An American Family 1650
- 2000
By Roberta Richardson,
Forward
In Virginia in the early
1700s, two daughters of prominent plantation owner Edmund New were married. His
daughter Sarah New married John Tully in 1708, and the next year, her sister,
Rebecca New, married Thomas Christian Jr.
My parents, Marcella “Marc”
Walker and Cliff Watson, met and fell in love in Lake Tahoe, California, in the
summer of 1940. They married in Reno, Nevada, that fall and left before the first
snowfall for the warmer climes of Cliff’s family’s adopted home in Phoenix,
Arizona.
So what do these three
marriages, separated by a span of nearly 250 years, have in common? Perhaps
nothing. Possibly everything. What we do know is that Cliff is a direct
descendent of Rebecca New and Thomas Christian Jr. Both the News and the
Christians were among Virginia’s earliest settlers.
The question is, is
Marcella Walker also a descendent of the New family? Inheriting land from his
father-in-law, John Tully and his wife, Sarah New, became the first generation
of a large and successful dynasty of Tullys, Tuleys and Tooleys in Virginia and
throughout the U.S. Marcella Walker is the great-great-granddaughter of James
Tully, who, although believed to have been born in Little Rock, Arkansas, lived
in Washington County, Virginia, in the 1820s and 1830s with his wife and at
least six children. Marcella’s great-grandmother, Sarah Tully, was born in
Abingdon, Virginia, in 1835. That James Tully appears to have moved from
Arkansas to Virginia suggests he may have had Virginia relatives — relatives
who very well could have been descendants of the progenitor of the Virginia
Tullys, John Tully.
I believe that life is a
circle that continues to connect and reconnect through time and space. I like
to think it’s possible that, when my parents met, the attraction they felt may
have stemmed from memories evolved through generations from their ancestral
roots in Colonial Virginia. Someday we may know for sure whether or not my theory
is valid. Until then, here is what we do know about the Watson and Walker
family roots.
Roberta Richardson
Aristocratic Roots in
Cowboy Boots
Cliff Watson was a Texas
cowboy and proud of it. He knew his family had been ranchers in Texas since the
early 1800s. What he probably didn’t know was that his roots actually extended
back to some of Virginia’s earliest colonists with links to British nobility.
One wonders what he would have thought if he had known his ninth
great-grandfather was the Sixteenth Century English nobleman, Sir Francis
Leake. Or that he was related to Letitia Christian, the first wife of the tenth
U.S. president, John Tyler.
Cliff Watson was born June
14, 1912, in Ravenna, Texas. Located in Fannin County in north central Texas,
Ravenna was founded in the mid-1800s and today has a population of 204. His
father, Walter Earl, was born in Farmington, Grayson Co., in 1892. Cliff’s
mother, Ruby Lee Christian, was born in 1893 in Bryan’s Mill, a town in Cass
County in eastern Texas.
It is interesting that
Cliff’s mother’s maiden name was Christian. It is believed that Ruby
Christian’s grandfather, William Peter Christian, was born about 1800 on the
Isle of Man, located in the Irish Sea between Scotland, Ireland and Wales, and
that he came to the U.S. in about 1840. Cliff’s father’s ancestor, Thomas
Christian, also was believed to have immigrated from the Isle of Man — about
200 years earlier. Although it is possible that Walter Watson and Ruby
Christian were distantly related, they probably were unaware of their common
family name. The Watson link to the Christian family was maternal, through
Cliff’s fifth great-grandmother, Anne Mourning Christian, who married Samuel
Coleman in Virginia in about 1730. When Walter met Ruby, the Christian name had
not been linked to the Watson family for five generations.
Cliff’s fifth
great-grandmother, Anne Mourning Christian, was the daughter of Thomas
Christian Jr. and Rebecca New, and the granddaughter of the progenitor of the
Virginia family, Thomas Christian. For centuries, members of the Christian
family were the dempsters, or judges, on the Isle of Man. While no records
confirm Thomas Christian’s ancestry, an ancient spoon with the Isle of Man
Christian family’s unique crest — a unicorn head with a collar around the neck
— was found in the dwelling house on the family’s Green Oak Farm.
Located in Charles City on
the Chickahominy River, Green Oak Farm is the only known property in Virginia
that has been passed to future generations through will since the original
patent. It has never been deeded. The property has been in the Christian family
name since 1657, according to the April 1897 edition of William and Mary
College Quarterly.
By the nineteenth century,
the Christian family were prominent members of early Virginia society, owning
large plantations in Charles City, New Kent, Goochland and Albemarle counties.
Through marriage, the family was linked to other Virginia planter families,
including Cliff Watson’s father’s ancestors, the News, Leakes, Maskes, Bosticks,
Corbins, Colemans and Watsons (see Watson family tree).
Tobacco for export to
Europe was the leading crop among Virginia planters. The slave economy that
grew in Virginia and the South during the 1700s and 1800s allowed large
plantation owners to grow and market tobacco more cheaply than small growers.
As small growers found the competition increasingly severe and their incomes
greatly reduced, many began moving westward.
Among the immigrants were
Cliff’s third great-grandparents, Evan Thomas Watson and Lucy Coleman, who left
their home in Albemarle County to settle in Madison County, Kentucky around
1800. Apparently after Lucy died, Evan moved in the 1830s to Grayson County,
Texas. He died in Bowie, Texas in 1834.
Coleman Watson, Cliff’s
second great-grandfather, settled in Grayson County, Texas, with his wife, Lucy
L. Coleman, in about 1834. The Coleman Watsons had 11 children, seven born in
Kentucky and four in Texas. Together, they owned nearly 2,000 acres of land and
some 20 to 30 slaves, as described in the following excerpts from Coleman
Watson’s will, filed July 18, 1876:
. . . my first wife Lucy
(and who was the mother of all my children) and myself were married on the 13th
day of September 1821. This wife Lucy died on the 13th day of April 1862
leaving the following children surviving her, all of whom were at the time more
than 21 years of age (except Edward T.) viz Emily E.; Samuel C.; Nancy M.;
Louisa Jane; Mary Susan & Edward T., and all of whom were married except
Edward T. Since the death of their Mother Lucy, the following have died viz
Mary Susan, wife of R.E. Butridge leaving five children two of whom have since
died in their minority leaving three living. Edward T. who died whilst still a
minor and at the age of 19 years. Before my wife Lucy died I had given to my
daughter, Emily E. two hundred and fifteen acres of land about nine head of
cattle and some other household furniture (and a Negro girl and a Negro boy
after the death of my wife). To Samuel C. I gave 338 acres, two Negro boys, and
some household and kitchen furniture. To Mary Susan I gave a Negro girl and
household and kitchen furniture but no land. To Nancy M. I gave a Negro girl
(and Negro boy after the death of my wife) 305 1/2 acres of land, and some
household furniture. To Louisa Jane I gave 126 1/2 acres of land, a Negro girl
and a Negro boy (this last boy given since the death of my wife, was also the
boy given Nancy M.) and some household furniture & c. All this property
except four Negro boys advanced to my children as stated, prior to the death of
their Mother.
At the time of the death
of my wife Lucy in 1862, we owned in Common as Community property, a tract of
land where we resided in Grayson County supposed to contain 1731 acres, less
985 acres which I had before that time Deeded to my children . . . leaving
according to the surveys made at the time of my wife’s death 726 acres (It
seems by surveys since made however that there was only about 500) . . . I also
owned as Community property at the death of my wife about 20 Negroes all of
whom were shortly afterwards freed by operation of law. About twelve head of
horses. About 10 head of cattle, 250 head of sheep, Farming Utensils, Household
furniture and a part of a lot in Sherman which was sold and the net proceeds
divided, one half to myself & balance to my children equally. Also 30 acres
in Collin County disposed of in the same manner.
The Nancy M. Watson
mentioned in Coleman Watson’s will was Cliff’s great-grandmother. Nancy married
James Randall Watson from Mississippi and they were the parents of Cliff’s
grandfather, Theodore Wigfall Watson, born in 1862 in Grayson County. In about
1864, James, Nancy and family moved to Bakersfield, Kern County, California.
The Watsons owned property in Kern County and James is believed to have been
elected or appointed the first sheriff of the county.
Apparently Theodore Wigfall
returned to Grayson County, Texas, where he married Sarah E. Beatty in 1884,
and Cliff’s father, Walter Earl, was born in 1892. Walter married Cliff’s mother,
Ruby Lee Christian of Bryans Mill, Texas, in 1911. For the first five years of
their marriage, the family lived in Ravenna, Texas, where Cliff was born in
1912 and Mary Lou in 1915. In 1916, they moved to Phoenix, Arizona, where
Walter ran a business selling horses and mules. A third child, Effie Lou, was
born in Phoenix in 1920. In the 1950s, Walter lived in the Arizona Pioneers
Home in Prescott. He died in Prescott in 1958 at age 76.
Ruby Lee Christian was the
daughter of George Bartley “Bart” Christian, born in 1854 in Jackson,
Mississippi, and Mary Frances Bell, born in Georgia in 1857. They married in
Bryans Mill, Cass County, Texas, in 1887, where their nine children were born.
Ruby, born in 1893, was their sixth child. Ruby’s father, Bart Christian, was
killed by lightning during a cattle drive in 1904. Mary Frances died in
Phoenix, Arizona, in 1934.
Bart Christian was the last
child of William Peter Christian and Susan Turner. Susan, born in about 1831 in
Tennessee, is believed to have been the second of Peter’s four wives. Family
tradition suggests Peter first married a woman in England, but no one knows who
she was or what happened to her. The 1850 Chickasaw County, Mississippi, census
indicates that Peter was then living with Susan, age 19. Six children were born
before Susan apparently died. By 1860, Peter had married his third wife, Mary
“Polly” Waldon, a widow with four children, with whom he had another four
children. Polly died in about 1871, and Peter married his fourth wife, Elizabeth
Long, in 1873, about a year before he died.
According to family oral
history, before Peter Christian came to the U.S., his early life was spent at
sea. According to one account, “Peter and his uncle were sailors on a
privateer. As a result of carelessness in choice of ships they preyed on (i.e.
ships of the British trade), the English Crown put a price on their head and
they were forced to leave England and the sea. They entered the U.S. either at
the port of Mobile, Alabama, or of Gulfport, Mississippi.”
Ruby and Walter Watson
divorced in the 1920s or 1930s, and Ruby married Bert Madison — whom the
grandchildren knew as “Grandpa Bert.” Grandpa Bert died in the 1940s, so Ruby
Christian Watson Madison lived independently for some 30 years until her death
in 1980. Ruby supported herself selling Avon products. Capitalizing on her
hobby of collecting and repairing dolls, she opened her own business,
establishing Phoenix’s first “doll hospital.” Ruby was irrepressibly
independent, still enjoying fishing trips, bingo and weekends in Las Vegas with
friends until she was nearly 80 and no longer able to live on her own. She
lived with Cliff and his wife for several years until her disabilities reached
the stage where she could no longer be cared for at home and had to be placed
in a nursing home. Ruby had promised that if she ever had to be put in a home,
she would promptly die. Asserting her independence to the end, that’s exactly
what she did! She passed away on April 24, 1980.
Cliff Watson grew up in
Phoenix. In his late teens and early 20s, he put his cowboy charm and good
looks to use “wranglin’ dudes” at the posh Biltmore resort in Phoenix, owned by
the Walgreen family. His connections with the Walgreens led to job managing
livestock at the Walgreen family estate in Dixon, Illinois. Other adventures
included working as an extra in the 1930’s Hollywood western, “Arizona,” with
Jean Arthur.
Cliff met Marcella “Marc”
Walker while working in the Lake Tahoe, California area in 1940. They married
in Reno, Nevada that fall, spent the winter in Phoenix, then returned the next
summer to run the Tahoe Tavern Stables. Their first child, a daughter, was born
in 1941 while they lived at Tahoe. During World War II, Cliff found a job in
the California shipyards and the family bought a home in Alameda, where their
son was born in 1942. After the war, they sold the house and Cliff went to work
on a friend’s cattle ranch in Squaw Valley, California, now the site of a
world-famous ski resort.
Winters in Squaw Valley are
brutal. Marc didn’t like the cold, so Cliff moved the family to Phoenix in
about 1945. He worked a variety of jobs before he joined Hensley and Co., an
Anheuser-Busch distributor. Cliff worked for Hensley for about 25 years, first
driving a truck and later as a sales representative.
In about 1946, the family
bought two-and-a-half acres of land near what was then the northern and western
boundaries of Phoenix. Cliff had an old home that had belonged to his father
moved to the property and he began a remodeling process that continued for at
least a decade. Their third child, another daughter, was born in 1959 when Marc
was 40 and they were still living in the old house. In the 1970s, the family
built a new home next door and sold the old house along with about half the
property.
Cliff loved children,
animals and getting up at the crack of dawn to cook heavy southern-style
breakfasts of biscuits and gravy or pancakes, singing old cowboy ballads while
he cooked. He was a 4-H leader for 20 or so years, shepherding kids to field
trips and fairs. He joined the Mineralogical Society of Arizona (MSA), mainly
because he liked the field trips and digging crystals at Date Creek. After he
retired, he enjoyed a memorable trip to Australia with MSA members sometime in
the 1970s. By 1980, Cliff’s arteries finally succumbed to the combined
punishment of rich southern cooking and years of smoking. After a series of
strokes and heart attacks, he passed away at age 76 on March 20, 1989.
Daughter of the Gold Rush
Marcella Jane Walker’s
roots run long and deep in Northern California’s Gold Rush country. Her
great-grandparents arrived in the early 1800s by covered wagon, drawn westward
by Gold Rush fever. Marcella, who later shortened her name to “Marc,” was born
in Sacramento, California on August 26, 1918. Her mother, the beautiful Eva
Belle Miser, was just 18 when Marc was born. Marc’s father was a handsome
rancher, Charles Thomas “Tom” Walker.
Tom Walker’s grandparents,
Sarah Tully and Thomas Wallace, both probably immigrated to El Dorado County,
California, separately about 1850. Unfortunately, no documents recording their
journeys have been found to date. The following notes about their origins and
travels are the product of research, conjecture and family oral history:
. . . Thomas Wallace was
born in Ireland in 1832. He may be part of an Irish family that immigrated
about 1840 to Lebanon, St. Claire County, Illinois, from Tuber Moore, County
Derry, Ireland. Researcher Kriss Replogle provided a letter dated January 1,
1941, from her relative, Thomas A. Bussong, of Webster Groves, Missouri, which
mentions an Uncle Tom Wallace, who “went west during the Gold fever in 48 or
49. He dug Gold there & then bot a farm & died on it . . . . Sarah Tully
was born November 12, 1935, in Abingdon, Washington County, Virginia. Census
records indicate her family lived in Washington County in the 1820s and 1830s.
The 1840 census doesn’t list the James Tully family, and, as yet, no records
have been found to indicate where they moved to after leaving Virginia or why
they left. Because Sarah’s death certificate lists her mother’s name as
unknown, it’s possible her mother died and her father moved to be near other
relatives who could help with his large family. There were at least six
children, probably more — census records indicate five children were born
between 1820 and 1830, and Sarah wasn’t born until 1835. [We believe Sarah’s
mother was Dorcas Toncray -- see Toncray history.]
. . . According to Sarah’s
death certificate, her father, James Tully, was born in Little Rock, Arkansas,
probably around 1800. He would have been about 50 years old when the family
immigrated to California. A James Tuly (or, on another record, James Tooly) was
listed among members of a wagon train from Michigan that departed St. Joseph,
Missouri, April 24, 1849. Although no records have been found to date to
confirm that James Tully lived in California, family oral history suggests he
may have been a schoolmaster in El Dorado County. The Washington County 1820
census lists his occupation as manufacturing.
. . . Sarah Tully was a
teenager when she traveled to California. Among stories she told, remembered by
grandchildren, was one of meeting Brigham Young at a dance while they were
stopped in Salt Lake City. Sarah claimed the Mormon leader offered money to her
father to make her one of his many wives. According to Sarah, the family packed
up their wagons and high-tailed it out of there.
. . . Sarah told
stories of traveling with her family, but as yet, records have not been found
to document precisely who traveled with her. El Dorado County cemetery records
suggest there were several Tully sisters. These include Maria Louisa Tully, who
married David Bennett. Mrs. David Bennett and her son, William, are on the same
grave stone in the Shingle Spring Cemetery with Leonidas Tully, who died on
October 20, 1868 at the age of 30. Another record notes that a Miss LauraTully
was married to Mr. Thomas L. Forsee January 19, 1854, by Rev. W. Oliver.
Sarah was only about 15 or
16 years old when she arrived in California. The scarcity of women in mining
towns meant there was always work for those willing to cook, clean, and wash.
But Sarah chose to become a teacher, the most popular professional career for
western women. El Dorado County historical records list her as the first
teacher in Spanish Flat, a mining town established in about 1850. Her
granddaughter, Marc’s aunt, Agnes Walker Shinn, who taught school in El Dorado
County for 40 years, spoke about her grandmother’s teaching career in an
article in The Mountain Democrat (September 22, 1994): “My grandmother was the
first school teacher that ever taught in El Dorado County. She started at a
shed in Salmon Falls, teaching the miners to count so they wouldn’t get cheated
out of their gold.”
In about 1855, Thomas
Wallace apparently cashed in some of his earnings as a miner to buy a farm and
marry the young schoolteacher, Sarah Tully. The 1860 census reported the
25-year-old Thomas, a native of Ireland, was a farmer with real estate valued
at $5,000 and personal worth of $3,100. His wife, Sarah, a native of Virginia,
was 23, and they had a 3-year-old daughter, Maria. Also living with them were
an Irishman, a Welshman, a Norwegian, a New Yorker and an Indianan — a virtual
United Nations! Apparently Sarah was adding to the family income not only by
teaching but also by running a boarding house.
By the 1870 census, there
probably wasn’t much time for teaching or room for boarders. Thomas, 38, and
Sarah, 36, now had seven children, and Thomas’ net worth had declined to $3,625
in real estate and $1,829 in personal worth. The census records did report
there was one additional member of the household, Emmerson H. Draper of
Massachusetts, who apparently inspired the naming of their fifth child,
Emmerson.
At least two other children
were born after 1870, one who died in infancy. Thomas died on January 15, 1886,
at the age of 54. Most of the children were grown and the older girls were
married, but three younger children were still living at home. The family must
have been hit hard by Thomas’ death. To pay for his funeral, Sarah borrowed
money from her son-in-law, Antone Russi, and other members of the community
helped with expenses. In 1901, the family sold the farm for $3,500.
Sarah, who outlived Thomas
by 40 years, lived near and knew James Marshall, who discovered the gold in
Sutter’s Creek that started the California Gold Rush. Her grandson, Jack
Wallace, said that Sarah didn’t like Marshall — she thought he was a lascivious
old man who didn’t deserve all the recognition he received. Late in her life
(she died in 1926 at age 91), Sarah was invited by Coloma city officials to
attend the dedication of a large statue honoring Marshall on the site of his
gold discovery. She didn’t want to go, but reluctantly agreed to attend when
the city fathers insisted. When the speeches were over and the crowd dispersed,
Sarah finally let her true feeling be known. Boldly, she walked up to the
statue of the man she despised — and spat on it!
Sarah liked to tell her
grandchildren she was a direct descendant of Pocahontas. So far, no records
have been found to confirm such links, but the famous Indian princess’ son,
Thomas Rolfe, had many descendants in Virginia, so the possibility exists.
Sarah and Thomas’ first
child, Maria Louisa Wallace, was Marc’s grandmother. Known to the family as
Lou, she had a reputation for being a very strong-willed, tough, opinionated
woman. Family legends tell of her breaking horses while riding sidesaddle and
driving a four-horse hitch over the Sierra Nevada mountains just to prove she
could do it. An animal lover, she kept monkeys, raccoons, deer and birds in
cages near the house. Lou seemed to have a penchant for men from Switzerland.
In 1876, she married her first husband, Antone Russi, who was born in 1845 in
Canton Ticino, Switzerland. Lou and Anton Russi had six children before his
death in 1891.
In 1892, Lou married Marc’s
grandfather, Francis X. Walker, who also was from Switzerland and may have been
a cousin of Antone Russi. They had three children, Marc’s father, Charles
Thomas “Tom” Walker, Agnes Walker and Franklyn Eugene “Gene” Walker.
Tom Walker was born May 12,
1894, on his father’s ranch in the Clarksville district in El Dorado County. He
attended business college in Sacramento before taking over management of the
family ranches. According to a 1930s biography, the family properties included
2,800 acres in the Clarksville district of El Dorado County, and 3,500 acres
near Lake Tahoe. He was said to be running about 600 head of cattle at the
time, and was numbered among the leading ranchers in the county.
Tom married Eva Belle Miser
in 1917 when she was about 17. Their first child, Marcella Jane, was born in
1918. Tom’s mother, Lou Walker, thought, at 18, Eva was too young to raise a
child, and enlisted authorities to try to have the baby taken away from her.
Eva never forgave her mother-in-law. In addition to Marcella, four other
children were born to the couple: a son in 1921, and three more daughters in
1924, 1928 and 1929. [All are still living.]
On December 27, 1930, Eva
Belle Miser Walker, just 30 years old, died suddenly of pneumonia. Apparently
devastated by the loss, Tom seemed unable to manage his young family or the
family properties. By the 1940s, much of the land was lost to creditors. The
properties once owned by the family are now located in highly valued
residential areas. In the 1990s, just a small portion of Clarksville property
that had included the family home sold to a developer for $55 million.
Marc’s paternal
great-grandparents weren’t the only family members to travel to El Dorado
County by covered wagon during the Gold Rush. According to research in the
Pioneer File in the Sacramento State Library, Marc’s maternal great-grandfather,
Solomon Miser, took a sea-land-sea route on his first trip to California,
crossing the Isthmus of Panama on foot and completing the journey by ship along
the Pacific coast, arriving in San Francisco in 1847. Before his trip, the
one-time Kentucky plantation slave driver apparently had moved to St. Louis,
Missouri, with his young wife, Isabella Westry Hughes of Cincinnati, Ohio. He
returned to St. Louis with the idea of going back with his family to raise
cattle in the Sacramento Valley. However, while he was away, gold fever struck
and the rush of “forty-niners” traveling overland from the eastern states had
begun. He made up a wagon train, appointed himself captain, and joined the gold
seekers, leaving St. Louis in 1851. The wagons crossed the Sierra Nevada
mountains at Echo (Johnson’s) Pass.
When Solomon arrived in
California, he built a toll road with the help of Chinese laborers. He took
care of the miners’ needs by building a store and trucking supplies to them.
His land holdings, located southwest of Latrobe, near Michigan Bar, were
estimated at between 1,000 and 2,000 acres. Solomon was killed when his wagon
fell on him while hauling lumber from Placerville to Uniontown (Lotus).
Solomon and Isabella
Miser’s first son was born in St. Louis in 1848. A second child was born in
1852, soon after the family arrived in California, and six other followed, most
born in Michigan Bar. Their third child, Joseph Edward Miser, was Marc’s
grandfather.
Joseph Edward Miser married
Leontine Miller on May 1, 1894. They had eight children, including Marc’s
mother, Eva Belle Miser. A son, Thomas, died at about age 6, and Harland Leroy,
twin of Roy, was killed in a gun shot accident when he was 20. Their second
child, Alta Mae, was killed in an automobile accident in 1918 on the night of
her graduation from nursing school.
Leontine divorced Joseph
Miser in about 1910 and married Charles Wallace, the fourth child of Sarah and
Thomas Wallace. Leontine and Charles Wallace had three children, including
Marc’s uncle, Jack Wallace, mentioned previously. A biography, written in about
the 1930s, profiles “Mrs. C.T. Wallace”:
One of the best known
and most popular wayside houses of public entertainment is the Deer Creek Inn,*
at Shingle Springs, El Dorado County, of which the owner and manager is Mrs.
C.T. Wallace. An ideal hostess, she has made the inn extremely attractive and
the service which she renders has brought her a large and representative patronage.
Mrs. Wallace was born in Ruby Hill, Nevada, on January 20, 1877, and is the
daughter of W.H. and Evelyn (Smith) Miller. Her father came to California with
his father in 1852, and was followed at a later date by the mother and
children. They settled at Mormon Island and Clarksburg, where they owned many
claims. Father and grandfather worked together, the latter holding the position
of recorder of mining claims at those two places, and they took out thirteen
thousand dollars worth of gold where the old Mormon tavern stood. W.H. Miller
later went to Nevada, where he served as superintendent of the Eureka
waterworks, after which he was transferred to Grizzly Flat as superintendent of
the Mt. Pleasant mine. He had received a good education as a mining engineer in
St. Louis, Missouri, and became prominent in that profession, following mining
interests through his active life. To him and his wife were born three
daughters. Mrs. Wallace . . . is the owner of a ranch of eight hundred acres on
which she is successfully engaged in dairy farming. She gives the greater part
of her time to the management of the Deer Creek Inn, which she has made very
popular with its patrons. She has worked hard for success, which is now hers in
large measure, and she enjoys the esteem of all who know her.
* NOTE: According to
family oral history, Deer Creek Inn was a gathering place for El Dorado County
families — children slept on the floor while their parents socialized, danced,
and dined on a big meal served at midnight.
After his divorce from
Leontine, Joseph married Julia Brown, a nurse hired to care for Joseph and
Lee’s son, Herbert, who had been injured in a hunting accident. Marc was very
fond of Joseph’s second wife, affectionately calling her “Little Grandma.”
Julia visited Marc and her family in Phoenix many times and her home in Banning
was always a stopping place for the family during visits to California.
Marcella “Marc” Walker grew
up on her family’s cattle ranches, summering at Lake Tahoe and spending winters
at the Clarksville ranch. She loved horses and disliked being a girl — her
younger brother was allowed to go on cattle drives from the time he was 5, but
Marc wasn’t permitted to go on a drive until she was 9. In her late teens and
early 20s, she competed in rodeos and was a rodeo queen. She owned and rode
horses most of her life, including up until the day before her first child was
born. At age 66, she took part in a week-long trail ride from Northern Arizona
to Phoenix.
Afterword
Clearly, the history of the
Watsons and Walkers is a work-in-progress. Although a surprising amount of
information about the families has been gathered and documented by researchers
across the country, there is still so much to learn. My interests at the moment
are focused on establishing the Tully links to Colonial Virginia. The Internet
is an amazing resource, and I’ve made invaluable connections with people from
California to Australia, many whose contributions are included in this
document.
I am grateful for the help
of many people in putting together this brief history, including Liz Newland in
Australia; my California contacts, Kathy Lewin, Sue Silver, Suzi Mickus, Eileen
Gillette and Dick and Phyllis Simpson; Kriss Replogle; members of the Cass
County, Texas Historical Society, especially Bob Smith; and Carol Green of
Austin, Texas.
And very special thanks to
my son, Randy Richardson, who has provided much of the historical research, and
to my mother, Marc Watson, for her boundless energy, indomitable spirit,
enthusiasm and memories that are the inspiration for this pioneer family
history.
Roberta Richardson