Happy Mother’s Day
I was fortunate to have had two mothers; both are gone but not forgotten. My birth mother Alta Puryear was born October 18, 1918. I never saw this picture of her in the “wild and wooly” attire until after her death on March 21, 1996. Seems she thought it was a bit risqué for her boys to see. My stepfather gave it to me after her death and it is my favorite picture of her taken in 1936. A life long friend of theirs thought the picture was made at the State Fair of Texas during the Centennial Celebration of Texas Independence.
My parent’s married November 23, 1935 and spent the first year on the family ranch near Spicewood, Texas. I remember stories she told of working with the livestock, which she didn’t enjoy, but, my father did. I assume that is why they chose to part ways after sixteen years of marriage.
On April 7, 1957, Ida Seaton became my other mother; she had to have loved my father because I came with the package. For forty years she worked beside my father, mending fences, tending to the livestock, and being a mother. I will remember two mothers on Mother’s Day.
Heritage Event
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- Musket Salute
Last Saturday, April 23, 2011, in Spicewood, Texas, members of the Sons and Daughters of the American Revolution (SAR and DAR), Sons and Daughters of the Republic of Texas (SRT and DRT), and The Texas State Genealogical Society (TSGS) paid tribute to Austin’s First Daughter, Elnora Van Cleve Brown (1841-1900) and her husband, Daniel Brown (1833-1919) both Texas and Travis County Pioneers.
Family and guests watched as Nick Classen, the lone bagpiper, piped the color guard of the Texas State Society SAR down a winding path to the private cemetery off FM 2322 above Lake Travis. George Harcourt of the San Antonio Chapter SAR, Master of Ceremony, read a Proclamation from Lee Leffingwell, Mayor, City of Austin. He proclaimed Elnora was the first female child born in the fledgling City of Austin on April 14, 1841.
Virginia Van Cleave of the DRT presented a bronze medallion that marks her grave as “Citizen of the Republic of Texas”. Nancy Brennan, President, TSGS, was an honored guest. The TSGS had previously recognized the family as a “Texas First Family”.
Elnora’s eulogy was given by her Great Granddaughter, Bonnie Disney, DAR and DRT. The Marble Falls native lives in Sumter, SC and is on the SC Board of Education. Daniel’s eulogy was given by his Great Grandson David Bowles, SAR and SRT. The fifth generation Austinite is the author of the Westward Sagas, a 100 year odyssey of Elnora’s family coming to Texas.
The children in attendance laid bluebonnets on the graves as Frank Rohrbough presented a floral wreath from the San Antonio Chapter of the SAR. The ceremony concluded with a color guard musket salute from the SAR. Nick Classen piped the color guard back up the winding path to the tunes of Bonnie Dundee and a Hundred Pipers.
Daniel and Elnora (Van Cleve) Brown Memorial Dedication
The Descendants of
Daniel and Elnora (Van Cleve) Brown
invite you to the memorial dedication
honoring their ancestors who were
*Citizens of the Republic of Texas*
*Pioneers of Travis County*
Color Guard will be commanded by Marvin Morgan, Commander, Texas Society of the Sons of the American Revolution Color Guard
Musket Firing
1776-1846 Period Dress Contest
Presentation by Virginia Van Cleave, Daughters of the Republic of Texas Alamo Committee Chairwoman
Sons of the American Revolution, Daughters of the American Revolution, Sons of the Republic of Texas, Daughters of the Republic of Texas, area genealogical societies, and re-enactors will participate, many in period dress.
Saturday, 23 April, 2011, 11:00 AM
Collier-Gregg Cemetery
504 Pace Bend Park Road North
Spicewood, TX 78669
Take Highway 71 to Highway 2322, which is Pace Bend Park Road; and go three miles. The cemetery, which has no sign, is behind the Pedernales Property Owners’ Association Building at the Cat Hollow entrance to Lake Travis.
For information, contact:
David Bowles, 210-490-9955
david@westwardsagas.com, www.westwardsagas.com
2810 Thousand Oaks #171, San Antonio, TX 78232
A Free Download of Spring House for Read an E-Book Week
Read an E-Book Week begins today and runs through Saturday. Many publishers and authors are offering free or discounted e-books this week to encourage readers to “read an e-book.”
Are you as surprised as I was to learn that this year is the 40th anniversary of the creation of the first “e-book”? The website for Read an E-Book Week covers the history of e-books, including the following:
It’s now 1971 and enter Michael Hart. Mr. Hart was handed a real boon – $100,000.00 worth of computer time with a Xerox Sigma V mainframe computer. He decided that the greatest value created by computers would not be computing, but would be the storage, retrieval, and searching of what was stored in our libraries. The first “e-book” was born—a copy of the Declaration of Independence. Those humble beginnings would become Project Gutenberg. Today Project Gutenberg houses 20,000 free texts and over 100,000 books are available through their partners. Today over 3,000,000 books are downloaded each month.
I’m celebrating the week by offering you a free download of Spring House: Book 1 in the Westward Sagas. You can download a PDF of Spring House here—the link will be valid this week only. Open the link, select File/Save As and save to your hard drive. Or you can visit my Smashwords page to select another format. You can also find many other free books at Smashwords this week.
Be sure to visit the Read an E-Book Week Partners page to find great offers from authors, publishers, booksellers, and websites. Many books are free and others are deeply discounted. If you’ve never read an e-book, this is your chance to do so—for free. If, like me, you’re an e-book lover, this is your chance to stock up on great books for free.
You are invited to a booksigning!
If you’re anywhere close to San Antonio, I invite you to join me and five other local authors at a group booksigning Saturday, October 30, 2010 at the All Saints Fall Festival.
The festival runs from 11 AM to 4 PM, and autographed books will be available the entire day. I will personally be on hand from 1:30 PM to 4 PM.
