Texas History Notebook

Henrietta Chamberlain King and Her Family

Henrietta King died in 1925 and at the time, it was reported nationwide in the newswires. Today, there may be fewer people who know of her, but there are probably few Texas women who are as influential as Mrs. King was in their own part of the state. Born in Missouri in 1832, she lived most of her life in Texas, associated with the King Ranch. She moved to Texas with her blended family in 1850 where her father Hiram Chamberlain founded a Presbyterian mission church in Brownsville. She was well educated for her time and married Captain Richard King in 1854 when she was about twenty-two years old. Between 1856 and 1864, the couple had five children: Henrietta Maria (1856 – 1917), Ella Morse (1858 – 1900), Nathan Richard (1860 – 1922), Alice Gertrudis (1862 – 1944) and Robert E. Lee (1864 – 1883). The couple first made their home on the south Texas ranch in a crude block house. The ranch was located between Mexico and the more populated areas of Texas. Their wealth was tied up in the land at the time Richard King died in 1885. Mrs. King spent the next forty years associated with the farming and ranching operations which she and other family members managed. Under their leadership, the ranch prospered and grew, more than doubling in acreage.

Hotel Dieu, El Paso

Often mentioned in old newspaper accounts and obituaries is an early regional medical center in El Paso, Texas known as the Hotel Dieu. An injured or critically ill person would sometimes be noted as having been transported to the Hotel Dieu in El Paso for an operation or some other kind of treatment. It might seem to be an unusual name for a medical center, but this El Paso hospital was in business for about one hundred years.

Oliver Loving’s Family, Part 1

Oliver Loving was born in Hopkins County, Kentucky on December 4, 1812 to Joseph Loving (1786 – 1842) and Susannah Mary Bourland Loving (1788 – 1850). Joseph and Susannah were married in Kentucky around 1806. They had many children, most of whom remained in Kentucky, but Oliver and at least three of his siblings moved to Texas. Joseph and Susannah remained in Kentucky until their deaths.

1878 Texas & Pacific Train Robbery (Sam Bass Gang)

The outlaw Sam Bass was born to Daniel Bass (1821 – 1864) and Elizabeth Jane Sheeks Bass (1821 – 1861) on July 21, 1851 in Lawrence County, Indiana. Elizabeth died when Sam was ten. Sam was the third son and the fourth of seven children born to Daniel and Elizabeth. Daniel married Margaret Seibert one year after Elizabeth died and the couple had one son before Daniel died in 1864. Sam’s parents and all of his siblings except one are buried in Indiana.

The Waggoners and the Halsells

The Halsells and Waggoners were twice related by marriage. Daniel Dale “Dan” Waggoner was the husband of Sicily (sometimes spelled Cicily) Halsell and Dan’s son W. T. “Tom” Waggoner was married to Ella Halsell, sister of Sicily. Dan’s first wife and Tom’s mother was the former Nancy Moore. Nancy had died in 1853. She is buried in a small family cemetery in Hopkins County along with Dan’s father Solomon and one of Dan’s sisters. Around 1858, Dan married Sicily Ann Halsell (Ella’s older sister). No known children were born to Dan and Sicily. Nineteen years later in 1877, Tom Waggoner married Sicily’s younger sister Ella. It may sound more complicated than it is, but as a result of the marriage, Tom’s step-grandparents and all of their children became his inlaws. The Waggoner father and son had each married one of two Halsell sisters. This is not all that uncommon an occurrence, since back in the day families were often much larger and children might be stretched out over a number of years.