*My great grandparents moved from Tennessee to Powderly, Lamar Co TX sometime between 1903 & 1906. My great grandfather (William Thomas Richie) was a Primitive Baptist preacher and farmer. He traveled a preaching circuit in Texas & Oklahoma. His family was active in the Mt Pisgah Primitive Baptist church in Somerville TN. His parents Alfred Green Richie and Lavina Gateley Richie are buried next to the Mt Pisgah church outside Somerville. William Thomas was a hard man. He was hard on his children and wife. Minnie Belle became ill and he was opposed to doctors & hospitals. My grandfather Irl drove her to the train station in Paris, where she rode a train to Tennessee to be treated by a doctor. According to her death certificate, she died from stomach cancer 10 days after arriving in Tennessee. The doctor who signed her death certificate was named Parks & appears a few doors away from them on the 1900 census in Fayette county. William Thomas was on a preaching circuit at the time of her death. According to the stories, he came home, packed a suitcase and left. On the way out the door, he told the children that their mother had died. He took the train to Tennessee to bury her, but none of the children were allowed to come. Six months later he married Mattie Bunch, who according to my mother, was somewhat of a groupie on his preaching circuit prior to Minnie Belle's death. She was not very kind to Minnie Belle's children, treated them like servants & pitted them against each other. She & William Thomas had two children, Lovie May & Paul Butler. Minnie Belle's children left home as soon as possible. Two of the girls had disastrous first marriages because they married to get out of the house. My grandfather went to work for the railroad at 16 to leave home. He went to Tennessee for a while & lived with the Gateley's. He brought his younger sister Lula too, but William Thomas came to Tennessee to collect her because Mattie needed help with her own two children. When Lovie May had her first child it was in December and very cold. They lived with William Thomas & Mattie in a house that was very cold & she became ill. Her husband called my grandfather to help him get her to a hospital. My grandfather & her husband (Virgil Tolbert) had her in the car and were about to leave, but William Thomas would not allow it. She died that night. He would not allow Mattie to raise her baby, so she was raised by Virgil's parents. William Thomas was not a very nice man in my opinion, and yet the family kept in touch with him. He shared the same birthday with my mother's brother & I have several pictures taken of the two of them on their birthdays.
2006 ~ Lea Cox-Humphreys

*I guess you know about Minnie Belle's sisters, Leeanna & Frances. They both married the same man, Mack Davis. I have seen her name written several ways, but I believe Leeanna is the correct spelling since that is the way it is spelled on her tombstone and on her memorial card. When she died, Frances married her husband. My mother remembers taking a trip to Tennessee and visiting Aunt Frances. She also remembers Uncle Gooly who had a still. My mom's two younger brothers were playing in the yard with a wagon & got it rolling down the hill into a pond. My grandmother was terribly embarrassed.
2006 ~ Lea Cox-Humphreys

*All of Minnie Belle's descendants were raised in Texas and most are still in Texas, however my brother lives in Pittsburgh & I think one of Charlie's sons has raised his family in Stone Mountain, Georgia. Charlie married twice & had 8 children, 4 from each marriage. Willie married twice, but both marriages were terrible. She lived alone most of her life & worked for the telephone company. She had only one child who died as an infant. She was buried in a pauper's grave by her spiteful sister Bell, even though Claud had bought plots for both himself & Willie at Meadowbrook Gardens. Claud never married or had children. Bell had an abusive marriage, but stayed with her husband. They had 4 children. My grandparents (Irl) had a pretty good life, 4 children. He worked for General Crude Oil most of his life & had a comfortable retirement. Lula's first husband was abusive, but that didn't last long. Her first child also died as an infant. She remarried & had a very good life. They had one child.
2006 ~ Lea Cox-Humphreys

*Also, in the Chambers cemetery, there are 3 Davis children buried (Samuel Graydon, Velma Leeanna & Willie Wilson). I believe they are grandchildren of Leeanna, children of her oldest son Willie Dan Davis. In the 1910 census there is a Daniel Davis, wife Nannie listed in District 15 Fayette Co with 2 children Thelma (which I believe should be Velma) and Samuel, both of which fit with the graves in the Chambers cemetery. My mother's first name is Velma by the way, and my aunt's first name is Minnie. This family really likes to reuse names.
2006 ~ Lea Cox-Humphreys