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