1899 :: Death of Dr. Stephen Colquitt Cawthon

The Rockdale Messenger, Thur., May 18, 1899. Death - After a long and lingering affliction, Dr. Stephen Colquitt Cawthon died Monday evening at 3 p.m., at the home of his father-in-law, J.R. Rowland on Burleson St. The doctor's oldest sister, Miss Mary had been with him for several months and his youngest sister, Miss Missouri of DeFuniak Springs, FL arrived that morning and was with her brother just 5-hours before his death. Mrs. Alice Lee of Waxahachie came in on the morning of the 16th to attend the funeral. He leaves a wife and sisters. The funeral was Tuesday evening at 4:30 p.m., after which the Woodsmen of the World took charge and interred the remains in the city cemetery.

1896 :: The Cozy Corner

Dallas Morning News. May 10, 1896. The Cozy Corner. 

RUSH WITCHER, Rockdale, Milam Co., Tex. -- Mr. Big Hat and cousins: I have been reading the Cozy Corner and think it very interesting. I live eight miles from Rockdale, in the black land. I have not been in Texas long. My home is in Mississippi. My brother, myself and a friend are "keeping batch." We do our own cooking. We hunt and fish some and live very happy. But we are not old bachelors. We do not aim to keep batch always. My friend is a subscriber to your paper. I like it very much. My age is 17 years.


ANNIE LAURA BLOCKER, Rockdale, Milam Co., Tex. -- Mr. Big Hat and cousins: It has been a long time since I wrote. It has been raining for three days and I have to stay in out of the mud. Our school closed the 27th day of March, and I was so sorry. I think Mr. Big Hat is so kind to give the cousins a whole page. My papa takes The News and he says he can't do without it. I have got a little pig and his name is Joe. I hope Peggy is sick when my letter arrives. I help mama do the housework. I will answer Fannie Chernosky's riddle. It is a watermelon. My age is 8 years.

1908 :: Moving Picture Outfit For Sale

Dallas Morning News. May 5, 1908. FOR SALE. -- First-class, complete moving picture outfit, now in operation at Rockdale, Tex. Good chance for right man. Box 41. Rockdale, Tex.

1910 :: Birth of G.S. Perry

One hundred and one years ago today . . . on the 5th day of May . . . in the year 1910 . . . a baby boy is born in Rockdale, Milam County, Texas . . . he would later write of his own birth as follows . . .

Then, in the third year of this tripartite union of Andrew Perry and Laura Van de Venter and Maie Van de Venter, an event occurred which the local press, with its usual carelessness, probably described as "blessed." At eleven o'clock on the morning of May 5, 1910, a son was born, red and squalling. The parents, wishing to commemorate Granny's late husband and also to honor an old friend, Dr. Sessions, named this strident, wriggling little creature, who would henceforth participate in the already adequate pandemonium of the household, George Sessions Perry.

As in the case of all other family offices that appeared to Granny either important or interesting, she immediately took over the management of this new member. She washed it, fed it lukewarm malted milk, and talked to it so constantly that the tiny brain, unable to effect other means of escape, simply succumbed to merciful sleep. At other times, fed and wanting diversion, the baby clutched its empty nursing bottle and sent it sailing at its Granny's head.

By 1912, after interminable sieges of colic and a few spasms induced by eating banana skins, the baby began to have a little smudge of personality of its own. And as this personality took shape, so did the struggle between it and its Granny Van for the control and direction of its existence.

From My Granny Van, The Running Battle of Rockdale, Texas by George Sessions Perry . . .

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. . . .

1886 :: A Deluge of Rain and Hail

New York Times. April 29, 1886. Houses Damaged, Orchards Destroyed, and Cattle Killed. Rockdale, Texas, April 28. -- The most destructive rain and hail storm ever known in this section of Milam County visited Rockdale and vicinity yesterday afternoon. About half an hour before the storm burst upon the town the sky became almost black. The deluge of water led many to suppose a waterspout had burst. The roofs of many houses offered only partial protection against the downpour, as the water pounded through nearly every flat roof in the town. Following the deluge came a phenomenal hailstorm, which destroyed every sign of vegetation for miles around. The orchards were literally stripped of all small twigs and limbs, and many trees were barked and killed. 
Thousands of the hailstones were an inch in diameter. They tore through roofs, puncturing even the tin roofs and breaking the window shutters. Scarcely a single window pane on the west side escaped destruction. Following the rain and hail came a severe gale. The damage to dwelling houses and orchards within the immediate vicinity of Rockdale will exceed $15,000. The storm moved eastward, devastating fields and orchards in its path. No loss of human life is reported, but a large number of cattle was killed.

1932 :: Mrs. Mary L. Perry Is Buried at Austin

Mrs. Mary L. Perry Is Buried at Austin. From the Austin Bureau of The News. Austin, Texas, April 14. -- Funeral services were held Thursday for Mrs. Mary Lucinda Perry, 89. She was born in Starkville, Miss., April 7, 1843, and married to J.W. Perry Oct. 25, 1866. After her marrige she moved to Texas and settled at Lexington, Lee County, and later in Caldwell and Rockdale, where she lived for thirty-nine years. Fourteen years ago Mrs. Perry moved to Taylor, where she made her home with a daughter, and nine years ago she came to Austin. Surviving are six children, Ira Perry and Mrs. John Landis of San Antonio and E.H. Perry, Mrs. L.B. Baker, Mrs. E.E. Shropshire and Miss Rosalie Perry, all of Austin. Six grandchildren and three great-grandchildren also survive her. Dallas Morning News, April 15, 1932