Emma King

Notes:

Virgie Speights
Old Timers of Sabine County, Texas
June 4, 1964
Emma King (Negro)

Emma King returned (sic) on her Sixty-second birthday May 2, 1964 from her job at the Wolfe Hotel in Bronson.

It was a day of quiet sadness for you see, Emma was no ordinary employee at an ordinary hotel. Emma is the only Negro in Bronson, a town that has a reputatin for not allowing one in the city limits.

"I don't see how we can stay here without Emma," mourned Mrs. Dolly Winkle, with Mrs. A. O. Wolfe echoing her sentiments. "She is so wonderful---so always ready to do anything for anybody."

Somehow, despite the sadness, there was an air of suppressed gaity, whispered secrets and a quietness when Emma came by. Then suddenly a cake with 62 candles appeared; someone handed Emma a gaily be-ribboned package, from which an electric mixer emerged, and a full-fledged birthday party was underway.

Mr. and Mrs. A. O. Wolfe, owners of the hotel, and all employees had banded together to buy Emma a small inadequate token of their love and esteem. With overflowing hearts and misty eyes, they wanted to show Emma a bit of what she had meant to them and to the town for the past 57 years.

Born in Many, Louisiana, the youngest of a large family, Emma lost her mother when she was three years old. Her father, grief-stricken and in a quandry as to how to manage to raise his motherless brood, he gave Emma to Mr. and Mrs. Charles Eddings, childless residents of Many at that time, who had fallen in love with the fascinating tyke.

She same with the Eddings family to Bronson in 1906 where Mr. Eddings worked for Kirby Lumber Company and Mrs. Eddings, the former Miss Hattie Bickley, started a kindergarten.

Mrs. Eddings, a woman of great character and infinite patience, lovingly trained Emma in the way that she should go.

She taught her to read and write, and to love good books; she guided her in learning how to sew beautifully and to cook skillfully. She learned to keep an immaculate house and to keep herself clean and neat.

Emma went to church regularly at the First Baptist Church with Mr. and Mrs. Eddings. Early, she took over the care of the church and kept it clean and fresh. At each service, she had her own special corner, where she always sat.

Emma has always been humble and loving everyone with a love that forgets self. She seems not to think of her color. "It's just the way God made me," she casually answers to the children's unthinking asking of why she was diffenent.

As Emma grew up, she developed such a sense of maturity, with such apparent honesty and integrity that she became a leader among the young people. Parents soon began asking "Is Emma going?" when picnics and parties were planned.

If Emma was going, then Susie or Jim could go, too. She was so brimming full of love and goodness, combined with such a sense of fun and laughter that she attracted the children like a magnet.

As a teenager, she learned to drive the family Ford and once, when Hugh N. Wood and Gay Low sponsored a contest to see who could go the furthest on a gallon of gas, she won second place, when she went 41. 1 miles on the gallon.

The cars were lined up at Bronson with one gallon of gas in each and headed towards Beaumont, witht he judges and most of the county tailing behind. When Emma reached Jasper, she yelled "Which way is Beamont?" "It was really fun," she says, "I don't remember who won first place.:

Emma has spent her life doing for others. The Eddingses kept boarders and she was always helpful. If there was a school play, she helped to make the costumes. She seemed to glory in being useful. She chaperoned young people to Beaumont when the trains came to Bronson and ran excursions to the fairs and other festivities.

Emma grew up loved and trusted, down to the present generation of Bronson folks. Beth Walker says that the children always flocked to her house, and she always gave them delicious jelly. She says James Daily, her son, thought that was the only place to get Jelly.

The Eddingses died and left Emma all they owned. She lived on in their comfortable house until her good friend and neighbor, R. W. Ellis, became unable to take care of himself. So what did Emma do? Just as you might expect, she promptly shut her own home up and moved over to take care of Mr. Ellis.

Everyone sings her praises. College students visit her when home; Mrs. E. E. Marshburn says, "She's marvelous and she can really cook!" The Bickleys seem to think she is somethin special. They gave her the car she drives.

"And her price shall be above rubies."

(Transcribed by Melinda McLemore Strong, November 2012)

https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/K381-SZ9
name: Emma King
event: Death
event date: 12 May 1976
event place: San Augustine, San Augustine, Texas, United States
usual residence Off Hwy 96, Bronson TX
gender: Female
color or race black
marital status: Single
birth date: 02 May 1900
birthplace: , Louisiana
father's name: Mose King
mother's name: Unknown
informant Joe Bickley (Friend)
Cemetery Bronson
Funeral Director Wyman Roberts
certificate number: 39791
film number: 2243935
digital folder number: 005145762
image number: 01023
Collection: "Texas, Deaths (New Index, New Images), 1890-1976," Emma King, 1976



(Research):
Census Listings

For the family of Mose King of Sabine Parish, Emma King's father

1900 Census
not located

1910 Census
Lousiana, Sabine Parish, Ward 5
Enumerated 23 April 1910
Sheet 1013
Zwolle and San Augustine Road
148-152
King, Moses Head M B 45 M2 7 Tx Tx Tx Laborer Lumber Yard
King, Hettie Wf F B 32 M2 7 7/5 Tx La Tx
King, Oronzo M B 6 S Tx Tx Tx
King, Bertha S F B 5 S Tx Tx Tx
King, Judge M B 3 S Tx Tx Tx
King, Ataway F B 6/12 S Tx Tx Tx
King, Cary* M B 18 S Tx Tx Tx Farm Laborer
King, Ellen F B 17 S Tx Tx Tx Farm Laborer
King, Albert M B 16 S Tx Tx Tx Farm Laborer
Jerzie, Howard 16 Stepson M B 16 S Tx Tx Tx Farm Laborer
King, Lizzie 4 Stepgdtr F B 4 S Tx Tx Tx

*Cary King, born 9 Apr 1893, Negro, registered for the First World War Draft in June 1917 in Sabine County, Texas, where he was a resident and farmer. He indicated he was born in Gurum, Texas.

1920 Census
Louisiana, Sabine Parish, Ward 8, Zwolle Twp
Enumerated 27 Jan 1920
SD 8 ED 89 Sheet 13A
45-45
King, Mose Head M B 52 m Tx Ala Ala Farmer
King, Hettie Wf F B 45 M Tx Tx Tx
King, Ira Son M B 15 S Tx Tx Tx
King, Bertha Dtr F B 13 S Tx Tx Tx
King, Judge Son M B 12 S Tx Tx Tx
King, Attaway Dtr F B 10 S Tx Tx Tx

1930 Census
Louisiana, Sabine Parish, Ward 5, Little Bayou Scie, Zwolle Town
ED 4317 SD 4 Sheet 4B
59-67
King, Mose Head M Neg 65 M 20 Tx Tx Tx Minister Baptist Religion
King, Hettie Wf F Neg 58 M 30 Tx Tx Tx
King, Judge Son M Neg 23 S Tx Tx Tx
Smith, Alene F Neg 69 S Ark Ark Ark
Smith, Lula F F Neb 41 M/15 Ark Ark Ark