The Fisherman's Wife

I've written before about my grandmother, Edith Mae Wilson Fulford. She was what you would think of when you hear the term "Fisherman's Wife."

Tink and Edith 1924



When needed she worked at the Fish house and I'm sure she hung many miles of fishing nets over the years. She would also clean fish if needed. One of the paintings hanging in her house was done from a newspaper photo of her cleaning mullet in the 1950s.

Although with seven kids and nineteen grand kids she made sure there were others available for that task later in life. She would just tell us go to the dock and get a mess of fish for supper. A mess was one of those quantities that everyone understood and fish was always mullet.   

By the time I was old enough to go fishing she was almost 60. She always packed a meal when we were going out, washed the slimy fish smell from the clothes that came back and somehow had supper ready when we got home, knowing when we would be back even if we didn't. She also made sure all the kids were at church on Sunday.

She grew up on a farm in Oneco, Florida and became a fisherman's wife by accident. Her parents drove the family the ten miles over a rough shell road to Cortez, Florida several times to visit the new Church of Christ and on one of those trips she met Tink Fulford. He didn't go to church much but his parents did and they introduced her to their son. Tink already had his own fishing boat and crew and I am sure it was obvious to Edith he was going to be successful as a commercial fisherman.

 He knew how to dress up when needed and taking her on a boat ride for a tour of Sarasota Bay or the Gulf of Mexico was something most Oneco farm girls had never experienced.

Edith Fulford abt 1975

The years of being a fisherman's wife took a toll. She had multiple surgeries due to physical wear and tear and you can see how arthritis left her hands in this photo.

I always thought she was unique in Cortez. She wasn't from North Carolina like most of the residents, wasn't related to any of the other families and didn't move there with her parents or husband. I recently discovered that she wasn't even unique to her own family.

In fact Edith was the third fisherman's wife in the Wilson family. Two of her first cousins had moved from Oneco farms to Cortez before her.

Her uncle Jasper Peter Wilson and his wife Georgia Tait Wilson had a farm in Oneco and he also took his family to visit the church in Cortez.

Jasper Wilson's oldest daughter Addice Eugenia Wilson married Harry Mann, a Cortez fisherman, on November 21, 1910. They had seven children, just like Tink and Edith. The Manns moved to Ft. Myers about 1930 and then ended up in St. Petersburg where he owned a Fish house at Snug Harbor.

Harry Mann died in 1966 and Addice in 1984. They are both buried in Major Adams Cemetery in Bradenton, close to Edith's parents.

Jasper Wilson's youngest daughter Martha "Mattie" Wilson married John B. Kight from Cortez on November 25, 1915. John Kight drowned while out fishing on January 11, 1918 when a severe winter storm hit the area without warning.

John Kight's name is missing from the Cortez Fisherman's Memorial, a $50,000 statue and plaque meant to remember fisherman lost at sea. I guess folks forgot about him by the time it was unveiled in 2001.

Mattie Wilson Kight, a widow with a one year old son remarried a year after John's death to William Roydon Wedge. They moved to West Palm Beach, Florida a few years later,  Mattie died in 1983 and is buried in the Hillcrest Memorial Park Cemetery

Fox Hunter

We had a change in weather last week and it got down to the 50s at night. I guess that makes animals do things they normally wouldn't. Saturday morning I took our dogs out for a walk and turned them loose in a 3 acre field next to the neighborhood lake and a busy walking trail. I like to let them run around in the field and tire themselves out so I don't have to do it.

When they got to the middle they found a surprise in the tall grass.  A Red Fox had dug out a small hole and was laying in it, waiting for his breakfast to come by. He didn't expect two 80 lb dogs and they sure didn't expect him.

Bowden & Hunter

After all three animals ran around for a while they stopped to stare at each other. None of them had done this dance before.

I was able to get the dogs back on their leash and the fox made his exit with only his reputation as a hunter diminished by the encounter. Our dogs were proud of themselves but still hungry too after their first fox hunt.

It reminded me of stories about my wife's grandfather. Ivy Wilson Lawrence was born in 1887 and died in 1965 in middle Tennessee. He was the son of Eli Lewis Lawrence and Lassie Hall. He farmed some and had a sawmill he would move from place to place, where ever someone needed trees made into lumber but his enduring reputation is as a fox hunter.



Ivy Wilson Lawrence

He didn't shoot the foxes and the dogs didn't catch them. In fact, apparently Ivy rarely even saw the fox. It was truly the hunt that gave the thrill for both Ivy and his dogs. His son told me he never went fox hunting with him so the only memories of the fox hunts are from two of the older grand kids.

They said when they went out, in the early 1960s he would setup a small camp, let the dogs out and sit there by the fire until the dogs came back in the morning. He would stay up all night listening to the dogs barking and apparently that was a commentary only he understood on where the dogs were located and how close or not the fox was. The grand kids would normally sleep through most of the hunt and the next morning the dogs were back and they would all head home.

AARP driver

I have an 80+ year old driver in the family, who's name I won't mention. Most of the family would just as soon see this person give up the car keys. So far it hasn't happened but the multiple dents in the family car as well as in those parked nearby would probably be good reason.

Dallas Morning News Sept 28, 1923

I found a interesting driving story about my wife's great, great grandfather.



William Smith Telford was 86 years old when his motoring skills were reported in the local paper. Abilene Texas must not have had a lot of floats in the County Fair parade on September 27, 1923 when he was given a prize for being the oldest driver of a car in the parade.



William Telford was a Civil War veteran and there weren't a lot of them still around at the time so maybe that is why he won the prize.



The festivities included special recognition for Abilene Christian College and apparently Telford drove his car as part of the college festivities.



Both he and his wife were long time members of the Church of Christ and supporters of the college.








William Smith Telford

The article in the Dallas Morning News also mentions the supper planned for the local Ku Klux Klan as part of the Fair schedule. Apparently the meal for the KKK was being provided by the City, not something you see everyday.

On this date

It is always interesting to find a story about something and realize it happened on about the same date you discovered the event. I came across this newspaper article about my gg grandfather, William Rowell. It tells of an encounter he had with a band of Indians 174 years ago today.

On September 11, 1838 William Rowell was the Captain of a Florida Militia Company in the Second Florida Seminole War. Rowell moved to the Sunshine State from South Carolina in the prior decade to settle what he must have thought to be prime, uninhabited land.

Instead the early Florida settlers found the land full of Native Americans who sometimes didn't appreciate those they considered illegal alien invaders. Yes, illegal immigrants were considered a problem by the residents of the Sunshine State back then too.

I've found other newspaper articles about Captain Rowell's company but this was the first one I found in a Florida newspaper. The Floridian was published in Tallahassee, Florida from 1831 to 1848. The article has so much detail I wonder if Captain Rowell did an interview or if he had a PR man along.

The location of this encounter is shown as the head of the tide water of the Econfenee River, what we call the Ecofina today. It is located in Taylor County, just west of Perry, Florida where the river empties into the Gulf of Mexico.




Floridian Sept 22, 1838




 "Tiger Tail" aka Thlocklo-Tustenuggee was one of the more successful Chiefs among the Seminole and Miccosukee tribes during the 2nd Indian war. He was from the Tallahassee area and one of the last to surrender in 1842. There are conflicting accounts of what happened to him after that. I found newspaper articles saying he committed suicide rather than be sent west to Oklahoma, another said he died of disease in a Mobile, Alabama prison and others say he was turned loose after the war, lived to be 90 years old and died of old age in 1881 in Miami, Florida.



Company of Rowells - 2012



If the Miami story is true, William Rowell would have lived to be about the same age and died about the same time as his former adversary.

I received this photo via Facebook recently from some of my Rowell cousins who were out on the Ecofina river. I doubt they knew their ancestor had been chasing Tiger Tail's band in the same spot 174 years ago.

Just walk away...

I wrote about finding an unusual cause of death listed for a distant relative a while back. William Gannon Fulford was stabbed to death on Christmas Eve 1914 in New Bern, North Carolina.

William Gannon Fulford

I didn't know much about his family so the cause of death listed on his death certificate lead to some more research. I was fortunate to get an assist from a friend in New Bern who did some digging in the newspaper archives at the local library. She found a story from the local paper that told the story.

This is her synopsis:

"There were 3 people involved in the story: Gannon Fulford, Jesse Creel (from Seven Springs, NC) and his daughter, Laura. Gannon had gained access into Mr. Jesse Creel's house at No 3 New South Front St as an unwelcome guest. He was intoxicated. Mr. Creel told Mr. Fulford to "leave" and Mr. Fulford (aged 30) told Mr. Creel (aged 60) that he would leave when he was "ready." An argument between the three people was taken out on to the street when Mr. Creel called Mr. Fulford a "vile name" as Mr. Fulford was being led away by a witness.


Cedar Grove Cemetery New Bern, NC

That is when Mr. Fulford declared that no one was going to talk to him like that and he walked back to confront Mr. Creel and that is when Mr. Creel pulled out a blade and slashed Mr. Fulford across the throat. Mr. Fulford bled to death on the street."




I found an article in the Greensboro,NC paper that had details of Creel's capture.



Greensboro Daily News Dec 28, 1914

Breaking the Code

Patrick and Elizabeth "Kelso" Murphy were the parents of Elizabeth Murphy who married James Hendry about 1780 in Sampson County, North Carolina. Hendry was a great uncle of my brother-in-law Tom Ryon. The Hendrys migrated to Liberty County Georgia and then some of the family moved down to Taylor County Florida. 


Black River Chapel



Patrick and Elizabeth were from Scotland and arrived in Wilmington, North Carolina around 1774. Patrick Murphy was a Sergeant in the 10th North Carolina Militia Regiment during the Revolutionary War. He received a land grant for his military service and settled in Sampson County. They both died in the late 1700s and were buried in the Black River Chapel Cemetery. 


I was looking at records in Sampson County North Carolina because several of my father's family lines; Blanchard and Ezell came from there.

 A Sampson County history web page had a reference to the Murphy's unusual grave markers and doing some checking I realized there was a family connection. I'm not sure where the practice came from but as you can see the markers have a lot of information on them, if you know the code.




Original Murphy Grave Markers

 They basically carved the first letter of each word and then only a couple numbers. Patrick died first so maybe it was his idea or maybe they got a price break from the local carpenter. In any event I've never seen grave markers like this before.



If you know the code they read:
P(atrick) M(urphy) D(parted) H(is) L(ife) M(onth) T(he) 11(th) 1785 (ag)ed 66

E(lizabeth) M(urphy) De(parted) T(his) L(ife) M(onth) 8(th) 1798 (ag)ed 71



Replacement markers



The original wooden markers have been removed and replaced with one made of marble and another of granite. The originals are now on display at the Sampson County History Museum.  

Sometimes you get lucky

Luddie Garner was the sister of my great grandmother Sallie Adams Fulford. Her parents died when she was young and she and her brother Owen Dewitt Garner were raised by Capt. John Fogarty and his wife in Bradenton, Florida.The only thing I knew about her when I started doing family research was her name, the fact that she was left an orphan at age 10 and that John Fogarty named a boat after her.

Luddie Garner Bahrt

I found information about her marriage and her husband Carl William Bahrt in the Manatee County Florida Archives and with the last name Bahrt figured it would be difficult to find much else. Actually the last name turned out to be a big help.

There aren't too many people with the name Bahrt. In fact findagrave, with a listing of the final rest of over 81,000,000 million people only has 34 with the name. It is often misspelled but I've found that if you locate someone in the USA with it, they are probably related to Luddie Garner or know someone who is.

Luddie was born in 1885 in Carteret County, North Carolina and died in 1964 in Tampa, Florida. Her parents were Elijah Meadows Garner and Hope Jane Foreman.

Her husband Carl William Bahrt was a ship captain. In fact, he was known as "Captain Billy" just like the husband of her sister Sallie.  He sailed on merchant ships for a while like his father and then became a Pilot for the Port of Tampa.

Luddie and Captain Billy had three sons but only two lived to adulthood. Robert was only 31 when he died in Tampa, Florida. The other son, Carl William Jr. graduated from Georgia Tech and was an Engineer in Galveston, Texas.

About 10 years ago I sent letters to all the Bahrts I could find an address for, email and snail. It wasn't many and I got a response from several who were related to the family. There were two William Bahrts who wrote me back and both have been helpful in providing information. The photo of Luddie was provided by one of them who is her nephew.

My wife and I took a trip to Oregon this summer and enjoyed meeting Luddie's great niece who is building a house on the coast. Her grandfather Arthur Bahrt was also a Mariner and later in life a Ship Pilot so I guess she couldn't get too far from the water.