1833 - 1915 (81 years)
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Name |
Sophronia Pauline White [1, 2, 3, 4] |
Birth |
Nov 1833 |
Amite County, Mississippi [2, 4, 5] |
Gender |
Female |
Death |
15 Jun 1915 |
Hemphill, Sabine County, Texas [4, 6, 7] |
Burial |
Hemphill City Cemetery, Hemphill, Sabine County, Texas [4] |
Notes |
- Sophronia 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.
She was born and raised in Amite County, Mississippi, and can be found on the 1850 census with her parents. Sometime after that, the family moved to Sabine County, Texas.
After her husband's death, she lived with her oldest son, William Hardy Travis. She can be found living with he and his wife, Grace Ener, at the time of the 1900 and 1910 Sabine County census.
|
Person ID |
I455 |
Strong Family Tree |
Last Modified |
17 Aug 2014 |
Father |
Edward White, b. Abt 1781, Virginia d. 13 Jan 1871, Hemphill, Sabine County, Texas (Age 90 years) |
Mother |
Elizabeth Strickland, b. Abt 1795, Elbert County, Georgia d. 25 Dec 1864, Hemphill, Sabine County, Texas (Age 69 years) |
Marriage |
Aft 1809 |
Elbert County, Georgia [8] |
- Bears and Panthers and Sabine County Women
This story from the 1800s, as told by the master storyteller, J.Frank Dobie, gives another reason not to mess with Sabine County women:
"One winter day the White family on Bear Creek in Sabine County killed a hog, cut it up, put the meat in a wooden tub, and set it in a corner of the cabin, to be salted down and smoked on the morrow.
Then the man went off with his dogs to join the neighbor on a hunt.
That night while Mrs. White was chunking up the fire in the fireplace, the children covered up in bed and a quilt wrapped around herself to shut out the cold norther blowing through the chinks in the log walls, she heard a panther scream.
She knew it had smelled the fresh meat. It prowled under the puncheon floor and then leaped up on the roof, every once in a while letting out a scream. Then it went to clawing on the logs and finally got a paw through a crack near the tub of meat and took out a piece.
At this, Mrs. White threw her quilt over the tub, seized an axe standing just inside the door, and waited.
In a little while the panther put its paw back through the crack for another piece of meat. She had the axe raised and now she came down with it, cutting the paw clean off.
That panther did not bother around the cabin any more that night."
----- J. Frank Dobie, "Tales of Old-Time Texas"
Posted by Ronad Barlow on his Facebook group, Farm Road 1 - From one end to the other. It is not known which Mrs. White this story relates to.
|
Family ID |
F68 |
Group Sheet | Family Chart |
Family |
James Cannon Travis, b. Abt 1826, Amite County, Mississippi d. 20 Apr 1897, Hemphill, Sabine County, Texas (Age 71 years) |
Marriage |
5 Dec 1850 |
St. Helena Parish, Louisiana [6, 9] |
Children |
| 1. Mary Elizabeth Travis, b. 25 Mar 1851, Texas d. 17 Dec 1924 (Age 73 years) |
| 2. Nancy Pauline Travis, b. 2 Sep 1852, Texas d. 26 Sep 1927 (Age 75 years) |
| 3. William Hardy Travis, b. 30 May 1855, Texas d. 8 Oct 1931, Texas (Age 76 years) |
| 4. James Cannon Travis, Sr., b. 9 Feb 1858, Sabine County, Texas d. Bef 1900, Sabine County, Texas (Age 41 years) |
| 5. Julia Ann Edward Travis, b. 2 Feb 1860, Texas d. 21 Jan 1949, Sabine County, Texas (Age 88 years) |
| 6. Sophronia Lee Travis, b. 25 Feb 1866, Texas d. 3 Feb 1932 (Age 65 years) |
| 7. Theodosia Travis, b. 25 Feb 1866, Texas d. Yes, date unknown |
| 8. Melissa Cordelia Travis, b. 25 Feb 1867, Sabine County, Texas d. 1 Aug 1908, Hemphill, Sabine County, Texas (Age 41 years) |
| 9. Henry W. Travis, b. 22 Feb 1868, Texas d. Yes, date unknown |
| 10. Martha Jane Travis, b. 22 Feb 1868, Hemphill, Sabine County, Texas d. 28 Dec 1958, Oakdale, Allen Parish, Louisiana (Age 90 years) |
| 11. Frances Levina Travis, b. 29 Mar 1871 d. 14 Mar 1956 (Age 84 years) |
|
Family ID |
F370 |
Group Sheet | Family Chart |
Last Modified |
9 Dec 2006 |
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Photos |
| Travis, William Hardy and Grace (Ener) Family, Sabine County, Texas A photo of the William Hardy and Grace (Ener) Travis family, taken sometime prior to the 1915 death of Hardy's mother, Sophronia White Travis. Sophronia is the elderly lady, seated on the left of the photo. Hardy and Grace are also seated, surrounded by their 10 daughters and two sons. The legend to the photo is courtesy of Robert Cecil McDaniel. When listing the daughters, he used the last names of their husbands and husbands-to-be, even though several of the daughters had not yet married at the time this photo was taken. The family lived in near Housin Bayou in Sabine County, Texas. |
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Sources |
- [S461] White & Toole, "Sabine County Historical Sketches and Genealogical Records" c. 1972, p 58, 82 (Reliability: 3).
- [S144] 1850 United States Federal Census [Ancestry.com database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2005, (Original data: United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Seventh Census of the United States, 1850. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1850. M432, 1,009 rolls. This database is an index to individuals enumerated in the 1850 United States Federal Census, the Seventh Census of the United States. Census takers recorded many details including each person's name, age as of the census day, sex, color; birthplace, occupation of males over age fifteen, and more. No relationships were shown between members of a household. Additionally, the names of those listed on the population schedule are linked to actual images of the 1850 Federal Census.).
- [S322] Pressley-Holley, Nanci "Pressley-Price Family Tree" (formerly posted at RootsWeb's WorldConnect Project, no longer available).
- [S873] Find A Grave [database online]; http://www.findagrave.com/, (Thousands of contributors submit new listings, updates, corrections, photographs and virtual flowers every hour to the FIND A GRAVE website. When it comes to administrating, building and maintaining the site, Find A Grave is largely operated by its founder, Jim Tipton.), # 69166911 (Reliability: 3).
- [S322] Pressley-Holley, Nanci "Pressley-Price Family Tree" (formerly posted at RootsWeb's WorldConnect Project, no longer available), November 1833 (Reliability: 3).
- [S282] Pickett, Tony--Family Researcher (abpickett@aol.com).
- [S463] White, Charlie-Family Researcher DESCENDANTS OF EDWARD WHITE.
- [S461] White & Toole, "Sabine County Historical Sketches and Genealogical Records" c. 1972, p 58 (Reliability: 3).
- [S322] Pressley-Holley, Nanci "Pressley-Price Family Tree" (formerly posted at RootsWeb's WorldConnect Project, no longer available), Instead shows marriage date as 5 Dec 1851 (Reliability: 3).
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