A tale of three families: Ensley, Parsons and Tubbs

James Elbert Tubbs was born in 1856 in Parker County, Texas and married Saphronia Anne James (1859 - 1926) in 1878 in Crawford, Texas. “Jim and Fronie” Tubbs had several children, two of which were John Wesley and Elbert Marion (my grandfather). 

Here is a poem that was written shortly before Jim and Fronie were married. It is signed “Badly Written By Saphronia A. James, March 21, 1878”

Many long hours I’ve been waiting

for your smiles to welcome me home

but so long you have kept to me waiting

till I thought you never would come

Oh will you never come again

with your bright and merry smiles

oh will you never come again

my lonely hours to beguile

I have gathered wild flowers from the hillside 

to wreathe around thy brow

but so long you have kept to me waiting

till they are dead and withered now

But my love for thee is still living

though the flowers they are dead

and around my heart it will linger

until life itself hath fled

Many bright lighted balls I have wandered

where all was joy and glee

but my heart grew sad and lonely

because I could not be with thee

but I defy thee brightest future

give up they joy and glee

and I’ll ask none on earth to love me

but thee and only thee.

William Thomas Parsons was born in Tennessee in 1866, and moved to Texas in 1892 at the age of 26. William married 19 year old Lena Bell Anderson in November 1894 in Coryell County, Texas. To this union were born five children: Roxie “Mae” (my grandmother), Charles Edgar, Mary Gertrude, Minnie Lee and Roy Thaxton.

John Wesley Tubbs married Martha Ellen Ensley in 1901, and then he died in April 1902. John and Martha’s daughter, Jonnie Bell Tubbs was born in August 1902. 

John’s brother, Elbert “Ebb”, married Martha’s sister, Josie on Christmas Day, 1901. Elbert and Josie had three children; Myrtle Ada in 1902, Allie Mae in 1905 and Haskel Garfield in 1907.

Lena Bell Anderson Parsons died in April of 1904, leaving William to take care of their five children. Mae, the oldest child, was only nine years old when her mother passed away. William helped Ebb Tubbs bring in his crop while Josie looked after the children: Mae, Charlie, Gertrude, Minnie and Roy along with Josie and Ebb’s daughter, Myrtle. During this time Josie’s sister, Martha, who was recently widowed and had a daughter of her own (Jonnie Bell) came to visit and while there Martha met William Parsons.

Martha Ellen Ensley married William Thomas Parsons on Christmas Day 1904, creating an instant family with six children. William was 38 and Martha was 20, and they went on to have four more children.

 William Thomas Parsons and seven of the ten children he raised

Josie died in 1909, leaving Ebb with three children to raise. Ebb and his children moved in with his parents, Jim and Fronie, to obtain help with the children. In 1911, Ebb married Mae Parsons and they went on to have 11 more children. They raised all 14 children together until Myrtle, the oldest child, died in 1917 after she was accidentally hit in the chest with a ball and complications developed.

                    Two Little Girls In Blue

 An old man gased on a photograph
          In a locket he had worn for years
         His nephew asked the reason why
        This picture has caused him tears

  
        Your father and I at school one day

    Met two little girls in blue

    They were sisters we were brothers

  And learned to love the two

  Two little girls in blue lad

    Two little girls in blue

    They were sisters we were brothers

    and we learned to love the two

    One little girl in blue lad

    She won your father's heart

    Became your mother, I married the other

    Now we two have drifted apart.

                    Elbert Marion Tubbs

A Beautiful Love Story

Geneva and John in 1947

My parents were born in 1930, one year after the horrible stock market crash of 1929, so they grew up during the Great Depression of the 1930s and then WWII. They lived in an agricultural community where hard work was valued more than a formal education. My mother's family was more successful financially than most others around them, and her father owned and farmed a section of land (over 600 acres). My father's family was poor. They ran a thresher machine, which provides a service to farmers, and there was never enough work to keep their large family fed properly. My father had ten brothers and three sisters, so I can imagine that the group of them just appeared as a blur. People have said that there were so many boys, it was hard to remember who was who. When my parents were around the age of ten or twelve, my mother remembers the first time she noticed my father separately from his brothers. She was sitting on her front porch, churning butter, and the Thresher Crew (my father's family) came walking down the road in front of her house. When my father noticed the pretty girl on the porch, he summoned up his courage and said, "why don't you bring me a glass of buttermilk?" (Be sure to read this part with a Texas accent.) And from the porch my mother answered, "why don't you come up here and get it yourself?" And that was the beginning of their Love Story. They went for walks and had long talks, and she said that when he would hold her hand in his, it sent a thrill through her body from head to toe.

When my father was a teenager, he would go as far as he had to go to find work. Sometimes he would have to hitch-hike for hundreds of miles until he could find a job plowing a field for fourteen hours a day for very little money. He would sleep in a tent and eat whatever he could find. Through those years, my father wrote letters to my mother. She mentioned those letters to me a couple of times and told me that it was fine with her if I read them, but I always declined because I felt that those letters were private and not for me. Yesterday I finally read some of them and realized that she probably wanted me to read them with her, but thought I was uninterested. Those letters revealed a side of him that I never knew. I knew my daddy as a good man, a hard worker, and very quiet. I would have described him as the strong, silent type. He just couldn't relate well to a house full of daughters and our hormones and emotional outbursts, so he did his best to work hard and provide well for us. He put himself through college after he married my mother, all while working a full-time job. As far as I know, he was the only one of his siblings with a college degree. There was no laziness or "quit" in him. Since my father's death 12 years ago, my mother never stopped missing him until her death on July 21, 2014. After reading his letters, I see how much he truly adored her as well.

It's like I had a front-row seat to a Beautiful Love Story. 

Geneva and John in 1997

A Three-Week Visit

Earlier this week, our daughter and grand-daughter left after staying with us for three weeks! Since they moved to Japan last October, I have been to visit them twice and loved it both times. During my last visit in April, our son-in-law received permission to spend 6 weeks in his home town in Arkansas and work in the Marine recruiter's office. It worked out that he could bring his family along, so they decided that our daughter and grand-daughter would spend three weeks with us before joining him for his final three weeks with his family. It has been so wonderful to see the little one when she first wakes up, with her eyes and dimples twinkling. She is 18 months old, and starting to repeat words that she hears. She has tons of energy and love and displays the confidence of a child who lives in a loving, secure home. I love her.

Graduation!!!!!

One week ago today, our first-born graduated from Harding University with a BBA degree in Finance. It has been a long, hard road for him and it would be a huge understatement to say that I am proud of him. He has been sidetracked with knee surgery, a job, changing his major, and various other distractions, but he stuck it out all the way to the finish line. He even had a job lined up before he graduated, and in today's economy that is an admirable accomplishment! The night before the graduation ceremony, we honored him with a dinner with family and a few close friends.
Way to go, Taylor!! We can hardly wait to see your next achievement, and we love you very much.

Best April Fool Ever!

April 1 will never be the same for me again. Let's go back to the year before last on March 31. Do you remember what you were doing? I do. It had been almost four months since my daughter's wedding and I was nearly over the shock of that. Then we heard that our new son-in-law (The Marine) was going to be deployed to Iraq later that year for seven months. My husband was out of town on a business trip and so I was sitting in my living room, all alone, working on some project when my phone rang at 11:30 pm. People don't typically call me at 11:30 pm with good news. It was my precious daughter, sounding slightly panicked. She quickly asked me for confirmation that those home pregnancy tests can be wrong. Gulp. Welllllll (I stretched the word out as 467 million thoughts ran through my head) I think that if they show negative they can be wrong, but if they show positive they are usually correct - why do you ask????? She asked because she had tested herself twice since her friend thought her symptoms sounded like she was pregnant and my daughter was going to prove her friend wrong. As I was talking over the speaker with Mr. and Mrs. Newlywed Marine, I took the opportunity to be the first to congratulate them. And I may have strongly reminded them that we were closing in on April Fool's Day and this was NOT a good idea for a joke. Little did we know what an exciting surprise God was preparing for them and us in their beautiful baby girl!

Bangs

Why did I want bangs? Because they look so cute on other people. So I got them. Now I remember why I grew them out the last time. I'm hoping that if I put this in writing, the next time I forget how much I hate having bangs, it will serve as a reminder to NOT do it!

Elbert and Roxie Mae

Elbert and Roxie Mae Tubbs' 50th Wedding Anniversary Photo taken in 1961

The names on this headstone are those of my father's parents, Elbert Marion Tubbs and Roxie Mae Parsons Tubbs. Roxie Mae married Elbert when she was very young. Elbert already had three children by his first wife, Josie Ann Ensley Tubbs. Elbert and Josie were married on Christmas Day, 1901 and Josie died in 1909. Roxie Mae married Elbert in 1911, and became "mother" to 14 children, including her 11 biological children with Elbert, and I have heard many times how she loved Josie's children as if they were her own.

Roxie Mae died the day after I was born, and I often wondered how stressful all of that must have been for my family. Imagine my surprise when one of my sisters told me her memories, and how having a new baby in the house (me) was the one bright spot during that dark time! Elbert died when I was a teenager, so I am thankful for the memories of him that I carry in my heart. He was a good, gentle man and he could tell really long stories.


My Aunt Bethel recently told me about the nicknames Elbert would use for his children: Virgil's nickname was "Pete" and Bethel's nickname was "Wildcat". It is beyond my understanding why anyone with 14 children to name would also come up with nicknames for them!

At a family reunion a few years ago, I was chatting with a distant relative from an older generation. She told me how much fun they had at the reunions long ago, back when "Uncle Ebb and Aunt Mae were here". That really touched me! It sounds like I missed some good times. I think I need to get busy creating memories that my loved ones can hold onto after I'm gone!