Sarah Elizabeth (Atkinson) Boeckmann (1857 - 1947)

Born 23 Nov 1857 in Montgomery, Mississippi, United States

Ancestors

Died 25 Jan 1947 at age 89 in Stephens, Texas, United States

Biography

Author: Mrs. Winfred A. Salter (Cammie Elizabeth Atkison))

Publication: to Mrs Dabney W Sneed (Sallie Bell Atkison)/

Text: LETTER from Mrs W. A. SALTER to Mrs D. W. SNEED [Transcribed from typescript by Joseph D. Sneed, 07/17/2004]

Gilbert Allen Bell came from Ireland with his parents and settled in Virginia. He married Elizabeth (don't know last name) and they moved to Tennessee. Robert Allen Bell, his son, was born in Tennessee and was one of the first lay preachers of the Cumberland Branch of the Presbyterian Church. His work was among the Choctaw Indians in Tennessee, and later in Mississippi, where he went as a young man, He farmed near the town of Randolph.

Robert Kennedy's family came from England and went down the Mississippi River from St. Louis to the New Orleans Country. He was married to Elizabeth Dixon, whose sister married Andrew Jackson's father. The Dixon's lived in Tennessee. Our grandmother, was Elizabeth Dixon Kennedy. Her brother, Tom, lived in Bonnam, Texas in later life. Her older sister married a Ridings. Jane's son Louis Ridings used to visit us. Louis's daughter Laura Duckworth used to live in Durant. His daughter-in-law or great-daughter- in-law is Hope Ridings. She is a writer.

Robert Allan Bell and Elizabeth Dixon Kennedy lived in Mississippi after they were married. They had twelve children, some dying in infancy. The children were:

Emma Bell married Ellis Perkins. Their children were:

Anna married John Henry Salmon

Don(na) Bell married W. R. Perkins

Lena never married

Beaula married Asby

Fanie Moss Bell marries but don't know who

All lived in Mississippi

Robert Donald Bell married Martha Woods. Their children were: Gertrude, Clyde, William, Robert, and Mattie, now living in Texas City

Elizabeth Bell married Jesse G. Williams. they came from Mississippi to Boue [?] County, later Bryan, and were farmers in the Roberta and Utica area. She dies of tuberculosis. their children were:

Gilbert Allen married a Condit girl who died, later married Salle, no children

James married Ella; two boys (Elsa, Texas)

Castilla marries Will Neely; one son Will Jr. (New Albany, Miss)

Elizabeth marries George Hubbard; three children, died of flu in 1917

May married Jeff Turner; three children; warden of Miss state prison until his retirement

John Ellis married Mabel Howard; two children; killed in auto accident while scheriff [?] of Bryan County

Robert Peyton (Pate) married Maude Yourney; three or four children (Roberta)

Jack French married Maude ....; some children one died when their house burned

Mary Emma married George Hubbard; one child Ambrose (Mississippi:)

Lewis Clark married Greenwood: after she died married he sister (California)

Leila Forrest married Enis Hayes: one child; died in California

Hugh Allen Bell married Ollie (last name unknown). Their children were:

Thrace and twins Clevlon [?] and Clyde (a girl)

All lived in Mississippi

Thomas Ellen Bell (Duck) married James Peyton Donaldson (kin to Rachel Donaldson who married Andrew Jackson). Their children were:

Robert Peyton Donaldson married...

Sallie Irene Donaldson never married.

Melisa Merle Donaldson married Will Corbin

Cora Emma Donaldson married Marshal Jamison

Lelia Bell married Willis R. Collins. They moved to Texas and later to Durant. Their children were:

Jettie married Homer Glen

Jessie married to Ingram Calhoun

Ivy last marries John Burnett (Oklahoma City)

Ernest married Merle ... from Florida

Elizabeth married Albert Sidney Johnson, divorced (Merkel, Texas)

Robert married...

Forrest May ... married three times

Horton dies as child

A girl died as child

Bailey married......

Dan...married died number of years ago

Sarah Francis Bell married John F. V. Carrell a Methodist Circuit Rider who had served as a drummer boy in the Confederate Army

Mary Caroline Bell married General Forrest Atkinson. They cam from Ponotoc Miss. to Durant. Their children are

Don Ellis married Anne McDonald

Cammie Elizabeth married Winfred Salter; one son Forrest

Robert Pratt married Allie V. Adrian; one child Mary Alice

Walter Forrest died in infancy

Sallie Bell married Dabney W. Sneed; one son Joe

William Leonard married Lucille Walsen; one son Bill

Lottie married Otto M. Morse both died; one son Jim

Thelma married Robert T. Daniels; two sons Billy Bob and Larry

The Atkinsons or Atkins came originally from England to Alabama and then to Southern Mississippi. Giles Manuel Atkinson marries Margret Grey whose mother was a Forrest. Their children were:

Cammie burned to death as a child

Mary married several times; children called Johnson

Sallie married William Boeckmann (DeLeon, Texas)

General Forrest Atkinson

born during the Civil War when the guerillas were following Sherman's march to the sea. Their house was burned and his mother with it. Mary who was seven took Forrest and Sallie to the home of neighbors as the father was in the army. A family who had a small boy took Forrest with them to Alabama. When his father came home he found the house burned. After burying the bones and things he found Mary and Sallie with another family who later came to Texas. When Forrest was fourteen he came back to Mississippi and found his father who had married his aunt Mary Larrimore whose husband had been killed in the war. She had two sons Ubioe [?] and John and they had a daughter Eunivecce. Forrest's father lived with her in his old age.

Note: There are two texts of this document, one in my possession and one in the possession of Fred Hawthorne. The latter appears in Sources as "Letter written by Aunt Sis Atkinson"

What I have appears to be a transcript of a letter written to all the author's siblings in the 1950's. I think it was transcribed by my father, Dabney Whitfield Sneed, since it is typed on a typewriter with unusual type. He was the only one I knew with such a typewriter.

Author: Mrs Winfred A. Salter (FH424)

Publication: to James Otto Morse (15096)

Text: LETTER 2 Letter from Mrs. W. A. Salter (15866) to James Morse (15889)

Transcribed from handwritten original by Joe Sneed (15856) 07/15/2004

[no date]

Dear Jim -

I have no records when Grandma died [.] One of the sons, the oldest one, took the family bible. We never heard of it again [.] What I know is what Grandma had told me. She was old and lame and sat in a rocker. I had to read to her, which at times was a chore. I read through the Bible, she pronounced the words and I got so tired of the "Begats" [.] But some of the things that I read, I remembered.

In the Bell side of the family our Great Grandfather, Robert Bell, came out Ireland [?] [;] he was supposed to have married an Indian woman. There are Bells all over Mississippi and Tennessee. One taught in Old Mss at Oxford and lived near the school [in a house] which long ago became a part of the Campus and the house, when I saw it, was a sort of Student Center. My Grandfather , Robert Allen Bell, was born in Tennessee and was a "Goodley [Godley?] Man" [,] held services in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church - (that's a sort of primitive Baptist) and when war was declared he was left at home to look after the women and children.

My maternal Grandmother, Elizabeth Dixon Kennedy, was out of English roots who settled in Virginia and then came to the south. She was an aristocrat and was always called Elizabeth. She had an older brother, Tome [?], who went to war, a sister, whose name was Jane, and two younger brothers. The sisters were at home when the battles of Tuka [?} and Corinth were fought [. T] they listened to the gunfire. And when the battle was over, the two women went to look for the younger brothers, 14 and 15. They found the bodies, took what they could find to dig the grave and buried the boys together. The family were cousins of Andrew Jackson and the Donaldsons

Tome [?] came home and went to Texas, place called "Ivanhoe" [.] Jane came with him and his wife. She married a man whose name was Riding - and they were writers [?] and fruit farmers.

Mama was the youngest of the 12 children. She was born in Toccopola, Miss [.] She taught school and finished the Pontotoc Female Academy. Some of the relative[s] had a Baptist School in Blue Mountain near there. She was one of the first females to attend "Old Miss". Some of her Classmates have dined here.

Papa's name was General Forrest, as Granpa was in Forrest's Army, the 1st Mississippi Regiment. His home was near Emory. Grandmother's name was Grey [Gray?]. She had a little girl, seven years old when my father was born. She was very ill and when the Salfies [soldiers] [?] came for what they could find, she sent the little girl with this tiny boy through the brush to a neighbor. The woman took them and gave papa to a second neighbor, who had a nursing baby. That family moved to Alabama. The ones who kept the little girl moved to Biloxi. When Papa was 14 he set out to find his family. His father of course looked for the children. Papa could neither read nor write, but he took the name Grandfather gave him. He was an handsome man and when he met Mama they decided that the name would be Atkison, not Adkins, nor Atkinson. She taught him to read and write. Salabels writing looks like his. And he was a shark in math. He taught me how to work percentage problems in my arithmetic.

Author: Mrs Winfred A. Salter (15883)

Publication: to James Otto Morse (15907)

Text: LETTER 3 Letter from Mrs. W. A. Salter (15866) to James Morse (15889)

[Transcribed from original, handwritten on Kerrville Mountain Sun stationary, back side first, by Joe Sneed (15856) 07/16/2004]

[no date]

Dear Jim -

I had your letter. No date for your father's passing. I was amazed to see Lottie's name. That was a new one to me.

The Atkisons had the privilege to change their names when and where they wanted to. It began with Mamma. Her name was Mary Caroline Bell. Her folks [?] called her "Mollie". Some of the Children called her "Molly Cottontail" and Aunt Sallie called her "Mop".

As Sara Francis Bell, she became "Aunt Sallie" and Mamma called her "Sak" or "Sack". Don was named for Mamma's older brother-in-law, Uncle Ellis and her oldest brother Don (not Donald) [.] Uncle Ellis had a daughter the same age as Mamma. Aunt Ermiar [?] was the oldest daughter in the family and Mamma was no 12.

I was named for Papa's little sister Cammie, who was burned to death before he was born. She was helping to boil some clothes in an outside pot and her dress caught fire. The Elizabeth was for Grandmother Bell. Robert Pratt came along. He was premature and tiny. He was called "Skeeter" because he had such a funny voice [. T] they also called him "Banty Rooster". He soon became a big boy and Skeete [Skeet ?] has been his name.

Sarah Bell came along and she was called "Sallie Bell". Don called her Sally Belly. This made him popular. She pronounced her last name "Aggison". She became Salabel, Tad, and Jones called her "Sally".

The twins were next, Charlotte May and Leonard Clay. Lottie became "Loy" and Papa called Leonard "Bill Bailey". When he went to school he put William Leonard as his name and was always Bill. Then came Thelma. Papa had a hard time with the name, called her "Falma" and said Mamma got it out of a yellow back novel. She was so prissy and so demanding that he called her "Miss Jones". Few people know her real name.

As she and Lottie grew up they had various names - Marguerite, Lutitia [?], Patsy and Josie. Bob had the same trouble as Papa did with her name and called her "Bebe Daniels". Some movie star had the name.

I hated my name and when I came down here I was Mrs. C. E. Salter. My brother-in-law was Clarence Eugene Salter. So I stopped that. When I went into the Social Security Program I had to have a legal name, so I changed it to Camilla Atkison Salter, and I guess the world is no worse off for the changing of names.

When and if we get this together I will give you a dignified copy.

Love to the family.

(This should make a more shortlike strange home [?])

Note: This letter clarifies names and nicknames of the General Forrest Atkison (15879) / Mary Caroline Bell (15880) family

Sources

• https://ancestors.familysearch.org/en/LJKQ-KSH/sarah-elizabeth-atkinson-1857-1947.