Newspaper Articles Tell of Hunting Exploits & Political Party

After locating the usual records for an ancestor at Ancestry and FamilySearch, I look for newspaper articles to fill in details about their lives between the tax, deed, vital, and census records found for them.

Case in point. Many of my mother’s ancestors lived in Texas and I searched recently to see if there were newer articles in the newspapers in Erath County. I look for these at the wonderful website, The Portal to Texas History, which has many digitized records. One of the largest collections is the Texas Digital Newspaper Program. As of July 7, 2023, they have ten million pages.[1] This website is hosted by the University of North Texas Libraries.

I learned something new about my 3x-great-grandfather, James M. Coor, by searching in the newspapers of Erath County. There were two articles in the same newspaper about his hunting abilities. On the front page, we learned that he shot a buck that weighed 160 pounds and that he saw three more bucks.[2]

On page 4, he was referred to as Capt. Coor, and was the “best wing shot in the county.” There were 52 partridges killed at his place the previous Saturday. We also learn that he used a red Irish setter to do his retrieving.[3] Of course, we’re not sure that he shot them all. Perhaps he had a hunting party. In 1884, James Coor would have been about fifty years old.

Another interesting item mentioned in the first article was about Grover Cleveland. James would help celebrate if Cleveland won the election. Cleveland was running for his first stint as President, running as a Democrat.[4] This gives some insight into James’ politics. Most of the south voted for Cleveland over James G. Blaine.[5]

#52 Ancestors: Week 30: In the News

This is my sixth year working on this year-long prompt, hosted by Amy Johnson Crow (https://www.amyjohnsoncrow.com/) at Generations Cafe. I write each week in one of my two blogs, either Mam-ma’s Southern Family or My Trails into the Past. I have enjoyed writing about my children’s ancestors in new and exciting ways.

[2] “Big Buck Killed—Wants to Join in the Jubilation,” The Stephenville Empire, 22 Nov 1884, p. 1.

[3] No title, The Stephenville Empire, 22, Nov 1884, p. 4.

[4] “Grover Cleveland,” Wikipedia (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/Grover_Cleveland).

[5] “1884 United States presidential election,” Wikipedia (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1884_United_States_presidential_election). 

Copyright © 2023 by Lisa S. Gorrell, Mam-ma's Southern Family, All rights reserved.

Comments

  1. Marian B. WoodJuly 26, 2023 at 10:36 AM

    Wonder why he was called "Captain Coor" but love the turn of phrase about a jubilation!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Coloring Outside the LinesAugust 6, 2023 at 12:33 PM

    I LOVE finding articles in old newspapers about my ancestors. I'm going to check out this new to me newspaper link- thanks for sharing that!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

All comments on this blog will be previewed by the author to prevent spammers and unkind visitors to the site. The blog is open to other-than-just family members particularly those interested in family history and genealogy.

Popular posts from this blog

Happy Blogiversary & Happy 100th Blog Post!

Image
Today is a big milestone. This is the 100th blog post I have written and the 6th anniversary of the beginning of this blog. I began the blog on January 15, 2011, through a blog writing class I took at California Genealogical Society, taught by Craig Siulinski. It was something I wanted to do but wasn’t really sure what I would focus on. I finally settled on writing about my grandmother, Pansy Louise Lancaster’s family and this was my first post . In the beginning it was hard to get started. I learned from the Geneabloggers website, that there were blogging memes I could use and I have done that off and on, especially at the beginning. But I finally learned that what worked best was to write about my discoveries as I researched my grandmother’s family. So what have I written in six years? I discovered I have only written four posts specifically about my grandmother: “Mam-ma was a Tomboy” “Fearless Females – Day 12” “Mam-ma 1913-2013” “My Grandpar
Read more

John Coor of Copiah County Made an Agreement with Joel Hoggatt

Image
This week at RootsTech 2024, FamilySearch announced a new feature that an every-word search was available for U.S. deeds and probates. It is still in the trial mode and can be found at https://www.familysearch.org/en/labs/ . This is the search screen. It clearly states it is for US land and probate records and Mexico notary records. You can do a keyword search or if you click on the “more options” you can add a name. My Find I immediately gave it a try and searched first for records of the COOR family using the keyword search. Up first came deeds from Wayne County, North Carolina.  At the top, you can filter using record year, record type, record place, and collection. For the past few days, I have mainly filtered by record place. I filtered down to Mississippi. You can even filter to the county. The first entry was a document I had not seen before. It was an 1826 agreement between John Coor and Joel Hoggatt to build a set of grist and sawmills. John Coor is my 4x-great-grandfath
Read more

Using the Attendees at Lela Ann (Loveless) Lancaster’s Funeral to Discover Residences

Image
Lela Ann Lancaster, my maternal great-grandmother, died on 17 May 1951. [1] She had died in Wichita Falls, Texas, at the state hospital. The doctor’s handwriting is nearly illegible so the cause of death is difficult to determine. She was conflicted with Parkinson’s Disease which probably contributed to her death. Her funeral was three days later. [2] Lela Ann (left) with Warren, daughter Pansy, granddaughter Lela Nell, and son Wayne, c. 1935 Obituary Tells Story of Life Two obituaries were published on the same day in the Stephenville Empire-Tribune on two different pages. One gave information about her life and the funeral, and the other was about who attended her funeral. The transcription of the first is here: "Mrs. Warren G. Lancaster"    Funeral services for Mrs. Warren G. Lancaster, 55, who died at 4:30 a.m. Thursday at a Wichita Falls Hospital, were at 3 p.m. Sunday at the First Baptist Church with the Rev. Felix Gresham and the Rev. Ernest Rippetoe officiating
Read more