Surname Saturday: Routt, 2nd Generation – The Children

The 2nd Generation of Routt ancestors in my Texas Family Tree are the children of Osborn and Sallie Routt:

Buchanon Routt, born 1860 in Chappell Hill, Washington, Texas, USA; he died ????

Jefferson “Jeff”  Routt,   born 1863 in Chappell Hill, Washington, Texas USA; he died 27 April 1935, Chappell Hill, Washington, Texas,  USA. He married Daisy Newsome, 27 January 1917, Chappell Hill, Washington, Texas,  USA

Mary Francis Routt, born 1865 in Chappell Hill, Washington, Texas, USA; she died ????

Lou “Lula” Routt, born 12 September 1867 in Chappell Hill, Washington, Texas, USA; she died 14 March 1964, Chappell Hill, Washington, Texas, USA. She married James “Jim” Green, 27 September 1888, Chappell Hill, Washington, Texas, USA

Charlotte “Lottie” Routt, born 1872 in Chappell Hill, Washington, Texas, USA. She married Washington “Wash” Nelson, Jr., 04 March 1893 in Brenham, Washington, Texas, USA

William “Willie” Routt, born 1874 in Chappell Hill, Washington, Texas, USA; he died 21 November 1933 in Prairie View, Waller, Texas, USA. He married Rosa “Rosie” Baltimore, 15 September 1901, Chappell Hill, Washington, Texas, USA

John “Johnnie” Routt, born 1874 in Chappell Hill, Washington, Texas, USA; he died 30 June 1931, Chappell Hill, Washington, Texas, USA. He married Isabelle Whitfield, 22 December 1897, Chappell Hill, Washington, Texas, USA

Buchanon and Mary Francis Routt, listed above, are my “brick wall” Routt ancestors for the moment. I have researched many of the online databases, family trees, and newspapers for them, but I haven’t had any luck finding them beyond the late 1870 and 1880 census. So my next step is to schedule a road trip in the coming months to Washington County to search the holdings where they lived. So stay tuned, there’s more to come!

In the meantime, if you have some of my 2nd Generation Routt ancestors in your family tree, let me hear from you because I’m — Claiming Kin!

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Source Citation

1. Year: 1870; Census Place: Precinct 2, Washington, Texas; Roll: M593_1608; Page: 14A; Image: 31; Family History Library Film: 553107.

2. Year: 1880; Census Place: , Washington, Texas; Roll: 1331; Family History Film: 1255331; Page: 74A; Enumeration District: 142; .

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Sunday’s Obituary: Lula Green (1867-1964)

Obituary

I was just 5 years old when I met my great-great grandmother Lula for the very first time, and it wasn’t long after that meeting that she passed away. So, I’m sorry to say that I simply have no memory of her. But what I do remember is hearing family members speak fondly of her through the years since her death.

Click to read and view!

[Transcription]

LaVIDA: The Black Voice in Ft. Worth, TX
Saturday, May 2, 1964

Services Held for Mrs. Lula Green

Funeral services for Mrs. Lula Green, the mother of Rev. J. H. Green, Pastor of Mayfield Baptist Church, were conducted Wednesday, March 18, from Ebenezer Baptist Church, Chapel Hill, Texas. She was 97 years old.

Mrs. Green was the baby daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Osborne Routt and was born in Chapel Hill, Texas, where she received her early schooling. She united with this church at an early age. She met and married Mr. Jim Green on September 27, 1888. To this union, thirteen children were born. He preceded her in death.

She was a faithful churchman – and a devoted wife and mother. She believed in not sending her children but going with them to church. The example she lived day by day will ever be a goal for her family to strive to reach.

She was faithful to her church always present at every service unless providentially hindered from being there, and say to it that the family group attended with her.

She is survived by seven children namely: Miss Birdie Aldridge, Kansas; Nelson and Jim Green, Jr., Chapel Hill; Rev. John H. Green, Fort Worth; Sterling Green, California; Mrs. Sallie Lewis, Houston; and Rev. Jesse Green, also of Houston, TX. Also seven grandchildren, seven great-grandchildren, four great-great-grandchildren, and other relatives and friends.

Treasure Chest Thursdays: Mulberry Bower

It was during one of my visits home for the holidays in 1998 that I came across the “5 Generations” photo that I featured for Wordless Wednesday, 23 March 2011. That photo featuring my 97-year-old great-great-grandmother (Lula Routt Green) is what launched my research into my father’s side of my family tree.  Based on a few names he could remember, I was able to glean from the 1870 and 1880 census that Lula Routt, born 12 September 1867 in Chappel Hill, Washington County, Texas, was the daughter of Osborn and Sallie Routt.  Lula was born 13 years after slavery ended in Texas. Prior to her birth, her parents — Osborn and Sallie —  were slaves on one of the eight plantations in the Chappel Hill area.

So I turned to the Internet to find and connect with Chappel Hill’s Historical Society to learn more about the plantations in their town during the 1860’s. My email queries put me in direct contact with the town’s well-respected historians, Nath & Judy Winfield who sent  the email below:

Date: Tue, 25 Aug 1998 15:13:23  -500
Subject: Plantation Homes

Re: your inquery about plantation homes in this area:

Joseph William Routt, my maternal great grandfather, came to Washington Co. from Huntsville, Alabama in the mid 1840’s, bringing his family with him. He bought a tract of land between Chappell Hill and the Brazos River and began building a house. Before it was completed, it was blown down in a storm, whereupon he moved the location a short distance south and built again. I have a drawing of the floor plan, typically Texan in style, with a dogtrot and rooms on either side, one with a fireplace. The kitchen was a separate building about ten steps behind the house, with a large fireplace for cooking (My great grandmother bought her first stove after the War). When he became to old to raise cotton, Mr. Routt moved to town. My grandfather sold the property and moved the cotton gin into Chappell Hill. The house has been somewhat modified over the years and has been moved to the outskirts of Chappell Hill. I tried, unsuccessfully, to buy it at the time it was moved. The Routt Plantation was called “Mulberry Bower…”

Can you say — hit paydirt?!  HIT PAYDIRT! What are the chances of the great-grand son of the Slaveholder who may have owned and brought my ancestors to Texas would be sharing family history with me via email?!

All I can say is — WOW!

A few weeks later 16 September 1998, I received  the drawing  of the Old Routt House as well as a photo of  the house after a room had been added on the front porch in 1846:

Old Routt House Drawing, circa 1846

John W. Routt House, circ 1846

I cannot begin to explain the emotions I felt that day in 1998 when I actually saw this drawing and photograph of the house that I know my ancestors helped build, kept cleaned, and worked hard and long in the fields of the Mulberry Bower Plantation.

So what has become of this house since 1846? Well, a recent road-trip to the area revealed that the house still exist today and that it sits back along FM 2447 not far from the National Historic District of Chappell Hill, TX.

Routt descendants purchased another small 4-room house of cedar from a carpenter/sawmill owner in 1898. The house was enlarged with Victorian trim and two chimneys. The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places in Texas on February 20, 1985 (see below):

Routt House photo taken 20 May 2011

So if you have some Routts in your family tree, or slave ancestors who have connections with the Mulberry Bower Plantation, let me hear from you because – I’m Claiming Kin!

Wedding Wednesday: Green-Routt, 1888

It’s Wedding Wednesday and thanks to Chappel Hill, Texas Historian, Nath Winfield, I now have the marriage license of my paternal Great-Great-Grandparents, Jim Green & Lou “Lula” Routt!

Jim Green and Lou “Lula” Routt were joined in marriage as husband and wife on the 27th day of September in 1888 by Richard Dickerson, Pastor of Ebenezer Missionary Baptist Church in Chappel Hill, Washington County, Texas.

So if you have Jim and Lou Green from Chappel Hill, Texas in your family tree, let me hear from you because I’m . . . claiming kin!

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Source Citation:

1. “Texas, Marriages, 1837-1973,” index, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/F6B8-GMN : accessed 01 Jun 2011), Jim Green and Lou Routt, 27 Sep 1888.