Dr. Ben Brown's Letter to Lillian Avis Baum - 1960
(C. Avis Catalog entry #81)
George West, Texas Jan 8 - 1960
Mrs. Lillian Baum and family of J. D. Avis Dec'd
?____? Friends:
Last evening I rec'd clippings from magazine sections of Wichita Times sent me by a friend of my youth, Mrs. Collie friend a long time citizen of Wichita Falls which tells of the death of one J. D. Avis a son of my childhood school mate & friend Jim D. Avis Senior in Old Montague, our childhood home, about one year ago. I wrote J. D. Dave Avis on account of death of his brother Piner Avis & Mrs. Lillian Baum wrote me a personal letter telling me aout her fathers family.
You see - my early memories go back to my childhood days, when my parents moved from Decatur, Texas to the near town, Montague and our first two weeks were spent in the home of Mr. & Mrs. C. C. White. That was in Feby 1872 and the brush had not been cut from the designated Public Square. There were four children in the White & Avis family - Mary, Jim D., Frank and Nannie Belle Avis. Mary and Jim being about 10 & 12 - Frank about 8 & Nancy Belle & I about 6 years of age. So - we were much like one big family. And thought the young Jim Avis was my ideal of a big boy - even until he was grown up to manhood & even after he was grown and married to a wonderful young woman who happened to visit an uncle in Montague & later moved to Wichita Falls, about 1884 or 5. Then in 1891 - I stopped off for a visit with the White - the Avis - Hodges family which tied me onto a job in Wichita Falls for four years. I have marvelled that those good people have in a manner been gone on for years because they were such good specimens of manhood and womanhood - while I who from early child hood was physically a poor risk, have survived. On Nov 21 I was 92 & although I have been partially paralyzed since Sept 1947 my general health is good. My recreation has been contacting friends of long ago & writing and receiving letters from them from all parts of the ?__?. Mrs. Baum please write me all about yourself your father's family. I send you snapshot made last June. So you can see how I look. Sincerely, Dr. Ben S. Brown