Thurston and sister Ruth

Thurston and sister Ruth had a friend whose parents owned the Comanche jail building.  This photo was made on top of that building with the courthouse in the background.

Ruth had a dog she named Don.  This photo was made on the same day as the one above.  She is holding Don and standing beside the jail entrance.

Below is another photo of Ruth and Don made in the yard at the Atwood home.

Thurston and Ernestine under an umbrella

Thurston at age 6 with his sister, Ernestine "Jack"

Papa gave all of the girls nicknames that were boy's names.  Ruth was called "Zamp" but the only nickname that stuck was Ernestine's.  Familiy members called her Jack all of her life.

About this time Thurston wrote a note to big sister Mamie who was grown and living in Los Angeles.

It was enclosed in a letter his mother, Maggie sent.  It read:

Dear Mamie 

Will you send me a Uncle Wiggly book?  If you will I will give you a Xmas present and it will be a good one too.  

 Say did you know that I could read?  Why I am the best reader in my room.

Lots of love

Thurston.

Mama's note at the bottom:  Do for the love of Mike write to Thurston.

Black Beauty the mule

Black Beauty the mule lived behind the Atwood house around 1919.  Thurston was five years old that year.  He liked to tell me and my brother Bill stories about his adventures with his brothers all riding on Black Beauty.

One story I remember is about riding to  a creek and swinging across the creek on a grapevine.

I also remember that Black Beauty would not go anywhere until he had been fed and watered.  Daddy said he had to climb on a washtub to be able to get on the mule and ride.

the mattress factory

The year was 1929.  Manning  Atwood passed away in June and Mama and the family tried to keep the mattress factory going.

Maggie (Mama) Atwood sewed the ticks for all the mattresses on her treadle machine.  Then the ticks were stuffed with cotton by a machine of some kind.  Last the edges were hand rolled with a mattress needle and tufted with hanks of cotton spaced so the fill would not shift.

A gathering of the Atwoods and their extended family iin 1928

On Mothers Day in 1928 the whole Atwood clan gathered at Mama and Papa's house in Comanche, Texas.  Atwood men at top are l. to r. Thurston in his Boy Scout uniform, Manning "Papa" Atwood, Edward Atwood and Watt Atwood, whom my father Thurston referred to as "the swamp rat."

Below is the photo of the whole group.  First Papa and Mama in the back row, then Frank "Watt" next to Ruth "Zamp" in the center.  The woman holding the baby boy is Alma Atwood Denny with her son Cleve B. Denny.  Thurston is the last one in this line.

In front left to right is Harold Denny, Alma's husband, Hipp Arthur with his first son John Manning and beside them is Ernestine Atwood Arthur.  Edward the eldest son is on the right seated.

The Atwood's house in Comanche, Texas

Thurston always told me he could see the original split logs under the dining room floor.  The house had 3 front doors for some reason. 

On the front steps about 1920.  In back, Hilburn Arthur, soon to marry Ernestine next to him.  Mamie on the right.  In front are Ruth and Thurston about age 9 and age 6

Bill Atwood about 1949 with Rico, Mama's dog who was named for her favorite singer, Enrico Caruso.

Thurston Atwood, my father, at about age 6

. About 1920. The tall lady in the center is Mamie, In order: Ruth, Maggie, Mamie, with Thurston in front of her, Ernestine and Manning. Thurston told me that the older girls boxed his ears when he was little. He never could hear very well out of his right ear.

Maggie's organic pesticide

Maggie had her own way of dealing with household pests.

More Maggie and her talents

 Mama Atwood's house was on one of the 2 main streets in Comanche, at 415 West Grand Avenue.

It was made of cypress wood and was never painted which made it a beautiful silvery gray color. She was always talking about having it painted. But never did. 

She is shown here standing on the west side of her house about 1951.

She was very expert and any kind of crochet, embroidery and tatting.  She won ribbons for her quilts and for her needlework.  Both at the State Fair of Texas and at the Cotton Exposition in Waco.

More about Maggie Atwood

 Here are more photos relating to Maggie's life. She washed clothes in the back yard in a "wash house" and she made quilts with her friends. I remember big hooks in her parlor ceiling where she hung the quilting frame on quilting days. Her favorite quilt pattern was the "double wedding ring."

Mama in a dress she made herself about 1928

On the west side of her house about 1958.  She was thin but the wash tub hanging behind her left arm makes it look strange.

Mama and her brother "Uncle Will."  she had eleven brothers and sisters.

Manning and Maggie's children

Manning and Maggie Atwood's first child was named Mable. As far as I know we don't have any pictures of her. When she was two years old Maggie took her to visit Maggie's famiy. While she was there they both became ill; Maggie lived but Mable did not.

Aunt Ernestine told me that Maggie never went to visit to her family again. 

In 1902 Manning and Maggie moved to Comanche, Texas where they lived out the rest of their lives in the same home, at 415 East Grand Avenue. .

Here is a photo of their first 4 children, plus Mamie who is standing at the back. The seated child on the right is Sammie, who lived to age 12. The little infant is Edward, their first boy, whose nickname was "Sonnyman."  Standing at left is Alma Janice Atwood.  At right is Ernestine. Ernestine told me that Maggie made every stitch of the clothing all 5 children wore in this photo. After this picture was made Maggie and Manning had three more children, Watt, Ruth, and Thurston, who was my father.

Courtship of Maggie and Manning Atwood

The first letter here is from Maggie to Manning.  She responded to his offer of marriage with a request. Maggie told him that she wanted to wait a year to marry him out of respect for Mr. King. They married a year and a day after Mr. King's passing.

Below is a love letter from Lemuel Manning Atwood to Maggie King. He begged her to name the day they could marry. 

Manning Atwood and the lumber mill

Lemuel Manning Atwood began to court Maggie after Mr. King passed away. He and Mr. King both worked at the lumber mill in Warren. Manning and Maggie wrote several courtship letters to one another and two of them are printed in this blog.

Manning is the third man from right end standing.  Mama always said he was manager of the mill.

Maggie Smith marries John A. King

This picture of the Warren lumber mill shows the train that John A. King drove there. He and Maggie had 

one child, Mamie Frances King. When she was 2 years old Mr. King passed away.

Warren, Texas 1892

Mamie Frances King, born Warren, Texas 1894

Great Grandmother Maggie Smith

My father's mother was named Margaret Ruth. Everybody called her Maggie when she was young. In the first picture she is in the center. On the left is her sister Mandy and the older lady is her mother Mary Stovall Smith. 

When Maggie was eleven years old her mother took her out of school so she could help in her boarding house. Maggie was very smart and talented; she would have like to have art lessons, she told Manning Atwood.

below is A hand-colored photo in which the image of Maggie was maintained while another unknown person's image was removed.

 

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Maggie had many suitors before she married John A. King.  This photo is of Thurston Rigsby, the man my father was named after.  My father Thurston was Maggie and Manning Atwood's youngest child, born in 1914.

Ma

Champion Easter Smith, my great-grandfather

This is a tintype of my ancestor Champion Easter Smith who fought in the war between the states. After his discharge he had to walk home and it was a long walk. He lived to be an old man and I believe he is buried in Conroe, Texas. He was the father of my grandmother Margaret Ruth Smith Atwood.