Re: John Henry Funson 1871m. Angeline Lawson
-
In reply to:
Re: John Henry Funson 1871m. Angeline Lawson
Tom Howard 7/06/01
22 Nov 2001:
Tom, John Henry FUSON and Angeline (Lawson) FUSON were my maternal grandparents who moved from Pineville KY to Dalhart TX in 1908.John Henry died in Jan 1952 in Dalhart.
I forget the death date of my grandmother.They were the parents of eleven children, eight males and three females.My mother, Gertie Dove (Fuson)SHINKLE was the first girl and was the eighth child born.
I have often heard my mother mention her aunt Alabama Jospehine (Fuson) SMITH.I get confused about Patsy Ann Smith because mother had a cousin we called "Aunt Judy" and my memory is not clear as to who is who.
Mother remembered her grandmother Martha Rains (Smith) FUSON very well but without kindness.Martha was a small red-headed woman who according to mom was vert stingy with children, even with a dipper of water.Mom recalls James Arthur as being a quiet and gentle man.
All were Baptists.John Henry asked his children to only do him two favors:vote Republican and follow the Baptist religion.
All of John Henry and Angeline FUSON's children are now deceased, the youngest daughter, Fern (Fuson) ENFIELD dying in Dalhart, May, 2002.There is a large number of their grandchildren living from Louisiana, to Arkansas, to Texas, to Washington, to Montana, to Alaska.
By the way, my mother cast serious doubt on James Arthur's father being James Robertson/Robeson FUSON, Jr.. Among the women of the family there was a family secret that Lucinda EVANS got pregnant by a man named either Biggs/Boggs or Vanderpool.James Robertson/Robeson married Lucinda to give her then unborn child a surname.
James Robertson/Robeson FUSON, Jr. died in May, 1864 of smallpox he contracted because he served some food to two starving Union soldiers who came to his gate and who appeared to be suffering from the disease.No one else in the family got the disease.
James Robertson/Robeson, Jr. also is usually listed as being the son of John Fuson, but the family females allow as how he was the son of James Robertson/Robeson (b. 1800) and an unknown woman, and was reared by John Henry and his wife Peggy (Garner) FUSON.
Grandfather John Henry FUSON was a logger in his young days, then a coal miner and then a farmer.After he moved to Texas he farmed until he sold the farm (Hartley County) and moved into Dalhart (Dallam County).In his last years he wintered each year with my family in Compton, California.I got close to him in those years.He smoked black Kentucky twist dry-cured tobacco (it smelled great) and talked with a soft mountain or Scots burr.He was about five feet ten inches tall and weighted about 160 pounds at his prime.He was brown-eyed.Grandma Angeline was blue-eyed.Half the children were blue-eyed and half brown-eyed.John Henry drank heavily in his younger days as did all Kentucky mountain men.Grandma Angeline got tired of the drinking, fighting, and ambushing and got the family moved to Texas.
Granddad was a quiet man, smiled infrequently, laughed seldom.Granddad was a good shot with a rifle.Grandma was a better shot with a .38 cal pistol.As a kid I once saw her kill a flying hawk attack on the wing in fast flight with one shot, and she acted as if that was routine.
My mother, Gertie Dove (Fuson) SHINKLE corresponded with some of her Kentucky relatives up until just before her death at age ninety-six in Jan 1998.One of her brothers, Seward FUSON, lived to within a few days of age ninety-four (also in Dalhart).
The cousins with whom I keep in contact are those in Dalhart TX and in Waldron, Arkansas.My generation of John Henry's descendants are almost all dead or in their late sixties or early seventies.I seem to be the only one of the clan who is interested in family genealogy.I picked it up from my mother.
You may contact me for further information at:Albert D. Shinkle, 1417 South "B" Street, Port Angeles, WA 98363-7251, email: Albert D [email protected] luck in your research of our Fuson ancestors and relatives.
Al Shinkle