Martha Teel - wrapped up.

I apologize that all I seem to be able to offer up on this ancestor is speculation at best. I do hope to share with you a few links to some of my finds. I will start with this link to the 1909 edition of the Atlanta, Texas newspaper,  The Atlanta News . Direct your attention to the article titled OFF FOR MEMPHIS. The Bradberry Teel mentioned is Martha's brother. He is also mentioned in this article as well. He was born 22 Nov 1836 in Georgia and married Susannah Williams in 1858. He enrolled April 4 1862 and was enlisted with the Confederacy, Co. E 46th Alabama Infantry, Stevenson Division. By the year 1880 he and his family are living in Cass Co., Texas, and at his death he was buried in Atlanta, Texas in 1915. In this article about the Confederate reunion, it mentions a J W Hughes. I'm wondering if this is Martha's second husband since I'm not certain if "Mack" was a given name or nickname. Again... speculation. A far leap in my honest opinion.

I have recently discovered a resource in my constant searching for Mack and Mattie Hughes; a book written by Millie Porter. In her book she speaks of a Hughes family living in Wheeler county Texas in the late 1800’s. Millie wrote that an MC Hughes supplied milk to the soldiers of Fort Elliott, a military fort two miles southeast of Mobeetie. She also wrote that both MC and his wife had been previously married, a fact which would fit my Mattie Hughes, though I have no idea about Mack. Also written was that the family had been hit by a cyclone and their milk business was disrupted. Is this cyclone the reason for such a lack of records in my search? **NEW INFORMATION** If you click the link about the cyclone it speaks of a young girl named Anna Belle Masterson... Anna Belle Masterson's father was RB Masterson and her sister was Fannie Fern. Both of whom signed, as witnesses, on my Mattie Teal's DIL's Cherokee Nation application papers saying they had known her for 15 years. AND John Calvin named one son Ben MASTERSON Jones, and a daughter Fannie Leigh. Was this after Fannie Fern?

I'm feeling nearly certain this is my family as Mattie's son John Calvin and his young family were living in Mobeetie, Wheeler Co. in the late 1890's - 1908 at the latest according to tax records and the 1900 census. The 1910 census places them in Knox Co. **I believe I have finally found Mattie and "Mack" Hughes (listed as Mc Alester C Hughes ) in the 1910 census, living in Cordell Ward 4, Washita, Oklahoma. It lists Mattie as being the mother of only one child and as my Great Aunt Frances relayed to me, in Mattie's will she says that Johnnie Calvin is her only child.**

In the June 1940 edition of The Pampa News there's a story by a Mrs. Lillie Throstle, as she recalls her early childhood in 1886, Wheeler Co. Texas. She mentions neighbors Joneses and a Mack Hughes. Again, I'm feeling nearly 100% that this is my Mattie's spouse, Mack Hughes, but where are all their records? Is this all I'll ever find? Only newspaper clippings and second hand stories? I remain hopeful that someday more evidence will surface of this family.

Another source of information is the Cheyenne Sunbeam, a publication out of Cheyenne, Roger Mills County, Oklahoma Territory. In the 1895 publication you can find the following:  "MC Hughes is back again.  His better half is away for a month at Mobeetie and Mac looks lonely." This is the first evidence I've found that would suggest MC was also known as Mac!!  Mobeetie was located just across the state/county line to the west. And often mentioned with MC Hughes is the community of Elk Creek. In the November 1899 publication this snippet was published: "Mr. Bradley and Mr. Hughes have moved their families back to their homes on Sweetwater." Sweetwater was the previous name for the community of Mobeetie.

 

In my previous post I ended with a bit of interesting information about Mattie being known as quite the sharp shooter. If you look at where she was living during that time and what had taken place there the previous decade with the Red River Wars and the constant tension between the early settlers of the area and the local Indian tribes of that day, I could see how learning to be a good shot would be incredibly beneficial. She truly lived in the Wild West. In reading about the history of Mobeetie and all that transpired there in the 1870's I'm reminded of the 1990's television series The Young Riders. And after reading one account of a couple of buffalo hunters being scalped by Indians in 1874, I'm also reminded of that terrible scene in Dances With Wolves where the wagon driver and his two mules were slaughtered. 

What a brave and hardened woman she must've been to lose her first husband to the Civil War and then to leave her parents and several siblings behind in Georgia to make a fresh start for herself and her young son in such an untamed place. I'm sure she was full of true grit. And even though I don't have many facts about her life, I admire her for the strength she must've had to survive during that time period in such dangerous place.

Please don't forget to click over to these great genealogy blogs as well - Days of Our Lives and Theology for Mom