Letter from Fay Rudd Chiles to Edwina Lunsford 1973
(C. Avis Catalog entry #1105)
[This letter was in the possession of Betty Lou Mooring in 2020 who emailed it back to Charles Avis. She is apparently the wife of James Mooring (not sure now he's related).]
September 5, 1973
Dear Mrs. Lunsford,
I guess I should say Cousin Edwina, as Charles Gray Little Mooring was my grandfather. Maggie Mooring married James Calvin Rudd in 1891. We lived in Temple. I was the first child born in 1892, then they second child was Charles Maples Rudd who was killed in a plane accident in 1919. He had left Rice Institute in his senior year to join the Army Air Corp. Then the next was Madge, then Hilda and Mildred. The four of us are widowed and all live in Austin with the exception of Mildred, who lives in Fall River Mass. Madge & Hilda and I all remember visits to aunt Mattie, when we started making automobile trips to East Texas to see Auntie (Ross Hall) in Nacogdoches and we would also plan to go by to see Aunt Mattie, then on the return trip to see Uncle Brown Ross. My mother was born on the Ross plantation.
I have two children, Dwight, Jr born in Fairfield, Ala and Margret [sic] Mooring (we call her Peggy) born in Temple, three months after her father's death. I had returned to Temple to live with Mother. Mother came to Austin in 1935 to be with me.
After my two children were married they wanted to go to East Texas and take their children to see where they used to go when they were little. So Hilda & her husband Dr. T. J. McElhenney and their two children and grandchildren and Martel and wife Winifred would bring Auntie and we all met at Shiro for a days picnic. Sam Hooker had the Mooring home farm site cleared of brush and we could see the foundation of the cistern where the farm housed had been and also the Mooing burial grounds with toomstones[sic] of (?) and markers for two slaves.
The children of Aunt Mattie that I know were Sam and Egbert. Sam was a bachelor and Egbert married Dell H.. When Egbert died, Dell looked after Sam and he willed the Mooring farm to Dell. I asked Dell about Aunt Mattie's bible and she said she had sent it to the Moorings in Houston. I thought it strange then that we had never known any of the Houston Moorings. I will send you the photostats of Aunt Minnie's [sic: Mattie's?] bible which you need not return.
I forgot to mention that Auntie & Mother kept in touch with Cousin Seth and Ward and we all et at Ward's new house after Cousin Seth went to live with him.
I wish I had been more help to Mother, but I had a full time job with Brown & Root, Inc.. I retired after thirty years. Dwight and family live in Dallas and Peggy and family live in Ft. Worth. They came to Austin a year ago to celebrate my 80th birthday.
Hope this has been of help to you and any exchange of information will be appreciated.
Fay Rudd Chiles