Oral History

Avis interviews at Wichita Falls Golden Jubilee
(C. Avis Catalog entry #660)


Taken from the Golden Jubilee compilation of pioneer interviews (p. 17, 18):
 

PIONEERS REMEMBER

Interviews from the GOLDEN JUBILEE

CELEBRATION

HELD IN WICHITA FALLS, TX

September 25, 26 and 27, 1932

Written by the PIONEERS 

Compiled, edited and transcribed by Mary Anna (Renfro) Kearby

Published by N. T. G. A. – 1998

Name: DAVE AVIS
Address: Route 6, Wichita Falls, Clay Co., TX
Place of Birth: Wichita Falls, TX
Date of Birth: 9 Sep 1887
Place of residence prior to coming to Wichita Falls territory: No entry
Date of arrival in Wichita Falls territory: No entry
Place of residence on arrival in Wichita Falls territory: No entry
Remarks: Livestock raising.

Name: F. PINERAVIS
Address: 1105 Taylor St., Wichita Falls, TX
Place of Birth: Montague, TX
Date of Birth: 17 Dec 1885
Place of residence prior to corning to Wichita Falls territory: Montague, TX
Date of arrival in Wichita Falls territory: About 10 Dec 1886
Place of residence on arrival in Wichita Falls territory: On Avis ranch located north of Holiday creek
from the Havener swimming pool, a few years after that the family moved on the corner of 16th and
Austin Streets.
Remarks: Finished the grammar schools of this city, finished years business college at Bowie, TX.
Went to work for the First National Bank of this city on or about 1905, on or about 1st of 1911
bought half interest in the Avis Hardware Company located on Indiana Ave. in this business for
about seven years, played the oil game thereafter until January 1st, 1932, since then have been with
the Star-Micks Furniture Company.
Was married to Miss Lena Matlock of Nocona, TX, March 7th, 1912, have one child Camille Avis,
who is now 19 years of age.
I am the oldest son of J. D. Avis and wife who are both living, now residing in Wichita Falls, who have
lived in this county since 1882.

Name: J. D. AVIS
Address: 1318 - 10th St, Wichita Falls, TX
Place of Birth: Montague, Montague Co., TX
Date of Birth: 1861
Place of residence prior to cxraiing to Wichita Falls territory: Montague
Date of arrival in Wichita Falls territory: Sep or Oct 1882
Place of residence on arrival in Wichita Falls territory: Camped on Holiday Creek above where White
Sanitarium now stands. Fall and winter of 1882 and spring of 1883.
Remarks: Have been a member of Masonic order since Feb 1884. Have received all the degrees from
the first to the 33rd inclusive. Have served as member of City Council years ago, also as County
Commissioner. Have served eight years as Legislator from this district. Have been engaged in the
grocery, hardware and also oil business. During all the time the cow business was my principal
business, in which I am still engaged. Drove trail herds from 1881 to 1900 inclusive.

Name: MRS. J. D. AVIS
Address: 1318 - 10th St, Wichita Falls, TX
Place of Birth: Virginia
Date of Birth: 22 Jan 1865
Place of residence prior to corning to Wichita Falls territory: Grayson Co., TX, then Montague
Date of arrival in Wichita Falls territory: Aug 1885
Place of residence on arrival in Wichita Falls territory: Two miles south of Wichita Falls, TX
Remarks: Came here and lived on ranch until 1900 when moved to town to educate children.

Naming of Alva Willingham Avis as recorded by him
(C. Avis Catalog entry #423)
(Document #195)

When the now Alva Willingham Avis was born - his mother had a mid-wife whose name was Mrs. Willingham (affectionately known as Mrs. Willie) - his mother wanted Mrs. Willie to name the baby.  Mrs. Willie became very attached to the Avis Edison graphaphone thinking it was one of the seven wonders - So Mrs. Willie wanted to name the baby Alva Edison - but the mother wanted Willingham so the baby was named Alva Willingham.

Three orphan boys born in North Carolina.

•     Blunt (or might have been Blount in my opinion)
•     Sharp Roberson
•                                      } reared by the oldest - Blunt

•     Bill Roberson

They built mills during the time of water power before steam.  Rather they were contractors and builders.  Scotch and English descent.

Grandfather Sharp Roberson was a man of means when came to Texas but failed to make enough money or raise enough crops to care for his family and negroes before the negroes were freed.

Grandfather Sharp Roberson married Rebecca Kennedy in Murray County, Tenn. about 1845 or 1846. Moved to Young County, Texas in 1857.  Settled where Eliasville is (or was)(?) near Olney or Graham.

The Kennedy's were of Irish descent - Great Grandfather Kennedy was reared in America. Rebecca Kennedy's mother was from a family named Young.

Willie Kennedy or family might still live in Olney-Graham area.

Willie Kennedy was associated with a bank in Olney or Graham many, many years - not sure he is living but he had some children.
 
 

Hodge Memoirs by William Brown Ross (1847-1934)
(C. Avis Catalog entry #61) 

Note the explanatory comments in brackets - Charles Avis
 

Hodge Memoirs

Tradition says that the Hodge family was of Welsh origin. The first from whom we trace descent was John Hodge [further research confirms that the chronicler means John's son, William] who with his wife, who was a Mary Eliott, settled in Pennsylvania about the middle of the eighteenth century. Of their antecedents nothing is known, though its is said that the name of the family originally was Hodges.  John Hodge's family [here again he should say John's son, William] consisted of six sons, John, Eliott, Alexander, my great-grandfather, William, Robert, and James, and four daughters, Mary who married a Boyd Nancy who married Elijah Alcorn Betsy who married Murdock and Cynthia who married William Barnhill in York District, South Carolina in 1790. Of the relative ages or places of birth of the children nothing is known except that Alexander our great-grandfather was born in Pennsylvania in 1762 and Cynthia who was the youngest of the family was born in Maryland in 1776. If the custom then common was followed of naming the oldest boy for the father and the oldest girl for the mother it is probable that John was the oldest son and Mary the oldest daughter.  Of John, William and Robert we know nothing. Of James we have the tradition that he died in childhood. Eliott and his family were massacred by the Indians at Ft. Mims Ala in August 1813. Of the daughters we only know of the Alcorn and Barnhill families. 

The original John Hodge [here again he should say John's son, William] seems to have moved with his family from Pennsylvania to Maryland thence to North Carolina and then to York District South Carolina where Cynthia was married. 

Whether the original John [here again he should say John's son, William] and Mary Hodge, either of them lived to accompany the family in these movements is unknown, But the children of Alexander Hodge have it from him that in his youth he saw service in South Carolina as a partisan Ranger under either Marion or Sumter. (The name of my brother Francis Marion a great-grandson of Alexander Hodge would indicate that it was Marion). I put this last in on my knowledge of hearing my own mother talk about the family. 

About 1788 he Alexander Hodge son of John [William] and Mary Hodge married Ruth a daughter of Archie and Ruth Hodge but no relation. This Archie Hodge was an Englishman born about 1740. Ruth his wife was an orphan of whose age or parentage nothing is known and her life beginning in mystery was destined to a sad ending stricken with paralysis she fell into the fire and was burned to death in the spring of 1798 shortly before the birth of her granddaughter Ruth Hodge Harris who died in Houston Texas 1885 - Mrs. Sydnor's grandmother.

The family of Archie and Ruth Hodge consisted of three sons Archie John and Isaac and of three daughters Ruth and Nellie, twins, and Nancy who married a McCloy and was the ancestors of the McCloys of Richmon Texas).  Isaac was drowned in early manhood. Of Archie and Nellie nothing is known.  Ruth married Alexander Hodge as stated and her Father after the death of his wife passed the remainder of his days with them and it is believed that he died in Kentucky.

Alexander Hodge moved from SC to Georgia, whether before or after his marriage is not known, settled in Oglethorpe County where all of his, except the youngest, of his children were born, about 1808 he removed from Ga to Christian Co Ken, all of his family accompanying him where remained here for about seven years and where Lucinda, cousin Walter's mother, his youngest child was born, and where Archie his oldest son and Nancy his oldest daughter, were married and two of his grandchildren were born.

In 1815, he removed to Laurence Co Ark now Randolph, passing across the southern part of Ill. The news of the battle of New Orleans was received while crossing the Miss River. He remained in Ark about 10 years,where the rest of his family born in the last century were married.  In 1825 he with his entire family including the married sons and daughters moved from Ark to Texas stopping en route however long enough to raise a crop on the Red River. They removed to Brazoria Co. Here he remained until the close of the war of Tex Independence where with most of his family connections, which had by this time become quite numerous settled on his league of land in Ft Bend, Co where he died here in August 1836. His wife Ruth our Great-Grand Mother who was born in 1769 having died about five years previously in 1831.

His family were

Archie born Oglethorpe Co. Ga. 1790 
William " " " " 1792 
Nancy " " " " 1794 
John " " 1796 
Ruth " " 26 July 1798 
Alexander Eliott " " 3 Mar 1800 
Mary " " " 1801 
James W. " " " 1803 
Cynthia " died in childhood 1805
Lucinda, born in Ky, Nov. 26, 1809.

William Hodge married Maggie Welch. They had two children Mary and Ruth. Second wife was Rachel Marshall.  Had one son, William Hodge (Uncle Billy). William Hodge died in December 1826. Mary married Ely F. Ross. 

Children were
Catherine Francis, May 1847
Brown etc. 

[On the back of the last page, written in a different hand (probably that of Margaret Mooring Rudd):]

Mrs. Sydnor's Grandmother, Ruth Hodge Harris
Mother's Grandfather William Hodge - brother & sister.

Letter from Billie Culwell Avis to Frances Brown 1987
(C. Avis Catalog entry #659)

April 12 1987

Dear Mrs. Brown,
I was so pleased to hear from you several months ago.  

I have always wished to track down the Avis family.

I have not had time to pursue this as much as I would like but I have been visiting with family here - visiting cemeteries etc.  I am sending you what I have so far and I will continue to work on this.

I am inclosing the sheet you sent - as well as the descendants of the 1st James David who came to Texas and landed in Montage Texas.

All we know about him is that he moved from Maryland to Missouri as a small child - He came to Montage as a young man - and married Mahala Catherine Webb.  They had a general store and lived in a log cabin that was fortified by a tall stockade fence for protection against Indian raids - Mr. Avis died as the results of wounds inflected in an Indian raid.  They had four children - Mrs. Avis carried on in the store but soon married a Mr. White who came to the store as a salesman.  They moved to Wichita Falls - in 1890s and were very successful in a general store there - as well as ranching and other interests -

As you well see from my inclosed family tree - the Wichita Falls Aviss did not keep up with the Aviss who moved to California and to Hereford Texas -

James David Avis - Wichita Falls, Tex
Frank Avis - to California
Della Avis Palmer - to California
Belle Avis Hodges - to Hereford

I will write again as I track down more information -

Yours
Billie Avis
Mrs. James David Avis IV

Conversations with Fay Rudd Chiles about Rudd/Mooring family (as recorded by C. Avis)
(C. Avis Catalog entry #344)

Moorings came from East Texas.  Grandfather Mooring tried a lot of things, and ran a hotel in Temple.

J. C. Rudd married a girl named ____ in Tennessee.  He came to Texas and married again.  He lived as a bachelor around Lampassus.  He had business in Temple.

Mother, Maggie Mooring, got her teacher's certificate at Huntsville with Auntie (Ross Mooring), but on Christmas vacation she met J. C. Rudd.  Grandfather Mooring forbad the marriage, but Grandmother Mooring told Maggie to go see priest in San Antonio to discuss it.  They were married in San Antonio by the priest.  

Grandfather Mooring wouldn't let Grandmother Mooring have anything to do with the couple.  When their first child, Fay, came, things were mostly OK.

Aunt Bert (Alberta Mooring), daughter of C. G. Mooring and Francis C. Mooring, was wild.  Eventually, something shameful happened and her father, Grandfather Mooring, shot a man.  He was on trial and moved to Mineral Wells and established a hotel.  Bert was sent to a Galveston Convent.

Charles Gray Mooring and James Seth Mooring walked back to Texas from the Battle of Second Manassas.

Charles and Maggie Mooring had three daughters:  Margaret Gray Mooring, Sara Ross Mooring and Alberta

Aunt Sara Ross married J. Thomas Hall.  They had a son Martell Hall who married Winifred Andrew.  Martell and Winifred had three children:  Andrew, Andrena and Richard.

Conversation with Mildred Rudd Ragsdale about Moorings(as recorded by C. Avis)
[C. Avis Catalog entry #112]

<The 'Grandfather Mooring' mentioned below was Charles Gray Little Mooring father of Ross, Margaret (Mildred's mother), and Alberta (Bert) >

"Auntie" was Ross Mooring Hall, the mother of Martel Hall.

Grandfather Mooring had a hotel in Temple. His daughter Bert (Aunt Bert) was 12 or 13 when a salesman molested her in a room of her father's hotel.  Grandfather Mooring was tried for killing the man, but was acquitted.  Bert went to a Catholic convent in Galveston.  Her first husband was Pat Moran (Irish), who died of TB in New Mexico.  She became a saleswoman and married Wm. Thurston.  She died of cancer in New Orleans.

Mildred later said that Grandfather Mooring didn't kill the man, only shot him.  Then Grandfather Mooring moved to Mineral Wells, Texas where he opened a small hotel-boarding house.

Death of Fay Rudd Chiles by Charles Avis
(C. Avis Catalog entry #363)

Fay Rudd Chiles (Mrs. Charles Dwight Chiles) died in Ft. Worth, Texas on 9-16-1980.  She died of pneumonia after being hospitalized for about a week.  She had been in a nursing home in Ft. Worth for several years.

cca  9/16/80

Conversations with Fay Rudd Chiles about Chiles Family
(C. Avis Catalog entry #355)

Her husband, Charles Dwight Chiles, told her this about his family:

C. D. Chiles' grandfather, John Lewis Chiles, raised and raced racehorses.  He owned an apartment in the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York for use only by himself and trainer when in New York for races.  John (or maybe another grandfather or great-grandfather) died while returning home on horseback drunk from a poker game.  He fell off the horse into a snowbank and froze to death.

Fay and husband took a train to Galveston after their wedding ceremony to catch a ship to New York.  The ship left early without them to miss a storm near Florida.  It encountered the storm and all baggage was lost, but passaegers and ship were saved.  They stayed in the Galvez Hotel until time to arrive in New York for their reservations.

C. D. Chiles' father, Charles Chester Chiles, was born in Falmouth, KY.  He had a cousin in Cincinati working for a railroad.  He got C. C. Chiles a job with the Q & C railroad to Birmingham, AL.  He became prominent and honorary Chief of Police.  He married Lena Rose Nave.  Her mother, Mary Ayres Nave, ran a boarding house in Birmingham.  

C. C. Chiles was an engineer and became a dispatcher on the railroad.  He replaced an engineer on a run.  There had been flooding and the train jumped the tracks and he was killed. 

James Calvin Rudd -- May 21, 1850 - May 7, 1921
by Mildred Rudd Ragsdale 1991
(C. Avis Catalog entry #457)

The question "Will you tell me something about my grandfather" from Dwight and the interest of Charlie Avis has prompted this effort.  I am now 85 years old and my father, James Calvin Rudd, died when I was 16, so with 69 years of memories I may mix up facts and fantasies, but this is as I remember him.  I am using this line-paper to help make this legible.

First, a bit of information.  He was born in Madisonville, Tenn., the youngest of seven children.  After or during the war, they moved to Dalton, Ga. where his father died.  Later he went to Tenn. where he married and had two children, "Sister Maude" and "Brother Lowrey".  When he was divorced, he went to Texas to start anew with the help of James Calvin Maples, his uncle for whom he was named.  Also his mother, Rachel Caroline Maples Rudd, had moved to Pittsburg, Texas to live with her oldest daughter, Sarah, who had married Dr. Bailey.  (They had one daughter and all are buried in the Pittsburg Cemetery, which Fay, Hilda and I visited in 1970).  Next he went to Lampassas, Tx where he married again, but lost his wife and baby in childbirth.  He then went to Temple where he met our mother "Maggie", Margaret Gray Mooring.

In stature he was just over six feet tall, straight and commanding with broad shoulders.  He had blue eyes, fair skin, curly light brown-grey hair and a bald head;  he wore a mustache and a trim beard, which I remember as grey-white.  He was particular about his dress, especially his shoes and "Stetson" hats.

Our father never had an office or a special business, but he was always involved.  He had many real estate properties from rent houses to an office building.  He had an "opera house" and a hotel near the railroad that later included "The Harvey House"; a saloon, an open-air picture show, the first car garage with a mechanic and gas.  He also helped people set up businesses such as an ice cream parlor and a fruit store.  At the ice cream parlor, after he was no longer connected, they still kept "Captain Rudd's" special bowl for him.  The rest of us had saucers.

His interests and hobbies were varied.  His horses and dogs were probably next to his family.  He enjoyed camping and fishing with both family and friends.  He loved the trains and travelled extensively including New York, Washington, Atlanta, New Orleans, Chicago and Denver.  Often Mother went with him.  He was interested in circuses and circus eople and had many friends among them.  Several times he joined them for a week when they left Temple.

Dad had no formal education, but he was a self-educated, well read and had a beautiful Spencerian penmanship.  He was soft spoken, firm and even tempered, a family oriented man who loved his children, but let us realize that his wife was perfect in his eyes.  He adored her and deferred to her in all decisions concerning the children and the running of the house.  It was a happy home.

Our father loved his daughters and was proud of us in every way, giving of himself whenever asked, but we all knew there was no one like Brother.  He was the jewel of the family to all of us;  each and everyone!  When he was killed in the army airplane he was piloting Nov. 12, 1919, there was a change in our parents and in our home life.   The warmth and love was there but the sun did not shine brightly.

In May or late April of 1921, Daddy's cold developed into pneumonia and he died on May 7th.  His obituary in the Temple paper tells of the love and respect accorded him.  Thank you, Charlie, for sending me a copy in 1989.  Mother buried her husband, her son and her sister, Alberta, all from our home in 18  months.  Her life changed completely.