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Descendants of Robert Dukes - June 24, 2003

85. ELIZABETH CARY⁶ GRIFFIN (JESSE ELIZABETH⁵ DUKES, WILLIAM HALL⁴, ROBERT SHERARD³, ROBERT S.², ..¹) was born 22 Jul 1912 in "Bess" a twin to Thomas Haughton Griffin, and died Aft. 1997 in res Los Altos, Santa Clara, CA. She married .. PHILLIPS Private. He was born Private.

Child of ELIZABETH GRIFFIN and .. PHILLIPS is:

JOHN⁷ PHILLIPS, b. Private.

86. THOMAS HAUGHTON⁶ GRIFFIN (JESSE ELIZABETH⁵ DUKES, WILLIAM HALL⁴, ROBERT SHERARD³, ROBERT S.², ..¹) was born 22 Jul 1912 in Twin to Elizabeth Cary Griffin, and died Unknown in res Martinez, CA. He married JANE HOFFMAN Private. She was born Private.

Notes for THOMAS HAUGHTON GRIFFIN:
Thomas H. Grifin married a second time, name unknown.

Children of THOMAS GRIFFIN and JANE HOFFMAN are:

	i.		ALICE ELIZABETH⁷ GRIFFIN, b. Private; m. EVAN M. GARBER, Private; b. Private.
	ii.		ROBERT RUSSELL GRIFFIN, b. Private.

87. LAURA KATHRYN⁶ HALL (MAY LOUISA⁵ DUKES, WILLIAM HALL⁴, ROBERT SHERARD³, ROBERT S.², ..¹) was born 21 Nov 1916 in (adopted child) Contra Costa Co, CA, and died Aft. 29 Dec 1951 in res Martinez, Contra Costa Co, CA. She married WILLIAM AUGUST BELON Unknown in (9 February in Nevada, year unknown). He was born Unknown in California, and died Unknown in res Martinez, Contra Costa Co, CA.

Children of LAURA HALL and WILLIAM BELON are:

	i.		RICHARD CHARLES⁷ BELON, b. Private; m. DONA JEANNE WILLIAMS, Private; b. Private.
	ii.		LINDA LEA BELON, b. Private.
	iii.		INFANT SON BELON, b. 11 Jul 1952; d. Unknown, died young.

88. ANDREW JACKSON⁶ DUKES (LEONIDAS SHERARD⁵, ANDREW JACKSON⁴, ROBERT SHERARD³, ROBERT S.², ..¹) was born 16 Jul 1899 in Midlothian, Ellis Co, TX, and died 08 Feb 1984 in Ft. Worth, Tarrant Co, TX. He married VERNA FAE MIDDLETON 09 Oct 1920 in Mansfield, Tarrant Co, TX, daughter of ROBERT MIDDLETON and LOUISE MORROW. She was born 26 Sep 1902 in Mansfield, Tarrant Co, TX, and died 27 Oct 2001 in Fort Worth, Tarrant Co, TX ⁵².

Notes for ANDREW JACKSON DUKES:
A. J. Dukes was a remarkable man. From the time he was just a boy, he began to teach himself everything he could about machinery. Over the years, he became a master at problem solving on equipment which was unfamiliar to him, just because he was willing to try.

I met him in his 83rd year, having assumed for years that he had died. Mrs. Beryl Steele Gibson of Mansfield, Texas, sent me his address. In the summer of 1983, I spent two nights with Verna and A.J. When I walked in, I felt like I was in the home of close family, even though we had never met.

Their home is highlighted by their wildflower gardens, which was a passion for both for many years. They traveled thousands of miles photographing and collecting native Texas wildflowers. Both were quite expert in the field, and Verna was a noted speaker on the subject. There was a large map of the United States on their back porch which showed the routes they had followed looking for varieties of wildflowers.

Scattered throughout the garden are sculptures made by A.J. from what others would consider junk. A road runner's bill is made from a small plow. There is a bench made from an old iron bed. All things created by A.J.

A.J. had a wonderful memory and talent for spinning tales of the old days when he was a young man and a boy. He was his Aunt Roberta's favorite, and the feeling was mutual. One of the nicest compliments I have had is that he told me I reminded him or her.

REMINISCENCES OF A. J. DUKES II
recorded June 1983
Ft. Worth, Texas

Aunt Roberta loved opera and in those days we had the Savoy Theater on Jennings Ave. in Ft. Worth and we had the Majestic and the Palace Theater on 7th Street. Aunt Roberta would want to go to those theaters. There was a different show every week. We had some pretty good shows at the Majestic theater and so she'd get me to come and take her to these shows. Course, I'd get to come too, and we'd go see these shows. Now, take the Birth of a Nation, we saw it when it was first showing in Ft. Worth. She just loved Harry Lauder who later got down to the Majestic circuit, not as high class a circuit. I took her a lot of places.

When Aunt Roberta and Jack got married, I came with them and I was a witness to the marriage at the First Christian Church down on Throckmorton Street. I guess the old parlor was down in the basement. The old preacher L.D. Anderson was there years and years and years, until just a few years ago. Spent his whole life there. I was 19 years old. My age is the same as the year up til July 16 then it changes 1 year. I was the only witness up there besides the preacher.

There was an old man Mr. Wilson used to run a livery stable down there in Mansfield and course as automobiles came in, the demands on rentals of horses and buggies played out. It got to where Burt's dad, he (Mr. Wilson) had a son named Burt. He never worked at anything regular, but he hung around with the old folks and so it go to where all three were about to starve to death.

So, Grandpaw told them to move in with him and Mrs. Wilson would keep house and cook and course Burt and Old 'Alan Sam Wilson moved in with Grandpaw. They lived there several years and Grandpaw took care of them and fed them just for her housekeeping and cooking.

Grandpaw got real peeved at the old man one day. Grandpaw had a barn down there full of corn. He was waiting for the price to go up. Old Man Wilson came in and says, "Dutch, I know where you can sell your corn at a good price." Grandpaw says, "Where?" Old Man 'Prison says, "Well," says, "You'll have to give me a cut of it if I tell you." Grandpaw said, "No thank you." After I give (to) him and take care of him and feed him and everything else he wants me to give him a cut on the price of the corn he's getting for me.

Then Blanch Enmonds' sister Mattie Enmonds, the school teacher, their mother died of cancer and so she was sick a long time. A few years ago at a reunion in Mansfield, Mattie came to me and said "I never will forget your Grandad. I said, "Why?" She said, "My dad came in one day and said Mom was sick and he laid a handful of money on the table." (A.J. breaks down here, and we have to stop for a while). Mr. Enmonds went home and laid the money on the table and said, "I met Dutch Dukes up town and he told me he knew what (Sophie?) was worth and here's a little money to help out." She said, "I guess we'd have starved to death if it hadn't have been for him."

Another time, he heard somebody in the corn crib and Grandpaw went out and shot at him and hit him. Then he went to see who he was and hooked up a buggy and horse and put this man in and carried him to Ft. Worth and put him in the hospital that night and nobody to this day knows who that man was that he shot in the corn crib. Aunt Roberta or Jack may have had that old gun, a break top 38 Smith & Wesson. Aunt Roberta got it.

Verna's sister's husband, Shorty Galloway, came down one day and said, "You know, my dad moved to Mansfield and wanted to buy a farm. He found a farm he wanted to buy but the bank wouldn't loan him the money. He said Mr. Dukes loaned him the money to buy the farm." Mr. Galloway's still got that farm, handed down from generation to generation.

Old Man Driscoll who was the head man of the Christian Church there and they had deacons and so forth and he was the postmaster and his sister was a school teacher there and he had a brother that was county commissioner and got that road built to Mansfield, the first hot top road in Tarrant County. There's a marker there on the corner where you turn off to go to Arlington commemorating Driscoll getting that first hot top road in the county.

Anyhow, Old Man Driscoll came and says to Grandpaw, "We want to rebuild the church and enlarge it and we're taking up a collection from different members of the church and we haven't got enough money yet." Grandpaw says, "Well, have you seen all the members?" Mr. Driscoll says, "Yes." Grandpaw says, "How much money does it take?" Mr. Driscoll told him. Grandpaw says, "How much have you collected?" Mr. Driscoll told him. I was just a kid no better than 13 years old standing in the room. He didn't know I was listening. Well, Grandpaw says, "Tomorrow the balance of the money you need will be credited to the church down at the bank." Mr. Driscoll told him how much it would be and started to write it down as a donation, and Grandpaw said, "Do not put my name down that I gave anything." So that was his theory, to give, but don't tell. I've heard a lot of cases like that, but they don't all come to mind.

Christmas was not too much in my family. When I was a kid out in Hereford, course we were poor people, it consisted of usually about six Roman candles, and a couple of packages of firecrackers, a couple of apples and oranges, a stick of peppermint candy and some kind of winding toy and within 24 hours, I'd have that winding toy all to pieces, trying to see what made it work. I was mechanically minded and I started out wanting to know all I could about anything mechanical. I loved it. My uncle gave me an old watch one time that didn't work. I took a (clothes?) hook because I couldn't get it opened so took a (clothes?) hook and a hammer and I cut it open and it wouldn't work then sure enough. But anyhow, out there at Hereford one time we had two row bundlers, one had wore out and he'd bought another one and it was pretty well wore out and Father said something about he was going to take the two of them and make one out of (them). So he and Mama went to town and left me out there on the ranch by myself. Well, when they got home, I had one of those row bundlers scattered all over the place. I was going to do what he said. So then he made me put it back together and I was already planning on greasing them and everything. I greased up that old bundler 4 or 5 times a day even though it wasn't going no place.

Father and I went to town one day and went down to the depot where the trains came in and down to the blacksmith's shop. I wanted to watch somebody working on something. I got up there and a fella said to Father, "Why don't you come down to the hardware shop, I got some new binders in. Got a man up there putting them together." He'd hired a man to put them together, which was normal in those days. And he'd find a part and figure where it goes and another part and figure where it goes. He didn't have any directions. I'd say, "Here, put this on here and put this on next." That man began to look at me kinda funny and the hardware man saw me telling that man how to put that thing together and me a kid not but 8 years old. So the hardware man says, "Well", says, "Lon, are you going to be in town all day?" And Father says, "Yes." And (the hardware man) says, "I'II give this boy a dollar a day to tell this man what to do." And I got a dollar.

I moved down on the farm and I did all the work. I got Father to to put in a gasoline engine to pump. We had to pump water by hand, and got a grist mill to make our own cornmeal and I hooked that in. I traded a nigger an old motor we had for an old wood stove he had to saw wood with for the fireplace and stove and I was always doing something like that.

I liked to be in town down at the blacksmith shop and worked with him. I got to where I could shoe a horse or pony. There weren't any garages in town in those days and a few cars. When they'd break down, they'd take them to the blacksmith's shop. That was the only place to take anything in those days to be fixed. So the blacksmith would say, "Just leave it here, first time Dukes comes to town, he'll fix it." I was just a kid and I'd be fixing these cars and making them run.

I remember a fella raised a watermelon vine, one vine, and had four watermelons on it. He nursed it along and the least one weighed 104 pounds. He sent that to Grandpaw in Mansfield. He said the biggest one weighed 114 pounds and he sent that one to President Woodrow Wilson. So he raised about 450 pounds of watermelon on one vine.

Uncle Henry (Wolcott) had a brother that as known as the millionaire rancher. I met his son. He was in town all day long, didn't work or nothing, being a millionaires son. He (later) struck oil. This brother was in with a banker and every time a ranch was for sale he'd buy it, cattle, ranch and all, and the bank would furnish the money. So he owned ranches all over the country around Midland and was known as the millionaire rancher. Before they struck oil out there the old man died. By the time they settled with the bank there wasn't much left.

My Grandmother (Hopson) told me, now they lived in the mountains above Pleasant Valley during the Civil War. Somewhere around that mountain where they lived there was a cave and the Yankees came in there taking everything they wanted and needed. They came to her house and they had a grey mule and they heard the Yankees were coming so they hid the mule in the cave. The Yankees didn't find it.

Her father (Back) was a Mason and she told me 33rd Degree. Before he left for the army they gave his wife the Masonic distress signal. So when the Yankees came and were loading the horses up with their corn, she walked out on the porch and hollered the distress signal and gave the sign and the commander of that bunch of Yankees made them put all the stuff back and put the corn back and let loose the stock and they moved somewhere else. He was a Mason too.

Santa Anna, the Mexican, after Sam Houston captured him down by Houston, he got loose. He was the one that massacred all the people at the Alamo. He was a Mason and so was Sam Houston. Masonry was a close knit brotherhood in those days. They'd do anything for each other. Now it's mostly a social deal. In those days though, it was different.

Social Security Master Death Index
SSN 453-09-6255
Last Zip code 76133

Children of ANDREW DUKES and VERNA MIDDLETON are:

136.	i.		WILLIAM FREDERICK⁷ DUKES, b. 05 Aug 1921, Mansfield, Tarrant Co, TX; d. 12 Mar 1985, Ft. Worth, Tarrant Co, TX.
137.	ii.		ROBERT LEONIDAS DUKES, b. 13 Aug 1923; d. 17 Oct 1984, Ft. Worth, Tarrant Co, TX.

89. MATTIE FAYE⁶ DUKES (LEONIDAS SHERARD⁵, ANDREW JACKSON⁴, ROBERT SHERARD³, ROBERT S.², ..¹) was born 16 May 1904 in Dimmit, Castro Co, TX, and died Unknown in Res. Marysville LA 1984; living 1997. She married (1) JOSEPH H. SORRELLS 23 Aug 1924 in ?. He was born Unknown, and died Unknown. She married (2) THOMAS JEFFERSON LILLEY, JR. Private. He was born Private.

Child of MATTIE DUKES and JOSEPH SORRELLS is:

138.

HENRY MILTON⁷ SORRELLS, b. 18 Feb 1927, Ft. Worth, Tarrant Co, TX; d. Aft. 1997, Res Houston TX 1997.

Child of MATTIE DUKES and THOMAS LILLEY is:

139.

ii.

THOMAS JEFFERSON⁷ LILLEY III, b. 05 Sep 1942, Conroe, TX; d. Aft. 1997.

90. JACKSON MOSER⁶ RICHARDSON (ROBERTA DRUSILLA⁵ DUKES, ANDREW JACKSON⁴, ROBERT SHERARD³, ROBERT S.², ..¹) was born 01 Sep 1919 in Plano, Collin Co, TX, and died Unknown in Res Houston, TX 1999. He married MARGARET LORRAINE LUMPKIN 25 Jan 1941 in Shreveport, Caddo Parish, LA. She was born 20 Nov 1921 in Stamps LaFayette Co AR, and died Unknown in Res Houston, TX 1999.

Notes for MARGARET LORRAINE LUMPKIN:
(See Lumpkin/Shamburger Line)

Children of JACKSON RICHARDSON and MARGARET LUMPKIN are:

	i.	ANNE⁷ RICHARDSON, b. 05 Oct 1943, San Francisco, Oakland Co, CA; d. Unknown, Living in Houston, TX 2001; m. WILLIAM FUQUA WOODS III, 18 Aug 1967, Noel Methodist Church, Shreveport, Caddo Parish, LA ( no children); b. 25 Oct 1943, Shreveport, Caddo Parish, LA; d. 26 Dec 2000, Houston, Harris Co, TX.
140.	ii.	MARGARET RICHARDSON, b. 27 Jul 1946, Shreveport, Caddo Parish, LA; d. Unknown, Res Kansas City, MO, 1997.
	iii.	JACKSON MOSER RICHARDSON II, b. 24 Jan 1950, Shreveport, Caddo Parish, LA; d. Unknown, Res Sugar Land, TX 1999.

Notes for JACKSON MOSER RICHARDSON II:
Jack married twice and divorced twice. The first time to Mary Ann Smith, and second to Carol .., who was already divorced with a teenage daughter, Jennifer. Jack has no children.

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