Viola Almenta (Boyd) Ragsdale (1863 - 1918)

Born 19 Dec 1863 in Leavenworth, Leavenworth, Kansas, United States

Ancestors

Daughter of Hiram Green Boyd and Eliza A. (Smith) Boyd

Descendants

Died 4 Jan 1918 at age 54 in Hollis, Harmon, Oklahoma, United States

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Biography

Viola was born 19 Dec 1863 in Leavenworth, ,Kansas to Hiram Green Boyd and Eliza A. Smith. The 1865 census of Lexington Twsp, Johnson County, Kansas showed Viola was 1 year old. Her father is a farmer, age 34, born in Kentucky, her mother is 28 born Indiana. She has an older sister Elizabeth J. age 9 born in Texas, and an older brother James A, age 5, also born in Texas. She is listed as born in Kansas. Viola was born into a very unsettled Kansas. In the October before she was born, a battle had been fought between Union and Confederate forces in Cherokee County, south of where she was born. Then in October of 1864 a series of three battles occurred, first in Linn County which is between Johnson and Cherokee Counties, then in Vernon County, Missouri. Her father had signed up for the Union draft he was 32 on the 1st of July 1863, married, and listed as a “ferry-man”, Lexington Township was close to the Kansas River. Our next record of Viola is age 7 in 1870 in Fayetteville Tnsp, Washington County, Arkansas. Her father is now listed as a brick mason, and she now has a younger sister, A Boyd, and a younger brother, Chester, 5/12 yr. Viola, Elizabeth and James are listed as attendung school. In 1880 we find Viola and her family in Saline, Howard County, Arkansas. Her father listed as a brickmason, age 52; with mother Eliza, age 48; and sister Leona age 16, brother Chesterfield age 10, and sister Minnie, age 4 months. Howard county was largely rural, farming country, with a predominantly white population. There was a race riot there in 1883, over the killing of a black woman, and subsequent retaliation by both sides. Viola's mother Eliza Smith Boyd died in 1884Viola's father died in 1885 in Texarkana, Millier, Arkansas. She married Cornelius Lee Ragsdale the next year. We have no record of Viola and Cornelius until 1910. But family stories say that both somehow ended up in an orphan's home and met there. Both of Viola's parents had died within 2 years, and Cornelius had been alone since he was 12. Somehow they found each other in an orphan's home run by a family named Kirby, and about 1886 the married, with their first child born in 1887 in Buchanan, TX. Buchanan, five miles northwest of Cleburne in central Johnson County, was established in 1856 and selected as the second county seat. In a special election on March 23, 1867, county voters chose a new county seat, Camp Henderson, which became Cleburne. Buchanan lost its post office in 1868 and was abandoned by 1892. That area is SSW of the current day Fort Worth, TX. Viola bore 10 children for Cornelius, two of which did not survive. Two sons and 6 daughters was a big family for Viola to manage. She seems to have raised a happy, religious, and industrious flock, and they in turn did the same with their families. Sadly the eldest son, Chester Lee, was lost at the end of WWI,, but the rest lived long and well. Ten years after giving birth to her youngest, Viola gave up on this life at age 54, two days She died 4 Jan 1918 in Hollis, Harmon Co., Ok.

Viola Boyd Viola was born in 19 Dec 1863, to Hiram Green Boyd and Elizabeth A. Smith, in Lexington, Johnson Co, KS, USA. ..She was married to Cornelius Lee Ragsdale abt. 1886. They raised 10 children, 8 of them girls, on a Homestead in Southwest Oklahoma. She passed away 4 Jan 1918.

Sources

1865 Census of Johnson Co., Lexington, KS 613 - 667 H. G. Boyd 34 M farmer 2000 600 KY M E. A. Boyd 28 F IN M E. J. Boyd 9 F TX S J. A. Boyd 5 M TX S V. A. Boyd 1 F KN S 1900 Census TX Ellis co., Pre. 2 Dist 19

171-1712 C. L. Ragsdale Head W M Oct 1863 36 M 14 AL TN TN Viola wife W F Dec 1863 36 M 14 7 5 KN KY IL Maggie dau W F Aug 1888 11 S TX AL KN Chester son W M Aug 1892 7 S Tx Al KN Maude dau W F Jul 1894 5 S AR Al KN Lillie dau W F Jan 1897 3 S TX AL KN Nettie dau W F Jun 1899 11/12 S TX AL KN

Bitter Creek Cemetery, Hollis, Harmon Co., OK RAGSDALE, Viola Alemeta Boyd 19 Dec 1863-04 Jan 1918

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