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Flora Syrilda Bradford was born to Clad and Ellen Alvie Retta Newcomb Bradford on April 5, 1903. They lived on 160 acres farm homesteaded by her grandmother. Sarah Elizabeth Farmer Bradford, and her father. Her grandmother and father, four years old, moved from Springfield, Missouri to Texas. His mother married Thomas McCarty near Ft. Griffin, Texas and in 1881 moved to Dickens County, not a county until 1891. His stepfather died from a buggy accident about two years later. Her parents were married at Ft. Griffin on June 23, 1910 and the family lived with his mother until her death in 1917. Flora´s mother died of double pneumonia on December 10, 1944 and her father of heart failure August 26, 1945. They are buried in the Afton Cemetery and were members of the Methodist Church at Afton. Flora was the second child of fifteen, ten living to adulthood. She attended school at Afton riding a horse or hack.
Allen Edgar Rich came into Flora´s life in their early twenties and they were married November 16, 1924. He came from Cooper, Texas in a wagon. He was born in Rice, Navarro County, Texas on November 13, 1901 to Robert Alvis and Zora Bell Davis Rich. His father, a farmer, was born in Tippah County, Mississippi and his mother in Fayette County, Alabama. He was the third child of twelve. His parents moved to Dickens County in 1928 and his father passed away February 5, 1930 and is buried in the McAdoo Cemetery. His mother moved to Roswell, New Mexico and passed away April 7, 1964 and is buried there.
Allen was a farmer and rented land before moving to land Flora´s father owned. Her father was paralyzed by a stroke and they took care of his cattle along with theirs and farmed. They had a family of 7 children. They are Virginia Allene Houston, Carlsbad, New Mexico; Dorothy Mae Ball, Odessa, Texas; Robert C., Salt Lake City, Utah; Valeria Faye Stoutenger, Lakewood, Colorado; Lester Monroe, Carlsbad, New Mexico; Patsy Lee Fuchs, Fort Worth, Texas; and Lilly Lena died at birth. All attended Patton Springs School. First one graduated in 1943 and the last one in 1951. A grandson, Alan Douglas Mayfield, lived with them three years and graduated in 1969.
In 1946 they bought the L. L. Slayden farm, not far from where she was born, and she still resides there. He was stricken by cancer and after a long illness passed away in a Houston hospital on April 25, 1969. He is buried in Afton Cemetery.
She pieces quilts and quilts besides visiting her children and sixteen grandchildren and eighteen great grandchildren. He enjoyed his family and fishing. She joined the Afton Methodist Church in 1918 and he was baptized in a Baptist Church when he was sixteen. Flora has lived all her life in Dickens County.
Written by Allene Houston
Source: Dickens County History...its Land and People 1986 by Dickens Historical Commission
Funeral services for Allen Edgar Rich, 67, Afton farmer, were held Sunday at 2:30 p.m. in the Afton Methodist Church. Rev. Victor Crabtree officiated.
Mr. Rich died April 25, in a Houston hospital. He had been a resident of Dickens County since 1924. He was a member of the Baptist Church.
He is survived by his wife, Mrs. Flora, Rich, of Afton; two sons, R. C. and Lester Rich, both of Carlsbad, NM; four daughters, Mrs. Dorothy Ball, Odessa; Mrs. Valera Mayfield; Carlsbad, NM; Mrs. Patsie Fuchs, Temple; three brothers, Aubrey and Hubert Rich of Roswell, NM; Leslie Rich, Cholame, CA; three sisters, Mrs. Miller Carothers, Mrs. Albert Garman and Mrs. Jesse Crawford, all of Roswell, NM; 16 grandchildren.
Grandsons served as pallbearers.
Interment was in Afton Cemetery.
©The Texas Spur, May 1, 1969
Services for Flora Rich, 98, of Dickens were held at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, October 27, 2001 at Dickens Baptist Church with the Rev. Larry Burton officiating. Burial will be in Afton Cemetery under the direction of Campbell Funeral Home of Spur.
She died Tuesday, Oct. 23, 2001 at the Crosbyton Hospital.
She was born April 5, 1903, in Afton. She married Allen E. Rich on November 8, 1924 in Afton. He preceded her in death in 1969.
She lived all her life in Dickens County. She was a homemaker and a Methodist Church since she was 15 years of age.
She was preceded in death by 3 daughters, Dorothy Ball, Valeria Stoutenger and one infant, and one son, Lester M. Rich.
Survivors include two daughters, Patsy Fuchs of Fort Worth and Allene Houston-Conley of Carlsbad, N.M.; a son, Robert C. Rich of Mesa, Ariz.; two sisters, Mildred Woods and Odell Goss, both of Dickens; 15 grandchildren; 25 great-grandchildren; and 13 great-great-grandchildren.
©The Texas Spur, Thursday, November 1, 2001, page eight
© Dickens County Historical Commission 1997-2022
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