| Birth Date: 1898 | Birth Date: Sep 20, 1898 | |
| Death Date: 1971 | Death Date: Jun 25, 1971 |
The first Woodard descendant came to Virginia about 1700.
My grandparents, William Hardy Woodard and Mary Margaret Louiza Salmon, were married Aug. 30, 1884 at Clairette, Erath, Co. To this family 13 children were born. They arrived three miles north of Ralls, Mar. 1, 1920, from Kephart, NM. With them came my parents, Corts Mooney and Rosa Lee Cooper Woodard. Mother was the daughter of another early Crosby Co. settler, John Thomas and Lula E. Gibson Cooper. Mother and Daddy married Sept. 9, 1919 at Plymouth, TX, sitting in a Model T car parked in the middle of the road where they met the preacher.
I was born June 11, 1920 in this farm north of Ralls. They farmed a year here and in 1921, Grandpa bought farm land south of Ralls, in League 4 community and lived there until his death in Sept. 1942. Grandmother lived the rest of her life with a daughter and son-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. Travis Thomas. She died in Sept. 1956.
Daddy and Mother farmed with them and his brothers, Jasper and Joe, who had also bought land 16 miles south and two miles west of Ralls on the rim of the canyon. They cleared mesquites, stacked them to form a circle and made a corral for the the livestock. Later it was used for firewood. They drilled a water well and built a two-room house. Then they grubbed mesquite clearing a little at a time for farming. This was done with a grubbing hoe and axe. On this farm Daddy built his first one-row cotton sled. It was in the form of a big long box with baling wire fingers to strip the cotton from the stalk. It was drawn by two horses. Many neighbors came to see it and make one like it.
Some of the first memories here were being awakened at night by squalling chickens or by the baying of wolf hounds chasing coyotes, a big sport then. Daddy sometimes rode horseback with the hunters. The coyote stole chickens from the hen house and ran for the canyon with it in his mouth. Sometimes it was skunks, owls, opossums or an occasional bull snake helping himself to a nest of eggs.
Not many people lived here at this time, but a one-room school house was built 14 miles south and three miles west of Ralls. It was named Plum Creek after the springs and creek that were west of there in the canyon. We took turns carrying water for farm houses in syrup buckets. My first two years of school were here then Cap Rock was built three miles east of this location. My father was a trustee at this school several years then succeeded by my brother Ray. I was very active in playing ball of all kinds, and my dad and mother were always ready to carry a load of players to a ballgame.
There were always community get togethers on Sundays - church, singings, rodeos, picnics and baseball games. Mother was well known for the quilts she pieced and quilted.
There were four children born to C.M. and Rosa; Margaret Louella, Dorothy Lee Cole and twins Willis Ray and Lillis Mae.
Dorothy went to grade school at Caprock then to Robertson for her high school education, graduating in 1941. She met Robert Quinteen Cole during high school day and they married and had two sons, Gerry Don and Darrell Lynn.
Willis Ray married Vida Mae Nitcholas and had two children Brenda Lea and Kenneth Ray.
Lillis Mae married Raymond Jeter Garner. Their children are: Debra Garner Redwine, David and Donnie Garner.
Margaret Louella attended Robertson High School and married Henry Lawrence Lamb, son of Walton E. and Cora Lamb. They have two sons, Weldon Leroy and Darwin Gene.
On June 25, 1971, a great sadness came to our family when our mother passed away Jan. 1, 1972. Daddy married Daisey Willene Sampson, a 50-year resident of Wichita Falls, and they resided there until her death in Jan. 1973. In September 1974 he married Gertrude Bilbrey.
Information by Margaret Louella Woodard
Source: "A History of Crosby County 1876-1977" © Crosby County Historical Commission 1978; Taylor Publishing Company, Dallas, Texas.
Funeral services for Corts Mooney Woodard, 82, of Graham at 2 p.m. Wednesday in the Ralls First Baptist Church with Ivan Woodard, Church of Christ minister of Camp Wood, and the Rev. Lloyd Riddles, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Abernathy, officiating.Burial was in the Ralls Cemetery under the direction of Carter-Adams Funeral Home.
Woodard, a native of Pottawatomie, Okla., died at 4:25 a.m. Monday in Methodist Hospital in Lubbock after a lengthy illness. Woodard came to Ralls in 1920, moving in 1973 to Graham where he married Gertrude Carson that year. He was a retired farmer.
Survivors include his wife; a son, W. Ray Woodard of Ralls; three daughters, Margaret Lamb of Ralls, Dorothy Cole of Lorenzo and Lillis Garner of Farwell; six stepsons, James Sampson of Haskell, William Sampson of Red River, NM; Cecil Sampson of Houston, Carl Billberry of Andrews, Glen Billberry of Sundown and Vernon Billberry of Dallas; four stepdaughters, Margaret Tess of Durant, Okla., Shirley Riddles of Abernathy, Barbara Cox of Tyler and Betty Wheat of Andrews; a brother, W.J. of Fort Worth; nine grandchildren; and five great grandchildren.
Grandsons were pallbearers.
Ralls Banner, Jan. 27, 1981
Record provided by Crosby County Pioneer Memorial Museum
transcribed by Linda Fox Hughes
Services for Mrs. Rosa Lee Woodard, 72, of Rt 1, Ralls were held at 3 p.m. Sunday, June 27, in the First Baptist Church with Rev. Floyd Haddock, pastor, officiating assisted by Rev. Veron O'Kelley, Methodist pastor.Burial was in Ralls Cemetery under the direction of Carter Funeral Home.
Mrs. Woodard died about 2:20 a.m. Friday in Lubbock's Methodist Hospital where she had been a patient since Sunday following a heart attack.
A native of Mount Vernon, she moved to Ralls in 1920 from Roy, New Mexico, Miss Rosa Lee Cooper and Corts Woodard were married Sept. 9, 1919, in Plymouth. They have made their home in Crosby County 51 years, 46 years in the Caprock community.
She is survived by her husband, Corts Mooney; one son, W. Ray Woodard of Ralls; three daughters, Mrs. H.L. Lamb, Mrs. Truinteen Cole of Lorenzo, and Mrs. Jeter Garner of Lariat; four brothers, T.A. Cooper of Fontana, Calif., D.O. and W.A. Cooper, both of Bloomington, Calif., and A.B. Cooper of Midland; a sister, Mrs. T.R. Smallwood of Willcox, AZ; seven grandsons; two granddaughters.
Ralls Banner, July 8, 1971
Record provided by Crosby County Pioneer Memorial Museum
transcribed by Linda Fox Hughes
 |
Crosby County TXGenWeb Project
|
This site may be freely linked to but not duplicated in any fashion without my consent.
The information on these pages is meant for personal genealogical research only and is not for commercial use of ANY type.