Friday's Faces From the Past - Celebrating Independence Day

Celebrating Independence Day - 1980s

Standing (LtoR):  Ray Golmon, Sr., Bruce A. Edmonds, Winstead Knight

Seated (LtoR):  Bea Bryan Denham, Eva McNair Hair, Price Wilkinson, Sr., Lucille Steele Ogden

Clara Lucille Steele (1902-1993)

Clara Lucille Steele was born on September 23, 1902 in Sicily Island, Catahoula Parish, Louisiana.

She was the third child born to the marriage of Isham Alfonso "Al" Steele and Mary Virginia "Mollie" Blackman.

She was a sister to Edna who died in infancy, Mary Allye and Lena Juanita "Nita" Steele.

On June 17, 1921, Lucille married John Wesley "Wes" Ogden, Jr. in Sicily Island.

Wes was born in Clarion, Pennsylvania on April 10, 1894 to the marriage of John Wesley Ogden, Sr. and Sarah Ellen Shaw.

Al Steele gave Lucille the nickname of 'Dick' when she was just a young girl. Close friends and extended family members knew her as Dick all of her life. Even with a boy's nickname, she was one of the most lady-like women I have ever known.

Her overwhelming love for family extended to friends and neighbors.  One of my favorite memories was the sight of 'Aunt Dick' and her friends sitting in her front yard enjoying their daily visits.

Following the 1972 death of her brother-in-law, Bruce Edmonds, Lucille was appointed to fill his position as the School Board member for Ward One, Sicily Island.  She continued to hold this office through 1978.

Clara Lucille "Dick" Steele Ogden died on February 1, 1993.  John Wesley "Wes" Ogden died on February 9, 1952.  Both are buried in the Old Pine Hill Cemetery in Sicily Island.

The following children were born to the marriage of Lucille and Wes:

Sarah Virginia, 1922-2006 (m. Charles Spann Caston, Jr., 1916-2000)

Evelyn Steele, 1926-2003 (m. Robert "Bob" Stanton Rife, Jr., 1920-2006)

(LtoR) Charles Caston, Sarah Virginia Caston, Ann Caston, Lucille, Charles Wesley, Evelyn Steele Rife, John Rife, Bob Rife and Stan Rife. 

Sentimental Sunday - The Steele House

My three-great grandfather, James Luther Smith, built the original house for his granddaughter, Mary Virginia "Mollie" Blackman and her husband, Isham Alfonso "Al" Steele.  In the beginning, the house had only four rooms and a kitchen. 

The front room was built some time prior to 1900 as Mollie and Al's daughter, Mary Allye, was born in this room on March 9, 1900.  The storm cellar seen in the photograph above was built prior to 1911 by a white mustached man referred to as "the Irishman."  A long porch was built across the front of the house in 1922 by Mr. Tom Hardin and a bigger kitchen was built ca. 1925.  The side porch was built in the early 1930s. 

In 1911, Al Steele and family moved to Childress, Texas to live near one of Al's sisters, Lydia Francis "Lyd" Steele and her husband Silas Abe Greer.  While the Steele family was living in Texas, the Edmon Clark Chambers family lived in the Steele House.  In Ollie Chambers' collection of remembrances, Down Memory Lane, she recalls the following:

Our parents rented the Steele house in 1912.  That was indeed a terrible year for our family.  Mearine, Luceil, Darris and Ollie had typhoid fever.  The only help our parents could get was an old colored woman named, Annie Barkshire. 

There seemed to be many tornadoes or hurricanes at this time.  There was a storm cellar in the side yard in easy access to the front porch, in which our parents kept a lantern, plenty of matches in a can, fresh water was kept in jars or bottles, also quilts for us to sleep upon.  There were benches in the storm cellar.

Annie Barkshire always came to our house to join us in the storm cellar.  Our parents always had a big can that had a top on it, in which they kept canned foods, vienna sausage, potted meat, crackers and cookies.  If Mama had time, when we went to the storm cellar, she took cottage cheese that she had made, also fresh milk.  Fortunately, we never had to stay in the storm cellar long enough to use up all the food.  However, you can imagine with four hungry girls, Annie Barksire, and Mama and Papa, that a great deal of nourishment was consumed.

In 1912, Claude and Vivian Martin Enright were living in the Steele house where their son, Claude Martin Enright was born. 

Robert Otis Moss and Marion Smith were married in the Steele house ca. 1922. 

Sisters, Sarah Virginia and Evelyn Steele Ogden, were born in the Steele house in 1922 and 1926, respectively.

My grandparents, Bruce and Mary Allye Steele Edmonds lived in the Steele house until 1958 when they swapped houses with their son (my father), Bruce Alfonso Edmonds and his family. 

The old Steele house is gone now.  Fire destroyed it about twenty years ago.  I grew up in this house.  Many years were spent playing under the old pecan trees planted over 100 years ago by my great-grandfather, Al Steele. 

We never had to use the storm cellar for protection from tornadoes and hurricanes but it made the perfect fort for playing cowboys and indians with my brothers and friends.

Wordless Wednesday - Cousins

Bruce Alfonso Edmonds
Sarah Virginia Ogden
Evelyn Steele Ogden

Photograph taken ca. 1930

Isham Alfonso "Al" Steele (1870-1934)

Isham Alfonso "Al" Steele was born in Kosse, Limestone County, Texas on November 20, 1870.

He was the son of Francis "Frank" Marion Steele and Lucinda Chisum and the brother of Lula, Lydia Frances, Louella "Ella", Mary Allye "Madie", and Lena Rhoda Steele.

At the age of eighteen, Al Steele left Texas and headed to Louisiana where he would join his uncle, Thomas Jefferson Chisum who had moved to Louisiana several years earlier.  The trip on horseback took two weeks to complete.  Once Al arrived in Sicily Island he went to work for his uncle as a clerk in his general merchandise store.

On April 13, 1898 he married Mary Virginia "Mollie" Blackman and made Sicily Island his home.   Children born to this marriage were Edna, Mary Allye (Edmonds), Clara Lucille (Ogden), and Lena Juanita (Peck).  Al and Mollie also raised Theodore "Teddy" Stockmon after the death of Teddy's mother.

Around 1890 Al Steele had his wife's grandfather, James Luther Smith, build a house for him and Mollie.  The house originally had four bedrooms with a front and back porch.

Al and Mollie pictured with daughters Mary Allye and Clara Lucille

Additions were made to the house several years later, including a partially raised storm cellar that sat to the side of the house.

This house remained standing until it was destroyed by a fire in the early 1990s.

I grew up in this house and spent many fun-filled days playing out around the pecan trees that my great-grandfather, Al Steele planted back in the late 1800s.




Al built and operated a general merchandise store before selling it and moving to Childress, Texas in about 1910.  The family remained in Childress for a year before moving back to Sicily Island.

After returning to Sicily Island, Al Steele purchased 140 acres of land from Mr. Allie Hopkins where he built another house and farmed the land.

Around 1917 Al moved his family back to the house in town and built another general merchandise store.  This store was later owned and operated by Al's son-in-law, Wes Ogden.

Wes Ogden store

Isham Alfonso "Al" Steele passed from this life on December 4, 1934.  Thomas Jefferson Chisum died three hours after his nephew who had followed him from Texas to Sicily Island, Louisiana many years before.

Al Steele is buried alongside his wife in the Old Pine Hill Cemetery in Sicily Island, Catahoula Parish, Louisiana.

 

Mary Virginia "Mollie" Blackman (1876-1945)

Mary Virginia "Mollie" Blackman was born in Harrisonburg, Catahoula Parish, Louisiana on September 17, 1876 to the marriage of Virginia "Jennie" Smith and Joseph A. "Frank" Blackman.

Jennie died when Mollie was only two months old and Frank died two years later.







Mollie and her older sister, Nettie, were reared by their maternal grandparents, James Luther "J. L." and Henrietta Smith.

Nettie and Mollie Blackman

Nettie and Mollie Blackman

At the age of twenty-one, Mollie married Isham Alfonso "Al" Steele, of Limestone County, Texas.

The ceremony was held on April 13, 1898 in the home of  J. L. and Henrietta Smith and was performed by Rev. T. H. McClendon.  Witnesses were J. D. Usher, C. W. Fairbanks, and J. H. Knight.

The following children were born to the marriage of Mollie and Al Steele:

Edna, 1899-1899
Mary Allye (Edmonds), 1900-1969
Clara Lucille (Ogden), 1902-1993
Lena Juanita (Peck), 1915-1982

Mollie and Al Steele also reared Theodore "Teddy" Stockmon Steele (1909-1980) following the death of his mother, Laura Margaret Stockmon.  Although the 1920 census lists Teddy as an adopted son, he was never legally adopted by Mollie and Al Steele.

Mollie Blackman Steele with granddaughter, Evelyn Ogden

Mary Virginia "Mollie" Blackman Steele passed from this life on July 19, 1945.  She is buried alongside her husband in the Old Pine Hill Cemetery in Sicily Island, Catahoula Parish, Louisiana.

Mollie Blackman Steele was one of my paternal great-grandmothers.