William John Parsons Cavel (1844 - 1912)

Born 24 Jan 1844 in Martin-by-Fordingbridge, Hampshire, England, United Kingdom

Ancestors

Husband of Susan Ann (Shave) Cavel — married 18 Nov 1868 in St Paul's Church, Bisterne, Hampshire, England, United Kingdom

Descendants

Died 9 Dec 1912 at age 68 in Thrifty, Brown, Texas, United States

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Deb Cavel [send private message]

Biography of William John Parsons Cavel

^[1] William John Parsons Cavel was born 24 January 1844 in Fordingbridge, Hampshire (now Wiltshire) England, to the widowed Sarah Lavinia Parsons. His father William Cavel had died a month earlier, leaving William John his only surviving child.

In 1851 we find seven-year-old William John and his Mother Sarah living in the extended household of Charles Barnes and his wife Eliza Parsons Barnes, their baby son Edward, plus the father of the Parson's family, Thomas. Also in the household are Thomas' son Charles and an Ann Parsons. It's unclear whether Ann is Thomas' daughter or Charles' wife. But most everyone is the household is a member of the Parsons family.

^[2]  1851 English Census: Village of Ripley; Civil parish:  Sopley; Hampshire;
Household Members
Name                Age
Charles Barnes 25  HOH Agricultural Labourer b Sopley
Eliza Barnes         25  wife  b Ringwood 
Edward Barnes   1  son   b  Sopley
   Thomas Parsons 58  wife's father b Wiltshire
Charles Parsons  23  brother-in-law b Ringwood
Ann Parsons       21 sister-in-law b Ringwood
  Sarah Cavel  31 sister-in-law b Ringwood
William Cavel        7 nephew scholar b Martin, Wiltshire

By 1861 Sarah has married again, to Joseph Peckham. William is now 17 years old and is working as an agricultural labourer. Sarah and Joseph have three young daughters. The eldest, Ann, is six years old, allowing us to estimate the date of Sarah and Joseph's wedding as no later than 1853-1854.

1861 Census Returns of England and Wales; Ringwood, Hampshire; ^[3]
Household Members:
Name Age:
Joseph Peckham Head 38 Ag lab b Ringwood
Sarah Peckham wife 40 b Ringwood
William Cavil stepson 17 Ag lab b Ringwood
Ann Peckham daught 6 b Ringwood
Sarah Peckham daught 3 b Ringwood
Ellen Peckham daught 1 (infant) b Ringwood

Banns were read August 30, Sept 6, and Sept 13, 1868.

William and Susan Ann Shave were married on the 18th of November 1868 in St. Paul's Bisterne Church, in the village of Kingston, Ringwood District, Hampshire, England.

The Bisterne Church Parish Record states that Wm John Cavel was 24 years old and a labourer on Kingston Common. Witnesses to the marriage were Robert Shave, a Thatcher, the bride's father, and Andrew and Sarah Stacey.

Their son Frederick Francis William Cavel was born on the 6th November 1872, on Guss Farm, Christchurch, Hampshire (now Dorset) England. Despite the baby's robust health his parents had reason to be anxious. A scarlet fever epidemic was raging across England and in the two weeks between the previous 15th of May and the 2nd of June it had snuffed out the lives of their two-year-old son John Oakley and 10-month old daughter Minnie Alice. Susan’s six-year-old daughter Rose caught it last. She had survived, but she was still very fragile when Fred was born. To keep the contagion away from the new baby Rose was living with Susan Ann's parents Robert and Mary Ann in Ringwood.

^[4]The prospect of losing one or more of their children to scarlet fever was the terror of every parent before the availability of antibiotics. Fatality rates were very high, particularly in younger children. Holt’s 1897 textbook, “The Diseases of Infancy and Childhood” cites a fatality rate as high as 55% in babies under one year and up to 22% in those under three years. Annual death rates during the 1850s ran as high as 272 per 100,000 population.

The Cavel family was poor. William had little education and in 1871 he'd been working as a carter, driving a freight wagon. It was heavy work, loading barrels and sacks. They had little before their babies got sick, but the authorities forced the occupants of homes where scarlet fever had come to carry their bedding, mattresses, clothing and textiles into the middle of the street and burn them. They were left with practically nothing. Maybe William caught the infection too. Scarlet fever is a streptococcal infection, which left untreated it can kill even today. It rarely kills healthy adults. But if he caught it, it may have weakened William enough to have made him unable to do heavy labour for some time. It is one way of explaining why in November 1872, when baby Fred was born, William was herding sheep on Guss Farm. They must have felt pretty desperate.

But they were not without hope. Not long after they were married, they’d heard a man in Christchurch telling the ragged crowd who’d gathered around him that a man could walk down the streets in Texas and fill his hat with gold nuggets the size of chestnuts! Texas was the land of milk and honey, where wild grapes twined around trees filled with fruit, and the deer and wild turkey ran so thick you could hit them on the head with a stick or a stone. Land was five cents an acre, and every man lived like a king. No man was poor in Texas.

That was for them, they thought. Not that they wanted to go to such a faraway place and stay. They loved their families too much to leave them behind forever. But think of it! They could go to Texas for a year, get rich and come back home and be comfortable for the rest of their lives, and help their parents and their brothers and sisters too!

And so they began to save, a few pennies at a time, all the while dreaming of Texas. By January of 1873, they had saved enough to buy tickets for themselves and Rose. Trusting that Rose would be well enough to travel by the end of March, they booked tickets on the SS San Jacinto, due to depart Liverpool on the 25th of March bound for the port of Galveston, Texas. Since baby Fred would still be under six months old they needn’t buy a ticket for him. [2]

Unfortunately, when the time came to go Rose was still too ill to travel, and so with many tears, they left her in the care of Susan’s parents until they returned. We will not be long, they assured her and their weeping mothers. We will be back soon! We promise, we will not be long.

They and 177 other passengers sailed from Liverpool on the 25th of March and arrived in Galveston Texas on the 21st of April. The ship also carried a cargo of matches, and as they entered the Gulf of Mexico there was a fire onboard which caused considerable damage. The ship barely limped into port, taking on water, listing heavily, in danger of sinking, and with all the passengers terrified.

When they disembarked at Galveston it was the largest city in Texas with almost 14,000 residents. [3] Were they dismayed to find no gold nuggets littering the ground beside the docks, or did they reason that those naturally would have been picked up, and the free-for-the-picking nuggets would be found further inland? We’ll never know, but William was offered a job clearing timber north of Galveston in Grimes County almost as soon as they had gotten off the ship, so they climbed onto the buckboard with their bags and headed inland with baby Fred in arms.

It was over 100 miles by a rutted and primitive road to Grimes County and it probably didn’t take long for the horrifying truth to sink in. Grimes County was beautiful, an untouched boreal forest whose wealth was in its trees; American elm, sycamore, black elder, buckeye, green ash, red mulberry, box elder, ash-leaf maple, Carolina cherry, holly, cottonwood, and the breathtakingly beautiful redbud, which blooms luminous pink blossoms on bare branches in early spring. But there was no gold for them, or anyone - anywhere. Just a rude log cabin with a straw mattress laid on the floor. And day after day of backbreaking work for William, felling trees, hitching trees to a sweating horse with a chain and pulling them out to the mill to be planed into lumber. And for Susan, cooking in the yard over an open fire, beating off the swarms of mosquitos that carried yellow fever.

One day William's big double-bladed axe hit a knot and bounced. It hit his leg, and when it came away, it brought a fist-sized chunk of flesh, blood, and bone. He looked at it, uncomprehending. Dropped his axe and fell facedown before the nearby men could reach him.

One of his co-workers tore off his shirt and tied it tight above William's knee to slow the flow of blood. They carried him home, unconscious. Susan saw them coming down the path and ran to the open door carrying the little daughter born two months earlier, Nellie - they called her. Fred held onto his mother’s skirts while the men carried his daddy up the steps onto the porch. It was July and blistering hot. They’d been sleeping on the porch. The straw mattress was there, and they laid him on it. “Boss has sent a man for the doctor”, one said. “Can’t do no more.”

And without antibiotics there was little the doctor could do, except give William morphine for pain. He had taken off his kneecap in one stroke. He fought infection for months, fever and delirium. When he emerged from his year-long ordeal his right leg was contracted, his knee bent at a 90 degree angle. He walked with a crutch for the rest of his life. Their dream of returning to England was over. Was it a gradual acceptance or did the realization that they’d never be able to return home wash over them like a cold tide one day?

At some point between 1877 and 1880 they moved to Falls County Texas. Susan gave birth to twin girls in April of 1880, Bessie Louise and Lillie. Lillie is included in the 1880 census and Bessie is not, but the names are confused. Lillie died in August, and Bessie lived to adulthood. There was no church or cemetery nearby, so the tiny body was buried in the corner of a cotton field that belonged to the farmer William was working for. He promised never to plant over the grave, but the next spring he sowed cotton over little Lillie's resting place, which made Susan grieve her baby's death all over again. However as the spring wore on the cotton died back 50 feet in every direction from the grave, and Susan knew God had felt her grief and laid a protecting hand over her little one's body.

Children

Child: John Oakley Cavel

Child: Alice Minnie Cavel

Child: William Frederick Francis Cavel

Child: Lillie Cavel

Child: Bessie Louise Cavel

Child: Infant Son Cavel

Child: Charles Albert Cavel

Child: Mary Susan Cavel

Child: Arthur William Cavel

Child: Infant son Cavel

Child: Sarah Ann Cavel

Child: Katie Cavel

Event

Event:

Type: Arrival

Date: 1873^[5]

Event:

Type: Arrival

Date: 21 APR 1873

Place: Galveston, Texas on ship San Jacinto^[6][7]

Residence

1871 Census Returns of England and Wales,Kew, Surrey, England:
The National Archives of the UK (TNA): Public Record Office (PRO)
Class: RG10; Piece: 1180; Folio: 72; Page: 8; GSU roll: 827806;
Kingston; Ringwood; Hampshire; ED#5, HH#39,
Household Members;
Name Age:
William Cavel Head 27 Carter, bn Martin, Wiltshire
Susan Cavel wife 25 bn Ringwood, Hampshire
John Cavel son 2 bn Ringwood, Hampshire
Alice M Cavel daught 7 Months bn Ringwood, Hampshire

1880; Census: Falls County, Texas^[8]
Name Age relation to HH born Occupation Father's BP Mother's BP
Household Members:
Name Age William Cavel 35 HoH England farmer England England
Susan Cavel 33 wife England England England
Fred Cavel 7 son England England England
Ellen Cavel 5 daug Texas England England
Lillie Cavel 2 m daug Texas England England

1900 Federal Census; Justice Precinct 7, Brown, Texas, Source: #S239 Roll: T623 1615; Page: 10A; Enumeration District: 11;
Name Age
William Cavel 55
Susan A Cavel 52
Bessie L Cavel 30
Charles A Cavil 18
Mary S Cavil 15
Arthur W Cavil 13

1910 Federal Census Justice Precinct 7, Brown, Texas, Source: #S244 Roll: T624_1535; Page: 1A; Enumeration District: 0108; Image: 465; FHL microfilm: 1375548.
Name Age
William J Cavel 65
Susan Cavel 62

Death

Death:

Date: 9 DEC 1912

Place: Thrifty, Brown Co Texas

Note: Age: 67^[9][10]

Burial

Burial: Rocky Creek Baptist Churchyard Cemetery

Place: Brownwood, Brown County, Texas, USA^[11]

• Fact: Birth Registration (1844) Fordingbridge, Hampshire, England^[12]
• Fact: Residence (1851) Sopley, Hampshire, England^[13]
• Fact: Residence (1871) Kingston, Ringwood, Hampshire, England^[14]
• Fact: Immigration (1873)^[15]
• Fact: Residence (1900) Justice Precinct 7, Brown, Texas, United States^[16]
• Fact: Residence (1910) Justice Precinct 7, Brown, Texas, United States^[17]
• Fact: Burial (10 Dec 1912) Rocky Creek Cemetery, Brownwood, Brown, Texas^[18]

DNA Matches

• Paternal relationship is identified by an GEDmatch test match between Chris Goff and his distant cousin Living Cavel (son of Hall Wayland Cavel Jr.). Their MRCAs are unknown but are through John Cavel and/or his wife Rachel Flemington. Predicted relationship: 5th-8th Cousins, based on sharing 12.2 cm at Chr-5. Requires Triangulation.

Sources

1. ↑ England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index; Vol Viii, pg 164, 1st Quarter, 1844, citing William John Cavel, born Fordingbridge, Hampshire, England
2. ↑ 1851 English Census: Village of Ripley; Civil parish:
    Sopley; Hampshire; Christchurch: Class: HO107; Piece: 1667; Folio 290: GSU roll: 193574. ED: 3b; HH #: 54: Page # 15 
3. ↑ 1861 Census Returns of England and Wales, Kew, Surrey, England: PRO, Class: RG 9; Ringwood, Hampshire; EDS6: HSN: 32; Piece: 668; Folio: 79; Page: 6; GSU roll: 542681
4. ↑ The Diseases of Infancy and Childhood; For the Use of Students and Practitioners of Medicine by L. Emmett Holt, A.M., M.D.; New York; D. Appleton and Company, Copyright, 1897
5. ↑ Source: #S244 Page: Year: 1910; Census Place: Justice Precinct 7, Brown, Texas; Roll: T624_1535; Page: 1A; Enumeration District: 0108; Image: 465; FHL microfilm: 1375548.
6. ↑ Source: #S239 Page: Year: 1900; Census Place: Justice Precinct 7, Brown, Texas; Roll: T623 1615; Page: 10A; Enumeration District: 11.
7. ↑ Source: #S117 Page: Passenger List of the Ship "San Jacinto"
8. ↑ 1880; Census: Falls County, Texas; Roll: T9_1302; Family History Film: 1255302; Page: 191.3000; Enumeration District: 38
9. ↑ Source: #S248
10. ↑ Source: #S419 Page: 1,70580::3082779
11. ↑ Source: #S419 Page: 1,70580::3082779
12. ↑ "England and Wales Birth Registration Index, 1837-2008," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2N4N-VC5 : 1 October 2014), William John Cavell, 1844; from "England & Wales Births, 1837-2006," database, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : 2012); citing Birth Registration, Fordingbridge, Hampshire, England, citing General Register Office, Southport, England.
13. ↑ "England and Wales Census, 1851," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:SGP2-MRG : 11 September 2019), William Cavel in household of Charles Barnes, Sopley, Hampshire, England; citing Sopley, Hampshire, England, p. 15, from "1851 England, Scotland and Wales census," database and images, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : n.d.); citing PRO HO 107, The National Archives of the UK, Kew, Surrey
14. ↑ "England and Wales Census, 1871", database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VFDP-F7G : 27 September 2019), William Cavel, 1871.
15. ↑ "United States Census, 1910," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M29X-V12 : accessed 18 June 2020), William J Cavel, Justice Precinct 7, Brown, Texas, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 108, sheet 1A, family 7, NARA microfilm publication T624 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1982), roll 1535; FHL microfilm 1,375,548.
16. ↑ "United States Census, 1900," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M3L9-951 : accessed 18 June 2020), William Cavel, Justice Precinct 7, Brown, Texas, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 11, sheet 10A, family 182, NARA microfilm publication T623 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1972.); FHL microfilm 1,241,615.
17. ↑ "United States Census, 1910," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M29X-V12 : accessed 18 June 2020), William J Cavel, Justice Precinct 7, Brown, Texas, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 108, sheet 1A, family 7, NARA microfilm publication T624 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1982), roll 1535; FHL microfilm 1,375,548.
18. ↑ "Texas Deaths and Burials, 1903-1973", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:F6T3-2BG : 13 February 2020), William Cavel, 1912.