Aunt Cattie Hopper Davenport

Back in the late 1920’s, my grandma, Clara Hopper, hired a couple of friends to drive her and my great-grandparents up into the Jane, Missouri area to visit the Hopper connections. Clara was interested at an early age in kinfolks and wanted to see all the old homeplaces and visit family. (She passed her interest and information on down to me.) My great-grandfather’s oldest sister, Catherine (Hopper) Davenport (she was known as Cattie) was getting on up in years at that time, and I understand they spent a couple of days at her house. This snapshot was taken during that trip. It shows my great-grandmother, Ora (Evans) Hopper on the left, my great-grandfather, Meredith Hopper, and Aunt Cattie. I have a number of other pictures taken on this trip, including one of Clara with Aunt Cattie’s spinning wheel. My grandma said that Aunt Cattie continued her spinning during most of the time they visited, and she was almost blind. I have another picture my grandma took of her grandson, Bluford Davenport, who lived nearby.

This post is for my newly-found distant cousin, Carol, who was also the first follower on this blog. Thanks, Carol, and I hope you enjoy seeing this picture.

© 2008, copyright Stephen Mills

Clara and Cleo Hopper in the 1920s

This snapshot is Clara Beatrice Hopper taken about 1926 at Sapulpa, Oklahoma. She's showing off both her skirt and her legs. Clara was my Grandma Mills. At this time, she was a young single woman with many admirers. She worked as a telephone operator in Sapulpa for a number of years until she married my Grandpa in 1933. She sent most of her earnings home to help her parents provide for their younger children. During her time in Sapulpa, which was then a boomtown, she lived with her aunt, Mrs. Jimmie (Evans) Thompson. This happy shot is taken from one of Clara’s old photo albums, which is filled with images documenting her flapper days in Sapulpa.

The other shot is Clara, taken with her younger sister, Cleo (on the left), just a couple of years later, about 1928. Cleo also worked at the phone company in Sapulpa. My Grandma Clara passed away August 13, 1979, only 36 days after my Grandpa died, and is buried at Memory Gardens Cemetery in my hometown of Pampa, Texas. Aunt Cleo died in 1989 and is buried at the Archer City, Texas Cemetery.

© 2008, copyright Stephen Mills

American Revolutionary War Ancestors

What a privilege to be a direct descendant of several men who served during the War for American Independence! Here's my list of the direct Revolutionary ancestors I've identified to date:

• Evan Thomas Watson (1759-1834) served from Albemarle County, Virginia, moved to Madison County, Kentucky, and died in what is now Bowie County, Texas (he's the ancestor of my Grandpa Cully Watson).
• Samuel Coleman (c1750-1824) served from Albemarle County, Virginia and died in Todd County, Kentucky. According to his pension papers and service record from the National Archives, Samuel Coleman wintered at Valley Forge under the command of George Washington during the terrible winter of 1777. (He's the ancestor of my Grandpa Cully Watson.)
• Martin Davenport served from North Carolina and died in Tennessee (he's the ancestor of my Grandma Clara Hopper Mills).
• Arden Evans served from Bedford County, Virginia and died in Roane County, Tennessee (he's the ancestor of my Grandma Clara Hopper Mills).
• Capt. John Narramore served from Kershaw District, South Carolina and died in Bledsoe County, Tennessee (he's the ancestor of my Grandma Mamie Pitcock Watson).

So many more of my remote uncles, cousins, and other relatives served in the 1776 struggle that I would be all day listing their names and information, although I have meticulously collected it in my files. We're so lucky that the documentation on these soldiers still survives in our National Archives and the archives of the Daughters of the American Revolution in Washington (as well as other repositories).

These men fought for ideas that were ahead of their time - many of the ideas were nebulous, with an uncertain outcome, as the U. S. Constitution had not even been written at the time of the war. This war was truly a turning point in the history of mankind, resulting in the representative democracy we know today. The government they created would, of course, be imperfect and require additional strife and struggle in later years. It remains imperfect today, but is still the world's best hope for liberty.

I hope you all share my pride in our ancestors and their sacrifices, as well as their commitment to the ideas for which they fought: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness" (excerpt from the Declaration of Independence).

© 2008, copyright Stephen Mills