Report of the Quilting Women: Craddock, Green, Simpson, McCabe, Hurley- 1930's - Robert Lee, Coke County, TX Contributed by Jo Collier 20 January 2004 Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.org/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.org/tx/txfiles.htm *********************************************************************** The Observer/Enterprise, Robert Lee, Coke County, TX, September 26,2003 Report of the "Quilting Women" by Ava Lou Davis Lela Morrow Craddock became a member of the Robert Lee Methodist Church May 10, 1907 at the age of 12 years old. She was a devoted member until her membership was moved to the First United Methodist Church in Colorado City in 1945. Through the years she taught all ages of Sunday School classes, and led many studies in the Womens' Missionary Society, now the United Methodist Women. Lela married Jess Craddock, formerly of Sanco, in 1914. Jess was a blacksmith turned mechanic when the first automobile came to Coke County. I interviewed Mary Mae (Craddock) Wylie and she gave me more information on her parents, Jess and Lela. Mary Mae (Craddock) Wylie's great grandfather came over from Germany because the government was confiscating all their property. They came to visit relatives in Sanco and stayed. They lived in a half-dugout for several years. He was a smither (blacksmith). Mary Mae's grandfather, S. S. Craddock was Sunday School teacher in the church at Sanco. Mary Mae's father, Jess Craddock, was six years old and loved to tinker with cars. One day a man drove up to the blacksmith's place in Sanco with car trouble. He asked Mary Mae's grandfather if anyone there could fix a car. He said, "No, but his son could, however, he is only six years old, but I can have him look at it if you want him to." The man said okay; so Mary Mae's father, Jess, looked at the car and fixed it. That was his first paid job. Jess Craddock married Lela Morrow in 1914. He had registered his car before that, and it was Number 10 in the district. He established Craddock Motor Co. before they married. He later changed the name to Coke Motor Co. He sold the dealership in 1944 to Cumbie Ivey. The auto dealership changed hands one more time, when Ivey Motor Co. was purchased by Billy Wayne Roe. Dear Ava Lou, I read about the quilt in the Observer and I wanted to have some input about Fanny Green. Do you remember that she was Mrs. Fred O. Green, my aunt and Frank Smith's sister. I am just going to give you some information that I have put together. I know you can't use it all, but you can decide what is fitting. Fannie Smith was born in Texas 22 April 1887. Her father, Thomas Benton Smith, was a Civil War veteran from North Carolina and her mother, Martha Adilene Osborne, was from Paris, Texas where they married in 1869. They were Coke County Pioneers. I am not sure where in Texas Fannie was born, but the family moved to Ft. Chadbourne, where they raised livestock and farmed. On the 1900 Coke County census Thomas is listed as hotel owner and five of their eleven children and Martha lived there too. This hotel was across the street from the courthouse on the north side. Fannie married a Turney, and they had one daughter, Mozelle. Mr. Turney died (I don't know his first name, but his brother was Dr. Turney). Fannie went to work at the telephone office as a telephone operator. She met and married Fred O. Green, who worked for the telephone company, too. They moved to Christoval, then later moved back to Robert Lee and stayed there where Fred O. died. Fannie lived in Robert Lee until the last few years of her life when she moved to Overton, Texas to be with her daughter Mozelle McCord. This family was very active in the Methodist Church, and Martha Adilene has a stained glass window in the sanctuary. Ava, I have a quilt that is very much like the one you have described -- a lot of the same names, but mine has Martha Smith and Lena Smith (my grandmother and aunt) on it, too. Hope to hear from you. Martha Grubenman PS: Fannie Smith Green, born 22 April 1887; died 17 Aug. 1968; buried in Overton, Texas. Dear Ava Lou - Mrs. McCabe - one of the names on the quilt top you found. I will explain who she was and what she meant to our family from our perspective. When my mother, Nellie New Simpson (Mrs. Victor Simpson) was six months old, her mother died. Her father's sister, Annie New Gary took her and her older brother. When her father remarried in 1901, it was agreed that Annie would keep Nellie as her own. This was in Walnut Springs, TX. Annie Gary and her husband, Denney, were schoolteachers there. Mr. Gary died and in 1915, when Nellie was 19 years old, Annie married Franklin S. McCabe of "The Divide", the mountain-top between Robert Lee and Water Valley. (Mr. McCabe was an uncle to Frank McCabe, who was married to Leora, I believe. There were several of the McCabes who lived on the divide. Our family also lived on the divide and we four younger ones were born there.) Sometime later they built a beautiful home in Robert Lee on Austin Ave. next door to Mrs. Grambling and across the street from Mr. and Mrs. Bell. Mr. McCabe died in 1936 and is buried on the divide by his first wife. Annie continued to live there until her death in 1952. She is buried in Robert Lee Cemetery. Annie McCabe was the "grandmother" we never had. She provided means and a haven for several of Nellie's seven children at one time or another for schooling, etc. Our family, Victor and Nellie Simpson, Gary, Arlyn, and I (the older ones had already gone their way) moved into a house just west of Annie's in 1941 when I was five years old. My mother became ill soon after we moved there, and since our house was small and I had to sleep with my parents, I started staying with my Aunt Annie every night, and that continued until I was 16 years old. I had a room of my own!!! When she had a stroke in 1952, Mother, Daddy, and I moved in with her so Mother could care for her. She died on Christmas Day 1952. Aunt Annie was a devout Christian lady and was very active in the Methodist Church in Robert Lee and very instrumental in directing our lives. She read to me every day and cuddled this little girl on those cold, wintry nights. (Remember, we did not have heat in our bedrooms back then!). Our entire family has many fond memories of her. Aunt Annie was a sweet, loving lady and "grandmother". Annelle Simpson Vick PS: She was a good friend of Eva Murtishaw, who had a car and took Annie to church. Dear Ava Lou, In reply to the "Can you Help?" in the January 24, 2003 issue of he Observer/Enteprise -- yes, I remember when my grandmother, Rena Fikes Hurley was appliqueing/embroidering a number of quilt squares. Each lady in the Melrose Russell Sunday School class was to make a certain number of squares. Then they were to eachange squares with other memebers in the class so that each lady would have a quilt top. My grandmother received squares to complete her quilt. She was so pleased with this, she even bought special material as the backing. See, for most of our "everyday" quilts, the backing was made from the flowered chicken-feed sacks. Her quilt was quilted and reserved for guests sometime before I graduated in 1950 from RLHS. The last I saw of this "special" quilt was at my Aunt Opal (Hurley) Adams' in San Angelo. I am sure some of her step-children in West Virginia or Vermont came in possession. Enclosed is a small donation to the quilt fund. Thanks for the good memory. Regards, Jean (Hurley) Rymer L;Permission granted by The Observer/Enterprise for publication in the Coke County TXGenWeb Archives.