Person Page 3,214

OBITUARY - Newspaper, March,1988

Mrs. Margaret Lee Williams, 92, of Norman,Ark., died Sunday in a Hot Springs Hospital. She was born on September 19,1895 in Baylor County,Texas.

Graveside funeral service was held at 2 p.m. Wednesday afternoon in the White Oak Cemetery with Bro. Walter Varner officiating. Interment was in the White Oak Cemetery under the direction Beasley-Wood Funeral Home.

She was the daughter of the late George Daniel Peak and the late Mrs. Margaret Payne Peak. She was united in marriage to Willis Homer Williams on January 18,1925. He preceded her in death on June 17,1983. She lived in Mena until 1960 when she moved to Nornam in 1980. She was a housewife and a member of the Church of Christ.

Survivors are three sons, Cline Yarbro, Silsbee, Tex., Paul Williams Orange County,Calif., Carl Williams, Fort Smith,Ark., one daughter, Mrs. Louise Roberts, Norman, Ark.,one sister and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Note: For some reason the Social Security Death Index shows Margaret's death date as 5 Dec 1986.

MEMOIR - Margaret Lee “Maggie (Peak) Yarbro-Williams, transcribed by Tracy Devault.

Note: Normally I transcribe old documents word-for-word. In this case I made a number of spelling and punctuation corrections to improve readability.

Grandmother lived to have her second set of permanent teeth, and eye sight she lost both. She had one tooth left. She would take it out and show it to me. They wanted a picture of her, but she wouldn’t let them take one, so after she went blind they moved her chair to the window and took it from outside. She heard the camera click and it made her mad. They wanted a picture to put in the library and so they got it. She was the oldest settler in the town. I guess it is still there.

Aunt Lizzie and Uncle Shack and their two little girls lived with her for a while. She had a milk cow named Jack and she would hook. Uncle Shack would have to milk her and so got tired of being hooked and had her dehorned.

Aunt Sarah stayed with her, took care of the house, made no difference who stayed with her. Uncle Henry (1) was the oldest of her children. Some of the girls painted on glass pictures of other girls. I think my grandmother was the only one with blue eyes and light brown hair. The others were dark brown or black, brown eyes or black. None of grandma’s children had black or brown eyes or black hair. My mother was the only one with black hair, but she had grey eyes. Daddy had black hair and hazel eyes. My first husband had such dark brown hair it looked black.

Aunt Sarah was a Negro woman. They paid her for her work. She went home at night.

Before I started to school at seven, my dad bought a place and built us a nice new house on Ennis Street. He made our living painting houses and interior of buildings. He made good money at it. He belonged to the A F L and he had to go away from [home] to make enough money for us to live on. He did some work for the government. He was the foreman on the painting of the air force base in Wichita Falls, Texas. He was over a hundred men on that job. When it was over the men gave him a nice gold watch.

We lived in Victoria, Texas when I was a baby. George Earl, my little brother was born there. He also died there before he was two years old. I can remember his little white casket. I do not remember the baby at all.

After Martha was two or more another baby brother was born, Oce Daniel. He lived to be over two, when he passed away. He had bowel trouble and the Dr told them to not let him have strawberries. They brought him to the table and when he saw the berries he cried for some of them, and daddy gave him some. They killed him. Mama didn’t even seem to care, she didn’t even cry.

Then she was pregnant, and just before time for the baby to be born fell and killed the baby. He was a pretty baby, they named him Walter. Then Martha had typhoid fever. When she got over that, I had diphtheria. So we had a rough time of it. Cousin Dick Charles (2) was living with us and he and dad nursed me through that. There were very few families that didn’t loose a child with it. Chautauqua every year and Mama and Martha would go and camp, take Bell, a Negro girl, to take care of Martha. That meant Bell would get to see the programs and shows. For as Martha’s nurse, she would be let in. And we saw all kind and nationalities in their native costumes and dances and songs.

I remember grandmother telling me about when the stars fell in Nov., 1833 (3). She said it looked like every star fell toward the earth and it scared the darkies. They thought the world was coming to an end and they all shouted and sang.

Elizabeth (Dawalt) Payne (4)

She married William Payne when she was sixteen years old. They lived in Indiana. Aunt Annie (5) and my mother were born in Salem, Indiana. When my mother was two they moved to Texas. They also live at Terre Haut, Indiana, out from the fort, before they came to Texas when she was three years old. She and her mother were alone at home, she being the youngest child. Her father and brother had gone to town. (6) There were Indians all over. Tecumseh (7) came by the house and as grandmother had black eyes and black hair, he decided she was a little Indian child so he tried to get her. He would say, “Pretty papoose, me take um.” My grandmother was having a time to keep him from getting a hold of her. They heard horses running and it was her father and the boys coming home from town. So Tecumseh got on his horse and left.

They (8) moved to Texas in 1873 and her husband died in 1874. So she was left alone with the children, all of the children except Uncle Henry and my grandmother. There were lots of cattle all over but they were all wild. Nobody had any milk so grandmother and Uncle Henry and my granddad rounded up a lot of these cows and staffed a diary. Grandmother owned this farm and a place in town. When Uncle Henry got too old to take care of things, they sold the cows [and] moved her nephew and family on the farm. She and Uncle Henry moved to town.

Uncle Henry buried the money they got for the cattle. When he went to get it, it was gone. They never knew if he forgot where he buried it or if somebody saw him and stole it.

Uncle Henry died when I was about five. …[Some text missing here] .. cook and housekeeper alone.

The first frame house ever built in Waxahachie was built by my grandmother. The lumber was hauled from Dallas when it was a saw mill, had four rooms downstairs and two above. It is still being lived in although it was sold some time ago. The Indians would come and rub their hands over the boards. They couldn’t understand why the boards could be so smooth. Remember this house was built in the 18 hundreds.

After we moved from Victoria, Texas, we lived on Williams street, just a few houses from grandma. Martha was born Jan 31, 1900. Old Grandma came to see her. I saw her coming up the side walk and ran to meet her. I was so proud of her. That is the last time I remember her being outside.

They shut her up in her room. I would visit her and when I was twelve, they wouldn’t let me see her any more. She was shut up in her room and not allowed in the rest of the house, and it was her house, and she kept them up. Grandpa was raised to do nothing. He had no trade or anything. He made charcoal, hunted and traded to bring some money.

Old Grandmother hated the violin, said it was the instrument of the devil. She must have belonged to the Puritan religion. She was very strict about a lot of things. Uncle John (9) played the violin. He would go upstairs and, of course, she could hear him. They would tell her it was next door, as a house had been built close to them.

He and Uncle Edd (10) bought a phonograph and they had to bring it to our house to keep it. She kept a big hickory stick for a walking stick, and she would hit with it, after they shut her up in her room. One day she was standing in the door. A young man was passing by. She hollered and told him they were going to kill her. He, not knowing how old she was, was terribly upset. And we [Something missing here.]

Notes:

1. This is Henry B. Payne (b. 1840, d. 1899). He was Margaret’s granduncle.

2. This was Richard Emerson Charles (b. 1885, d. 1962). He was Margaret’s second cousin.

3. This was the Great Leonid Meteor Storm of November 13, 1833.

4. Elizabeth (Dawalt) Payne (b. 1809, d. 1909). She was Margaret’s great-grandmother.

5. Annetta Mae "Annie" (Payne) Anderson (b. May, 1869). She was Margaret’s aunt.

6. This may explain a curiosity in the 1870 Census. Martha Jane Payne was shown living with her parents’ family. Her husband, Manuel/Manen Payne, was no where about. Also, there was a heretofore unidentified child, one year old girl, living with the family. The child was named Mary Payne. I’m guessing this was really Martha’s daughter, Annie Payne, born about thirteen months earlier.

7. Obviously not the famous Chief Tecumseh of the Shawnees who died in 1813.

8. William and Elizabeth (Dawalt) Payne and family.

9. John Bruce Payne (b. June, 1886).

10. Edward James Anderson (b. 1859, d. 1923). He was Margaret’s Uncle.

MEMOIR - Margaret Lee "Maggie Lee" (Peak) Yarbro-Williams

Mama had another baby, a boy, Oce Daniel, for daddy and our doctor. I loved him and took care of him. He got sick and the doctor told them to not let him have any strawberries. I don’t know why daddy brought him to the dining room. We had strawberries. When the baby saw them, he cried for them. Daddy gave him one. They woke me up at daylight the next morning to call the doctor. The seeds in the berries had perforated his bowels. All he could do was give him Laudanum to dull the pain. He died later that day. I stayed with him until he died. Mama didn’t even shed a tear. I never got over it. They were educated people, university people, and I will never understand why my dad would do such a dumb thing. I saw a greatly loved child, killed by love.

OBITUARY - Find-A-Grave

Annie Peak Weaver, 103, a native of Seymore, Texas and resident of Houma for 73 years passed away Sunday, Nov. 4, 2012.

Visitation will be from 9 a.m. until 11 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 2012 at Falgout Funeral Home in Houma. A memorial service will be held at the funeral home chapel at 11 a.m. with burial at the Garden of Memories Cemetery.

She is survived by her children, daughter Barbara Weaver Schober of Houma and her son, George Edward Weaver and wife Ada Mae of Carencro,La.

She is also survived by her beloved grandchildren, Jesse Weaver and wife Michelle of Carencro, Maj. Ellen Weaver USAF and son Beau of Bonaire, Ga. Susan Weaver Zeringue and husband Shawn of Southern, Miss. Robert W. Kimball and wife Caroline of Huntley, Mo., Thomas E. Kimball and wife Sheryl of Houma, Douglas J. Kimball and wife Shiela of Carencro and Saudi Arabia, and Lee Ann Gay and husband Donald of Houma.

"Miss Annie" as she was known, had 15 great-grandchildren and eight great-great-grandchildren.

She was proceeded in death by her beloved husband Harry J. Weaver of Saratoga, Texas.; her daughter, Dr. Harryet (Sandy) Weaver Smith of Houma; and her parents, George David Peak and Margaret Melinda Payne Peak of the Indiana Territory.

Miss Annie traced her ancestry to the McCoys of Northyern Ireland in the late 1600's. Her great-grandfather, James McCoy emigrated to America and married Miss Ann Bruce of the northern Irish Bruce family in 1748. Their sons fought in the American Revolution. After the war, their son Isaac married Christine Polk, cousin of James Knox Polk, America's eleventh president.

During World War II, Miss Annie worked with the parish sugar rationing program and helped collect woolen blankets that were shipped to our troops in England and Europe.

She was a charter member of the Terrebonne Parish Parents-Teachers' Association, a member of the first United Methodist Church where she taught the Ladies Bible class and sang in the church choir for many years.

She was a member of the YMCA participating in the water aerobics program until she retired in 2008 the same year she stopped driving at the age of 99.

The family would like to extend a special thanks to Dr. Russell Henry and his staff members and the staff of the Oaks of Houma and to Miss Annie's devoted caregivers, Virginia Achee, Yvonne LeBoeuf and Candice Menou.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in Miss Annie's memory to McDonell United Methodist childrens Services, 8326 Main Street, Houma. This home always held a special place in her heart for over 70 years.

Falgout Funeral Home.