1875 :: Death of Hattie Baines

A little over a year ago . . . on the 25th day of June in the year 2013 . . . the Keeper of this cemetery history blog was doing some work on Find-A-Grave regarding the Old City Cemetery in Rockdale, Milam County, Texas . . . two of the photos posted on Find-A-Grave during that work session are of the final resting place of a little girl with the name of Hattie R (1873-1875), Dau. of Wm. M. & E.V. Baines. . . . little Hattie died on this date, the 23rd day of November, in the year 1875 . . . Rockdale was just a year old at the time . . . 








As far as is currently known, there are no other Baines buried in this cemetery . . . and the parents were not listed as being buried elsewhere in Milam County . . . so, a search was begun for her family members . . .


The 1880 census quickly revealed that amongst the inhabitants of Rockdale as of June of that year were 37-year-old Wm. M. Baines, his 39-year-old wife, Elizabeth V. Baines, and an assortment of children . . . also in the same household were William's 33-year-old brother, Geo. W. Baines, and his 24-year-old wife, Cornelia . . .


Further research led to the fact that these Baines brothers are two of the sons of George Washington Baines, Sr. and his first wife, Melissa Ann Butler . . . this info wound up placing these Baines brothers in the waayyy distant branches of the personal family tree of the Keeper of this blog, where . . .


On the 26th day of June, in the year 1881 . . . a baby girl is born in Collin County, Texas . . . she is the first of three children known to have been born to her parents, Joseph Wilson Baines (1846-1906) and Ruth Ament Huffman (1854-1936) . . . and they give her the name of Rebekah . . . 

Rebekah's father, Joseph, is a brother to the above named William and George . . . which makes Rebekah a first cousin to the little Hattie who is buried in the Old City Cemetery in Rockdale, Texas . . . 

Rebekah grows up to marry Samuel Ealy Johnson . . . and they are the parents of the 36th President of the United States . . . who is a 9th cousin twice removed to the Keeper of this Rockdale history blog . . .


Did y'all follow all of that!?!

1921 :: Damage to Old City Cemetery

The Rockdale water works standpipe collapsed under pressure of a full head of water about 9:00 o'clock Tuesday night. The standpipe was 110 feet high, and consisted of 22 sections of 5 feet each. The break occurred on the 9th section, and the thirteen top sections fell with a crash that was heard all over town. In falling the tower pointed north and partially wrecked the W.E. Gaither warehouse, formerly occupied by the old Rockdale Commission Company. . . . Some damage also resulted to the old City Cemetery, a number of monuments and gravestones being displaced and broken, shrubbery uprooted, etc. . . . Cameron Herald, October 20, 1921

1900 :: Travers in the Galveston Hurricane

When Galveston is mentioned, the minds of the Review readers will instantly revert to the awful destruction brought upon our Texas coast by the great hurricane of September 8. . . . The storm was terrific here at Houston . . . The storm was much harder east and south of here, seeming to center about Galveston. It is impossible to describe the destruction brought upon that city by the wind and waves. The results of the storm are horrifying in the extreme. Nine of our people perished in Galveston. Their names are as follows: Sister H.C. Travers and little boy . . . We deeply mourn the loss of these dear sisters and these little lambs, but we hope to meet them again when the sea gives up her dead. . . . Being very anxious about our people in Galveston, I went there as soon as the strict martial law would admit me into the city. On my journey I found that the prairie for twenty miles inland was covered with all kinds of valuable property and debris, interspersed with carcasses. The human bodies along the public route had been previously buried, though there were still hundreds on the prairie. Some were picked up even a month later. . . . It is impossible to imagine the force of the waves. Think of railroads being swept from their beds, the rails being snapped and twisted as if they were cords! It would be useless for me to enter into details. . . . Felix Conway. Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, Battle Creek, Mich., November 13, 1900

Note to readers . . . Sister H.C. Travers . . . aka Sheldon H. "Della" Raby . . . was the wife of Herndon C. Travers, who was postmaster in Rockdale in the 1880s . . . their Baby Boy is buried at the Old City Cemetery in Rockdale . . .

1899 :: Dedication of Cawthon Monument

o
Rockdale, Texas, November 6. -- A very beautiful ceremony took place in the local cemetery Sunday afternoon, the occasion of the unveiling and dedication of a monument to the memory of Dr. S.C. Cawthon by Pin Oak camp No. 222, Woodmen of the World. A large crowd was in attendance. Houston Daily Post, Tuesday Morning, November 7, 1899

Click to view CAWTHON Photo Album

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.

Click to view CAWTHON Photo Album

1885 :: Death of Dr. Milton Antony

On this date in the history of our hometown . . . the 25th day of January . . . in the year 1885 . . . Dr. Milton Antony dies in Rockdale, Milam County, Texas. He is buried in the Old City Cemetery, which is just out of sight at the bottom edge of this postcard.


Dr. Milton Antony, Jr. was a Confederate Surgeon in Brazoria County, Texas during the war between the states, then relocated to Milam County, Texas where he was the third Postmaster in Rockdale, serving 06 June 1876 to 26 April 1877 (which was one month after the entire wooden portion of Rockdale burned). He was a practicing physician in both Cameron and Rockdale. A Henry family reunion write-up in a 1931 edition of The Rockdale Reporter states that --

On Oct. 3, 1876, the Henrys [i.e., William Paschal Henry (1836-1912) and Josephine Wingfield Henry nee Davis (1842-1899)] arrived in Rockdale to visit a sister and family of the Mrs. Henry's, it being Dr. and Mrs. M. F. Anthony, who at that time had the post office and drug store combined on the corner where the Wolf Hotel now stands.

That is the Wolf Hotel on the right corner of the Rockdale postcard. The Wolf sat on the northeast corner of the intersection of Main and Milam. According to a history of Rockdale published in 1936, a two-story stone and brick bank building was erected in 1875, which later became the Wolf Hotel, and then, ca. 1935, the American Legion Hall. An 1885 map of Rockdale does show a bank at that location, and on the corner across the street is a post office in the Mundine House.


A year before Josephine arrived in Rockdale to visit her sister, Margaret, the following item appeared in the 12 November 1875 issue of the Galveston Weekly News --

There are street fights occurring (in Rockdale) almost every day and the officers of the law seem to enjoy it, taking their fines, never giving offenders the least word of warning or lecture. Nothing better could be expected when they license women of ill fame for ten dollars a month and receive half of the fines and their compensation. The most disgusting of it is, when they choose, these officers step beyond their authority and utterly disregard the law at pleasure. Every day or two some very interesting scenes occur in the pettifoggeries of Rockdale.

And just a year before that 1875 report, the same paper, in the 09 November 1874 issue, described the brand new city of Rockdale as being --

delightfully located in a thriving section of the county. . . . there are two or three banks, fifty or sixty merchants, and plenty of saloons, and has generally all the appearances of a railroad town. . . . While all it new and in some degree crude, there are some fine stone and brick buildings. . . . Where a population of eighteen hundred now thrive, was ten months ago the home of the deer, and the pleasure ground of the black bear.

For more information about Dr. Antony and his family, see --

• Dr. Milton Antony, Jr.
• His findagrave memorial page
• Dr. Milton Antony, Sr., his father
• Judge Edwin Le Roy Antony, his son
• Antony Roots & Branches, his ancestors & assorted kith 'n kin

P.S. The handwritten paper in the background of the collage is a document from 1864, signed by Milton Antony, M.D. and three other doctors -- requesting the Confederate army to excuse the only druggist in Brazoria County, Texas from being conscripted into the army . . .