texas women – Page 3 – Texas History Notebook

Ela Hockaday

Ela Hockaday was born March 12, 1875 to Thomas Hart Benton Hockaday (1835 – 1918) and Maria Elizabeth Kerr Hockaday (1838 – 1881) in Ladonia, Fannin County, Texas. She was the eighth of nine children and the youngest daughter born to the couple. Mr. Hockaday was born in Virginia but grew up in Maury County, Tennessee, southwest of Nashville. The couple married in Tennessee and began to raise their family there before first moving to Arkansas where he worked as a teacher before relocating to Texas prior to 1860. Once in Texas, Mr. Hockaday started a school. He was well educated and operated the school until he began to serve in the 6th Texas Cavalry during the Civil War. After the war, Mr. Hockaday seems to have mainly worked in farming his north Texas property.

Jimmie Hudson Kolp

Jimmie Allene Hudson was born April 13, 1904 in Copperas Cove, Coryell County, Texas to Robert L. Hudson (1871 – 1912) and Ollie Maye Thompson Hudson (1873 – 1961). Jimmie was the middle child of three siblings. In the 1900 census, Robert’s profession was listed as “dreyman” which was a term to describe a person who drove a flat bed wagon. In 1910, Robert’s profession was listed as being a carrier for the United States mail. No cause of death is noted, but Robert passed away two years later at the age of forty when Jimmie was just eight years old. In 1914, Ollie Maye married a doctor named William Arthur Gault (1867 – 1950). Dr. Gault had been born in Travis County and was a member of the large family that included lawman Maney Gault, who was a cousin. Dr. Gault and Ollie later settled in Electra, Texas were he continued his medical practice.

Jane Pattie

Jane Anne Rogers Pattie was born January 15, 1935 in Fort Worth, Texas and died June 8, 2021. She was a writer for over sixty years. In her career, Jane has written over 3,000 articles for more than three dozen different magazines. She has also written several books.

Dr. May Owen

Dr. May Owen was a pioneer for women in the field of medicine. She was born Lillie May Owen on May 3, 1891 to Andrew Jackson Owen (1849 – 1931) and Lillie Falkenhagen Owen (1857 – 1901) in Falls County, Texas. She was one of at least seven children of the couple to live to adulthood. The Owen siblings ranged in dates of birth from 1875 to 1898. Her mother Lillie died when May was nine years old. Her cause of death is not stated. The family story is that May worked hard on the farm even as a youngster. In this family, as with some farm families at that time out of necessity, work was valued more than education. However, in some interviews, she mentions that her father was not supportive of her educational pursuits. After her mother’s death, she was allowed to attend school in Falls County but only through the seventh grade. She then moved to Fort Worth to live with an older brother where she attended and completed high school in 1913 and earned an undergraduate degree from Texas Christian University in 1917.

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.