A Little Twig from Ladonia (My Family Tree)

By Mary Katherine James Dowell -- 1987
Provided by Glenn Ann Dowell Hunt

Introduction

Each and every person whose name appears on the following pages are remembered, by me, with loving and happy memories. My fondest wishes for my grandchildren are that in later years they can look back on their childhood with the same happy recollections that I have of mine.

Children - learn all you can about your family as you are growing up. All too soon the older ones are gone, and as you grow older you can think of a thousand questions that you should have asked your parents and grandparents.

I don't suppose there was ever a girl loved more by a grandfather than Mary Katherine James. But I don't even know the name of his mother and father. That is sad but it is often true in many families. Please don't be ashamed to ask about family names, dates and everyday stories. Someday, several generations ahead, someone will be happy to know that someone cared enough to jot down everyday happenings, names and dates.

Some people say you live in the past as you grow older. That is not true in my case. Sure, I am growing older, but I'm living in the future... generations from now!

Someday I want some child to say, "Kackie wrote this for me to read and know." Who knows, I may be sitting on a cloud and grinning down on that child and wishing I had known better how to write and record my childhood happenings.

I will say this - I'll retire in a few years and my hobby and project will be finding the names of the parents of "Vinegar" Roan. Who knows, they may be horse thieves and rustlers, but I'll be proud to claim them. We should be proud of our ancestors who started out in a covered wagon to settle this great state of ours. The ones who stayed in the east are the ones who have their treasures today. But mine helped settle this great state of ours... TEXAS!

Possibly they had to throw their possessions by the wayside to outrun the enemy, but they made it and I'm proud of them. Not everyone can say they had an ancestor in Texas when it was a Republic, but I can. In fact I had two. Adam T. Miller and Bernardo G. Nowell. My heart beats faster and is full of pride when I think of them.