Mrs. Elizabeth Nettie Zumwalt's Obituary

Silver City Daily Press, New Mexico
Monday, 21 April 1975
(Viewed online at GenealogyBank.)

"Obituaries
ZUMWALT: Mrs. Elizabeth Nettie Zumwalt, 96, passed away at her residence here Sunday morning. Mrs. Zumwalt was a native of Montague County, Tex., and had resided in Grant County for the past 20 years. She is survived by two daughters, Miss Nettie Zumwalt and Mrs. Ada Mayes, both of Silver City. Survivors also include three grandchildren, nine great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren. Funeral services will be held Wednesday at 2 p.m. at the Curtis-Bright Funeral Chapel with Mr. Frank Rooks officiating. Interment will follow in Memory Lane Cemetery..."

Lizzie was the wife of Charles A. Zumwalt.

1892 Newspaper Article with a Bit of Zumwalt Information

Dallas Morning News, Texas
21 September 1892
(Viewed online at GenealogyBank.)

"A Veteran of Sixty Years
Mr. Thomas Burgess, of Washington county, Arkansas, a gentleman of portly frame and pleasant address, is at present a sojourner in the family of Mr. Henry Boll, in Dallas...Accidentally meeting John Henry Brown on Sunday last, the interview developed the following facts: That Mr. Burgess was born in Roane county, North Carolina, May 12, 1815...In July 1832, being then by accident in St. Charles county, Mo., he enlisted in a company of twelve-months' "rangers," then organized and commanded by Capt. Nathan Boone, so long distinguished as an officer in the United States dragoons. The company hastened into Iowa in connection with the Black Hawk war, and there first heard of cholera at Fort Armstrong, but did not come in contact with it.

They were soon ordered to Fort Gibson, on the Arkansas, where he met Lieut. Jefferson Davis of the infantry. Capt. Boone made several scouts to the west and south. In one, in the spring of 1833, he crossed Red river and reached the head waters of the Trinity. While encamped on the Elm fork, in what is believed to be Cooke county, a day after a terrible hailstorm, a young man named Abbey (John B., he thinks)...was surrounded and carried off by a party of Indians. Capt. Boone followed them for fifteen days, finding evidence that young Abbey was still alive... [trail eventually lost & fate of Abbey unknown.]

This incident was called to Mr. Burgess' attention by Maj. Brown who as a little boy knew Mr. Jonathan Abbey, the estimable father of the young man,...and the facts were then stated by Burgess, as here given. Maj. Brown then gave the names of eight other young men in the company known to him there and afterward. They were his three cousins from St. Louis county, Mo., Harvey, William A. and Benjamin Frank Clark...William A. died in St. Louis a few years since; Harvey died in the hospital at Fort Gibson while in service; James Lester of Pike county, Mo., who died blind in Galena, Ill., in the forties; Lafayette Ward of Marion county, Mo., who settled in Jackson county, Tex., in 1837, and died not far from the close of the civil war; Noah and Gabriel Zumwalt and their nephew, W. H. H. Baldridge, from St. Charles county, all settled in Lavaca county in 1857 [1837?] and became the heads of worthy families. Noah died in 1840; Gabriel died after the civil war (Robert D. Zumwalt of Hallettsville being his son), and Harrison Baldridge died in Gonzales county a few years since.

These men, says Maj. Brown, were all good citizens and valued pioneers in Texas. The casual meeting of these gentlemen in Dallas thus proved to be of touching interest to them -- an interest that would be intensified if Mr. Burgess and Mr. Frank Clark (now 84) could meet after a separation of sixty years."

Interesting articles like that are why old newspapers are a valuable resource for fleshing out your family history!

Surname Distribution (Saturday Night Genealogy Fun)

For this week's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun, Mr. Randy Seaver sent bloggers on a mission to find out the geographical distribution of a surname using Public Profiler.

There were really no surprises for me. The top country for LINCECUM was the United States with 1.3 FPM (frequency per million).

The top region within the USA was the state of Louisiana with 40.71 FPM. Texas followed with 14.57 FPM. My home state pretty much counted me and that was it. :-) The top parish in Louisiana was Grant. Not surprising, since there is actually a town named Lincecum located there.

An interesting note to me was the forenames. Three of the top five are the names of my grandfather, father, and brother.

I tried to do a search on LINSEYCOMB, since that is the spelling supposedly used by my immigrant ancestor before it was changed soon after arriving in the United States. The result was "We could not found an exact match for 'LINSEYCOMB'. Please search again."

Since I've been researching my collateral line of ZUMWALTs a lot lately, I plugged that name in as well. The top countries were the United States (11.94 FPM) and Canada (2.06). Germany was 5th with 0.04 FPM. I expected that to be a good bit higher since the name has German roots.

The top states were Oregon (86.74 FPM) and Oklahoma (79.73 FPM).

Finally, I again see the top forename in my family history. Robert gets the honors, and I just hours ago posted about Robert Dowling Zumwalt.

Robert Dowling & Amanda Ann Floyd Zumwalt

Two more confirmations of burial sites, and two more death certificates. Isn't the Internet grand?

At rest in the Evergreen Alameda Cemetery; El Paso, Texas are the mortal remains of Robert Zumwalt and his wife Amanda Floyd (section L, lot 195, places 8 & 9). Memorials for both can be found on FindAGrave.

FATHER
Robert Dowling Zumwalt
July 20, 1846
Aug 16, 1926
-------------
MOTHER
Amanda A. Zumwalt
Dec 17, 1855
Nov 7, 1919

Robert D. Zumwalt passed away 16 August 1926 at the Masonic Hospital in El Paso, Texas. (Note: there is also a Mason symbol at the top of Robert's tombstone in Evergreen Alameda Cemetery.) His cause of death was "carcinoma of stomach." Robert had been a resident of El Paso for fifteen years, and his street address was 3715 Clifton St.

Robert was born 20 July 1846 in Hallettsville, Texas to G. Zumwalt. The informant, Roberts's son Sam, was not able to provide the name of Robert's mother. However, the record states she was born in Holland.

Amanda Ann Zumwalt's death certificate contained less information. I was hoping it would provide the names of her parents, but it did not. The informant was Amanda's daughter Carolyn, but that information was either unknown or simply not provided. There is also a discrepancy regarding her birth date. The death certificate lists it as 17 December 1854. The date engraved on Amanda's tombstone has a year of 1855. The document did confirm her death date and burial information. Amanda's birthplace was listed as Texas, and she passed away at her home -- 3715 Clifton Street, El Paso, Texas.

Federal census records of 1900 in Hallettsville, Lavaca County, Texas (e.d. 84, pg 6A, family 111) state Amanda was born in Kentucky. She and Robert had seven living children: Luella, Claud, Sam, Edward, Fay, Julia, and Carrie.

Census records of 1860 and 1870, both from Lavaca County, Texas, list Robert's father as Gabriel and his mother as Elenor. In both instances, Elenor's birthplace is listed as Missouri. While it does not seem to fit with the birthplace of Holland provided for Elenor on her son Robert's death certificate, I did find out there is a town in Pemiscot County, Missouri with that name. Maybe there's the connection?

The 1860 census provides names of siblings of Robert Zumwalt: Phoeby, Henrietta, and Edward. Phoeby (age 22) and Henrietta (age 15) were listed as "spinsters." Really. I wonder, at what age did the census taker think they should have been married?

Tragedy & Irony in the Death of Ben Zumwalt

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a post about Isaac and Elver Zumwalt. They were laid to rest in Nichols Cemetery, Ingram, Kerr County, Texas. Also located in Nichols Cemetery is a granite marker memorializing the son of Isaac and Elver pictured here. His name was Ruben F. Zumwalt. I had found Ruben and his parents in 1920 and 1930 Kerr County, TX census records, leading me to believe Ruben had been born about 1914-5. According to his stone, however, "Ben" was born 21 June 1919. His death date was listed as 20 May 1943.

The picture of Ben on his memorial, as well as his year of death, led me to search the World War II Honor List of Dead. Sure enough, I found him. TSgt Ben F. Zumwalt from Kerr County, Texas "died, non-battle." I assumed he died of sickness or something like that. I was not prepared for what I found next.

A casual search of Ancestry's Historical Newspaper Collection resulted in an article from the San Antonio Light (Texas) dated 21 May 1943:

2 Texans Die In Chicago Plane Crash
The public relations office of the Fort Worth army air field Friday had disclosed the names of the nine crew members and of one of three passengers aboard a B-24 army bomber which crashed into the world's largest illuminating gas storage tank at Chicago Thursday.

Bodies in the wreckage were consumed in a blaze which destroyed the 500-foot tank surmounted by a 50-foot air beacon.

The bomber, groping its way at only 100 feet altitude through unfavorable weather, smashed into the tank filled with 18,000,000 cubic feet of illuminating gas, causing an explosion that rocked southwest Chicago.

HEAT INTENSE.
Flames shot hundreds of feet. They were followed by a dense pall of smoke which spread over the region as tar used for sealing the tank burned and smoldered.

The tank, except for about 100 feet at the base, was demolished. Huge pieces of steel plate, some of them as big as the front of a two-story house, were hurled 100 yards or more.

The heat was so intense that temperatures rose for nearly a mile away. Windows in some of the homes in the sparsely settled section were too hot to touch.

HEAVIEST TOLL.
...The toll of 12 dead was the greatest in any plane disaster in the Chicago area.

The flight was in charge of Capt. James R. Gilcrease of Fort Worth, commanding officer of the 1014th squadron and a flight instructor.

Others of the crew:
Second Lieut. David S. Alter, an instructor from Pittsburgh, Pa., who was married about six weeks ago. His widow resides in Fort Worth.

First Lieut. Harry B. Messick Jr., of Indianapolis, who was in charge of navigation section of the field's ground school and navigator for the flight. His wife resides in Fort Worth.

TWO TEXANS
Second Lieuts. Frederick L. Dutl of Wadsworth, Ohio, and John C. Wallace, son of Mrs. Henrietta Wallace, of Luling, student officers.

Pfc. Nick Lonebar of Wierton, W.Va.; Sgt. Arthur A. Huber of Queens, N.Y.; Staff Sgt. Norman W. Yutzy, Canton, Ohio, and Technical Sgt. Ben F. Zumwalt of Ingram, Texas, aerial engineers.

The identified passenger was Capt. A. W. Lent of Hamilton field, Calif...

That was certainly a tragedy. Here is the irony from a Dallas Morning News (Texas) article dated 26 February 1942, less than 15 months before Ben's death:

Reads Own Obituary, Enjoys It, Too, Writes Pearl Harbor Survivor
KERRVILLE, Texas, Feb. 25 -- How it feels to read your own obituary in your home-town newspaper is described in a letter received here from Ruben Zumwalt, Kerr county youth attached to the Pearl Harbor naval base in Hawaii. In mid-December official report from Washington to Zumwalt's parents said he had died as a result of the Jap attack on Dec. 7. The young man's obituary was published locally before mail from him definitely established that he was still alive, and that the government report was in error.

Upon reading the obituary published here, young Zumwalt wrote back, telling his feelings. "I could not help grinning a little when I read it, and enjoyed it immensely," he wrote. "Realizing that it is a rare thing for a man to have the opportunity of reading his own obituary, I thought you might like to know I appreciated it." In closing he said he hoped the obituary wouldn't have to be reprinted "for a long, long time to come."

Sam Zumwalt's Death Certificate

I found Sam Zumwalt's death certificate at FamilySearch.org this morning. The only information I had on him prior to finding this was his name as well as the names of his parents (only his mother's first name). Working backwards pays dividends again!

Samuel A. Zumwalt died at the Providence Memorial Hospital in El Paso, Texas 21 June 1969. Cause of death was bronchopneumonia. El Paso was the city Sam had lived in for 49 years. His usual place of residence was 811 West Sunset Drive.

Sam was married, and he was retired from "Southwestern Cem."

Sam was born 1 October 1884 in Lavaca County, Texas to Robert Dowling Zumwalt and Amanda Floyd.

The informant given for the above information was Eva Zumwalt. This quite possibly was Sam's wife.

Samuel A. Zumwalt was interred at Restlawn Memorial Park in El Paso, Texas 23 June 1969.

Wildy Zumwalt's Hunting Accident

While searching through FindAGrave, I found a memorial (#28962256) for Wildy Zumwalt. He was a son of Thomas Zumwalt and Pauline Paul. Wildy was listed as being buried in Angus Cemetery in Alto, Lincoln County, New Mexico. His death date was 13 December 1914. I knew Wildy was born about 1896, so what caused his life to be cut short? Included on Wildy's memorial was an image of a newspaper article. Neither the name of the newspaper, nor date of the article was given. I'll have to try and locate that information. Nonetheless, here is a transcription of the article:

"Twenty-third Hunting Accident
Santa Fe, Dec 12 -- The twenty-third serious gunning accident in New Mexico this fall, resulted in the death of Wildy Zumwalt in the Capitan mountains, the fatal bullet being fired accidentally by Harry Little. The two young men while out gunning separated and coming around a little knoll Little saw what he supposed to be game moving among the pinyon brush. He discharged his gun and Zumwalt fell dead."

I've submitted a tombstone photo request.

Tracy Prine Fletcher, a Grand Aunt She Was

We lost my Grand Aunt Trace a few days ago. She was the daughter of Sam and Cora Watts Prine, and the wife of Raymond Fletcher. Her funeral was scheduled for this afternoon.

Most of my few visits with Aunt Trace were when I was younger. She left an imprint on my heart, however. I remember a strong woman who said what she meant, meant what she said, and didn't mind sharing her opinion. I also remember a loving and hard-working woman who took care of her own, and did it well.

She was a well-liked fixture in her hometown of Ava, Missouri and will be missed by many.

We love you, Aunt Trace! Please give hugs and kisses to Cindy for me.