Tuesday, December 22, 2015

Sandford Family History

Charles Sandford was born in England in 1846 (according to his headstone) or May 1849 (according to the 1900 census). He was 22 at the age of his first marriage, sometime between 1868 and 1871. This marriage produced at least one child, Mabel Jessie Sandford, who was born in Reading, England.

Reading is a town in central England, about 30 miles from London. In the 1880’s, the town was one of the 10 largest in England.

According to “The Emigrant’s Guide for 1883,’’ 320,118 British and Irish emigrants left for the United Kingdom during 1883. The journey from the United Kingdom to the United States took a little over a week, with ticket prices starting at 4 lira. “How to go to Texas?” was a common question.

Quoting Major Jones, United States Consul, “Take the hint. Don’t emigrate in a fever, but consider the question in every aspect. The ‘mother country’ must be left behind, the family ties - the old associations - broken. Turn it over in your mind. Talk it over with your wife, your father, or friend. Be sure that you look at the dark side of the picture - the broad Atlantic, the dusty ride to the great West, the scorching sun, the cold winter - coldest ever you experienced - and the hard work. You may take my word for it, they work harder than in the old country. But if you finally, with your eyes open, decide to emigrate, do it like a man, with no divided heart. Don’t follow the example of some men, whom I have known by whining and occupying your leisure hours in making everlasting comparisons between the land you left and the land you live in, to the detriment of the latter. When you find yourself indulging in that luxury, put the brake on.”

The steam ship that likely carried Charles Sandford and daughter Mabel Jessie to The United States was on the Dominion Line. From Liverpool for New Orleans, taking passengers to all parts of Texas. Fares - Saloon, Lira20 ; steerage, Lira6. Steerage fares through to Galveston, Houston, and San Antonio. 

Charles Sandford would have been in his early 30s when he immigrated, while Mabel Jessie Sandford would have been two years old. Her obituary says she immigrated “with family”. I’m not sure if her mother died en route to the United States, had already passed away in England before departure, or if there were any other family members. At any rate, in November 1883, Minnie S Holcomb bore Charles Sandford another daughter, Leta H Sandford.

Mabel Jessie Sandford’s mother is listed as being born in England in every census while Leta H Sandford’s mother is listed as being born in Texas. Mabel Jessie Sandford and all other children of Charles Sandford did not have the same mother.

The 1900 census lists Charles Sandford’s immigration year as 1883, the same year he had Leta H Sandford in November. Perhaps the real immigration year was 1882. I’m not sure 2 months (at the very most) was enough time to meet and impregnate Minnie Holcomb.
By the 1910 census, Charles Sandford and family had relocated to Chickasha, Grady County, Oklahoma. Grady county is located in Southeastern Oklahoma, and characterized by rolling plains. Chickasha is the Choctaw word for Chickasaw, an indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands. Farming is key to the county’s economy. The main crops in the early part of the Twentieth century were corn and cotton. Chickasha was a prosperous little town in part because the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railway Company (CRI&P) built a depot there. Lines of railroad went north, south, east, and west. 

Charles and Minnie Holcomb Sandford are buried in Rose Hill Cemetery, Chickasha, Grady County, Oklahoma.

“The Oklahoman” (Oklahoma City, OK) 8/26/1927 In Memoriam (Friday)
Mrs. Minnie S. Sandford, 67 years old, wife of Charles Sandford, died Thursday morning at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Charles E. Day, 1725 W. 2nd Street. Besides her husband, she is survived by two daughters, Mrs. Guy Smith of Anadarko, and Mrs. Charles E. Day of Oklahoma City; two sons, C.A. Sandford of Marlow, and Wayne Sandford of Altus; two brothers, W.H. Holcomb of Boise City, Idaho, and J.T. Holcomb of Ajo, Arizona. Arrangements will be announced by the Hahn funeral home.

8/27/1927 In Memoriam (Saturday)
Funeral services for Minnie S. Sandford, 67 years old, wife of Charles Sandford, who died early Thursday morning at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Chas. E. Day, 1735 W. 2nd street, will be conducted at the First Baptist church at Chickasha Sunday afternoon at 1:30 0‘clock. Burial will be in the Chickasha cemetery under direction of the Hahn funeral home.

One family member stayed behind in Texas, Mabel Jessie Sandford. The Sandford family enters the United States 1900 census record on June 15, 1900. Listed in the household were Charles, Minnie, Mabel Jessie, Leta, Charles, Jr., Annie, Brice, Harris, and William McKee as a servant. One short month later on July 14, 1900, Mabel Jessie and William Goodman McKee were married in Van Zandt County, Texas.

It’s hard to tell where William Goodman McKee was born. In that 1900 census in Van Zandt County, his father’s birthplace is listed as Mississippi. His mother’s, Virginia. However, in the 1910 census for William G. McKee, both parents’ birthplaces are listed as Tennessee. Located in Elm Grove Cemetery, Roddy, Van Zandt County, Texas with William Goodman McKee are William F McKee and Susan I McKee. See below for William F. McKee.

Mrs. Box of Grand Saline, a Mabank Monitor reader, has sent a historical clipping from a 1919 publication with information about a Mabank pioneer.

The article, titled “A Texas Pioneer,” is about W.F. McKee, a Mabank resident Loyd McKee’s great grandfather. The article reveals that W.F. McKee was born in Hardeman County, Tennessee, September 15, 1833, and that his mother died when he was 3 years old. “His father married the second time and came to Texas in 1840. Settled in Bowie County but afterward moved to Fannin County.
“Here W.F. was raised to manhood. In 1856 he went to Cherokee County and lived there three years. He then went to Young County.
“In 1862 he enlisted in the Confederate Army. Served during the war in Stone’s Regiment, Second Texas Partisan Rangers, Miller’s Company, Company C. At the close of the war he went to Ellis County.
“In 1866 he was married to Susan L. Fleming. To this union six children were born, four of whom are still living. They are C.S. McKee, Mabank, Texas; Mrs. O.C. Warenskjold, Cleburne, Texas; Mrs. J.E. Spikes, Lorraine, Texas, and Mrs. J.E. Harriagan, Percilla, Texas.
“He will be 85 years old the 15th of next September. He is still hale and hearty and works some. He makes his home with C.S. McKee. He is almost stone deaf but enjoys reading and writing. He is the only member of his father’s family living. - Mrs. J.E. Harrington, Percilla, Houston County, Texas.”

According to Mrs. Loyd McKee, C.F. McKee had six boys and two girls. One son, Chod (Charles), married to Mae, had two sons and one daughter. One son, Loyd McKee, resident Mabank; the other, Jack McKee, is deceased; a daughter, Lucille Philleaux, lives in Dallas. 

Verna McKee was born in 1900 to William Goodman and Mabel Jessie Sandford McKee. Either Mabel’s pregnancy was shorter than 5 months, or more likely, she was already pregnant when she and William Goodman McKee were married. There is an old saying, “The first pregnancy is 6 months long; the second is 9 months long.”

“A Sad Accident”
Undoubtedly the saddest accident that has occurred in Mabank or vicinity since we have been here occurred last Sunday afternoon, when a car overturned on South Third street, killing Miss Verna McKee.

There were a number of witnesses to the accident, and though there was some difference in opinion as to just how it occurred, yet in the main that accounts are the same.
The four young ladies, Miss Verna McKee, Alva Rice, Iva Mae Lamb and Estelle Dellis were in Dr. Hearn’s Ford Roadster and while driving along the street mentioned lost control of the car just south of the railway. The car turned over just in front of the J.W. Stevenson home throwing the occupants out. All seem to have been thrown clear but Miss
McKee, who was pinned under the car and so injured that she died in a very few minutes. Miss Rice sustained some injuries about the face and arms, while the other two young ladies were not hurt further than would naturally be caused by the shock.
Miss Verna McKee was the eldest daughter of Mrs. Mabel McKee. She had grown up at Mabank, attended the schools here and was at the time of her death a member of the Junior class.
She was a young lady of a most sonny disposition, always cheerful and numbers her friends by the entire population of the community and her acquaintances without. Her untimely death is a sad shock to every person who knew her.
The funeral services were held Monday afternoon at the Presbyterian church by Rev. E. T. Neel. The business houses closed and practically the entire town went out to testify their love for her and their sorrow for the bereaved mother and family. The school attended in body.
Interment took place at Elm Grove cemetery, where the floral tributes offered by loving friends bespoke the sweet affection that was hers for them in life. 

A son, Frank Sandford McKee was born on April 26, 1903. In the 1920 United States census, his occupation was a farm laborer. In 1940, a farm operator.
Two daughters, Helen and Estelle McKee, were born in 1905 and 1907, respectively.
Twelve years after Mabel Jessie Sandford McKee and William Goodman McKee were married, William died on June 17, 1912. Mabel Jessie Sandford McKee had 4 children ages 12, 9, 7, and 5 to raise on her own. In the 1920 United States census she is listed as a farm operator.

On the morning of December 28, 1971, a great soul went to be with her Lord, Mrs. Jessie Mabel McKee, was born November 28, 1881 in Reading, England.
She came with her family to Texas as a child, settling in Terrell where she grew up.
In 1889, she moved to Whitehall, and there, met and married Will McKee, who proceeded her in death in 1912. To this union five children were born, one dying in infancy and Verna, the eldest, killed in an automobile accident in 1917 at the age of 16.
Three children survive her: Frank McKee of Mabank and Helen Babb and Estelle Bullock both of Dallas.
Mrs. McKee accepted Christ as a young woman and lived for him many years, rearing her children in his church here in Mabank.
Thirty years ago, she went to Dallas to live with her daughter, Helen.

She leaves to mourn her going, besides these children, nine grandchildren, 12 great grandchildren, two great-great grandchildren and many relatives and friends. 

Frank Sandford McKee married Jessie Mae Johnson on August 20, 1926 in Henderson County, Texas. Frank Sandford McKee married Jessie Mae Johnson on August 20, 1926 in Henderson County, Texas.

In 1940, according to the census, the McKee family was living next door to Frank’s sister, Helen McKee Babb, and family.

Jessie Mae Johnson McKee was born on August 12, 1909 in Tool, Henderson County, Texas to Samuel H Johnson and Annie Elizabeth Mason Johnson. The Johnson’s are buried in Elmo Cemetery, Elmo, Kaufman County, Texas. Samuel Herring (as listed on his birth certificate) or Houston (as listed on his children’s birth certificates) was born in Kemp, Texas to James M. Johnson and unknown mother.

Jessie Mae Johnson McKee was the oldest girl of at least 11 siblings. The siblings in order were: Louis Finley (1904), Merideth Bennett (1906), Jessie Mae (1909), O B (1911), Winnie (1913), Alba Cecil (1917), Troy Samuel (1922), Minta, Marcelene, Jack, and Vivian. Clearly, she had a large family.

Children born to Frank Sandford McKee and Jessie Mae Johnson McKee were Billy Charles (1928), Frances Nell McKee Bednar (1929), and Ires Earl McKee (1937).

“Mabank man dies in two-car crash”
A Mabank man was fatally injured in an accident on Highway 175 in Mabank at 4:50 p.m. Sunday, bringing to 12 the number of traffic deaths in Kaufman County so far this year.
Only one traffic fatality had been reported in the county at this time last year.
Frank Sandford (sic) McKee, 71 of East Mae Street in Mabank, was driving north on Highway 175 when the mishap occurred, according to Patrolman Mike Dunn of the Department of Public Safety, who investigated.
The officer said McKee’s car struck the rear of a car being driven by a man from Mesquite, then glanced off onto the shoulder and ran into the rear of a parked car.
McKee was pronounced dead at the scene by judge A.D. Whitaker, justice of the peace for Precinct 4.
Dunn said the mishap occurred about two and a half miles north of the downtown area of Mabank, but within the city limits.
No one in the car from Mesquite was injured, the officer said, and no one was in the parked vehicle.
The last traffic fatality in the county was Noe Martinez of Terrell, who was killed in a one-vehicle accident April 11 on Highway 80 east of Interstate 20.
DPS Patrolman David Thompson reported that a pickup in which Martinez was a passenger ran off the right side of the highway and hit a fence, throwing Martinez from the cab of the pickup.
He was dead on arrival at Colonial Hospital.
The driver of the pickup, Miguel Esquivel of Terrell, although injured, reportedly left the scene on foot. 

Funeral services for Mr. Frank (Bud) McKee were held at 2 p.m. Tuesday, April 22, in the Eubank Funeral Chapel in Mabank. Rev. Dick Senter and Rev. James Jacobs officiated the services and burial was in the Oaklawn Cemetery in Mabank.
Mr. McKee died at 4:50 p.m. Sunday afternoon from injuries received when the car he was driving struck an unoccupied automobile parked on the shoulder of US Highway 175 one mile west of Mabank.
Born in Van Zandt County on April 26, 1903, Mr. McKee was a lifelong resident of Mabank. He was a member of the First Baptist Church of Mabank, and a retired farmer and service station operator.
Survivors are his wife, Mrs. Jessie Mae McKee, of Mabank, two sons, Billy C. McKee and Earl McKee, both of Mabank; a daughter, Mrs. Frances Bednar, Houston; two sisters, Mrs. Helen Babb and Mrs. Estelle Bullock, both of Dallas; nine grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
Pallbearers were Joel McKee, Ken McKee, Dennis Bednar, Bob Monn, Larry Teague, and Dick Babb. 


Funeral services for Mae Johnson McKee, age 78, of Mabank were held at 11 a.m. Tuesday in the Eubank Funeral Chapel in Mabank with the Rev. Don Bourland officiating.
Interment was in the Oaklawn Cemetery at Mabank.
Mrs. McKee died Sunday, Jan. 10, in an Athens nursing center after a short illness.
Born on August 12, 1909 in Tool, Tx., she was the daughter of Sam Houston Johnson and Anna (Mason) Johnson.
She was a lifelong resident of the Mabank area and a member of the First Baptist Church of Mabank. A retired employee of the Mabank Independent School District, she was a homemaker.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Frank S. McKee in 1975.
She is survived by two sons, Billy C. McKee of Mabank, Earl McKee of Brownsboro; one daughter, Frances Nell Bednar of Tomball, Tx.; three brothers, Alba Johnson of Elmo, Tx., Troy Johnson of Kaufman, Jack Johnson of Elmo, Tx.; four sisters, Winnie Doss and Vivian Lilliard, both of Dallas, Minta Shelton of Mesquite, Marcelene Monahan of Port Arthur, nine grandchildren and twelve great grandchildren.
Pallbearers were Terry Shelton, Eugene Teague, Tommy McKee, Bob Monn, Joel McKee and Johnny Riggins.

Ires Earl McKee married Barbara Anne Tankersley. Barbara Anne Tankersley McKee was born on June 9, 1939 in Dallas, Texas to Vernon Richard Tankersley and Eppie Opal Brewer Tankersley.

Children born to this marriage are Gary Lee (May 18, 1960), Tommy Glenn (June 15, 1961), and Paula Gaylene (November 21, 1966). 

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