1884 :: Drowning of Shelton Sisters

Galveston Daily News
July 31, 1884

Distressing Occurrence.

Two Young Ladies While Bathing Venture Beyond Their Depth and are Drowned.

[Special to The News.]

Milano, July 30. -- The community was terribly shocked by the news brought this morning of the drowning of Misses Lou and Florence Shelton, daughters of J.M. Shelton, resident of this immediate vicinity, in Little river, near McCowan's ferry.

The young ladies, aged twenty-one and nineteen years, were in company with their father and had camped for the night in the locality near where the accident occurred. . . . 

The young ladies were members of the temperance council in this place, and were active and zealous in the cause.

The council in a body, with a large number of the citizens, attended the funeral this afternoon from the father's residence.

The quiet little village is enshrouded in gloom.

1894 :: Death of Miss Fannie Murff

Rockdale, Milam Co., Tex., June 25. -- Died, at the residence of her sister, Mrs. Kawkins, Miss Fannie Murff, daughter of Captin R.S. Murff of Burlington. The Galveston Daily News, June 27, 1894

1956 :: Death of Annie Talbot Gladdish

Dallas Morning News. Mart, June 25 -- Funeral services will be held here Wednesday for Mrs. Annie Talbot Gladdish, 93, a Mart resident for many years who died Sunday from injuries received in a fall last September. Mrs. Gladdish died at the home of a daughter, Mrs. J.L. Baird, in Marked Tree, Ark. Her body will arrive in Mart Tuesday morning. Services will be Wednesday at 10 a.m. at the Littlepage Chapel, Bishop F.T. Goddard of Tyler officiating, burial in Mart Cemetery. Mrs. Gladdish was born Feb. 10, 1863, in Norfolk, Va. She moved with her father to Texas after her home was burned during the Civil War. After graduation from Professor Estill's Academy in Brenham, Mrs. Gladdish moved to Rockdale and worked in the post office. She was married to Henry Allen Gladdish in Rockdale and in 1905 moved to Mart. Mr. Gladdish died in 1930. Mrs. Gladdish was a member of the Episcopal Church. She was a member of the Daughters of the Confederacy until the organization disbanded. She is survived by six daughters, Mrs. P.A. Moore of Taos, N.M., Mrs. E.L. Pierce and Mrs. J.L. Baird of Marked Tree, Ark., Miss Ethel Gladdish of San Antonio, Mrs. G.M. Knebel of Scarsdale, N.Y., Mrs. J.D. Tonahill of Mart; six grandchildren; seven great-grandchildren. The Waco News-Tribune (Waco, Texas), June 26, 1956, Page 18 

1889 :: News from Rockdale

Rockdale Messenger
(Rockdale, Tex.)
Vol. 17, Ed. 1 
Thursday, June 20, 1889

Mr. Frank Mundine of Lexington was in town Monday. He informs the Messenger that he will begin the work of rebuilding his hotel here next week. . . . The Texan says: . . . Rockdale pursues the even tenor of her way; she has no boom but is steadily and surely improving. Several new stores are contemplated; the Mundine hotel will be rebuilt at once; a large cotton shed and platform will be ready for the coming crop. A large number of town lots have changed hands and a private citizen is now building one of the finest residences in the county.

1889 :: Odd Fellows Cemetery Established

Rockdale Messenger. (Rockdale, Tex.), Vol. 17, Ed. 1 Thursday, June 20, 1889

I.O.O.F. This order is now in a most prosperous condition, and in December last there was a total membership on this continent of 555,722. There are more Odd Fellows by far than there are of any other secret fraternal organization.

The lodge in Rockdale is in a flourishing and prosperous condition; it owns its own building and in addition has lately established a cemetery, which was much needed and is a credit to the town. 

1878 :: Death of John Cole

Hearne, May 30. -- The people of this city are again called upon to witness a sad accident in railroad life. The victim is a promising young man by the name of John Cole, a resident of Rockdale, Texas, and lately a brakeman on the I. and G.N. railroad. Young Cole, it seems, was attempting to board a freight train, and missing his hold was crushed beneath the wheels, severing his left arm near the shoulder and crushing his left leg below the knee. Owing to some delays that it seems could not be avoided the patient lost a good deal of blood. Drs. Morrison and Matkin, of this place, and Drs. Horton and Walker, of Rockdale, are in attendance, but up to 8 o'clock P. M. the man is too weak from loss of blood to endure the amputation of his mangled limbs, and but little hope is entertained of his recovery. Galveston Daily News, May 31, 1878

1889 :: A Mother Badly Burned.

Rockwall [sic], Tex., May 16. -- Information was received here this morning of a terrible calamity in the German settlement five miles west of town, which happened a little after dark last night. While the wife of Louis Palmer was cooking supper she dropped a lighted lamp, which broke and ignited the oil and enveloped the poor woman in flames. Mrs. Palmer ran from the kitchen through the bed room in which her two little boys aged three and four years lay asleep into the yard where her husband was, who at once set to work to extinguish the flames. In this attempt he was unsuccessful until his wife was so badly burned that she cannot recover. Suddenly looking back he saw the house was in flames and burning within it the two little boys whom it was impossible to rescue. Mr. Gustor, a neighbor who arrived on the ground too late to render much assistance found Mrs. Palmer in a terribly burned condition, and her husband's hands also badly burned in trying to save her. A remarkable instance of the fire transpired in the escape without an injury of Mrs. Palmer's infant found in the yard, but how gotten there is unknown. Drs. Wallis & Wallis, accompanied by Messrs. Breeding and H. Lockwood, visited the scene last night and rendered such aid as was possible, but the occurrence was not generally known here until the issue of a supplement to the Rockdale Messenger this morning. The Sun (Weatherford, Tex.), Vol. 7, No. 8, Ed. 1 Thursday, May 30, 1889