Preserve: A Hint that James Madison Coor was an Ancient Free and Accepted Mason

This past week, I have been on a research trip in north Texas researching my Coor, Lancaster, Loveless, Johnston, and Polly families in Comanche, Dallas, Erath, Montague, and Rockwall Counties. I have been successful in locating hints, background information on the periods in which they lived, and actual records of deeds and tax lists. I have also visited cemeteries and photographed my family’s tombstones.

For the theme this week, I did an every-word search in my genealogy program and came up with a hint that I had forgotten about. In the Dublin Progress on 20 April 1889 was a “Resolution of Respect” printed about the passing of James Madison Coor. This resolution was given by the Dublin Lodge 504 of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons (A.F. & A.M.).[1]

James Madison “Matt” Coor is my maternal 3x-great-grandfather. He was born on 13 October 1833 in Copiah County, Mississippi.[2] He married Melissa Ann Welch on 9 October 1856 and they had ten children.[3] Ann died in 1876[4] and in 1881, he moved his family to Texas and settled in Erath County.[5]

He died on 20 March 1889. His tombstone has the date of 26 March 1890[6] but a proclamation was printed in the newspaper about his death on 20 April 1889.[7] This proclamation pointed to a hint that Matt was a Mason and a member of the Dublin Lodge 504. I wish I had remembered this when I was at the Dublin Library. Perhaps there were some items about the lodge there. I will contact the genealogy society again about it.

Below is the text of the proclamation. It is copied exactly, along with any misspellings. I have highlighted the word “preserve” which brought me to this item.

Resolutions of Respect
  To the Worshipped Master, Wardens and Bretheren of Dublin Lodge No. 504 A.F. and A.M.
  In compliance with instruction given us at a called meeting of this lodge held March 27, 1889, your committee begs leave submit the following report:
  In the providence of God we are again called upon to members (to wit) brother J.M. Coor, who was called home by the angel of death on the 20th of March A.D. 1889.
  While we bow with humble submission to the dispensation of an Alllwise Providence we can but give expression to our grief for loss of our departed brother who was beloved by all who knew him, which is natural and proper, and is alike honorable, that we may preserve a greatful remembrance of his virtues to prompt us to nobler deeds.
  We believe that the most appropriate and expressive eulogy we can pronounce to his memory is the reutterance of the oft repeated expression heard around the grave of our deceased brother "a good man is dead."
  We honor the memory of our deceased brother as one who, among all his other virtues, has kept the escut[c]heon of masonry untarnished. We mourn his loss but console ourselves with the reflection that his spirit is immorta[l] and that his influence, which has always been for good, will live on beyond the grave until time shall be no more. We hereby tender the relatives of the deceased the sincere sym[pathy] and condolence of the members of this lodge.
Respectfully submitted
L B Gillett   }
J.M. Kiker   } Committee
J.J. Ray       }

I wondered if this proclamation was a standard one, repeated for all Masons, but entering some of the text into Google did not bring up any other proclamations of the same text. I even tried searching in the Texas Newspaper Project on the Portal to Texas History and got no returns.

The lesson learned here is to review your previous findings regularly. I had forgotten that Matt may have been a Mason. This is an important item to put in his biography.

#52Ancestors-Week 19: Preserve

This is my seventh 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.

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[1] "Resolutions of Respect," April 20, 1889, The Dublin (Texas) Progress, 27 Nov 2016, p. 4, col. 2.

[2] Lower Greens Creek Cemetery, J. M. Coor, photo taken by Ken Jones, Find a Grave (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/17801007/james-madison-coor). For birth in Mississippi, see 1880 U.S. census, Copiah Co, Mississippi, Browns Store, ED 27, p. 281d, family 164, James M. Coor.

[3] Copiah Co, Mississippi, marriage, v. C, p. 444, James M Coor to Mrs. Malissa Pittman, 1856; FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C9BJ-8SJB-5), citing IGN 007724116, image 236.

[4] Mississippi Genealogical Society, editor, Cemetery & Bible Records Vol 1 (Mississippi: n.p., 1954.), p 1, Melissa A. Coor, Coor Cemetery, Copiah Co. This cemetery is unreachable today. In 2011, Tim Naab could not locate the cemetery along Coor Springs Road.

[5] “Kikers Mill,” Stephenville Empire, 6 Jan 1883, p. 3.

[6] Lower Greens Creek Cemetery, J. M. Coor, photo taken by Ken Jones, Find a Grave.

[7] "Resolutions of Respect."

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