That’s me, sitting on Abrams, a Longhorn Steer about five years old.
He weighs almost a ton! What a sweetheart he was, too! I rubbed his face, scratched his chin, fed him some “steer candy”, wiped my now very slobbery hand on my jeans, and climbed aboard!
Clay, his owner, remarked, “You’ve ridden before, haven’t you.” Yes, but that was a long time ago, and never a Longhorn Steer!
Two cowboys had brought their riding steers to the Harvest Festival at Wild Life West in Edgewood, New Mexico this past weekend. I was there participating in an art show, amidst all the tractor pulls, wild bird shows, Native American drum performances and roasted sweet corn. It was a blast! (Sold some paintings, too!)
We listened to some humorous Cowboy Poetry delivered straight from the Longhorn’s back, that included references to the famous West Texas, New Mexico and Colorado cattleman, Charlie Goodnight, who helped blaze the famous Goodnight/Loving Cattle Trail with his buddy, Oliver Loving. These were the same kind of Longhorns that Charlie and his cowboys drove along the trail. When I told them that Charlie was my Great Great Great Uncle, that his sister, Mary Jane Goodnight, was my Great Great Great Grandmother, they invited me over to visit with Abrams for a while. In exchange for getting some pictures of Abrams, and being allowed to sit astride the biggest four-legged ruminant I’ve ever had the privilege of knowing, I told them the story of my GGG Grandmother, Mary Jane, and how she came to be the dis-owned sister of the famous Charlie Goodnight.
My GGGrandaddy, Hiram Henry Newton Daugherty, married the widow Charlotte Collier Goodnight when living in Macoupin County, Illinois on 13 Sepetmber 1840. He lived a few miles from the Goodnight homestead in the next Township. Charlotte's husband, Charles Foxwing Goodnight had just died five months previously, on 01 May 1840, from pneumonia. Hiram Henry became stepfather to her kids, Mary Jane, Elijah, Annie and Charles, Jr. and Cyntha. And it appears that she was pregnant with George Washington Daugherty when Hiram married her. That would explain the urgency of their marriage. GW was born in 1840, they married the middle of September, so he had to be born soon after. Hiram gave him his last name, because for all intents, he was his father, and he raised him.
I think our Hiram married a pregnant widow with five children in 1840. (Caroline, his first child with Charlotte, wasn't born until 1845.) It couldn't have been easy for any of them, considering the circumstances.
Hiram Henry and Charlotte and their now blended family, emigrated to the brand new State of Texas in 1846-7 and settled along the Brazos in Milam County in the summer of '47. It took them eight months by wagon train and it appears that Charlotte became pregnant around January or early February of 1847. Soon after their arrival in Texas, an affair of the heart was revealed between Hiram and his step-daughter, Mary Jane. She was 18 and Hiram was 38. They had just spent eight months on the road together.
Charlotte "quit" Hiram, apparently kicked both him and Mary Jane out, and they took with them the little boy, George, about seven, and baby Caroline who was not quite two. Lucinda was born to Charlotte three months after Hiram and Mary Jane left, on 31 October, 1847, according to her death certificate and tombstone.
Hiram and Mary Jane settled in Washington County with Mary Jane's two siblings, George and Caroline. Hiram Henry, Jr. was born in 1848 and his brother, Francis Marion was born in 1849. The only official marriage record shows a 20 June 1850 date. Some family records indicate a 10 June 1846 date, but this is just a family remembrance, possibly to "save face" and the date of 1846 is impossible. No official divorce record has been found, as the courthouse in Milam Co. TX burned in 1864. Divorce was not easy in those days, especially for women, but Charlotte had more than enough "cause". My heart goes out to her in the desperate situation she found herself in, once again.
The Round Prairie Church in Macoupin County, Illinois, where they had all been members, "excluded" Hiram and Mary Jane on July 25, 1847 "for living in adultery". Charlotte married the Preacher, Adam Sheek, in 1852.
Henry and Mary Jane raised fifteen children all together: the two that were Hiram Henry’s children with Charlotte, Mary Jane's siblings, and twelve of their own. Henry died there in Milam, Texas on Dec. 27, 1870 at the age of 61 and is buried in Mount Homer Cemetery in Milam, Texas, (my family records say "Rockdale, near where they used to live"). Mary Jane then moved with her son, Jasper Newton Sr., Frank and Mart Daugherty and their families across Texas to Nolan County. Around 1885 they decided to migrate west and eventually settled in the Sacramento Mountains of southeastern New Mexico where they homesteaded in several locations near Cloudcroft, in the Weed and Hope area, including most of Otero County, beginning around 1888.
Their homestead cabin in Hay Canyon near Cloudcroft was built strong and sure alongside a creek in the canyon, and I have seen it several times, still standing as a monument to perseverance and determination. Mary Jane never again saw or spoke to either her brother or her mother for the rest of her life, such was the price of her sin. She lived a long life, outliving her husband by decades. When her daughter Jane Cave, died, and her distraught husband committed suicide, Mary Jane then raised her daughter's three orphaned children with the help of her son, Mart. Altogether, she raised 17 children. Her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren all remembered her fondly as a good and loving mother and faithful wife to Hiram Henry. Such is the good news of redemption. In 1919 she had a stroke and died at Lem Daugherty's daughter, Lottie Allen's home, in Ballinger, Texas. She is buried in the Ballinger Cemetery, on the Tom Radion lot.
In Charlie’s official biography, he never mentions that he has a sister, and I’ll bet no one knew to ask. When he was asked why his mother, Charlotte, divorced Hiram Daugherty, Charlie said, “For cause.”
This story corrected and updated on 8 Jan 2019 by Kathryn Jane Daugherty Widger
He weighs almost a ton! What a sweetheart he was, too! I rubbed his face, scratched his chin, fed him some “steer candy”, wiped my now very slobbery hand on my jeans, and climbed aboard!
Clay, his owner, remarked, “You’ve ridden before, haven’t you.” Yes, but that was a long time ago, and never a Longhorn Steer!
Two cowboys had brought their riding steers to the Harvest Festival at Wild Life West in Edgewood, New Mexico this past weekend. I was there participating in an art show, amidst all the tractor pulls, wild bird shows, Native American drum performances and roasted sweet corn. It was a blast! (Sold some paintings, too!)
We listened to some humorous Cowboy Poetry delivered straight from the Longhorn’s back, that included references to the famous West Texas, New Mexico and Colorado cattleman, Charlie Goodnight, who helped blaze the famous Goodnight/Loving Cattle Trail with his buddy, Oliver Loving. These were the same kind of Longhorns that Charlie and his cowboys drove along the trail. When I told them that Charlie was my Great Great Great Uncle, that his sister, Mary Jane Goodnight, was my Great Great Great Grandmother, they invited me over to visit with Abrams for a while. In exchange for getting some pictures of Abrams, and being allowed to sit astride the biggest four-legged ruminant I’ve ever had the privilege of knowing, I told them the story of my GGG Grandmother, Mary Jane, and how she came to be the dis-owned sister of the famous Charlie Goodnight.
My GGGrandaddy, Hiram Henry Newton Daugherty, married the widow Charlotte Collier Goodnight when living in Macoupin County, Illinois on 13 Sepetmber 1840. He lived a few miles from the Goodnight homestead in the next Township. Charlotte's husband, Charles Foxwing Goodnight had just died five months previously, on 01 May 1840, from pneumonia. Hiram Henry became stepfather to her kids, Mary Jane, Elijah, Annie and Charles, Jr. and Cyntha. And it appears that she was pregnant with George Washington Daugherty when Hiram married her. That would explain the urgency of their marriage. GW was born in 1840, they married the middle of September, so he had to be born soon after. Hiram gave him his last name, because for all intents, he was his father, and he raised him.
I think our Hiram married a pregnant widow with five children in 1840. (Caroline, his first child with Charlotte, wasn't born until 1845.) It couldn't have been easy for any of them, considering the circumstances.
Hiram Henry and Charlotte and their now blended family, emigrated to the brand new State of Texas in 1846-7 and settled along the Brazos in Milam County in the summer of '47. It took them eight months by wagon train and it appears that Charlotte became pregnant around January or early February of 1847. Soon after their arrival in Texas, an affair of the heart was revealed between Hiram and his step-daughter, Mary Jane. She was 18 and Hiram was 38. They had just spent eight months on the road together.
Charlotte "quit" Hiram, apparently kicked both him and Mary Jane out, and they took with them the little boy, George, about seven, and baby Caroline who was not quite two. Lucinda was born to Charlotte three months after Hiram and Mary Jane left, on 31 October, 1847, according to her death certificate and tombstone.
Hiram and Mary Jane settled in Washington County with Mary Jane's two siblings, George and Caroline. Hiram Henry, Jr. was born in 1848 and his brother, Francis Marion was born in 1849. The only official marriage record shows a 20 June 1850 date. Some family records indicate a 10 June 1846 date, but this is just a family remembrance, possibly to "save face" and the date of 1846 is impossible. No official divorce record has been found, as the courthouse in Milam Co. TX burned in 1864. Divorce was not easy in those days, especially for women, but Charlotte had more than enough "cause". My heart goes out to her in the desperate situation she found herself in, once again.
The Round Prairie Church in Macoupin County, Illinois, where they had all been members, "excluded" Hiram and Mary Jane on July 25, 1847 "for living in adultery". Charlotte married the Preacher, Adam Sheek, in 1852.
Henry and Mary Jane raised fifteen children all together: the two that were Hiram Henry’s children with Charlotte, Mary Jane's siblings, and twelve of their own. Henry died there in Milam, Texas on Dec. 27, 1870 at the age of 61 and is buried in Mount Homer Cemetery in Milam, Texas, (my family records say "Rockdale, near where they used to live"). Mary Jane then moved with her son, Jasper Newton Sr., Frank and Mart Daugherty and their families across Texas to Nolan County. Around 1885 they decided to migrate west and eventually settled in the Sacramento Mountains of southeastern New Mexico where they homesteaded in several locations near Cloudcroft, in the Weed and Hope area, including most of Otero County, beginning around 1888.
Their homestead cabin in Hay Canyon near Cloudcroft was built strong and sure alongside a creek in the canyon, and I have seen it several times, still standing as a monument to perseverance and determination. Mary Jane never again saw or spoke to either her brother or her mother for the rest of her life, such was the price of her sin. She lived a long life, outliving her husband by decades. When her daughter Jane Cave, died, and her distraught husband committed suicide, Mary Jane then raised her daughter's three orphaned children with the help of her son, Mart. Altogether, she raised 17 children. Her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren all remembered her fondly as a good and loving mother and faithful wife to Hiram Henry. Such is the good news of redemption. In 1919 she had a stroke and died at Lem Daugherty's daughter, Lottie Allen's home, in Ballinger, Texas. She is buried in the Ballinger Cemetery, on the Tom Radion lot.
In Charlie’s official biography, he never mentions that he has a sister, and I’ll bet no one knew to ask. When he was asked why his mother, Charlotte, divorced Hiram Daugherty, Charlie said, “For cause.”
This story corrected and updated on 8 Jan 2019 by Kathryn Jane Daugherty Widger
2 comments:
FYI . . . https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/33004155/hiram-henry-daugherty
FYI . . . https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/50178347/mary-jane-daugherty
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