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Opening the Christmas Memory Box

Image: rawpixel Winter-like temperatures finally reached Texas this weekend, and we're currently hovering in the 30s. The cold turns my mind towards the Christmas holidays and fond memories of when our kids, Anne and James, were young.  How excited they were...giddy with anticipation of the holidays. As parents, Jim and I loved introducing the kids to various traditions that we grew up with, as well as all the beautiful symbols and signs of the holidays that surrounded us everywhere we went. What a fun and wonderful time to be a parent and to be able to share the loveliness of the season with them! I have so many wonderful memories of the kids and the holidays. Here's a few that I cherish. Annie, about 1995. At the time of my first memory, we were living in Winona, Minnesota, in a little house on East 7th Street. It was about 1995. When Jim and I were first married, my mother gifted us with a Nativity set that we faithfully put up at the holidays. The set found its place on on...
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GENEALOGY CHALLENGE 2021 - Wedding Photo



GENEALOGY CHALLENGE 2021

Wedding Photo - January 5th entry of a 31-day challenge to post a document, photo or artifact on social media every day in January.


By Nancy Gilbride Casey


Today's entry is a wedding photo of my husband's great grandparents, William Roy Stephen (1886-1971) and Dessie D. Stallings (1890-1966). They were married on 18 April 1911 near Fort Stockton, in Ward County, Texas.1 The original photo was at the time in the possession of my husband's uncle, the couple's son, Earl Stephen (1924-2008).

A wedding announcement in The Dublin Herald shortly after the couple wed noted:
 
"Mr. Stephen is an Erath County product, but has spent the major portion of the past five years at Ft. Stockton, where his good fortune developed to such a degree as to enable him to win a wife, a winsome young lady who was considered one of the bells of that section."2
 
William Roy Stephen was born in Dublin, the grandson of William Franklin Stephen, one of the early pioneers of Erath County. William Franklin Stephen was, in turn, the brother of John Miller Stephen—one of the founders of Stephenville. 

Dessie Stallings was the daughter of William Dixie Stallings and Arah Huffman Roe Stallings, and born in Ward County, Texas.

The wedding article (below), notes that it had been excerpted from a longer article published in the Pecos Valley Irrigationist; I've searched high and low for that publication to obtain more details on the couple, but have had no luck to date. Any fellow researchers out there know where to find a copy, printed 21 April 1911, let me know!
 

 

 
NEXT UP:  A military record.


1 Pecos County, Texas, Record of Marriages, Vol. 2, p. 173, Marriage of Roy Stephen and Dessie  Stallings, 18 April 1911. 
2 "Stephens-Stallings," The Dublin Progress (Dublin, Tex.), Vol. 22, No. 48, Ed. 1 Friday, 14 April 1911, p. 8, col. 5; digital image, The Portal to Texas History (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth593518/m1/8/ : accessed 4 January 2021).
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  1. AmandaJanuary 5, 2021 at 3:22 PM

    Retired Tarleton librarian and archives manager here...I did a search in the US Newspaper Directory at the Library of Congress' Chronicling America site. The newspaper was actually called the Pecos Valley Irrigationist. It looks like the University of Texas - Permian Basin Library *MAY* have some issues in their Permian Historical Society Collections. Suggest you contact them at libraryarchives@utpb.edu.

    https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86090634/
    https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86090634/holdings/
    https://utpb.alma.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01UOTOTPB_INST/10ndpmq/alma991001077469704731

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  2. AnonymousJanuary 5, 2021 at 3:58 PM

    Thank you Amanda. I too have checked Chronicling America. I checked with UTEP a few years back and they said they could not find it. I might try again, just to see if fresh eyes can find it! Appreciate the look! Nancy

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    1. AmandaJanuary 5, 2021 at 11:02 PM

      It's likely they did not have all issues, but yes, fresh eyes can help. The library's website references newspaper clippings in that collection, so it could be in some sort of vertical file. You might also want to try Texas Tech - they have a pretty extensive Southwest Collection in their Special Collections. Good luck!

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