1910- Leaving Texas

The steam engine would have thundered into the station. Two year old Aleitha and baby Elgin must have been startled as the train whistle pierced the air and  the monstrous engine belching black steam raced toward them. They were both too young to understand that it was going to carry them away from Texas to a new life.

Elgin and Aleitha Garrison circa 1910

Mattie Womack Garrison was no doubt in tears. Her husband, Jim, was going to see his family, but she was leaving hers. 

The Womacks were always a close-knit family, so we can be sure that they gathered at the station to send off a beloved sister.  We can picture them standing together at the depot to say goodbye- 

Lufkin Depot, circa 1910

 Mattie's mother, Nancy Francis Womack was a 56 year old widow who ran a boarding house in the town of Groveton. She was a rugged country woman, but was very close to her children. Seeing Mattie leave surely tugged at her heart. We can only imagine her standing on the platform at the station, hugging her daughter goodbye, and kissing her grandchildren.

Nancy Frances Taylor Womack

  Mattie's  other sisters and many of her neices and nephews would have come to the station as well. Her sister Leona  was 32. Her husband Oscar Kenley, 48, had a prosperous law practice in town. Their children were Bailey 9, Richard 7, Gorman 5, and Harriman 3.

 

Bailey and Richard Kenley

 

Harriman Kenley

 Dona was 35. Her husband Sam Kenley was a cattleman, and their children were Milton 13, Chester 11, Gordon 8, Ila 5, and Raymond 2.

Raymond and Ila Kenley

The relatives living in the country near Centralia and Apple Springs would also  have come to town to see their sister off;

Mattie's 26 year old brother, Edgar, who worked the family plantation in Centralia, and his wife, Mattie Womack, her 23 year old sister Ora, and her husband John Burke, 21 year old Maud and her husband Herbert Eaves, and Mattie's eldest sister, Emma, and her husband William Garrison  (who was not related to Jim Garrison.)

Mattie's two youngest siblings, Holly  18 and Lillian  16 stilled lived at home with their mother in Groveton.

Lillian Womack

As they boarded the train, waving to loved ones, there had to be many tears.
 Young Mattie Womack Garrison, age 29, was the very first in her family to leave her home in Trinity County Texas and move away to another state.

The Lufkin, Texas Depot about 1900