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Sophronia Pauline White

Female 1833 - 1915  (~ 81 years)


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  • Name Sophronia Pauline White  [1, 2, 3, 4
    Birth Nov 1833  Amite County, Mississippi Find all individuals with events at this location  [2, 4, 5
    Gender Female 
    Death 15 Jun 1915  Hemphill, Sabine County, Texas Find all individuals with events at this location  [4, 6, 7
    Burial Hemphill City Cemetery, Hemphill, Sabine County, Texas Find all individuals with events at this location  [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 Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 13 Jan 1871, Hemphill, Sabine County, Texas Find all individuals with events at this location (Age ~ 90 years) 
    Mother Elizabeth Strickland,   b. Abt 1795, Elbert County, Georgia Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 25 Dec 1864, Hemphill, Sabine County, Texas Find all individuals with events at this location (Age ~ 69 years) 
    Marriage Aft 1809  Elbert County, Georgia Find all individuals with events at this location  [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 Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 20 Apr 1897, Hemphill, Sabine County, Texas Find all individuals with events at this location (Age ~ 71 years) 
    Marriage 5 Dec 1850  St. Helena Parish, Louisiana Find all individuals with events at this location  [6, 9
    Children 
     1. Mary Elizabeth Travis,   b. 25 Mar 1851, Texas Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 17 Dec 1924 (Age 73 years)
     2. Nancy Pauline Travis,   b. 2 Sep 1852, Texas Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 26 Sep 1927 (Age 75 years)
     3. William Hardy Travis,   b. 30 May 1855, Texas Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 8 Oct 1931, Texas Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 76 years)
     4. James Cannon Travis, Sr.,   b. 9 Feb 1858, Sabine County, Texas Find all individuals with events at this locationd. Bef 1900, Sabine County, Texas Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 41 years)
     5. Julia Ann Edward Travis,   b. 2 Feb 1860, Texas Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 21 Jan 1949, Sabine County, Texas Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 88 years)
     6. Sophronia Lee Travis,   b. 25 Feb 1866, Texas Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 3 Feb 1932 (Age 65 years)
     7. Theodosia Travis,   b. 25 Feb 1866, Texas Find all individuals with events at this locationd. Yes, date unknown
     8. Melissa Cordelia Travis,   b. 25 Feb 1867, Sabine County, Texas Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 1 Aug 1908, Hemphill, Sabine County, Texas Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 41 years)
     9. Henry W. Travis,   b. 22 Feb 1868, Texas Find all individuals with events at this locationd. Yes, date unknown
     10. Martha Jane Travis,   b. 22 Feb 1868, Hemphill, Sabine County, Texas Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 28 Dec 1958, Oakdale, Allen Parish, Louisiana Find all individuals with events at this location (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 

  • Event Map
    Link to Google MapsBirth - Nov 1833 - Amite County, Mississippi Link to Google Earth
    Link to Google MapsMarriage - 5 Dec 1850 - St. Helena Parish, Louisiana Link to Google Earth
    Link to Google MapsDeath - 15 Jun 1915 - Hemphill, Sabine County, Texas Link to Google Earth
    Link to Google MapsBurial - - Hemphill City Cemetery, Hemphill, Sabine County, Texas Link to Google Earth
     = Link to Google Earth 

  • Photos
    Travis, William Hardy and Grace (Ener) Family, Sabine County, Texas
    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.

  • Sources 
    1. [S461] White & Toole, "Sabine County Historical Sketches and Genealogical Records" c. 1972, p 58, 82 (Reliability: 3).

    2. [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.).

    3. [S322] Pressley-Holley, Nanci "Pressley-Price Family Tree" (formerly posted at RootsWeb's WorldConnect Project, no longer available).

    4. [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).

    5. [S322] Pressley-Holley, Nanci "Pressley-Price Family Tree" (formerly posted at RootsWeb's WorldConnect Project, no longer available), November 1833 (Reliability: 3).

    6. [S282] Pickett, Tony--Family Researcher (abpickett@aol.com).

    7. [S463] White, Charlie-Family Researcher DESCENDANTS OF EDWARD WHITE.

    8. [S461] White & Toole, "Sabine County Historical Sketches and Genealogical Records" c. 1972, p 58 (Reliability: 3).

    9. [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).