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Descendants of Thomas BOYLSTON, Jr.

243. JAMES HARRISON⁸ BOYDSTON (JACOB GARDNER⁷ BOYDSTUN, BENJAMIN G.⁶, JAMES⁵, DAVID⁴ BOYDSTON, WILLIAM³ BOYLSTON, THOMAS², THOMAS¹) was born 29 Jun 1862 in Dallas Co, Texas, and died 14 Feb 1952 in Hereford, Deaf Smith Co, TX. He married ELIZABETH ROBINSON Abt. 1885 in prob Dallas Co, TX. She was born 01 Jun 1865 in Dallas Co, Texas, and died 1947 in Hereford, Deaf Smith Co, TX.

Notes for JAMES HARRISON BOYDSTON:
My records originally indicated that this was James W. Boydstun, but Richard Jennings' family tradition and records reveals that the name is James Harrison Boydstun.

An LDS researcher offered that "there is a birth entry for James W. BOYDSTUN in 1864 in Dallas County, TX. His parents are listed as Jacob Gardner BOYDSTUN & Louisa WILSON. We know this James W. is your James Harrison although someone appears to have read the entry from the 1870 census and misinterpreted it as James W. (the 1870 Census entry lists a James H. which could be interpreted by a novice to be James W.) I'm certain that is the origin of the wrong middle initial referenced in the IGI."

Note: I agree with the researcher above. Looking at a photocopy of the Census in question, and comparing other "W" characters (such as with William in three places on the first half of the page, and three instances of "H" (such as Keeping House), I conclude that this is indeed an "H" and not a "W."

1870 Census, Dallas County, TX, page 316, line 12
BOYDSTON, Jacob age 58, born in KY
Louisa, wife, age 46, born in Alabama
James H., son, age 6 born in Texas
Sallie, daughter, age 4, born in Texas

The Boydstuns are living between two relatives -- Robert and Elizabeth (Goodnight) Ground (brother of Jacob G. Boydstun's first wife, Drusilla), and William and Margaret Rape (this one is more complicated -- William's brother married one of Jacob's daughters, and other Rapes married Lowes, also kin to the Boydstun family.)

On the 1900 Census of Dallas County, again found among Holland and Baggett relatives, James H. and his family are found in Justice Pct. 6, Vol. 28, ED142, Sheet 20 line 38:

373/376
Boydstun, James, head, b. Jun 1863 age 36, married 15 years.
      born TX, parents born IL
Elizabeth, wife, b. June 1865, age 34, md. 15 years, 4 children, 4 living.
      born TX, Father IL, Mother MS
Sarah L., daughter, b. Jan 1891, age 8, Born TX
James J., son, b. Apr 1889 age 11, b. TX
Mitta E., daughter, b. Jun 1891, age 8 b. TX
Ada M., daughter, b. Mar 1895, age 5 b. TX

The actual census is hard to read, but can be supplemented from the Soundex.

Ada M. (Ada Mae) Boydstun is Richard Jenning's grandmother. He adds details to the family from his records.

At some point, James H. Boydston apparently began using the "o" rather than the "u" in his name. His funeral notice uses the Boydston form.

Children of JAMES BOYDSTON and ELIZABETH ROBINSON are:

	i.		SARAH L.⁹ BOYDSTON, b. May 1885, Dallas Co, Texas; d. Unknown.
	ii.		JAMES J. BOYDSTON, b. 02 Apr 1889, Dallas Co, Texas; d. Aft. 1918, Living in Deaf Smith Co, TX 1917-1918.

Notes for JAMES J. BOYDSTON:
James Jacob Boydstun was registered as a resident of Deaf Smith County in a list compiled 1917-1918. His name was spelled "Boydston" and the record stated that he was caucasian, born in Dallas County, Texas.

iii.

MITTA LEE BOYDSTON, b. Jun 1891, Dallas Co, Texas; d. 20 Mar 1916, age 25; Hereford, Deaf Smith Co, TX; m. GEORGE BASCOM HUGHES, Abt. 1910; b. 17 Oct 1889; d. 02 Feb 1920, Hereford, Deaf Smith Co, TX.

Notes for MITTA LEE BOYDSTON:
Pam Paulsen is a great granddaughter of Mittie Lee Boydstun, whom she identifies as the child formerly known as Mitta E. Boydstun. She says that Mittie did marry and had two children; one of them her grandmother.

Mittie Lee died in a fire in Hereford about 1916. The news article described how she was badly burned in an explosion on March 21, while rendering meat rinds. Nearby farm workers came to her rescue, and a doctor came on the scene. However, when the doctor sped to the hospital with his patient, he had a wreck, Mittie was thrown from the vehicle, and killed. The news article said that Mittie was "about 25 years old" and was undated except for the 21 March byline.

When Winnie Rose was about 5 years old, her father died of influenza. Both sisters went to live with their grandparents, James and Elizabeth Boydstun.

iv.

ADA MAE BOYDSTON, b. 13 Mar 1895, Dallas Co, Texas; d. 01 Aug 1993, Roswell, Chaves Co, NM; m. (1) BASIL RAY JENNINGS, 1913, Hereford, Deaf Smith Co, TX (divorced); b. 21 Apr 1893, Henry Co, MO; d. 04 May 1968, Roswell, Chaves Co, NM; m. (2) GRAYSON WHISENANT, 1945, (no children); b. 25 Jul 1904; d. Feb 1967, Roswell, Chaves Co, NM.

Notes for ADA MAE BOYDSTON:
Richard Jennings' records say that Ada Mae was born in Hereford, Texas, but I believe that may be incorrect since she is found in Dallas County with her family when she is age 5. Unless the family visited there at the time of her birth and returned, she was born in Dallas County.

Notes for BASIL RAY JENNINGS:
Basil Jennings also remarried after his divorce from Ada Mae, but had no other children. His second wife's name is not known.

244. SARAH LOUISE⁸ BOYDSTUN (JACOB GARDNER⁷, BENJAMIN G.⁶, JAMES⁵, DAVID⁴ BOYDSTON, WILLIAM³ BOYLSTON, THOMAS², THOMAS¹) was born 01 Feb 1866 in "Sallie" b. Dallas Co, TX, and died 09 May 1951 in Dallas Co, TX. She married ALLEN THOMAS BAGGETT Abt. 1888 in Dallas Co, TX, son of SEABORN BAGGETT and MARY ROBINSON. He was born 19 Mar 1861 in Dallas Co, TX, and died 20 Jul 1943 in Dallas Co, TX.

Children of SARAH BOYDSTUN and ALLEN BAGGETT are:

	i.		MARY LOU⁹ BAGGETT, b. 12 Jul 1890, Texas; d. 25 May 1975; m. JOSEPH CLEVELAND MORRISON, Unknown; b. 22 Apr 1885, Kentucky; d. 09 Nov 1961.
	ii.		ANNABELLE BAGGETT, b. 04 Dec 1895; d. Unknown; m. HOMER R. SULLIVAN, Unknown; b. Unknown; d. Unknown, died on July 4, __?.
	iii.		WINNIE EDNA BAGGETT, b. 10 Nov 1898; d. 28 Dec 1959; m. CECIL R. WITHERSPOON, Unknown, no children; b. 09 Sep 1893; d. 1961, Bd. Midlothian Cemetery, Ellis Co. TX.
	iv.		JOHNNIE BAGGETT, b. 27 Oct 1901; d. 01 Mar 1902.
	v.		JOE B. BAGGETT, b. 27 Oct 1901; d. 31 Mar 1974; m. RUTH PRITCHETT, Unknown; b. Unknown; d. Unknown.
	vi.		ALLEN THOMAS BAGGETT, JR., b. 08 Dec 1905, a physician; d. 09 Aug 1981; m. MARY E. SHELL, Unknown, no children; b. 27 Aug 1910; d. 24 Dec 1932.

245. MARY JANE⁸ BOYDSTUN (JAMES D.⁷, BENJAMIN G.⁶, JAMES⁵, DAVID⁴ BOYDSTON, WILLIAM³ BOYLSTON, THOMAS², THOMAS¹) was born 05 Jul 1841 in Knox Co, IL, and died 08 Jul 1926 in Knox Co, IL; 85y 3d. She married NATHAN Y. DICKERSON 05 Nov 1862 in Knox Co, IL, son of ARCHIE DICKERSON and SARAH HOWARD. He was born 28 Apr 1840 in Near Bowling Green, KY, and died 21 Feb 1923 in Knox Co, IL; 83y 3m 24d.

Children of MARY BOYDSTUN and NATHAN DICKERSON are:

ARDENA A.⁹ DICKERSON, b. Unknown; d. Unknown; m. ELI SYLVESTER OLDFATHER, 14 Dec 1883; b. 21 Nov 1858, Iowa; d. Unknown, res Abingdon, Knox Co, IL 1914; a farmer.

Notes for ARDENA A. DICKERSON:
The Genealogy of the Oldfather Family gives the wife's name as Ardena A. Dickerson, while "A History of Texas and Texans" gives the name as Dinah Dickerson.

ii.

DULFENA DICKERSON, b. Unknown; d. Unknown; m. A. J. REYNOLDS, Unknown; b. Unknown; d. Unknown.

246. SARAH FRANCES⁸ BOYDSTUN (JAMES D.⁷, BENJAMIN G.⁶, JAMES⁵, DAVID⁴ BOYDSTON, WILLIAM³ BOYLSTON, THOMAS², THOMAS¹) was born 02 Jan 1843 in Knox Co, IL, and died 21 Feb 1920. She married JOHN GUSTINE COURSON, JR. 09 Oct 1866 in Knox Co, IL, son of JOHN COURSON and HANNAH GUSTIN. He was born 12 Oct 1841, and died 26 Dec 1922.

Notes for SARAH FRANCES BOYDSTUN:
(Copied from Gustine Courson Weaver's Book, "The Boydstun Family")

My earliest recollection is visits of the Indians as grandfather's log house was built beside the Iroquois Indian Trail. I learned from father to count in the Indian language as he knew these Indians intimately ... having been reared with them running all over the farm and pastures ... and also their well beaten trail that intersected the Boydstun homestead.

My father and mother were very,strict. We got a good many whippings. Sister Jane and I were the oldest children, she being eighteen months older than I, and mother often told me that what mischief I could not think of Jane thought of. One time we ran away to Uncle James Holland's. They lived about a quarter of a mile south of our place. One of our parents came after us, and whipped us all the was home. I guess that was enough for us, for we never ran away any more.

I started to school when I was four years old. I went with Sister for Company. We had to walk one and three quarters miles to the little log schoolhouse, built in the edge of the timber. It had a large fire place in the west end which took up about half of the end of the house. The teacher and the large boys would carry in
great back-logs, and lay them against the back of the chimney, then make a fire in front of them.

Our seats were rough board benches. Augur holes were sawed through each end, two in each end, then big wooden pegs put into these hole for legs. There we would sit and get up and recite our letters first. After than, when we knew all our letters, the teacher taught us to spell. When we could spell, then we read all that was in the Elementary Speller, as it had some writing in it. Then, next, we
learned the abbreviations. These all had to be memorized. I soon got through the first reader, then the second, then the directors had a new frame school house built within three-quarters of a mile of our house. I was about six years old at this time.

I was born on January 2nd. The following spring in April, when my father and mother went to camp to make sugar from the hard maple trees, they laid me in a sugar trough to sleep, so my first cradle was a sugar trough out in the woods; and my sister, Jane, rocked me while my parents made sugar.

When I was a young girl we had singing classes. Our teacher was "Brother Paine", who lived in Iowa. He belonged to the Christian Church Disciples of Christ. He had several schools in different places. He gave twenty-five lessons or more, according to the number of scholars he had. He got a dollar a scholar. I was one of these scholars. Our first lesson, he put on the blackboard. For about five nights he did this. After that, he gave the lessons from the blackboard until recess, and then after recess, we had singing from the song book. These books cost $1.25 apiece.

He tried our voices, two of us at a time. The first winter, he put me on the alto side. You see, it scared me when he tried my voice, and I did not reach as high as I could. The next winter, he tried my voice, and put me on the soprano side, and that was where I wanted to be.

He also had a school at Indian Point, and asked us to go there and get the benefit of that school free. My cousin, Robert Grounds, we called him "Bob", took his sister Tilda, and me, we went quite often so that we had two lessons a week we got for a dollar. The name of our book was "Sabbath Bell." The last half of the book had church music in it, and we sang that often.

The next singing school we had, Jerome Murphy taught it. He charged one dollar for all the young men,'and that paid for the girls. Brother William paid for me and took me. We always had such fine times at singing school.

As to our day schools, we had so many Spelling Bees. As I was considered a good speller, they meant a great deal to me. We used to have these spelling Schools or Spelling Bees about once a week in the evening. Indian Point School would come to spell our Cross Lane school down. It was hard for the, because we had about six good spellers. In return, part of our school or all of them would go to their place to spell them down. Then in the summer times of evenings, we had singing parties at our place, and the Callisons, and Grounds' and Byrams', quite often. We would sing till a late hour, and have good order and the best of times.

Mother was not very strong physically, so Sister Jane and I had to do the cooking, washing, and ironing. I made me a calico dress at eleven years of age. I sat by the bed where mother was lying, and she showed me how to put it together. Sister Jane and I began to spin with a large wheel before we could reach up the the spindle to run the thread on, so father fixed a board slanting it for us to walk up to fill the brooch. When we got that filled, than we would go get the reel and reel it off. The reel "cracked" when we got 144 threads reeled on to it.

By the time I was about sixteen years old, father gave each of us a new spinning wheel. We use to spin in the same room, side by side. We would stand our singing books against the head of the wheel and I sang soprano, while Sister Jane sang alto. We would spin and sing hours at a time. These were the books we used when we attended singing school, called "Sabbath Bell."

"Lucindy" our best girl friend lived a quarter of a mile south of our home. Her father was a Methodist preacher and a farmer also; she had a splendid voice also. Sister Jane and I always opened our windows. We would sing one verse while we were spinning there, Lucindy would sing the next verse, while she was spinning with her window open. Thus back and forth through the morning, Lucindy and Sister Jane and I sang our songs from our books ... as they were propped open on our three spinning wheels. Lucindy's voice carried across the meadow land to us as clear as a bell. Other settlers too listened to these songs of ours. Our lives were filled with much joy you see.

We would spin from eighteen to twenty-four cents worth, as it was referred to, a day.

We two girls did the milking in the summers in the morning before we commenced to do our day's work or spinning, and also did the milking in the evening, all of us going to bed about eight o'clock, as we got up about five.

Sister and I always got up after father made the kitchen fire, as we got breakfast after I was fifteen years old.

This piece of my spinning that you see, that I have fastened into this book, was woven when I was about fifteen years old. Sister Jane and I spun the rolls from forty-eight head of sheep. Every summer the wool was sheared from the sheep's backs by father and the boys, and then washed in the spring below the house by the women folk. Then we spread it all over the green grass about the yard of the home to dry in the sunshine. I generally dried in one day, then we would gather it all up and tie it into two blankets; then, the wool picking commenced. Mother helped us as we sat and picked all of this wool to pieces, getting out all the trash. Sometimes, we found a few sheep ticks along with the trash. When we got it all picked, we tied it into two blankets. Father would then take it to a carding machine, and have it carded into rolls for us. These rolls were put in bunches, about two hundred rolls in the bunch. When we got ready to spin, we would take one bunch and throw it across the wheel bench under the head of the wheel. It tool us both two weeks to spin all those rolls. Every fall we spun stocking yarn, then doubled and twisted it. That was always the last of the spinning of the year.

You have heard of the Old Kentucky Jean. This is a piece of father's and my two brothers' coat, vest and pantaloons. Mother always hired father's first cousin, who was a crippled daughter of Bartlett Boydstun and a tailoress by trade, to come to our house, and make all the men's suits for them. There are two different kinds that I have put in this book. One was colored with Indigo, and the other was colored with walnut bark peeled from off the walnut trees and put into twenty gallons of water in the outdoor coloring kettle that we had. We would make a fire under this kettle, and boil the skeins of yarn in this liquid, and leave it in there for several days. That made it dark brown. Sometimes we threw in pieces of the hulls of the walnut as well, that father would get for us.

This piece is fifty-two years old. You see that it is faded somewhat, and you can see that the chain is of cotton. Jeans always had cotton chain, which mother bought and colored, just like she did the yarn; but it was much harder to color than wool thread or yarn. We would make up the jeans and bed blankets, if we used the cotton warp for them, one fall; then the next fall we would make up the linsey-woolsey or flannel-linsey. Flannel-linsey is wool, both in the chain and
filling. The chain has to be twisted as hard again as the filling does. We use to make Indigo blue dye and color the white cotton chain blue. That always made the best trousers and coats. These were made when I was about ten years old, or in 1853. I spun some on all of this cloth.

I do not remember when I began to spin. These two pieces of plaid flannels were made the same fall, between the two pieces of jeans. This wool came off from the same sheep's back.

The thread I tacked my comforters with was blue clouded yarn. I ravelled out old socks and stockings to tack them with. When tied, the knots would bunch up and look nicer than new yarn. We usually made petticoat material about one piece forty yards in a piece every two years, when we made our blankets. We had all of the sewing to do with a needle, all of the underclothes of the family being made also of flannel. We would use in our needles some of the chain that came off from the loom. When they took it off, there was about one-half or three-quarters of a yard of the chain that could not be woven. We always used all of that to sew our clothes with. I pieced a comforter with these pieces. Mother colored the blue, "clouding" it. We tied places around the skein with the cotton thread, just as tight as we could, about six or eight inches apart, and threw into the bluing pot. Then, after it was dried, we would cut this cotton thread off, and that would leave the pale blue places while the rest of the skein was dark blue. We would always make some that way and some just plain blue. Our stockings for the women and socks for the men all had white tops and white heels and toes. I well remember helping to gather the peach tree leaves to color the green thread in these pieces. I was about ten years old when we spun this blanket. I am sending them for you to see. You do not need to use them in your book unless you wish to.

Talk about women having to work so hard today. Just think how we had to make every thread in all these flannels, and knitting our stockings and mittens. I tell you we did not have many idle moments.

Lovingly, your Mother
Sarah Frances Boydstun Courson

Children of SARAH BOYDSTUN and JOHN COURSON are:

OLIVE ANNA⁹ COURSON, b. 11 Jan 1870, Burwick Twp, Warren Co, IL; d. 21 Dec 1934, Living in Springfield IL 1934; m. G. DAVID LOCKIE, 29 Jan 1900; b. Bet. 1850 - 1880, an MD; d. Aft. 1927, Living in Springfield IL 1927.

Notes for OLIVE ANNA COURSON:
Mrs. Lockie's DAR national number -- 83104.

Notes for G. DAVID LOCKIE:
Veteran of Spanish American War and World War I, G. David Lockie was a surgeon.

ii.

GUSTINE NANCY COURSON, b. 15 Dec 1873, near Abingdon, Warren Co, IL; d. Unknown; m. CLIFFORD WEAVER, Unknown; b. Unknown; d. Aft. 1927, Res McKinney TX 1927.

Notes for GUSTINE NANCY COURSON:
Gustine Courson Weaver was a prolific writer, having written many children's stories, and several books of poetry. Member of the Poetry Society of Texas, Illinois Woman's Press Association, Society of Mayflower Descendants; Huguenot Society, DAR. President of the Council of Ministers Wives, Disciples of Christ, Editor of a weekly page for same organization. Descended on her father's line from Peter Courson who came to America in 1611 and Augustine Jean and Lt. Lyonel Gardiner. More biographical information can be found in her book, "The Boydstun Family."

Notes for CLIFFORD WEAVER:
Clifford Weaver was a minister of the Disciples of Christ church. He earned his doctorate in divinity.

Dr. Weaver and wife spent many years as missionaries to Japan. He was listed in "Prominent Clergymen of the Disciples of Christ Churches in America." In 1927, he was president of the board of managers of the United Christian Missionary Society and affiliated with the Texas State Board of Education.

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