Grandma Lizzie Martin's Blog Begins

America Elizabeth (Lizzie) Richardson was born September 2, 1859, in Uvalde, Texas, to Dudley and Cassandra (Katy) Cox Richardson. We do not know a lot about her parents. Dudley's middle initial, "T", very likely stands for "Talley." If true, it would mean that when Lizzie ultimately married James Andrew Martin, she was marrying a possible cousin of some sort, since James's mother, Louisa, was a "Tolly," and the Tollys had various spellings of their name, moved west from Virginia to Kentucky and beyond, and tended to marry second and third cousins.

If Dudley was related to the Tollys, then it also is likely that the record was kept deliberately murky by the family. When these cousins marriages happened, families tended not to publicize it much. But the middle name of "Talley" may end up providing clues as to the parentage of Lizzie.

As indicated before, she married James Andrew Martin, whose family also had made the trek from Kentucky to Uvalde, Texas (by way of Missouri). James had come to Uvalde by way of the US Army. He enlisted at the start of the Civil War, serving in an Illinois division, enjoyed military life, and being stationed in Uvalde, stayed there upon retirement. It is there that he met his future wife, Lizzie. Again, there may have been some kin already present, which may have been another inducement to stay in South Texas. A little study of the history of Uvalde may help understand why people were settling there in the 1870s.

Thanks to information shared by our distant Martin cousins, in our visit to McAlester, Oklahoma, in July of 2010, we now know that Lizzie was reported to have been part Native American. She was discouraged by her husband, James, to share that information, and he definitely did not want his children knowing they were part Indian. Nevertheless, to the younger children she taught Native American language and customs. Be that as it may, her Native American blood may have been instrumental in enabling the family to settle in the Indian Territory long before it became Oklahoma and was opened up to whites.

Grandma Lizzie died on May 11, 1944, in McAlester, Oklahoma. She is buried in the Sans Bois Cemetery, and her gravestone is in need of some care. We will seek some help from the Masons (of which James was a member) to see if her marker can be upgraded to match his.

Grandma Lizzie died 16 years before my birth, and I am moved by how close I came to knowing her. My mother was 9 when her great-Grandmother Martin died, yet the two never knew each other. Her granddaughter, my Grandmother Fern Martin Turnbow, was 32 years old when her Grandma Lizzie died, yet Grandma, who lived in Shamrock, Texas, did not attend her Grandmother's funeral. They were not close in those later years. Long distances kept families apart in those times.

It is wonderful to consider the legacy of Grandma Lizzie. I hope that this blog becomes yet another way to reconnect her many children.