Submitted by Sammye/Leon Haney
Dad's home was in Crosby County, Texas on the Blanco Canyon. dad's sister, Aunt Rob and Uncle Frank with four children lived near us. Grandpa and Grandma lived with them. Daddy's baby brother, Dan, 17, went Duck hunting, waded in ice cold water up to his waist, took inflamatory rheumatism, and died. We children all loved him.
Next came Christmas. Mama and we three kids were down with the measles. We lived in a dugout. There was a big snow on. Uncle Dock went to the Christmas tree at the schoolhouse and got me a doll. I said, "Ollie's old doll". I sat there on the bedside and pulled its legs off. Then I pulled the arms off. I could feel the sawdust pouring down on my feet. Mama was so sick that she didn't see me and daddy was out doing chores.
Spring came. There were lots of Buttercups all over the hillside. I'd gather some every morning. Mama wasn't well anymore. On Easter I got pretty Easter eggs.
School started near there. I went. Walked across a foot log over a running creek. Aunt Sis and Uncle Martin Potter lived in the area. Their two oldest kids joined me on the way to school. Allen, four years older than I, carried my lunch pail and slate. I was six. I took a little bottle of milk in my lunch and the older boys called me a baby. One day a big boy kissed me. I got so mad that I got a stick and was going to kill him for sure! He ran around the house and I couldn't catch him. Miss Hulda rang the school bell. All, about twenty, went in. That old boy sat over there and just laughed. I wished I could kill him. One day I traded a little girl a cookie for a donut. Her name was Mary Smith.
The day school was out, Miss Hulda let us out at noon. We all went out on the prairie and picked wild flowers, then we all said speeches. Here is mine:
Kitty, my pretty white Kitty,
Why do you scamper away?
I have finished my work and lesson
And now am ready for play,
Come. Kitty, my own little Kitty,
I have some milk, Come and see.
Now drink while I put on my bonnet
and play in the garden with me.June 1892:
Daddy's bachelor brother, Allen, came from Arizona, visited them, put up a spiel to sell their stock and go to Arizona. They could get rich out there. they all sold their stock to go. Mama was going to see her parents. She said, "Now be ready to go when I get back." She went to Collwell County, Texas. daddy was gathering cattle on the range for a man. He had to take them to Amarillo, texas to ship. Afterward he was going where Mama was to help her with us children coming back.
Mama died on the tenth day we were there. My uncle got me out of bed and took me to her bedside. She told that she was going, and for me to be a good girl. I have tried. That has stuck with me all my life. Mama loved Daddy and us little children. I know she didn't want to leave us. A lot of people were there in the house. One night I saw a big white angel flying around in the house/ I didn't say anything. I have always thought that was to tell me that Mama went to Heaven. We were there seventeen days before Daddy came.
Mama's brother, in his teens, told us three girls (Mama's little sisters and me) some lies. He told us a man was hanged in the room we slept in. We were scared half to death. We would go in there, get on our knees and say our prayers. We'd get into bed quickly, cover up our heads, and nearly smother, we were so scared. He said the man was cut up into peices and buried in the yard. When night came, we were scared so badly. Grandma was going to sit up with somebody that was sick. Aunt Lillie was in the house. She had a little baby and wouldn't let us stay in her room. She made us go to bed when we didn't want to.
A colored man brought Daddy from the depot in a buckboard. We children were all at the table eating dinner. We got down to meet Daddy. He had his arms around all of us. When Grandma came in, he asked, "How is Laura?" She said, "She is gone." Dear Daddy! I know that broke his heart-alone with us little children. Babe (nickname for Charles Bernice), was two, John was four, I was six. Daddy had us to take care of. Grandma begged Daddy for me, but Daddy said, "no." Mama was twenty-four. Daddy started home. We changed trains in the night and it was raining. Daddy carried me and put me on the other train. He told me to stay there until he got the boys and the luggage. I can't remember who met us with a wagon. We went to Aunt's where Grandpa and Grandma were. They were all crying, they felt so sorry for us. Daddy kept Grandma and Grandpa after that to stay with us children.
They all got their wagons ready to travel. We started on the trip to Arizona. There were four covered wagons and a bunch of about twenty head of horses. Uncle Allen drove them. We got out where grass was scarce. They ate rattle weed and kept dying until they had all died. We just had our work teams. I guess they fed them.
Uncle martin and Aunt Sis potter had five children, a team of white horses - Jerry and Ranger. Uncle Frank and Aunt Rob (Barbara) Sutton had four children. The babies were twin boys three or four months old. One died while we were on the trip and was buried in Masey, Arizona. Uncle Frank's team was a horse and a mule - Old Speck and John. Grandpa had a span of mules. I can't remember Daddy's team. We had a hard trip...water was scarce and the horses needed water. When we got to Phoenix, it was hot and dry. Phoenix was a little town then. Work was scarce. Dad and two uncles got work out on the desert helping to dig big canals. The women folk lived in tents. Grandpa was down sick with a fever for a long time. Food was scarce and hard to get. We couldn't buy milk in the stores in those days. A woman who rode a donkey brought us some milk while Grandpa was sick. We kids were afraid of her. She rode astride, wore a big Mexican sombrero and cussed.
We were all broke and had to come back to Texas. That was early fall. We landed in Brisco County, Texas and lived in a tent all winter. In the spring Daddy traded his wagon and team for some land that was already improved. We had a two room plank house, a big dugout and a good well of water with a windlas for drawing the water. Daddy and Grandpa made a crop that year. They raised melons, black-eyed peas, corn, millet and cane. We had a neighbor's cow to milk. Daddy trapped quails and sold several hundred. He killed jackrabbits and sold the scalps for 10 cents each. We had some chickens and sold eggs for ten cents a dozen. At that time we lived one mile from Quitaqua. It was called Jagos then. Jago had a little store. The mail was carried in a buckboard.
(At the bottom written in my grandmother's handwriting is the following.)Now I was ten. Then her signature, Tavia Jasper 85, born Feb. 28, 1886 in Sanantania, Texas, SanSaba County. Written in Tacoma, Washington.
(Grandma went by Tavia. I left all the spellings as they were. My grandfather, Thomas J Latham died in 1937. They were living in Ajo, AZ. Grandma moved to Hot Springs, NM. She remarried to D L Jasper in late 40s. He was called Boss. He died in 1963 and a few years later my uncle moved to to Tacoma with him.)
Octavia's father was Charles Wesley Poe, born June 17, 1858 in San Saba, TX., md. Laura Angeline Tyler on Dec 24, 1883, Laura Angeline Tyler was mother of Octavia
Jesse Messar Poe & Fannie Jones children:
Wiley Martin Poe md Cynthia ? Wiley DOB 1-27-1847
John Jones Poe md. ? Arnold John DOB 10-15-1848
Frances Jane Poe md. ? Crow Frances DOB 2-14-1851
Martha Caroline Poe md.Thomas William Parker Martha DOB 1-10-1853
Mary Josephine Poe md. John Williams
William Plegrant (Bud) Poe md Kate ?
Mary & William were twins DOB 1-15-1855
Dora Ann Poe died at age 12
Charles Wesley Poe md Laura Angeline Tyler C W Poe DOB June 17, 1858
Duran B Poe Must have died at birth
Allen Russell (Bill) Poe never married DOB August 1860
Demerrius Parilee (Sis) Poe md Martin C Potter (Sis DOB 9-26-1863)
Issac Poe DOB 2-21-1865
Albert Ashbury (Dock) Poe DOB not sure
Barbara Ellen (Rob) Poe md Frank Sutton DOB 7-30-1868
Sarah Minerva (Dollie) Poe md ? Givens DOB 1-12-1871
Daniel Monroe Poe died age 18 DOB 11-22-1874
