Rufus L. Traywick

Notes:

Rufus was born during an auspicious month. On November 13, 1833, between midnight and dawn, thousands of meteors showered the sky over North America. To the native peoples of the land, it appeared that the stars were falling out of the heavens. Some thought it was the judgment day. Others called it "The Night the Stars Fell".

A young girl who was a slave at the time of the event said "Somebody in the quarters started yellin' in the middle of the night to come out and to look up at the sky. We went outside and there they was a fallin' everywhere! Big stars coming down real close to the groun' and just before they hit the ground they would burn up! We was all scared. Some O'the folks was screamin' and some was prayin' we all made so much noise, the white folk came out to see what was happenin'. They looked up and then they got scared too."

The celestial phenomenon called "the most impressive and awesome display ever recorded" was, in fact, the Leonids meteor shower seen in one of its most impressive years. Viewers witnessed 50,000 to 150,000 meteors per hour, only equaled by the November 17, 1966 display, when the Leonid shower brought 150,000 meteors per hour. Debris from the comet Temple-Tuttle that orbits the sun every 33 years causes the shower.

He spent his childhood in Tennessee, and didn't go to Arkansas in 1860 with his brothers and sisters. He moved there after his second marriage, to a Nancy, sometime after 1880. Family stories say that he served in the CSA, but the records have not been found to substantiate this. He supposedly lost a finger during the war. Rufus must have been either a minister or a Justice of the Peace, as he was able to perform marriage ceremonies. (Source: Betty Curry of Muskogee, OK; Courtesy of Lynell Cordell)

About 1904, Rufus's wife Nancy was in the kitchen of their home near Gravesville, Arkansas. Having just churned, she ladled the butter onto a dish and was working the remaining milk out of the butter with a large spoon. At that moment, a tornado ripped off the roof of the house, leaving only the walls standing. The entire interior of the ruined, roofless home was littered with debris from the storm, then drenched with rain. Nancy surveyed the damage and commented "I'll swan. My butter's ruined!" (Source: K.L. Trawick)

Rufus married Sarah J. "Sallie" Huey on 2 Jun 1858 in Carroll County, Tennessee. Sarah was born before 1840; died before 1872. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]