William Ware
Born; 7 Apr 1864 Cave Spring, Floyd County GA
Parents are; William Ware (1828-1865) and Martha Gee Ford (1833-1900)
He was one year old when his father died and just over two when his mother married again to John Jetter Miller. He had 3 younger Miller half siblings Minnie Gee Miller, Cora Lillie Miller, Adella Jetter Miller and 5 older Ware siblings; Martha Ophelia, George Harrison, Homer Cicero, Sarah Emma Ware. Mr. Miller brought 3 other children to the marriage, Franklin Miller (1860) and Ella Miller (1864) children of his and his 1st wife, Nancy Ann Lumkin. Also a child of Nancy Ann and her 1st husband, John M. Loveless; Julia Loveless. I can only imagine how difficult that house must have been. This was probably not terribly unusual for the period after the Civil War.
By 1870 there were only 3 Ware children left living with Martha and the Millers, Mary Elizabeth, Sarah Emma and William. Martha Ophelia had married, George H. and Homer C. had gone off to Arkansas and/or Texas to live with family or friends.
By 1880 Mary Elizabeth has married and Emma and William are living with their Aunt and Uncle, Green and Jincy Ware Cunningham.
By 1882 Emma has gone to Dallas Texas to live with her brother Homer C. and his wife Teresa and she would shortly marry Teresa’s brother Lemuel M. Rape (Nov 1884). It must not have been too much later that William arrived in Dallas himself. He probably lived with one of the young couples.
In the 1880 Dallas Co. Census the Henry Rape family and the Smith family are two doors away from each other. What more natural thing than for a double brother and sister to be concerned about this young unmarried man so they probably introduced him to one of the daughters of this family, Minnie Lee Smith. They married about 1892 according to the 1900 Census.
The census records for 1900, 1910 and 1920 list William as “electrician”, “electrician” “wiring houses” and “proprietor” “light plant”. In his wife’s obituary it states, “After her marriage, she went to Corsicana and later to McKinney, where she remained for nearly 30 years. Her husband owned an electric power plant at McKinney and later owned one at Wills Point for many years. In 1924 they came to Dallas, where her husband died in 1926 and where she lived until her death “ in 1938.
My great Grandmother, Emma Ware Rape Cates had this picture
with “William Ware” and the date
Sept 13 1926 on it. We searched
for many years looking for him and looked at the couple William and Minnie many
times but had nothing to tie them together then one evening I found on Find a
Grave “Mrs. William Ware” and her obituary. It just felt that I had the right woman. I wrote asking if this was the
William born in Georgia. By the
next evening a kind person (Mel
Hammer) had photographed the tombstone and all the dates matched. We had found William!
So thanks to Rosemarie for putting the information on at Find
a Grave
To Mel Hammer for the photo of the tombstone
To Tom Ware
for spurring me on to keep looking
To Sarah Emma for the photo with the death date
And to my long suffering husband, Patrick for giving me time
to spend at the computer.
Please feel free to leave a comment if you connect to this family. We are still looking for descendants of the older sisters, Martha Ophelia who married Howell Cobb Barker and Mary Elizabeth who married Royal Baxter. Both had children, and both died early.
