| |
Texas
| Vintage
Photos The
Marable/Cockrum Families CollectionGarza
County
Dickens County
Scurry CountyText
by Dan E. Cockrum
Photos courtesy Marable/Cockrum Families Collection |
| This is a before and
after comparison of an image I just restored from a tintype of my Great Grandmother
Martha M. Marable and my maternal Grandfather Francis Edward (Bud) Marable that
was probably made around 1875 when they lived in McLennan County Texas. |
| This is another tintype
image I just restored of my Grandfather Bud Marable when he was a young boy of
6 or 7. If I am correct about his age, it was made around 1880 when the U.S. Census
found he and his family still living in McLennan County Texas. |
| I don't know where
the the photo was made but it was taken about one year after the family moved
to Post according to the date on the
back of the original which was two years before the birth of my Mother, Sybil
Lorene and three years before Bud passed away. In any case, it looks as if it
was made on a typical West Texas day since the breeze was enough to cause the
ladies' dresses to move and blur in the photo. |
| The above is a restored
copy of a Cabinet Photo with my Grandfather Bud Marable standing at the
right on the back row. I don't know the identities of the other individuals or
the exact date of the photo. My Grandfather lived in Scurry County with his family
and worked on their ranch as well as ranches in nearby counties while growing
up and I believe this photo was made when he was in his teens sometime during
the mid to late 1880s or early 1890s. |
The following is a
biography I wrote for my Grandfather that was Posted on the Garza County TexGen
site:
Francis Edward "Bud" Marable was born
the oldest son of Thomas Edward and Martha Davis Marable in McLennan County, Texas,
on February 12, 1874. He had an older sister, Rosa Lee, and eventually a younger
brother, Robert. Sometime after Bud's birth the family moved to Scurry County,
Texas, where Bud grew up working on his father's farm and as he grew older working
as a cowboy on various ranches in Scurry and surrounding counties.
On
August 24, 1894, he married Willie Etta Callis at her parents’ home in Snyder.
After the birth of two children, Will Tom and Rose, the family moved to Bud's
father's place southwest of what is now Justiceburg,
Texas, in 1901. According to family history, the trip took two days by covered
wagon, spending a night in the settlement of Old Light.
In 1904 the family
moved back to Snyder
where a daughter, Frances was born in September. Tom and Rose attended school
in Snyder.
In the spring of 1905 the family moved back to the vicinity of Justiceburg
and in the fall of that year a Miss Ella Smith taught school for about three months
in the Marable home.
Bud and his family homesteaded three sections of
land 10 miles southwest of Justiceburg
and moved there around 1910. In addition to farming and running some livestock
on his homestead, Bud worked as a cowboy on the Curry Comb and U Lazy S ranches
and as a cook for the OS ranch. Eventually he sold the land he homesteaded and
moved to Round Tub Camp where he worked for the U Lazy S Ranch.
In 1913
he moved his family to Post, Texas,
after buying a wagon yard from Ed Scott. The Marables' youngest daughter Sybil
Lorene was born there in 1916.
Bud was operating his wagon yard when he
passed away on January 27, 1917, and now rests in Terrace
Cemetery on the outskirts of Post.
|
 |
I wrote the biography
for my Great Grandfather Henry Callis and posted it on the TXGen site for Garza
County.
Henry Charles Callis 184*-1915
Henry
Charles Callis was born on March 10, 184* (*different sources provide various
birth years ranging between 1840 to 1849) to Edward M. and Sarah Callis in Hickory
County, Missouri. A copy of his enlistment document indicates he was an eighteen
year old farmer when he volunteered for service in the Union Army and was mustered
into the Second Regiment of Kansas Calvary Volunteers at Waldron, Arkansas, on
February 8, 1864, which would indicate his birth year was 1846 or ’47 but family
oral history claims he was a “big for his age” fifteen or sixteen year old who
lied about his age.
During Henry’s service with the 2nd Kansas, the regiment
was stationed around Western and Central Arkansas taking part in the battle of
Prairie D’Anne, April 9–13, 1864, and two of the battles of the Union Army’s “Red
River Campaign” (Poison Springs, April 16, 1864 and Jenkins Ferry, April 29-30,
1864) an offensive initiated with the intent of conquering the last Rebel stronghold
of the West -Texas. With the end of the war, Henry was mustered out of the regiment
at Fort Gibson, Cherokee Nation, on June 22, 1865.
Family history states
that sometime after the war he and a friend, Bill Lowrance, traveled to Henrietta,
Texas, for a visit with Bill’s family. It was here that he met and eventually
married Bill’s sister Elizabeth (Betty) Lowrance Abt 1872 at Henrietta.
Sometime after their marriage the young couple moved to Lampassas County Texas
where their daughter Sofrona (Fronie) Isbell was born in 1873 followed by daughter
Willie Etta in 1877. The 1880 U.S. Census found the family living in Jack County,
Texas but they apparently moved back to the Henrietta
area where Betty died of unknown causes in 1881.
Henry moved his little
family to Snyder, Texas,
where he left his two young daughters with relatives while he worked on surrounding
ranches and farms. On May 5, 1884, he married Mary J. Miles in Mitchell County,
Texas, and the couple made their home in Snyder
where the two daughters by his previous marriage were eventually joined by six
“half siblings”: four sons, Charlie, Joe, Bob and Boley; and two more daughters,
Allie and Annie.
He worked for the Currycomb Ranch in what was to become
Garza County and for Pete Scoggins and Boley Brown who owned large range holdings
in Kent County, On July 8,1907, he was elected to the office of County Hide and
Animal Inspector after the formation of Garza County that year. He continued to
lead an active life on the range until age and physical disabilities kept him
out of the saddle.
Henry C. Callis died at his ranch home in eastern Garza
County on August 14, 1915. Mary lived on until May 22, 1948, when she passed away
in Portales, New Mexico. Both were buried in Terrace Cemetery at Post,
Texas. |
| "Staff"
of the Spur Ranch in Dickens County - Early 1890s |
| The following photo
is of my "soon to be" Grandmother and friends: |
| "Staff"
of the Spur Ranch |
| My
"soon to be" Grandmother Willie Etta Callis (in the white dress) |
| The above is a photo
of the "staff" of the Spur Ranch in Dickens County made sometime in the
early 1890s when my Grandmother, Willie Etta Callis (in the white dress),
worked there as a cook. My Grandfather, Bud Marable, also worked on the
Spur Ranch as a cowboy on separate occasions (but he isn't in this photo) and
both of their families lived in or near Snyder
at the time. They were married in Snyder
on August 29, 1894. |
| Post
Dispatch, January, 1928 |
"Ed
Warren, Owner/Editor of the Post Dispatch newspaper,
and my Dad, Dan B. Cockrum
(age 16)" |
| This photo is of Ed
Warren, Owner/Editor of the Post Dispatch newspaper, and my Dad, Dan B.
Cockrum, (age 16) in the composing area of the newspaper. The calendar on
the wall in the left of the photograph reveals that the photo was made sometime
in the month of January, 1928. The building still stands in downtown Post
and currently holds the newspaper offices but the paper itself is now printed
off-site. Dad worked for the Dispatch as a pressman, photographer and Linotype
operator until about 1949 when he was employed by the Lubbock Avalanche Journal
as a Linotype operator. In the early 1950s he left the Lubbock
paper and with a friend, printed the Post Shopping News in Post
for a short time before he established his own business, Cockrum Printing and
Office Supply in Post.
He and my Mom operated this business for more than 30 years and during that time,
Dad developed a four color business card printing press that he marketed nationwide
in the 1970s under the corporate name Cockrum Enterprises. |
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| OS
Ranch Cowboys, 1888 - Garza County, Texas |
| Texas
Escapes, in its purpose to preserve historic, endangered and vanishing
Texas, asks that anyone wishing to share their local history and vintage/historic
photos of their town, please contact
us. | |
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