| 8. | i. | ERNEST BARZILLAI5 FENTRESS, b. January 01, 1904, Waco, McLennan County, TX; d. October 15, 1983, Mesquite, Tarrant County, TX. | |
| 9. | ii. | LEWIS FENTRESS, b. September 17, 1905, Waco, McLennan County, TX; d. March 14, 1975, Waco, McLennan County, TX. | |
| iii. | NONA CATHERINE FENTRESS1, b. September 15, 1907, Waco, McLennan County, TX1; d. May 24, 1983, Waco, McLennan County, TX1. | ||
| 10. | iv. | ARVILLA ANNABELLE FENTRESS, b. May 15, 1910, Waco, McLennan County, TX; d. December 10, 1998, Kaufman, TX. | |
| v. | EARL FENTRESS1, b. May 19, 1912, Waco, McLennan County, TX1; d. March 14, 1981, Waco, McLennan County, TX1. |
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Notes for EARL FENTRESS: EARL FENTRESS March 14, 1981 Earl Fentress, 68, of Waco died Saturday morning in a local hospital. Funeral services will be held at 10:00 A.M. Monday at the Wilkirson Hatch Funeral Home Chapel, Rev. Otis Watson officiating, burial in Concord Cemetery. Survivors: 4 sisters, Murl Haferkamp of China Spring, Dannie Hutchins of Waco, Miss Nona Fentress of Waco and Arvilla Cooper of Long Beach, California; one brother, Ernest Fentress of Dallas and several nieces and nephews. Active pallbearers: Dewey Oliver, Rowland Hutchins, David Haferkamp, Brad Cooper, Jesse Roberts and Robert Parrish. Wilkirson Hatch Funeral Home, 1124 Washington Avenue. |
| 11. | vi. | MURL FAYE FENTRESS, b. May 19, 1912, Waco, McLennan County, TX; d. December 1984, Waco, McLennan County, TX. | |
| 12. | vii. | DANNIE MAE FENTRESS, b. April 01, 1914, Waco, McLennan County, TX; d. December 06, 1981, Waco, McLennan County, TX. |
| 13. | i. | HOBERT A.5 FENTRESS, b. June 09, 1904, Waco, McLennan County, TX; d. September 14, 1942, Waco, McLennan County, TX. |
| 14. | i. | DORIS D.5 FENTRESS, b. May 1899, Texas. | |
| ii. | EARL S. FENTRESS1, b. May 1900, Texas1. |
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Notes for EARL S. FENTRESS: [Master.FTW] CENSUS: 1910 Tillman County, OK, Frederick Priestly Fentress Age 1 Born OK |
| iii. | RUFUS FENTRESS1, b. May 31, 1900, OK1; d. February 1976, Tucson, Pima Co., AZ; m. ESTHER HASLEY; b. February 08, 1902, Ok2; d. October 1992, Oklahoma City, OK2. |
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Notes for RUFUS FENTRESS: [Brøderbund Family Archive #110, Vol. 1, Ed. 4, Social Security Death Index: U.S., Social Security Death Index, Surnames from A through L, Date of Import: May 7, 2000, Internal Ref. #1.111.4.73534.55] Individual: Fentress, Rufus Birth date: May 31, 1900 Death date: Feb 1976 Social Security #: 444-10-8508 Last residence: AZ 85705 State of issue: OK Uncle Rufus Fentress Memories Questions by Margaret, replies by Uncle Rufus I was wanting Rufus to tell me about when the Fentress family went from Texas to Oklahoma - Q. The first time was in 1901, wasn’t it? A. I think Dad come to Oklahoma in 1900. I don’t know for sure. We stayed in Oklahoma until 1905, then we went back to Texas. (Note: I asked my grandmother about Oklahoma and she said Daniel Wright Fentress also went to Oklahoma. He returned in 1903 to marry Lula May Parrish.) We went to Dallas, we stayed in Dallas a couple of years and then we went out to West to Rule, Texas. We stayed in Rule about six months, I think it was, something like that. We left in November, Dad got us a covered wagon, a team of little mules, and one big horse and started out for Oklahoma. Q. Well, was there just two children or was Uncle Ernest born by then? A. Ernest and Charlie both born then, Charlie was born in 1905 and this was in 1907. There was one more kid born after that, he just lived to be about a year and half old. We moved back to Oklahoma back in 1907, that winter in 1907 Dad broke land for a fellow by the name of Mabrey out in the Big Pasture, that is out East of Frederick. We were about 10 miles from Frederick, east. Then it came that storm and blew all our tents away, and we moved to Frederick. Q. That is where you lived in three tents, out east of Frederick? A. Yeah, we lived in three tents that winter, all the meat we had to eat that winter was jackrabbits and quail. Dad would kill jackrabbits with rocks, yeah, as he was breaking land, those jackrabbits were as thick as flies. They would just jump out of the way of the plow. He would carry rocks along with him and he would hit them with a rock, kill them, and he would take them in to Mom and she would skin them, cut the meat off the bone and make sausage “rabbit sausage”. We caught quail, we caught them in traps. They were thick too. We had quail pie all the winter. That was all the meat we had, just rabbit and quail. People can’t understand how you could live without meat, of course you couldn’t now because there wouldn’t be enough of that stuff. There wouldn’t be enough to live on. Then we moved to Frederick in 1908. I started to school, the first term I started to school was in 1909. We lived in Frederick from 1909 to 1912, then we moved out on the farm west of Frederick. Q. Was that out around Tesca Community? A. Yeah, that was where we moved to out at the Tesca Community, the farm we moved on was half mile south of Tesca School house. Q. Was the school and church all in one building or were there two different buildings there? A Yes, they were all in the same building, they had church in the school house. But later on they built a church about a mile east of the school. Of course there is not anything there now, no church or school. Everything is gone. I think it is, I haven’t been down that way, don’t guess I’ll ever be down that way again. Oh, several years ago I drove down in there and all around but that stuff is all gone, the schoolhouse, the church and the gin. There was a gin there in Tesca, and it is gone, everything is gone. Comment: I didn’t realize there was a gin there. A. Yeah, that is where Uncle Charlie got his hand cut off, in that gin. That was Grace and Naomi’s daddy. Comment: Yeah, I remember him. A. I don’t know how in the Hell that guy ever lived to be that old, as old as he was, he had more dadgum scrapes and tearups than any man I ever saw. He lost that hand in the gin, then he fell off a wagon loaded with grain, broke his shoulder blade, broke his arm and I don’t know what all it did to him. Then he got in that fire when little Bobby burned to death. They didn’t think he was going to live, but he finally pulled through it. He was all scarred up from that fire. But you know he lived to be nearly 90 years old. Comment: Yeah, I know, I remember seeing him down there at Dallas with Grace and Naomi. He got awful hard of hearing, but outside of that he did pretty good. A. I don’t remember when I saw him last, don’t have any idea when it was. Comment: I can’t remember when it was he died, but I remember he was way up there in age. A. He lived to be a real old man. Comment: Yeah, he sure did. A. My aunt, his wife, she was only 41 or 42 years old when she died. Comment: Now those kids were pretty young when she died, weren’t they? A. Oh, yeah. Comment: Grace more or less raised them, didn’t she? A. Grace and Naomi were almost grown, but the other two kids were just little kids. Comment: Well there is Lynn. He is a little bit younger than Grace and Naomi. A. Lynn, Grace and Naomi were the older ones. She died in 1929. She taught school there in Tesca in 1903. Comment: I didn’t realize she was a school teacher. A. Yeah, she was a school teacher. Comment: You know I met Archie Dunlap this summer and I have heard of Archie Dunlap all my life and I never had met him, until this summer. Rufus: Where did you meet him? Margaret: He was up at Tipton. He was there the weekend of the Lovejoy family reunion and he came out to the REC to see Uncle John, and Aunt Bill Lovejoy. Rufus: Well, they were all raised together. Margaret: Yeah, they were, but Archie is the one that went to school with Uncle Charlie up there at Stillwater and stayed, when Grannie went up to Stillwater. Rufus: Yeah, but he never did finish school, he quit and went to work for the telephone company and worked for the telephone company. I guess he is retired by now. Margaret: Oh, yeah, he is retired now. Rufus: I saw him in 1939 and he was working for the telephone company then. Margaret: I think he went up pretty high in the company. Lynn did, too. Rufus: Yeah, Lynn and Archie worked the same place, Lynn is retired too I guess. Margaret: Yeah he is. Rufus: I don’t know how old Lynn is now. Margaret: I don’t know either. Rufus: Grace is a year older than Charlie and Charlie is 70, so she would be 71. Margaret: You know she and Naomi live together in Dallas. Rufus: Yeah, Naomi’s first husband died and she married her husband’s brother, and they separated. Grace married a man and they weren’t married long until he died. Grace was about 40 some odd years old before she married the first time. Q. That place you all lived at in Oklahoma was the half-dugout, wasn’t it? A. Yeah. Q. I can remember Mother telling me that Grannie kept that floor swept, she made her a broom out of broom weed, I guess, or something. I don’t know what she made it out of. Rufus: I don’t either. Margaret: I remember Mother saying Grannie would just sweep that floor. Rufus: It was a dirt floor. Margaret: Yeah, it was a dirt floor, but Grannie would sweep it anyway. Rufus: Yeah, they called it a half-dugout. Margaret: Was that the place they homesteaded? Rufus: That is the place Dad homesteaded. He picked one of the sorriest farms in the county. Margaret: Well, I think they have oil on it now. Rufus: Yeah. Margaret: Not too good farm land, but they have oil on it now. That was at some...kind of switch. Rufus: Huffhine Switch. When we first moved to Frederick that railroad was already built up to Frederick. It was Frisco. Margaret: From Texas? Rufus: Yeah, from Vernon up to Frederick. When Dad first came to Oklahoma there was not a railroad there. They built it after he was there. He hauled freight from Vernon in a wagon to Frederick. When he was there the first time, that was from 1901 to 1905. Margaret: How long did it take you to go from Frederick to Vernon, about three days? Rufus: Oh, no. You could make it in a day. Margaret: Oh, you could? I guess you went cross-country didn’t you? It wouldn’t be like the highways today. Rufus: When we come back to Oklahoma in 1907 there weren’t any roads, we just came across the country. Margaret: Was that the time you had to ford the river? Rufus: Oh, yeah. Margaret: I remember Mother telling about that, of course she was scared, the river was bank full. Rufus: We put the team of little mules to the empty wagon, just had a bed on it. Mom and us kids got on this wagon and Dad and this other guy was in the wagon with our stuff in it, the covered wagon. We had a team of big horses to it, and the team of little mules was to the other wagon and there was one or two places where the water was so deep the mules had to swim, the bed of this wagon floated almost out of the standards. I don’t know why that guy didn’t have the bed tied in there but he didn’t have it tied in, he should have had it tied in so it couldn’t float out. If it had floated out we would have just gone right on down the river. Those little ole mules had to swim a little ways and they finally hit the ground again. The river wasn’t very deep, it didn’t have to be over three or four feet for those mules to have to swim. Margaret: They have that dam up there now so there isn’t much water in Red River anymore. Rufus: No, it is growed up in weeds. It was a mile wide there at Vernon there where we crossed it coming back to Oklahoma. Margaret: There is a place there called Doan’s Crossing. Rufus: That is up north of Vernon. Margaret: Was there a town or village of Frederick at the time you all lived there? Rufus: It was Cosnell. They named it Frederick later. I don’t know when they named it Frederick. There was a fellow by the name of Gosnell that had the grocery store, that is the reason they called it Gosnell. Margaret: There are dime stores now by the name of TG&Y, and I think that G stands for Gosnell. Tomlinson, Gosnell and Young. It was started there in Frederick. Rufus: Yeah, that TG&Y store all started right there in Frederick. That T stands for Tomlinson, he was the first guy to put the dime store in. It was called the WideAwake. They didn’t call it TG&Y then. Margaret: What year was it they moved out there on the Cull place. Rufus: They moved out there in about 1920, I think. Margaret: I think 1920 is about right, then they moved in with us in 1936. So that would have been 16 years they lived out there on the Cull place. Rufus: Yeah, he lived there about 16 years. Margaret: I drove by there about a year ago, it looks real strange, there are no buildings around there, oh I think there is a barn there, but there is no any houses around. Rufus: They tore the house down? Margaret: Yes, it is gone. Then the old Stinson place across the road, there is nothing over there either. Rufus: No, there never was anything on it. Margaret: Didn’t she have a little house, didn’t she live over there? Rufus: No. Margaret: I thought she did. Rufus: No, I don’t think so. That farm belonged to, oh I can’t think of that guy’s name right now. Margaret: That old Dunlap house is still standing there. That old two story house. And I think the old Conrad house is still there. I don’t know if Conrad’s still own that land or not. Seems like Gilbert bought it, but he may have sold it. I don’t remember. Rufus: I don’t know either. I don’t know who owns that land in there anymore. Margaret: I guess Mother bought her farm in about 1935 didn’t she. Rufus: Yeah, I think it was 1935 that she bought that land. I wanted her to buy 160 acres south of town by Weaver community. It wouldn’t have died cotton and she could have planted hay or anything else. It didn’t have a house, there was an old house. That was a new house up there where she bought. Margaret: It was a nice house. Rufus: Yeah, it was a new house, wasn’t very old. Margaret: Do you remember who lived there? Rufus: No, I don’t know who built that house. The house was but two or three years old when she bought the place. She bought the house, I told her then the house won’t make you a living. I said that 160 acres would raise a whole lot more stuff than 80 acres. I knew that 80 acres out there would die cotton. Stalks would get up about grown and they would die. Margaret: I guess they have something to combat that now. Probably some kind of chemical. Rufus: Naw, I don’t think they have, it still does it. That farm down there south of town was pretty deep sandy land farm. Margaret: Yes, all that land is, down there by the Weaver Community. Rufus: Of course that 80 acres was sandy too. Margaret: Yes, it was sandy. Well, it has been a few years hasn’t it? Rufus: Yes, it has. I worked 8 years as maintenance man at Tucson Baltimore. Then I dot laid off and was off almost a year. Then I went to work at Kearney Inn and worked there 10 years. That was 18 years. Margaret: My goodness is that about as long as you have been in Tucson? Rufus: Yeah, I went to Tucson in 1956. That would be 19 years ago. I worked 18 years in those two places. When I went to work at that place in Kearney, I never dreamed I would be there 10 years. They never would have fired me. I could have still been there, if I could have got around. My legs couldn’t carry me. Margaret: Well, do you have arthritis in your joints? Rufus: No the legs just go weak. Margaret: You don’t have any pain, just weak. Rufus: No, I don’t have any pain, no arthritis or anything. Legs get weak, and I couldn’t get around, so I decided to quit. Margaret: Well, you worked long enough. Rufus: I had a little money saved up and then I get Social Security. They give us a little raise about four or five months ago. Greta and I together get along pretty good. She gets more than I do in her pension. She gets $241 and $78. That is a little over $300; then I get a little over $200. The two of us together get a little over $500. Margaret: Grannie used to tell me a lot of things I wish I could have gotten on recording. She used to tell me how they took their clothes to the tank and washed them. I think she was the cook in the family. Aunt Mollie or Aunt Buleah would have to go do the washing; that was when the women wore about seven long petticoats. I can remember Grannie saying one time “They can call them the good old days if they want to, but I don’t think they were the good old days”. Rufus: Yeah, there was a big bunch of girls in Mom’s family, I think there were eight of them. There were two boys, I think. Margaret: Roy and Bert? Rufus: That was all. No there was three - Luther. Margaret: Yeah, that is right. Rufus: There were three boys and I think there was eight girls. There were 11 in the family. And all the girls got big and fat, they did, big and fat. Margaret: Aunt Mollie wasn’t very big. Rufus: No, she wasn’t very big. Margaret: She has a grandson that lives here in Wichita Falls, but I don’t ever see him. Rufus: A grandson? Margaret: Yes, Joe Pete’s boy. He is a school teacher here. Rufus: Wonder if Joe Pete is still living. Margaret: Yes, he is living in California. Rufus: Wonder if Ruth is still living. Margaret: Yes. She lives out there at Compton. I usually get a Christmas card from her. Her husband died. His name was Tom. Rufus: She still has her aches and pains like she always had. Margaret: Ruth? Rufus: Yeah. She and Doris were about the same age. Aunt Mollie had a pretty good size family. Margaret: Yes, she did. Rufus: I don’t know how many kids she had, but there were 8 or 10 of them. They all had big families. Margaret: Do you remember Uncle Roy’s daughter? Her name was Charlotte, do you remember her? Rufus: I have seen her, but don’t remember her. Margaret: She had a Devenny reunion about five or six years ago, and I took Mother down there to it. Aunt Fannie is still living. She is the only one left out of that Devenny bunch, of course she is just an in-law. Rufus: Yeah, she is just an aunt by marriage. Is Uncle Bert’s wife still living? Margaret: No, she died two or three years ago. We went to Huntsville to see Mrs. Peckham. You remember Mr. Peckham, the man I worked for so long. Rufus: Yeah, I remember him. Margaret: Well we went to see her and came back and spent the night at Corsicana and I called Mary Louise from the hotel. This is Uncle Bert’s daughter. She broke down and started crying she said “Oh, Margaret, I have lost my dear Mother.” It had been about a week before that, that Aunt Minnie died. She didn’t write us and tell us anything about it. Rufus: She never did get married, did she? Margaret: No, the boy was 30 or 35 before he ever got married, and started a family. I think he has three children. But Mary Louise never did get married. She is still living there in Corsicana. Rufus: The Heifner family all lived there at Corsicana too. Margaret: I think two of those boys are dead now. Rufus: I went down there with Dorris on a reunion one time at Corsicana. One of the boys then looked like he was about dead. Margaret: I think he died within the next year. Rufus: He died in a few months after that. I don’t know what was the matter with him. Margaret: I don’t remember either. There is a girl that lives over here at Electra that is one of the Heifners, I don’t know which one. She is the daughter of one of those boys. Rufus: I had never seen a Fentress outside of my own relation in my life. Out there at Tucson There was a Fentress, Joe Fentress. I went down to his house two or three times and never did catch him at home. One night when I was working at Kearney he came in the Inn and stayed all night. One of the people in the office mentioned it to me and wanted to know if he was kin to me and I said I don’t know where is he and they said in room so and so and I said I believe I’ll go down there and see him. I have never seen one outside of my own kin folks, I never did in my life see a Fentress outside of my own kinfolks. Margaret: It is an unusual name. Rufus: So I went down to see him. I guess he wasn’t no kin to me. We couldn’t rake up any kin. He was living in Globe then. He was just there for the week end, at Kearney. I can’t remember how old a guy he was, about 40 some odd years old. Margaret: There was some official in the Allstate Insurance Company, you know how they send out form letters to the policyholders? We got one one time and it was signed by a Calvin Fentress. There are some Fentresses here in Wichita Falls. One was editor or publisher of the paper here. I don’t guess they were any kin to us. I have never heard of them. I saw his name in the paper one time, is how I heard of him. The name Devenny is unusual too. Rufus: Oh yeah, that is a French name. I never heard of it outside my own Mother’s name. Of course her brothers name would be Devenny - Roy, Bert and Luther. Luther was the oldest boy. Roy was next to the oldest boy and Bert was the youngest. Margaret: I can remember Grannie in her later years talking about Uncle Lou. In his later years, he was very religious. Grannie said, “Yeah, when he was a boy he would stick that six shooter in one pocket and a bottle in the other on Saturday night and take that fiddle and go to the dance.” He would hit that fiddle. She said I wonder if he has ever told his kids all that. Rufus: He has one girl that lives in Dallas, Effie. I saw her one year, I can’t remember when it was. Margaret: Was it the year we went to Naomi’s daughter’s wedding? Did we go on over and see Effie that year? Rufus: Yeah, that was what we were down there for. She had a grandson that had just got killed in the war, Vietnam, and boy was she fussing. Margaret: I have a bunch of pictures I have been wanting to take down there, you know of Uncle Lou’s family. I hate to send them through the mail, I am afraid they will get lost. I have a bunch of his family and I have a bunch I want to take to Grace and Naomi. Maybe some day I’ll get them down there. Rufus: I guess Grace and Naomi are both retired. Margaret: I think Naomis still works part-time. She may be fully retired now, I’m not sure. Rufus: Grace was in business of some kind. Didn’t she? Margaret: No, her husband had that surveying business, but after he died, I think she sold it. She has an apartment house. She retired from the State of Texas, she worked in the employment office, that is where she retired from. Naomi worked for the Welfare Department, so they are both retired from the State. Rufus: I don’t know when I saw Grace last. Margaret: I guess it was that same year we were down there for that wedding. I can’t remember when that was. Rufus: No, she was up here somewhere. She was up to your house or Tipton or somewhere and I saw her. Margaret: I can’t remember how long it has been since we were down there for that wedding, but I think it has been five or six years. I think Sherri was a sophomore or junior in high school, and that would have been six or seven years ago. Rufus: What was I doing here? Margaret: You happened to be here, on vacation. And we were going down there so you just went with us. We spent the night there at Lynns and I guess we went on over to Effie’s the next day. This tape was made in September, 1975, between Rufus Fentress and his niece Margaret Lovejoy Neely, in Wichita Falls, Texas. |
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Notes for ESTHER HASLEY: [Brøderbund Family Archive #110, Vol. 1, Ed. 4, Social Security Death Index: U.S., Social Security Death Index, Surnames from A through L, Date of Import: Jul 4, 2000, Internal Ref. #1.111.4.73532.125] Individual: Fentress, Esther Birth date: Feb 8, 1902 Death date: Oct 1992 Social Security #: 441-12-5772 Last residence: 73107 State of issue: OK |
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More About ESTHER HASLEY: 2: Last residence: 731072 7: Social Security #: 441-12-57722 Act 1: State of issue: OK2 |
| iv. | ERNEST FENTRESS3, b. 19033. | ||
| 15. | v. | CHARLES FENTRESS, b. September 01, 1905, Oklahoma; d. January 15, 1991, Mesa, AZ. | |
| vi. | PRIESTLY FENTRESS, b. 1909. |
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