One more thing, the wagon yard was located where Phillips and Luckey Funeral Home is now [1974].

---

Note from the Keeper of this blog . . . back in 1974, Rockdale was celebrating its 100th birthday . . . and this was one of the local history articles that ran in the Rockdale Reporter . . . which is now celebrating the 100th anniversary of being owned and operated by the Cooke family of Rockdale . . . there seem to be quite a few stories about the James Gang among the families of the Rockdale area . . . our Henry line came to Texas from Kentucky . . . a story that has been passed down in our family says that members of the James Gang stopped for a visit at the Henry homestead in Milam County . . .

1936 :: Mrs. Martha Smith

Mrs. Martha Smith, 99, Dies in Milam County. 

Special to The News. Rockdale, Texas. Dec. 1. -- Milam County's oldest citizen, Mrs. Martha Smith, 99, died Sunday at her home at Sandy Creek, seven miles from Rockdale.


Mrs. Smith was born in Grimes County Sept. 14, 1837. She was three times married. Her late husband, Joseph M. Smith, a Confederate veteran, served as the Justice of the Peace at Cameron for many years.


Following the death of her husband in 1911, Mrs. Smith had made her home with her son-in-law, John Williams, who is 86 years old. His daughter and her husband, Mr. and Mrs. Ernest Coleman, for a number of years cared for the aged people.


Her two surviving sons, Jim and Tom Rogers, are in their seventies. She also leaves a large number of grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Dallas Morning News, December 2, 1936