Post script: Non-electric sewing machines

Since Alice Morgan Powell's letter of 1888 discussed her new sewing machine, it occurred to me that this was probably too early for electricity in rural Texas, so she must have been talking about a mechanical sewing machine.

I found a picture in Wikipedia of a treadle model, which apparently meant that a foot pedal was used to move the parts. That's interesting when you think about it, because the foot pedal was retained on 20th century electric models --- adapted as a way to engage the power.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singer_Corporation#Singer_Buildings

Letter from Alice Morgan to her sisters

Ione Morgan Shapard (later Covington) had three sisters, Lizzie, Emma, and Alice.  Lizzie, the eldest, moved from Louisiana to Virginia in the 1870's and was married there.  Later she and her family moved to Arkansas.

The other three moved to west Texas in the early 1880's, after their father died.  (They had been long preceded to Texas by their mother's family, the Johnsons, who migrated there from Alabama about ten years before the Civil War.)  The youngest in the Morgan family, a brother named Haynes -- after his father and their Revolutionary War ancestor -- also moved to Texas.  At this time Haynes Morgan and Onie Shapard lived in Callahan County, whereas I believe that the Mixons resided in neighboring Taylor County.

At any rate, the youngest of the sisters, Alice, had married a man named Powell and moved to Fort Davis, which is roughly 300 miles southwest of Abilene & about 5000 feet in elevation.  Emma (Mixon) had been married the longest and had several children.  Onie had recently become a widow for the second time and had a ten year-old son & a month-old daughter at the time this letter was written.  Alice herself was eight months pregnant with her first child:

Ft Davis, Tex.
Apr. 11th, 1888

Dear Emma and Onie

As Bud is fixing to [go] out there, I will just send my letter by him, as I reckon he will want to take you a little by surprise.  It makes me feel so lonely to think he is going away but know he will want to see you all and do what he thinks best.  I wanted to send the babies something, but couldn't go down in town 'tis so cold and wet, and I feel so awfull bad today I can hardly navigate.  I got Emma's ans. to my card, do hope you will all get on alright with the measles, 'tis a good time to have them.

Hope Onie is alright by now.  Think Cassie's hair looks so sweet, nearly as long as Lawrence's was, would like so much to see the sweet little thing.  Will send you all a pattern to make little shirts, under shirt waists, or you can cut it on down, and make little chemise for Vera and Mattie.  Trim round the top, and button on top of sleeve.  I made the waists of all my little shirts by it.  Have got all of my little things made at last, made one like Emma's pattern, one like Onie's, and one Mother Hubbard with embroidered yoke and sleeves, bottom ruffled with embroidery.  All think them real pretty.

Jim bought me a new machine, called the Premium, like it so well.  Runs nearly like the Singer but has all the late improvements.  Gave a Mrs. Dr. Isaacs of _____ City $25.00 for it, she got it last summer.  And I needed it right then.  Thought I would rather take it than send off and get one like Aunt Fanny, as it is nearly the very same machine.  Have got me a rocking chair also.

Drura, Wagner, Wert, and _____ are fixing to go to a dance to night.  Guess they will have a cold trip.

I want you all to be sure and write to me how you get on.  And Bud will tell you all the news, and I am bound to stop and fix up his things.  I will close for I feel so bad I can't write worth reading.  Kiss all the little children for me and be sure to write soon.

Your loving sister
Alice Powell

Cemetery in Callahan County, Texas

There are a few graves of interest listed on line as being located in Tecumseh Cemetery, Callahan County, Texas. Tecumseh was probably a tiny rural community. It is where Ione "Onie" Shapard lived, before she married Leroy Bascom Covington.

The family's graves are as follows:

Haynes J. Morgan (1863-1890), age 26, the young brother of the Morgan sisters who moved with them to Texas from Caldwell Parish, Louisiana, in the early 1880's.

Charles R. Shapard (1840-1888), age 47, second husband of Onie Morgan and father of Aunt Cassie Shapard.

Mary A. Martin Covington (1853-1890), age 36, second wife of Bascom Covington who moved with him & their children to west Texas from Robertson County, Tennessee, in the late 1880's. This is a new discovery on my part, to confirm the date of death for Mary and to know that Bascom did not arrive in Callahan County as a widower. He and Onie were said to have married each other in 1890; they lived in the community called Dudley, later moving to Abilene in Taylor County.

[Another Charlie Shapard is buried in Tecumseh, who may have been a son of Dr. Shapard from an earlier marriage. The years listed here are apparently incorrect as they are shown here, for both of the Shapard men.]

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~clearcreek/tecumseh.html

Covingtons of Tennessee and Texas

Onie Shapard's second husband Charlie Shapard died of tuberculosis; after only two years of marriage & one week after the birth of their daughter Cassie Shapard, in March 1888.  Cassie was apparently named after Dr. Shapard's sister-in-law, Cassandra or Mrs. Henry Shapard of Shelbyville, Tennessee.  So at this point in time, 30 year-old widow Onie had a ten year-old son, Lawrence Hill, and an infant daughter. 

Approximately ten years earlier in Robertson County, Tenn., north of Nashville, Leroy "Bascom" Covington (b. 1851) married his second wife, after first wife Julia Jernigan died.  The first union had produced a son, W. Leonard Covington, born in 1875.  His second bride was Mary A. Martin; they had four children:  Annie May, Olivia Adelle, Leroy "Roy," and a little boy Robert who lived only one & a half years. 

Here is a picture of Bascom & Mary Covington, circa late 1870's, in Tennessee.  Mary Martin Covington may have died when Robert was born, in 1887.  Bascom moved his children to Texas about that time.

Bascom Covington married Ione Morgan Shapard in 1890, in Callahan (or perhaps Taylor) County, Texas.  He was about 39 at that time, and she was about 32.  This couple had four (more) children, all born during the 1890's in Callahan County.  At some point while the children were growing up, the family moved into Abilene, in Taylor County.

Here is shown a picture of Bascom Covington in Abilene, circa 1900-1914.  (He died in 1915.)

Finally we have a portrait of Onie Covington with five of her children, which was taken around 1920.  Back row:  Alto Bascom Covington, Cassandra Morgan Shapard, Morgan Talmadge Covington.  Front row:  Emma Alice Covington, Mary Ione Morgan Hill/Shapard/Covington, Marie Dovie Covington.