The following was sent to me by Jim Bodine. Jim was the nephew of the Elbert Sidney Bodine mentioned below. His father, Herbert Lee Bodine, was Elbert's youngest brother.
Letter of Raymond Lester Bodine/Moore
The attached letter was written by the elder son of Elbert Sidney Bodine. The writer's name was Raymond Lester Bodine/Moore and he lived most of his early life in the family of Charles and Sarah Moore after they adopted him, his brother, and his sister in Weatherford, Parker County, TX ca 1914. At the time of the writing of the original letter, Raymond was about 50 years of age and was trying to recall all that he remembered having been told by his birth-father, Elbert Sidney Bodine. The Bodine that is mentioned throughout the letter was his birth-father and I don't know if he knew this or not at the time that it was told to him. Elbert Sidney left Texas in 1917 to go to California in search of the Moore family. The Moores did allow the children to know Elbert Sidney over the years, but the children knew him only as Bodine.
There was no contact between my dad and his older brother's family from 1917 until the mid 1970's and at that time Raymond had already died. His younger brother Albert had died while in the Merchant Marines and Elbert had died in the mid 1930's in California. Due to the ill health of my grandmother, several of the children of the family were parceled out among relatives and dad was taken into the family of J. Z. Graham and lived his younger years as Hubert Graham.
This letter was written by Raymond to his sister Myrtle Ellen (JoAnne) and is a mixture of real and imagined things that he was trying to recall to tell his sister. Our meeting with JoAnne was almost totally an accident and will warrant writing about at a later time (see further below). She was living in Mineral Wells, TX at the time that we met her and we had made the trip there to meet some of my wife's relatives. JoAnne's birth name was Myrtle Ellen, but she did not like it and changed it. Anyhow, this is the Myrte that the letter was written to. All information in brackets has been added for clarification. This letter was not written by Raymond to be passed around... (Note: But we do have permission to put it here.)
Raymond was a kinsman, a 1st cousin, that I never had the pleasure of meeting and my only contact with him has been through his sister's family and some of the letters that he had written to her.
It has recently come to my attention that a Patrick Bodine living in Long Beach, MS had an ancestor named Sidney A. Bodine and his age was very near the same as the age of Elbert Sidney Bodine, the father of Raymond. One of my nephews, Carlos Bodine, and his wife had met Patrick and in conversation had learned of similarities in the traditions passed down by their respective families.
Jim BodineBR>
5631 Co Rd 277
Kaufman, TX 75142
Jimbodin at airmail.net
972 962 3071
Date of this writing: July 9, 2004
Riverside, California
July 31, 1961
Dear Myrte & Family:
Hello and how are you? About time that I answer your nice letter. We enjoyed our stay with you. Had a nice vacation. Have been very busy since I got back home. Place was grown up somewhat.
Two rentals were vacant, so I have been going down on Saturdays and painting.
Guess the Bodine family twig has about run out on this branch. Suppose that I have had much luck and good fortune in my life, but there has been much of the opposite. Boys may feel differently than girls about some things. I remember a great deal of life in our first family. There were no unhappy memories until our mothers death. This was a tragedy for a small boy that has had its effects all of my life. There is an old saying "what is in a name". When a boy loses his mother, he has just about suffered his greatest loss. It would have been nice to have kept my mother so I could have shown her my love and appreciation. It would have been nice to keep ones family name that has come down for centuries.
Well, enough of this sentiment. I wish that I had asked Bodine [Elbert Sidney Bodine bn. ca 1885] more about his family, and remembered more. [Raymond was born 2-17-1911 and adopted in early 1914 so he would only have been about three years of age at the time that he was adopted.]
Bodine knew a great deal about his family. I can't remember too much of what he told me. I was wondering about the woman that you met who told you about the Bodines down in San Saba. Aunt Jennie [possibly a sister of Raymond's mother] told me that Bodines father "Grandpa Bodine" [James Daniel Bodine bn. July 1853] came up often to visit us in Palo Pinto County. I understood her to say that he walked much of the way. She thought that he was a very nice old man. I gathered that she thought highly of him. Don't know why he walked. [The walk would have been from Johnson County to Palo Pinto County and would have been in the range of 100 miles or so.]
Bodine talked a lot about Lee Mize and his wife. They may know something of where Bodine came from. As I remember Bodine's father and mother died, one at the age of 65 and one at age 67. [It has been revealed that Jas. Daniel was several years older and died in 1917; Sarah Areally his wife was bn, Dec, 1864 and died Dec. 1911.]
Bodine was about a year younger than our mother. He had at least 2 brothers and four sisters. [The actual count was three brothers and five sisters.] One sister was shot with a pistol when about eighteen or nineteen. A guy with a crippled hand and she were looking in a trunk. It was called an accident but some of the family thought otherwise.
He had a younger brother [James] Fermon. Fermon worked as a pipe line foreman and laid pipe in forty-six of the forty eight states. He built a nice home in Port Arthur and raised a family there. Believe that he was there in the 20's.
I understood Bodine to say that he was born in San Antonio [actually San Augustine County] Texas. I know that he lived there when he was a boy. He talked about San Antonio, Port Arthur, Galveston & Beaumont Texas. Also about Shreveport and New Orleans Louisiana. He was in all of those places.
He told me that my great [great] grandfather [John bn. ca 1775-1780] and his four brothers came from France and first settled in South Carolina. He also talked of the Sabine River. This may have been when France owned the Louisiana Territory.
These five brothers were described to him as being small men, 5' 4" to 5' 6" tall. Their legs were long from knee to foot and short from knee to hip. They were fast runners and won bets outrunning race horses for a given distance. These brothers were in the saloon, gambling and race horse business and made a lot of money.
Some of their sons were in the freighting business, had a lot of mules & large wagons and hauled lots of freight long distances.
They tapped each barrel of whiskey that they hauled, took out one gallon of whiskey, put in one gallon of water, and then put in a plug and covered it with tar or resin. They then drank or sold this whiskey.
They freighted for years and were never caught stealing this whiskey.
Our gr gr grandfather [John] married a Dutch woman [Nancy Ann Gunnels, reputedly Black Dutch]. Our great grandfather Oliver Hazard Perry Bodine Sr [bn. 1819 in Oglethorpe Co. GA] married an Irish woman with a hot temper [Mary Ann Sanders bn. Aug. 27,1821 in NC] and when she got mad at our grandfather she called him a nigger heeled Dutchman since he was 1/2 Black Dutch.
I believe that the Bodines went from So. Carolina to Louisiana and from there to Texas. [The family actually left Oglethorpe Co. GA and moved to San Augustine County Texas arriving there in 1825]. Our grandfather [James Daniel] was born in Texas. As I remember, our gr grandfather [Oliver Hazard Perry Bodine, Sr.] had seven sons [only four proven by censuses].
He [John] homesteaded a section of land [his headright was a league and labor which was about 4500 acres] & was doing well when he almost cut his foot off with an axe & was crippled the rest of his life. [It is known that John was severely wounded in the Battle of Lake Erie and was granted an invalid pension at the time of his discharge from the Navy. Some confusion involved here--One census also listed OHP as having a broken leg].
He could not control his seven sons and they were kind of wild and rough boys. One of these was our grandfather. This was how our family got somewhat poorer. The Civil War polished things off financially.
The name Logan Bodine sticks in my mind. This was the name of one of our grandfathers or of their brothers; I don't know how many generations back. It may be a name handed down in the family but I am sure that Bodine [Elbert Sidney] told me something about a Logan Bodine.
We had ancestors that fought on both sides during the Civil War. I don't know if the Bodines fought with the North or South. One Uncle and one grandfather were shot through the chest. They pulled a silk handkerchief through the wound in each case and they both lived. This was to clean the wound. They were Bodines that were fighting for the South.
Another Bodine uncle was a lieutenant. He climbed upon a breastwork, cursed the North and ordered his men to charge. A cannon went off and blew him to bits.
Going back to the five brothers, one of which was our great great grandfather [John]. He or his descendants came to Texas but I believe were in Louisiana for a while. [The family was in LA in 1823 at the time of the birth of William R. Bodine, the youngest surviving son of John and Nancy]. I think Bodine was in Louisiana to visit relatives when he was young. I believe that our gr gr grandfather came to Texas before he died but I am not certain. [He lived on one half of his head right in San Augustine County from 1825 until the time that he was killed in 1839]. I believe that our grandfather lived for a while in San Antonio [actually San Augustine].
All these Grandfathers that I have mentioned were Bodines.
Bodines [Elbert Sidney's] mothers fathers name was something like Lawless or Lawler. When Bodines mother was a small girl her father quit her mother because she would not quit dipping snuff. This Lawless or Lawler [Benjamin L. Lawless son of John Lawless] was our great grandfather [grandfather]. He was the head Doctor in the state of Kentucky. [He was born in KY in 1842 and abandoned mother and child in the mid 1860's - Elbert Sidney's wife's mother, Anne E./Annie Eppes Lawless obtained one of the first divorces granted in San Augustine].
Back to the Bodines. The name James, and Lewis [Logan previously mentioned] also seem to ring a bell. Wish I could remember more. I believe these three names were probably handed down. I believe these three names are those of our great or great great grandfathers.
Bodine [Elbert S.] told me our grandfathers and great grandfathers name [James Daniel] and great grandfathers name [Oliver Hazard Perry Bodine, Sr.] but I can't remember. Bodine had a memory. I have also. When I was a small boy I never thought that I might have the occasion to recall names of ancestors generations back or I could have remembered them. All that I have written is as I recall Bodine [Elbert S.] telling me. Much of it is accurate, I am certain, but may not be of much help in the family tree.
Don't throw it away. I could rewrite it. If some of the Bodine's fifty to seventy five years old could hear it, they might have heard the same stories of the five brothers, saloons, the race horses, gambling, freight wagons, the Dutch great great grandmother, the Irish great grandmother calling the great grandfather a nigger heel Dutchman when she got mad at him, the great grandfather cutting his foot and then being a cripple, his seven sons and etc.
I have written in haste. Don't send this to anyone. If you wish you can copy it or I will write it better for you. I think that it might only be of some help if written nicely & the fifty to seventy five year old Bodines could read it. Bodine [Elbert S.] knew the story like a book. Am mailing this separately from your papers. Mailing both same day.
Its late, am tired.
Love,
Raymond [Bodine/Moore]
This letter was written by Raymond Lester Bodine Moore to his sister Mrs. Myrtle Ellen/JoAnne Bodine/Moore Norum. All information in brackets has been added in an attempt to clarify some of the information. The original letter was returned to JoAnne. I retained a copy. Raymond, Albert and Myrtle Ellen/JoAnne Bodine were adopted by the Moore family in Weatherford, TX in 1914. Mr. Moore was a blacksmith and Baptist preacher. Please remember that Raymond was only about 4 years of age at the time of the adoption. Verification of the birth dates of the children revealed that Raymond was born Feb. 17, 1911. Albert, his brother, was born May 10, 1912. And Myrtle Ellen was born Dec. 28, 1913. All are now deceased. According to information that was given to me, Myrtle Ellen was only three months old at the time of the adoption in Weatherford.
A Bit of Reminiscing (from Jim Bodine)
July 8, 2004
There were no communications between the families of Elbert Sidney, the eldest son in the family of James Daniel and my dad Herbert Lee Bodine, the youngest child of the family. The last contact between the two brothers occurred in 1917 near Keene, TX. At that time three of the brothers met and Elbert announced that he was leaving the state to locate his children that had been adopted into the Moore family.
A brother of my wife married a girl from Palo Pinto County named Marsden and after the death of the brother, Jean and I went to Mineral Wells to try to locate some of her family. There was at that time, almost thirty years ago, a shoe store in Mineral Wells that was owned by a Marsden. We were referred to the owner of this store and had a nice talk with him. While talking to him I made mention of the fact that my dad's oldest brother had married a Marsden girl from Palo Pinto County and all that I knew about the family was that three children, two boys and a girl had been born into it.
Mr. Marsden then made the comment that the girl presently lives here in town. It came as such a surprise that it took a moment to register. Further conversation revealed that the daughter of Elbert and her three daughters had lived in Mineral Wells for quite some time. Mr. Marsden gave us the address and Jean and I decided to find out if anyone was at the address. Needless to say, there was a mini family reunion. We were to find out later that Myrtle had done much more looking than we had. We visited for a while and then returned to our home in Kaufman County and passed the word to my brother and sister that we had located one of Elbert's children and wanted to set up a surprise visit for dad.
My dad was in his 70's at this time and it was decided that we would set up a surprise meeting for him as soon as possible for Myrtle to come to the home of my brother in Grayson County. On the appointed day all was in order and the meeting took place. It was one of the very few times in his life that I have seen my dad speechless. When this strange woman came in and hugged and kissed him he was definitely at a total loss for words. Both dad and Myrtle are now deceased but it was a great time in the lives of both to finally have a chance for a meeting and to get to know a bit about each other.
From Ronny Bodine:
Mary Bodine probably died in Palo Pinto County where the couple had married. Her death was not recorded by the state. Soon after her death their three children were adopted by the family of Charles C. and Sarah Jane (Fowler) Moore in Weatherford, Parker County. The Moore family soon after moved to California. Elbert Bodine registered for the World War I draft on 12 Sept 1918 in Weatherford, Parker County, Texas. In 1920, he was living in Somerton, Yuma County, Arizona working there as a laborer on the farm of Benjamin and Virginia Gardenhire. Later he went to California in search of the Moore family. In 1930, he was living in Los Angeles, California working at odd jobs. The Moores did allow the children to know Elbert Sidney over the years, but the children knew him only as Bodine.