Mary Houston

. Mary Houston

Mary Houston was the daughter of Nathaniel "Thaney" Houston. She was their oldest child and was born in 1867. She never married, but had five children some with Samuel Bentley and the last two by Reuben Potter.

When Mary had her first child, her sister, Lavina "Viney" Houston and Viney's husband, Rhodes Meade said he would take care of her with his family so long as she had no more children. Mary got pregnant again and Rhodes stopped helping her. He simply couldn't afford to feed any other mouths.

Mary's children were Annie, John, James, Maggie Jane and Leonard that I know of. The 1900 census said she had 5 children and 5 were living. In 1910 it said she had six children and six were living.

When Maggie Jane was a teenager she started going to my grandmother Cora's home to help cook and clean for the church and for the boarders that Cora kept. Eliza Jane would be around and this was during a time when Eliza was running around. Mary's sister, Hannah, told Mary that on one night when Maggie stayed all night that Maggie was actually out running with Eliza and Morg Reynolds and another man who was involved in the KKK in Letcher county. When Maggie came home Mary said she had had children without being married but she would not let that happen to Maggie. She nearly beat her to death that day. Alma said that Maggie had not been out running around and never understood why Hannah had told that story. Maggie had just been cooking and cleaning.

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Some in the family asked Mary why she never married and why she had children by Reuben Potter. She said it was just the way things were and she had not wanted it that way. Reuben was married to Arminda Hall. For a while he would bring two sacks of meal to Mary on Friday nights and spend time with her. Mary said had it not been for Reuben she could not have fed her family.

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Sam Bentley was the son of John Manuel Bentley and Elizabeth. Sam came thru the Daniel Bentley line. Sam was born in 1867. He died on July 14 of 1897. If that is true, then I don't know who the father of John and James were.

Reuben Potter was the son of Isaac and Elizabeth Emeline Bentley Potter. Reuben married Arminda Hall.

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I have an Annie as a daugther of Mary and Sam. I don't know her birth date or what happened to her.

John Huston was born in May of 1889. He married a lady named Alice June. He died in 1962.

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James Houston was born in 1891. I don't know who he married, but he had a son named Charlie Houston. Charlie has a son named Carolos. Carols has a daughter named Pamela.

Leonard born in July 1899. He married Goldie and they had a daughter named Helen Janet. Helen married Harley Murphy.

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Maggie Jane was born December 27, 1894. She married James Monroe Hall. James was the son of Samuel Q. Hall and Louisa Angeline Baker. This was his second marriage. He was first married to Nancy Ooten. They had ten children. James was born in 1867 so he was quite a bit older than Maggie.

. Maggie holding Dewey, James M. Hall & little James in front






. This is another picture of Maggie's family. It is tiny and that's the way it came to me.

Maggie and James had five children: Dewey William, Leonard, George "Rattlesnake", James and Marie.

. Dewey, Leonard & George Hall

Dewey married Effie Blanche Lucas. They had Freda June, Dewey, Verita, and Eyvonne. June married a Whitehead.

. Dewey William Hall

. Dewey William Hall (1916-1991)





. Dewey & his wife, Effie Lucas and their daughters.

Leonard married a Hall. He died at Thornton in 1988.

George "Rattlesnake" married a Baker. He died in 1989.

James died in 1991.

That in a nutshell is what I know about Mary and her family. There are cousins who descend through Mary, but I haven't gotten any information about their families or lives to add to this though the pictures I have of Dewey and family came from cousin June.

I was so glad to find a picture of Mary. I think she looks very stylish in it.

Eliza Jane Wright Houston Bentley

Eliza Jane Wright Houston Bentley

Eliza Jane
Eliza Jane


Ma Murphy (Glenn Murphy's mother - Glenn married Vera Mullins daughter of James Mullins and Cora Wright), Mr Perkins (a neighbor) and Eliza.



David Bentley and his great aunt Eliza. David is the son of Lonnie and Ival Collier Bentley. Lonnie was the son of Cora Wright.

I have talked about Susan Wright. She was the first child of William Jesse Wright. Her mother was Mary Brummett. Jesse had no children with his first wife, Elizabeth Moore. When he married the third time to Maggie Perdue they had two children: Cora Emmazetta, my grandmother and Eliza Jane Wright.

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Eliza Jane was born on July 4, 1886.

She first married Oliver Denton "Denton" Houston. Denton was the son of Thaney and Betsy Houston. Denton was a brother to Annie Houston who married Joshua Mullins and Olvin Houston who married her sister, Susan.

I guess in our mixed up family this means that since Annie and Joshua were the parents of James Mullins who Cora married that Cora's sisters, Susan and Eliza were her aunts by marriage.

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Druscilla "Siller" Houston was born on May 27, 1903. Maggie Elizabeth was born May 10, 1905. Susan T. Houston was born on July 24, 1907.

Little Susan died on August 23, 1907. She is buried up on the hill behind Denton's house at Goose Creek. She is one of the little graves that was supposed to be beside Janie McCray's grave. It was not marked with a stone, though we could tell the area it was in.

Maggie had an illness when she was a baby that left her deaf. They took her all over for treatment, but she never regained her hearing.

Eliza was not a faithful wife, and she and Denton divorced. Maggie and Siller stayed with Denton.

.. Maggie and Siller Houston

Eliza next married Samuel Bentley. He was the son of Solomon and Mary Jane Bentley Bentley. Samuel was the brother of Ermon Bentley. Ermon was Cora Bentley's first husband. So again, now Cora's sister, Eliza was also technically her sister-in-law. If we work at it a little we can probably fit that song "I'm My Own Grandpa."

With Sam, Eliza had seven more children: Ola Mae, Lona Mae, Cora L., Nora Hazel, Samuel L. Lola Bernice and Viola.

Ola Mae married Martin Holbrook. I haven't done a lot of work on them, but so far I know that they had three children: Woody, Marty and Joe.

Lona Mae was born in 1913. She died on August 19, 1915. The death certificate said she died of an accidental gun shot round in the head. The death was at 6 a.m. The information was provided by Ermon Bentley, Sam's brother. Alma said that Lona pulled a shotgun out of the closet and it went off killing her. The part I didn't get on the death certificate was that it was marked as a suicide. Accidental I can buy, but I don't understand a two year old having "suicide" on their death certificate.

Cora married Luther "Red" Anderson. They moved to Arizona. I don't know that she ever suffered with TB as her siblings had, but they never returned to live in the mountains.

Eliza's husband, Sam, died of pulmonary tuberculosis in 1934.

Nora Hazel married Leon Sturgill. She was only 19 when she died of pulmonary tuberculosis in 1936.

Samuel L., Jr. married a Crennia. He died of pulmonary tuberculosis in 1941 when he was 21.

Lola Bernice married Chester Patterson. She had a daughter Eliza F. Patterson. Lola died when she was 16 of pulmonary tuberculosis. Her baby was a year old.

Viola married a Holland.

Siller Houston holding baby Sam Bentley, Maggie Houston, Cora Bentley Anderson in front of Siller and Nora Hazel Bentley next to Cora.

Siller had 8 children with R. B.: George Earl, Mac, Earl, Denton, Archie, Lorean, Douglas & Esti. Archie is the one who described the Houston Cemetery to me so that I could locate Thaney and Betsy's graves. Siller lived to be 83. She died in 1986.

Maggie never married. She lived most of her life with Siller and R. B. Her obituary read:

Maggie Elizabeth Houston passed away Friday, April 27, 2001 at the
Whitesburg Applaachian Regional Health Care Center. Maggie is the daugther of Denton and Eliza Jane (Wright) Houston. She was born May 10, 1905 being 95 years, 11 months and 17 days of age at the time of her passing.
Surviving are 7 nephews: George Meade of Potters Fork, Denton Meade
of Ohio, Archie Meade of Fleming and Mac Meade of Louisville, Woody Holbrook,
Marty Holbrook and Joe Holbrook all of Mayking, 1 niece Loraine Armstrong of
Lorain, Ohio and 1 half sister Ola Mae Holbrook of Mayking along with a host of
great nieces, great nephews. Other relatives and friends to mourn her passing.

Maggie was prededed in death by 5 sisters: Siller Meade, Viola Holland, Cora Anderson, Lola Bentley and Nora Hazel Bentley and 1 brother, Samuel Bentley.
Funeral services for Maggie Elizabeth Houston were held on May 1, 2001 at the Fleming Church of God. Officiant Marvin Sherlin. Concluding services at the Green Acres Cemetery, Ermine, KY. Letcher Funeral Home of Whitesburg, KY in charge of the arrangements.

Eliza went to Arizona to visit Cora and Red. She, too, decided to stay and never lived in the mountains again. Viola followed her and lived and died in Arizona, too.

Susan and Olvin

Olvin was not a good husband. He was tolerable for a while. Susan's sister (half sister) Eliza married Olvin's brother Denton. Eliza began having an affair with John Potter. Susan helped her to hide it by letting Eliza and John meet at her home. When Olvin found out what was going on he changed toward Susan. He didn't try to hide that he was seeing other women. He even brought them home with the children that he had had with them and made Susan cook and clean up after them. The child Alvin that I had listed as Olvin and Susan's child was actually one of the children that Olvin had with one of the women that he brought home.

When Olvin was killed Susan was pregnant. Their son, who she named Denton, was born after Olvin died. She took in wash and eeked by a living. Cousin Alma said she had other men in her life, but that she definitely married a Yonts before she married Noah Burcham. She said Noah was good to Susan and they were happy together.

Alma said the sisters Susan, Eliza and Cora all had different men in their lives when they were young, but that after they married and matured they were all good women. She called them "rounders" in their youth.

Susan went on to be known as Mother Houston.

Olvin Houston - the family story

I called my cousin, Alma. Olvin Houston was her uncle. Olvin's sister, Lavina who married Rhodes Meade, was Alma's mother. Olvin died in 1919 when Alma was one year old.

In the court appeal the story goes that Olvin and his cousin, Grant Wright, were out drinking and causing general mayhem by shooting around town when they felt like it. Olvin, known for singing, was doing that also. They went to bed at a relatives house and got up and started over again. Henry "Mac" McClees, the local deputy sheriff, was aware of the goings on. Grant's brother went to McCleese home and told him if he went after the pair that they had already said they would shoot him (McClees). Mac finally did go after them and even though he had first refused to go, Nathan was with Mac and Thomas Quillen when the arrest was attempted. Grant greeted the trio with a "hello buddy", and Mac told them they were under arrest. Grant pulled his gun to shoot which Nathan was able to wrestle away from him. Olvin shot Mac in the side and Mac returned fire killing him. Quillen and Mac both told that story. Nathan testified that there was no conversation before Mac shot Olvin except him saying "I am your brother," to Grant before he wrestled the gun away from him.

It is a strange story to me. I wondered why Mac would be found guilty when this happened during an arrest situation, but he was found guilty and the appeals court though sympathetic to the defendant, upheld the verdict.

Alma told me the story that was told to her as a girl and as she was growing up. She said Quillen, Nathan and McClees went after Olvin to kill him. Grant was with Olvin down by the railroad tracks, but they weren't sure exactly where Olvin was standing. Nathan hollered to Olvin to sing a song, which he did thus letting them know where he was in the dark. Nathan shot and killed Olvin. He then ordered Grant to shoot him saying that if he refused he would testify that Grant did the killing. Grant shot Olvin after he was dead. Then Mac, took it on that he had killed Olvin.

I asked her why Mac would take the blame if he didn't shoot Olvin at all. She said she didn't know. They never knew why Nathan killed him except some of the Wrights would just shoot people for no reason.

Did Mac take the blame thinking that he would not be charged or spend time in prison if he were supposedly in the act of arresting Olvin? Was there maybe no warning that he was the law and there to arrest Olvin and Grant making the townspeople feel that it was out of the scope of Mac's duty as the law? Obviously, there was more to the story than the words in the appeal.

Olvin Huston

While researching Susan Wright Huston's children, I ran into this court appeal for the man who shot Olvin. I did not know that Olvin had been shot. I had not run into a death certificate. It always amazes me when the deaths which are homicide don't end up having a death certificate that you can find.

The gist is that Olvin was drunk and disorderly and Henry McClees was trying to arrest him and shots were fired. Obviously, since he was a sheriff and this could easily have been declared a man being shot in the line of duty, there must have been something else going on for Henry to have gone to trial. Henry was found guilty of murder and sent to prison for three years. He appealled the decision. This is the court record I found of the appeal.

McCLEES v. COMMONWEALTH.

(Court of Appeals of Kentucky. March 23, 1920.)

1. Homicide — Conviction of Manslaughter Held sustained by Evidence.

In a prosecution of a deputy town marshal for manslaughter, having killed a person that he was attempting to arrest, evidence held sufficient to sustain a conviction.

2. Criminal Law _ Instruction OMITTING STATEMENT AS TO DUTY TO PEACEABLY SUBMIT TO ARREST NOT ERRONEOUS IN VIEW Of OTHER INSTRUCTION.

In the prosecution of a peace officer for manslaughter, an instruction as to the duties of the defendant in making an arrest was not erroneous by reason of omitting to state that it was the duty of the deceased to peaceably submit to arrest upon the demand of accused, where the court also instructed that it was the right and duty of defendant to arrest the deceased.

3. Criminal Law —Grammatical DeFects IN VERDICT WAIVED BY FAILURE TO OBJECT.

A verdict, "We the jury do agree and fine the defendant guilty and fix his fine at three years confinement in the state penitentiary," was only grammatically incorrect, and could not be misunderstood, and the accused waived any objection to the defects by failing to object to the form at the time it was read in court, and before the jury was dispersed.

4. Criminal Law —Defendant PREJUDICED WHERE UNBIASED JUROR WAS RELATED TO DECEASED.

A juror who did not know of or recognize any relationship between himself and a deceased in a homicide case could not be biased or influenced by such relationship, and accused could not be prejudiced by his sitting as a juror.

6. Homicide —Officer May Kill Person RESISTING ARREST IF NECESSARY.

Where a person declines to be arrested and manifests a disposition to fight, an officer has the right to use such reasonable force as is necessary to overcome the resistance offered, even to the extent of taking life.

Appeal from Circuit Court, Letcher County.

Herman McClees was convicted of manslaughter, and appeals.

Affirmed.

W. II. May, of Jenkins, and D. D. Fields and D. I. Day, both of Whitesburg, for appellant.
Chas. I. Dawson, Atty. Gen., and T. B. McGregor, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the Commonwealth. SAMPSON, J.

The grand Jury of the Letcher circuit court returned an indictment charging appellant, Herman McClees, and two other persons, Nathan Wright and Thomas Quillem, with conspiring to and willfully murdering Olvin Houston In the town of Fleming, on Sunday, November 30, 1919. A severance of trial was granted, the commonwealth elected to try McClees first, and he was convicted of the crime of manslaughter and given three years in the state penitentiary. From this Judgment he appeals. In his motion and grounds for a new trial he sets forth eight reasons, but he chiefly complains of the insufficiency of the evidence to sustain the verdict and the failure of the court to properly Instruct the Jury as to the law of the case.

[1] McClees was a peace officer in the town of Fleming and was on duty at the time of the homicide. The deceased, Houston, and a nephew named Grant Wright were intoxicated. In fact they had been drinking intoxicating liquors all day, and the killing happened about 8 o'clock at night. There is quite a lot of evidence in the record tending to show that the deceased was engaged in the illicit sale of liquors. At any rate, he appeared to have an unusual supply of moonshine. Houston and Wright slept together at the home of a neighbor on the night previous. Next morning, which was Sunday, Houston gave Wright a quart of moonshine, and they began to drink. Houston had other liquor. They armed themselves with pistols, and later in the day went up and down through the town, firing at random and uttering threats against the peace officers of the town. The defendant McClees worked part of the morning at the coal tipple, but in the afternoon patrolled the town in an effort to keep order. He came home for supper about 6 o'clock, and just as he finished his meal he heard some shots in the edge of town and apparently along the public highway. On making some investigation he learned the shooting was done by Olvin Houston and Grant Wright, whom he had seen in the afternoon in a drunken condition. About the time he received this Information Nathan Wright, a brother to Grant Wright, came along and told McClees that he should not go down in town in on attempt to arrest Houston and Grant Wright because he had just seen them, and they said to him that, "If you bring him (McClees) down here I will burn the God damned rags off of him." When McClees heard this he asked Nathan Wright to go with him down town in order to preserve order, but Wright went on towards his home, and defendant went back towards his home and procured another pistol, and again started towards the place of the shooting. When he came to the railroad track, which was the principal walkway through the town, he met Nathan Wright and Thomas Quillen, and he summoned these two men to assist him in arresting Houston and Grant Wright. The three proceeded in the direction of the shoot out, but only a short distance, when they stopped on the railroad track. Shortly they saw two men approaching. One of them fired off his pistol, and was singing. It proved to be Houston and Grant Wright. Houston was carrying a pistol in one hand and a jug of moonshine liquor in the other, while Grant Wright was carrying his 38 Special in his hand. According to the evidence of defendant and his witnesses, Grant Wright, when he came up, said, "Hello, Buddie," to which the defendant replied, "Good evening gentlemen," and then said, "Consider yourselves under arrest," to which Grant Wright responded in substance, "There is not a God damn thing doing; stand your ground, Olvin," and at the same time threw his pistol into a shooting position, pointing in the direction of defendant, at which time Nathan Wright sprang forward and grappled his brother, Grant Wright, and took the pistol from him. While this was going on, Houston threw up his pistol, striking defendant in the side; whereupon defendant fired four shots in quick succession into the head and face of Houston, killing him instantly. The defendant is sustained in his evidence by Nathan Wright and Thomas Quillen, but he is contradicted by Grant Wright, who says that there was not a word uttered before the shots were fired which killed Houston, except Nathan Wright said, "This is your brother," when he grabbed Grant and took the pistol, and, further, Grant Wright testified that defendant, McClees, fired only one shot into the body of Houston before he fell and fired three shots into his face after he lay on the ground. No one corroborates Grant Wright, and his testimony on other points is very unsatisfactory. However, his statement was heard by the jury and was sufficient, if believed by the jury, to have warranted the jury in returning the verdict of guilty.
Appellant insists that the instructions are erroneous and prejudicial, but we have carefully examined them, and have compared them with instructions heretofore approved by this court in similar cases, and find they contain no prejudicial error.

Instruction No. 4A is assailed because it does not require the deceased to peaceably submit to arrest. This instruction reads:

"The court instructs the jury that in making the arrest of the deceased, Olvin Houston and Grant Wright, or either of them, it was the duty of the defendant to notify them, or the one about to be arrested of his intention to arrest them, or him, and of the offense charged against them, or either of them, for which he was making such arrest, unless they, or either of them knew that they, or either of them, were about to be arrested and the offense charged, if he had a reasonable opportunity to do so, or unless the said deceased, Olvin Houston or Grant Wright made an immediate attack upon the defendent Quillen and thereby prevented him from sо doing."

Appellant urges that this instruction should have contained a clause, in substance, as follows: It was the duty of the deceased to peaceably submit to such arrest upon the demand of defendant.

[2] The trial court could very properly have added this to the instruction, but inasmuch as the Jury was told that the defendant, Herman McClees, was a deputy town marshal, and as such had the right and it was his duty to preserve the public peace and to prevent any and all breaches of the public peace, and to arrest offenders In order to preserve the peace, and, further, that McClees "had the right and it was his duty to go to said Olvin Houston and Grant Wright, or either or both of them, and to use such force as was reasonably necessary to prevent the continuance of said conduct, and if said deceased, Olvin Houston, or Grant Wright, or either of them, refused to obey or so conduct himself, or themselves, in the presence of the defendant, or defendant had reason to believe or believed that said deceased, or Grant Wright was then and there about to kill defendant, or Grant Wright, or Thomas Quillen, or either of them, or do defendant, or Nathan Wright or Thomas Quillen, or either of them, some great bodily harm, and defendant believed and had reasonable grounds to believe from the conduct of the said Olvin Houston, or Grant Wright, that to avoid such danger, either real, or to him, or them, or either of them, apparent, It was necessary to shoot said Olvin Houston, you will find the defendant not guilty," It was unnecessary to restate the principle In the manner suggested, because, as the Jury was told that the defendant had the right to arrest Houston, It necessarily followed that it was the duty of Houston to peacefully submit to the arrest

[3] The verdict is awkwardly constructed, and of this appellant complains. It reads:

"We the jury do agree and fine the defendant guilty and fix his fine at three years confinement in the state penitentiary."

While it is oddly stated and grammatically incorrect, it would be practically impossible for any reasonable person to misunderstand the meaning of the jury. Had the appellant objected to the form of the verdict at the time it was read In court and before the jury was dispersed, the court would have required the jury to retire to its room and reform the verdict, but in failing to ask this, the appellant waived his objection, and cannot now be heard to complain of the grammatical defects of the verdict.

[4] One of the jurors who tried the case was a distant relative of the deceased Olvin Houston, but at the time he was accepted on the Jury and tried the case he did not know of the relationship, and did not regard himself as related until after the trial was over and the question was raised by counsel, whereupon the commonwealth's attorney approached the discharged Juror and inquired if he was related to the deceased, and was answered in the negative. An investigation was then had in open court to determine whether the juror in question was of kin to the deceased. Several witnesses, including the juror, were called, and while it appears that the juror was in fact related to the deceased, it equally well appears that the relationship was wholly unknown to the juror at the time he was serving on the Jury, and he was not therefore influenced by it in any manner whatever. A Juror who does not know of or recognize the relationship between himself and a defendant, or other party, to an action cannot by any course of reasoning known to us be biased or influenced thereby. If on the investigation had in the circuit court it bad appeared that the Juror knew of the slight relationship which existed between him and the deceased, we would be much Inclined, in a case like this, to set aside the verdict.

[6] On a review of all the evidence in the record, we incline to the opinion that the great weight of the evidence is in favor of the defendant, and we wonder what influenced the jury to find him guilty unless it was the evidence of Grant Wright. The testimony of this witness was so palpably untrue with reference to the liquor which he and his uncle had obtained, as well as other matters which transpired during the day preceding the homicide, that we can scarcely believe the Jury attached much importance to it. Defendant appears to have been a sober, peaceable citizen, and good officer. The deceased, while bearing a bad name, was intoxicated and armed with a deadly weapon at the time of the difficulty. It was the duty of the officer to arrest Houston, ' but according to the weight of the evidence, Houston declined to be arrested, and manifested a disposition to fight. Under such circumstances the officer had the right to use such reasonable force as was necessary to overcome the resistance offered, even to the taking of the life of the deceased. One of the age and experience of Houston must have realized the danger of the life he was leading and the menace he was to the community. Too much consideration should not be given to those who deliberately arm themselves with deadly weapons and willfully intoxicate themselves and start out to terrorize the community. While we find no prejudicial error in the record to justify the' court in reversing the judgment of conviction, we incline to the opinion that this is a case which might properly be presented to the chief executive of the state for clemency.

Judgment affirmed.

This information was found online in a digital book called The Southwestern Reporter starting on page 1065.

Baby Huston Johnson

I have been reading interviews that contain bits and pieces about Olvin Wright. He must have been as mean as they come. In one piece it talked about him having a son, Alvin by another woman than his wife, Susan Wright. It said he brought the boy and his mother home and Susan had to let them in and not say anything. It said she was scared not to do what Olvin said.

In an interview with Alma Meade Bolling, Flossie Meade and Roy Meade they went on to say that Baby Johnson was originally called Mary for Susan's mother, Mary Brumett. Olvin got mad at his mother-in-law and forbid anyone to ever call the child Mary again. Now I know from the birth record that she was originally called Cora E. However, having a name given at birth is no guarantee that that child will keep or even be called anything like their birth name. So Cora, called Mary, then Baby was a result of anger with Susan's mother, Mary by her son -in-law, Olvin Huston.

The second birth named Cora was referred to as Cora Lee by Alma and her siblings. I am going to ask Alma to talk to me about Susan and Olvin.

Susan's Children

Well, this is interesting to me. When I was going deeper into Susan's children I started by trying to find out who Baby was so that I would know who Susan was upset with. What I found was that she had two children named Cora.

The first Cora was born Cora E. Houston. She was born February 4, 1912.

The second Cora was born September 18, 1914.

Susan had a sister named Cora Emmazetta, my grandmother.

Apparently, the person she was angry with was my grandmother. Then she began calling the first Cora, Baby. It also seems likely that she got over the anger and named the second daugher Cora.

Cora E. "Baby" Huston married Morg Johnson. I found the death certificate for Baby Johnson. It said she died on September 8, 1996 in Loraine, Ohio. Her birthdate was listed as February 4, 1912. Her father was listed as "Houston" and her mother "Wright". That would account for Baby.

The second Cora married a Teague. She died January 27, 2002 in Kentucky.

Also, in the 1910 Census there is a daughter listed as being one month old who was named Anna. In the 1920 Census there is no Anna. Based on birthdates though, Velva was born April 12, 1910. I believe the daughter who was first called Anna became Velva making her name either Anna Velva or Velva Anna or just a new name that Susan called her later on.

I heard that one of the Hargis Hustons went to jail. I don't know whether it was Susan's child or one of the ones in another generation. I did find that Velva Huston was listed as the mother of Hargus Hall who was born in 1948. I would like to talk to this Hargus to see what he knows of family history. I don't know yet what Hall that Velva married.

Mother Houston Part 2

Susan Wright (1879-1978) and Aulden "Olvin" Huston (1880-1919)

Susan, Olvin, Hargis and Charley.

I wrote about Susan Wright in June. I knew at that time that she was the daughter of William Jesse Wright and his second wife, Mary Brummett.

She was married three times that I knew of: first Samuel Vanover. She married him when she was 13 to get away from her step-mother. She was a widow at age 18. She next married Auden G. "Olvin" Huston who was the son of Thaney and Betsy. They had seven children: Baby (who was born after 1901 and died before 1910), Hargis, Charley, Anna, Velva, Baby (who had another name, but when Susan got mad at the namesake she called her Baby ever after), Cora, Olvin and Jame Denton. She also took care of two children that Olvin had with other women, one of whom was Alvin.


Aulden -- and their names have always driven me crazy since they were called something else, is the O. B. Huston whose tombstone I found at Goose Creek. He died in 1919. He had another child with Mary Collier, daughter of Stephen and Mary Meade Collier. Her name was Hattie.

Now my thought were that poor old Susan pined away after Olvin died until she married in 1945 to Noah Burcham. Ha! She married at least two other times. I am reading the interviews of my cousins and will update the story when I get through them. Susan was married at least five times.





The reason I did bring her up is I found pictures of her and I did not want to wait til I got through the research before sharing them.





Susan was my grandmother, Cora Wright's half sister. I can't wait to get through the interviews and tell you more about Susan.

Thaney & Betsy Houston

I have a better picture of Betsy and Thaney. I also found out a few more stories about Thaney.

Cousin Hazel said that "Uncle Thaney" was a very small fellow. "Aunt Betz" was big and dark. Sometimes he would fall out of the bed. He would get up and say, "well why did you let that happen?" Sometimes they would sit in the rocking chair together and she would rock him back to sleep.

Uncle Thaney carried the mail.

Once Devil John went to see Betsy's mother, Annie. Annie Wright was married to Fightin' Fred Fleming. Annie was his aunt, a sister to Devil John's father, Joel Ellis Wright. John had a big horse and wanted it to be fed. Thaney asked him how it should be fed. John said to feed the horse high. Thaney thought John might really mean that he wanted the horse to be fed a lot, but he asked John if he should put the feed in the tree so the horse could get high feed. John, not wanting to correct himself, said "yes, put the feed in the tree." Thaney did, and when reporting to John he said "I fed that horse and put that feed corn so high in the tree that I doubt he can even reach it, but it's certainly high." He was always pulling pranks.

Thaney would tell them not to marry too close in the family. He told them back off was fine, but if you married too close, you could tell it because the children would have an extra eye at the end of their noses.

Rinda Mae Houston & Jonathan A. "Twig" Collier

Rinda Mae Houston was born on October 15, 1879. When she was 19 she married Jonathan A. "Twig" Collier who was 24. Twig was the son of Stephen Collier and Mary Meade. H was the grandson of Richard Collier and Mary Caudill. Richard was the son of Daniel Collier and Elizabeth Prather. Richard was also the brother of William Dee Collier who was the father of Willis Kirk Collier who was the father of Sadie Collier who married Otho Bentley.
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Mary Caudill was the daughter of Matthew Caudill and Sarah Webb who are my fourth great grandparents. Mary's sister, Susannah Caudill married Joseph Hampton. Their daughter Nancy married Enoch Mahlon Hall. Their son Joe married Lettie Craft. Their daughtre Nancy married Otho Bentley.

Rinda was my great grand aunt through the Houstons and Twig was my 2nd cousin three times removed through Granny.

In the 1900 Letcher County Census Twig and Rindy had been married for two years and had one son, William H, who was 1 year old.

Ten years later the family had grown. Now married 12 years Rindy reported she had had six children and all six were living: William H. 11, Ballard 9, Delpha E. 7, Marcellus 5, Stepher E. 3 and Thomas Luther 1year and 2 months. Twig was farming out a living for his family.

Visiting the Houston Cemetery at Goose Creek I found the following

If you look at this picture closely it says she was born on October 15, 1879 and died on June 8, 1915.


I always try to look for official records. I found a death certificate for a Renda M. Collier who died in 1917. She was in Pike County. At first I only found it in the Kentucky Death Index. It only gives the certificate number, volume and year that it was filed. Then I went to looking for it so I could let it go out of my mind. It said in the index for the ancestry that this was for an "Unnamed Collier". Someone sent in a correction to ancestry so there is a second note that it is for an "Unnamed Huston". I had to look at this one. I thought maybe the name of the person who died had been left off. The cause of death was blank, but the name was Renda M. Collier as supplied by J. A. Collier and listed her parents as Nathanual Huston and a Fleming. It is not marked as delayed. It shows her home at that time was Myra, Pike County, Kentucky.

Cousin Alma said she had the dates of death written down for Nathaniel and Betsy. Now I hope that list includes Rinda Mae, too. I have it on my list of things to talk to her about when we talke again. I also am interested in what her cause of death was.

Next to Rindy in the cemetery is her husband, Twig.

Their son, Thomas Luther Collier, who was born February 23, 1908 died on March 18, 1941.

Betsy & Thaney's Children

Thaney and Betsy Houston had nine children that I know of: Mary, Preston, Joseph, Hannah, Annie, Lavina, Rinda Mae, Aulden "Olvin and James Denton. They married into many of my related families:

Mary , the oldest was born in 1867. She never married though she had several children with a Bentley and a Potter.

Preston was born in 1869 and died before 1880.

Joseph was born about 1870 and died on May 20, 1976 of dropsy.

Hannah was born on December 29, 1971. She died September 29, 1960. She married three times: Alexander Wright and William Milton "Milt" Meade. She had a child by Israel Jesse Adams.

Annie married only once to Joshua Mullins.

Lavina "Vina" married Rhodes Meade.

Rinda Mae married Jonathan A. "Twig" Collier.

Aulden G. "Olvin" married Susannah Wright. He also had a daughter with Mary Collier.

Oliver Denton married twice: Eliza Jane Wright and Mattie Wright.

I want to concentrate on the Colliers because of the graves I found at Goose Creek.

Thaney, Betsy and Annie

Nathaniel "Thaney" and Elizabeth "Betsy" Fleming Houston

I got started in genealogy listening to my grandmother tell about her family history. I loved sitting at the fire listening to her talk to my mother about things that had happened in the past. When I started to actually write things down I wanted to do things right and I asked for help in organizing what I thought was going to be a lot of information just because my mother was one of 21 children. I was told that I should only do one line -- the Mullins or at best the Bentleys because that was my mother's line that genealogy was about the men. So that set me on a quest to find all the women in the family. It is the women who bring the other lines into play.

Some lines I thought were hopeless back those many years ago. Like knowing my great grandmother's name was Betsy, but having no clue as to her maiden name. The same went for Maggie Perdue -- another great grandmother. For 45 years I did not know who she was. I took trips, I interviewed people, bought books, joined historical societies, spent hundreds of hours in the library and tried every way that I knew to collect information on my family.

The internet could have saved me a lot of time. There is so much good information out there. And so much incorrect information there. My greatest tool has been access to the actual census records. Over the years I had spent hundreds of dollars on transcripts of various counties and areas -- many of which contained a lot of errors and omissions.

By accessing the Kentucky Birth index and the Kentucky Death records I have found many things. One, is that my mother was one of 22 children. I had queried all births in Letcher county where the mother was named Sadie Collier. I also queried by Sadie Bentley. I was comparing what those records said versus what I had from family Bibles, interviews and other research. Up popped little Mae Bentley. I went to others in the family and no one said they had heard of her. Later, I found her actual death certificate where the informant for the document was Otho Bentley, who was also listed as her father.

I grew up thinking that baby Mary died with Sadie in childbirth. I now know that Sadie's labor was started when she was kicked by a cow when she went out to milk one day. Mary was born. Sadie died several days later. Mary did not die until several months later. When I questioned that one Uncle Joe knew and tried to locate her grave at Chunk Craft's cemetery. She was buried near the gate. We walked it all over and with the gate gone he could pinpoint the spot for sure, but he, too, verified that Mary died after her mother.

I figure if we thought all those years that Mary died in childbirth with her mother and she was one of 21, that surely Mae who has a birth certificate and a death certificate should certainly be added in for a total of 22.

As I looked for more about grandmother Annie I saw that Grandpa Joshua married again after her death. He married a woman mostly known as Susan Venters. Venters was her married name. Working through the records she was actually Susan Wright, the sister of Jesse Wright and Bad John Wright. Joshua and Susan were listed in a household by themselves in 1910. Annie's children were listed with her parents Betsy and Thaney Houston.

I wondered if this meant that there was a rift between the Houstons and Joshua over Joshua's choice for a new wife. I wondered if Joshua liked being the merry widow and chose to go with a new wife and leave the children behind. I could only wonder because no one I knew had the answers.

No one until I met Annie's niece, Alma Meade. Annie had a sister, Lovina who is listed online as Melvina, Vina, Viney and others names. Her daughter says her name was Lovina and she was nicknamed Vina.

Lovina Houston was a younger sister to Annie Houston. She was born in 1875. On October 14, 1897 she married Rhodes Meade. Rhodes was the son of James Madison and Letitia Wright Meade. Rhodes was the grandson of Thomas Kronis and Mary "Polly" Hall. Letitia Wright was the daughter of Susannah Wright and Andrew Steel. Susannah was the daughter of Joel and Susannah Wright.

Rhodes and Vina had eleven children: Oscar, Olven, Matt, Forester, John Riley, Roy, Flossie, Orville, Lala, Charlie and Alma.

The afternoon after we went to the cemetery at Goose Creek, I met Alma.

Alma is wonderful. She is 90. Her sight is failing, but she can still see shapes. She is a little hard of hearing, but all you have to do is speak up. She has a wonderful clear voice. She looks like she might be 70. She is certainly not a shriveled up little old lady. You would never know that she was 90.

I asked Alma about Thaney and Betsy and Annie. What I found out changed my perceptions regarding those census records.

Joshua did marry Susan Wright Venters, and she was mean as a snake. She was not good to his children. She was not good to him. She would not feed the children. They were starving. Grandma Betsy came and took them to her home. Alma said that when she fixed them dinner she had to stop them from eating so much because they were so hungry and she did not want them to get ill. After the children were gone, Susan tried to poison Joshua. I had always heard it was poison in his soup. Rosie heard it was in the coffee. Alma said it was in the spring water.

But, someone tipped him off and she failed in her attempt. I asked her why Joshua would let Susan starve the children or be mean to them. She couldn't answer that. I asked her why Susan would want to poison Joshua. She said she didn't know, that Susan was just a very mean woman who did things for no reason.

She went on to tell me that Joshua was a very humble man. The Houstons loved him and when he married Rosie Adams after Susan died, the children went back to his household. Who knows what someone will turn into after you marry them.

I asked if she had known Thaney and Betsy herself. She said yes. I asked if she had ever talked to him or her mother about who his father was. She said yes. She said that his mother, Hannah, had a sister, Mary. Mary married a Potter. She had Hannah come to live with them. While she was there he got her pregnant. That is the potter who is the father of Nathaniel Houston. I don't have all the siblings of Hannah. The Potter that is always pointed out to me to be Nathaniel's father is Abraham who was born in 1837 and who was married to Sarah Wright. That would be a pretty neat trick to be a father at 9 since Nanthaniel was born in 1846. Alma said that the father's name was John and he was a brother to an Abraham. She didn't recall his parents name. That is what she told me in person. On another day I called her and we talked about this again. She mentioned the name Abraham as his father, but repeated that it was Hannah's sister, Mary's husband, who was the father.

Also, when I called I asked about Betsy and Thaney and their dates of death. She said she had the dates written down and I could see them when I came back to visit her. She said Betsy died first when she was a very little girl. She said she was 13 or 14 when Thaney died. Since the last census I could find them in was 1920 and Denton no longer had them in his household in 1930, that made sense. I would approximate Betsy died about 1922 and Thaney in 1929. I have not found a death certificate for either of them.

When we walked up that hill to the cemetery I could tell from Archie's description and from the place where the Meade and Houston houses has been that we were coming in from the back of the cemetery. Robert found Jennie McCray's grave and that of her husband. We found no markers for the babie's graves, but lying behind Jennie's grave were the remants of an old rusted fence. Rosie and I tried to lift it away and we poked in the soft ground there for a stone. Archie thought there were stones for both Betsy and Thaney. We could not find them.

We only found another piece of the fence at what must have been the back right hand corner of the cemetery. Where was all the rest of the fence? My thought is that when the convicts cleaned the graves, they threw that fence over the hill. They could have thrown two old stones that might have fallen down, too. There are many rocks serving as head and foot stones in that cemetery in obvious straight lines of graves.

Rosie incovered two stones from under the leaves and growth. One grave was sunken in and its stone was down and almost sunk and covered, too. There really weren't that many Houstons in the marked graves -- more Colliers, but who knows who were in all those graves marked only with stones.

This is Thaney and Besty Houston:

Goose Creek Cemetery behind R B Meade's

I am searching for my great grandmother's grave. She was Annie Houston Mullins. She was the first wife of my great grandfather, Joshua Mullins. Their son was my grandfather, James Mullins. She died in chilbirth in 1906.

After Annie died, the children stayed with her parents, Thaney & Betsy Houston. I followed Thaney and Betsy through the 1920 cenus and then they just dropped off the records. I thought they might have died before the 1930 census, but I could not find a death certificate for either. Since I knew that there was a cemetery behind one of the family homes at Goose Creek, I thought that is probably where Annie had to be buried. I was also hoping that it is were Thaney and Betsy were buried, too.

My cousin, Rosie, verified through another cousin that Annie had been buried at Goose Creek. They did not know about Thaney and Betsy.

Rosie had the directions on finding the cemetery. We agreed since it was raining Saturday and snowy today we would go today to find the cemetery. I was anxious to see what this cemetery and knew that it would probably be behind a locked gate on the weekends, but I went anyway.

I followed Rosie's instructions and they were perfect. She was right. I ran into a locked gate. I was turning around to leave when another car came up the road. Since it is one lane, I let her come up and waited. I went down the road then turned around and went back to the car and asked about the cemetery.

Turns out one of the women in the car was Denton Houston's step-granddaughter. My Annie was Denton's sister. The other lady was a Hall by marriage. She sent me to her father-in-law's home because she said he knew everyone.

I went and Mr. Hall was sleeping, but his wife and son were the most hospitable. They told me so many things about Goose Creek. I know of four other cemeteries there. Rosie and I will try to find at least two of them.

Mrs. Hall told me that I should call one of R. B. Meade's sons. She gave me his number. The cemetery where Annie should be was behind their house. R. B. was married to Siller Houston who was Denton Houston's daughter.

Cousin Meade said he couldn't help me with Annie's grave. He said it had been 53 years since he had been there, but he couldn't remember an Annie. He said he was so sorry, but all he remembered was his grandpa's parents were buried there. Who were they? I asked. Thaney and Betsy Houston.

I asked if Thaney and Betsy had tombstones. He said "oh yes." He said when they were first buried they had houses over their graves. Over the years the houses fell apart and they were taken down. He said that when you go up there was a fence around the graves. But outside of the fence were four graves belonging to Jenny McCray, her husband, a child of Denton named Mae and a baby (who at this moment I can't remember).

He said inside the fence next to Jenny's grave was Thaney's and next to him was Betsy's grave.

I have gloves, a broom, chalk and my camera to take to the cemetery today. I will post the results after I get my main computer back and can access the pictures from my camera. It may be two weeks. Hopefully not.

I can't believe I am still connected. I have so many things that I have discovered.

Annie Houston Mullins 1874 - 1906

For those of you who have heard the old tale about having a grandmother who was a full-blooded Indian it may be this line. None of the other lines have even come close for me in my studies on the family. I remember Dad talking about his father's grandmother being an Indian. I sure couldn't find evidence of it, but I was thinking only of the Mullins or Wright lines. When I went further and got into all the census records, I realized that James lived with his grandparents for a while after his mother's death. He even continued to live with or next door to them after he was grown, but they were HOUSTONS, not Mullins or Wrights.



As sketchy as the Houstons are, I have found references to Nathaniel Houston's wife thought to be an Indian. So before I get into what I know about Annie, I thought I bring up that this could be the line that ends up with the real Indian grandmother.



My oldest known Houston relative is James Houston who was married to Lucinda Ryan. Their son, Nathaniel Houston is the one who was thought to have married an Indian woman. I do not know her name yet.



Nathaniel's daughter was Hannah Houston. She was born April 20, 1830 in Pike County, Kentucky. Hannah had a son by an Abraham Potter. They were not married. She named her son for her father. He was called Nathaniel "Thaney" Houston. He was born on August 1, 1846.



On September 10, 1852 when Thaney was six, Hannah married Charles Yonts. She had five children with Charles.



In 1860 the Yonts family was in Letcher County, Kentucky. Charles 27, Hannah 30, Nathaniel 12, Mary 7, Levisa 4, Solomon 2 and Elizabeth 2 months.



On January 22, 1868 Thaney married Elizabeth "Betsy" Fleming, daughter of Frederick Nelson "Fighting Fred" Fleming and Nancy Ann "Annie" Wright. Nancy is the daughter of Joel Martin and Susannah Wright. We have a double dose of Wright genes being descended from two of Joel and Susannah's children (the other being Joel Ellis Wright & his wife Eliza Agnes Bates.)





This picture came from Ma's (Cora Wright Mullins) trunk which Aunt Ival had. It said it was the wedding day picture of Joshua Mullins and Annie Houston. I have seen it in the Letcher County Picture books listed with another couple's name. I am going by what my grandmother had written on the picture and finding it in her trunk.



In 1870 Charles Yonts is 38, Hannah 42, Polly (Mary) 17, Lavica 14, Solomon 12, Elizabeth 10 and Henry 4.

Elizabeth "Betsy" Fleming is married to or has a baby by Robert "John" Frazure. Nancy Jane Frazure was born April 12, 1861.

On January 22, 1868 when Thaney is 21 and Betsy, 27, they marry. In the 1870 census they are listed as Nath 23, Betsey 32, Nancy 10, Mary 2 and Preston 3 months.

Fighting Fred passes away in 1878. Anna Wright Houston is the head of her household in 1880 census with Jefferson 24, twins Solomon and Clarinda 19 and Elijah 18 in her home.


In Nathaniel & Betsey's household Nathaniel is 30 and Elizabeth 29. Betsy's daughter, Nancy has married William Teague Quillen. Mary is now 12. Preston has died. The children born since the last census are Hannah 9, Annie, 7, Lina 5, Rinda 3 and baby Aulden 11 months.

Again, we have a twenty year gap in census records. Mother Annie Wright Houston is now 78 and living with her son, Elijah. She reports that she has had 12 children and 10 of them are living in 1900.

Nathaniel and Betsy have had one additonal child, Oliver Denton Houston in their family. The census shows that they have been married for 28 years. In the household is Nathaniel 53, Elizabeth 59, Olvin G and Oliver D. Betsy reports that she has had 9 children and 8 of them are living in 1900.

Next door to Nathaniel and Betsy live their daughter, Annie and her husband Joshua Mullins. They married on June 8, 1892. In 1900 they report that they have been married for seven years. Anna says she has had four children and all are living. The family is Joshua 31, Anna 25, James 6, Nan V. 5, Coettie 2 and William A. is two months old.

There are four more children born after 1900: Marion, Melvina, Elizabeth Varley "Betsy" and Ellis.

On October 31, 1906 Annie dies while trying to give birth. The child dies, too. This picture of Annie and the baby were sent to me by our cousin Lois in Delaware. I do not know where Annie and the baby were buried.