Runaway Bride!

I recently attended my niece's wedding, but this is not about her. The wedding was beautiful and they seem a perfect match.

This story is about a certain ancestor of mine . . . "ours" for some of you reading this :) . . . it's about the maker of "the quilt." While I was on the trip to Texas, I had the pleasure of visiting with many of our relatives in McKinney, Nacogdoches, and Lufkin. It's a great privilege to have lots of family, and it's a unique honor to visit with (and stay with) a grandmother who is 93 . . . who remarried seven years ago to a wonderful man who was 95 at the time and is 102 now!

While I was at their house a couple of nights, I asked Grandmother Worley about our family tree because I’m interested in starting with Ancestry.com. We began by talking about my Great-Great-Great-Grandmother “Sarah,” who made a beautiful quilt with six large squares. My Aunt Judy ended up with the quilt and she carefully cut it apart to give a square to each of the six great-granddaughters of Grandmother Worley. Aunt Judy said the stitching on the quilt was almost as perfect as machine stitching.

Miss Sarah Evelina Williams ran away and got married . . . when she was just 14 years old! Grandmother said it was in June of 1872, and she wasn't quite 15. She met Richard Alonzo Mabry who was 29. That's young . . . but he was twice her age! People said he was a good-looking man. (Maybe that contributed to the quick romance?)

Sarah had three sons, the youngest of which was named George Bedford Mabry. He’s my Great-Great Grandfather. He was born in 1878, which was the same year she made the quilt. (How did she make a perfectly stitched quilt with three young boys?!) That same year . . . her husband died of yellow fever. She was only twenty.

Sarah determined to not remarry until her boys were grown. Her brothers helped her raise them. She was a seamstress by trade, which may account for her perfect stitches . . . or maybe she became a seamstress because she had perfect stitches. She did remarry after her sons were adults, and was known as “Grandmother Deason.”

This story makes me think of several things. One . . . if she had been advised to wait to marry . . . I wouldn't be here (and some of you!). If she had used birth control until she was "older" . . . I/we wouldn't be here. I'm not making a particular recommendation here . . . just sayin' . . . Well, maybe I am dropping a hint . . . if you want children, don't wait until it's TOO late.

Another thing this makes me think of is how wonderful our modern medical care is. Yellow Fever is a viral hemorrhagic infection . . . the first disease discovered to be carried by mosquitoes. This was discovered by Dr. Carlos Finlay and confirmed by Army Major Walter Reed M.D. (yes, the one that the Army hospital is named after). Yellow Fever is thought to have been introduced from Africa via the slave trade (Karma bites?). Vaccines for it were developed in the 1930s. It's been eradicated in North America since the 1940s through vaccination and elimination of the insect vector.

My first two children suffered through chicken pox, but my third child got the shot and didn’t have to get sick. All three were vaccinated against measles, mumps, rubella, polio, whooping cough, hepatitis A and B, meningitis and multiple types of flu. I'm thankful that I'm a parent nowadays and not a hundred years ago! I highly recommend the book “The Good Old Days, They were Terrible!”

In the early 1800s an average family spent over half their budget just on food! Today, the U.S. has the lowest ratio of food expenditures to personal disposable income in the world.

Now, the average American family spends about the same amount on health care as it spends on ENTERTAINMENT. Why do we GRIPE about the cost of health care?

So what if health care costs are rising? Compared to what? In 1878 the percentage spent on health care was less than 1% and now it’s nearly 6%? Is that a BAD thing? In 1878 there was practically none available. Now we have an abundance of vaccines, medicines, tests and procedures to detect, mend and cure all kinds of injuries and diseases. Of COURSE we’re going to spend more on it! After all, we don’t have to spend HALF our income on food any more.

In the early 20th century the average life span at birth was 35 . . . a number that Great-Great-Grandfather Mabry just reached. Now it’s DOUBLED to over 78 years (in the U.S.) I think good medical care is WORTH spending “more” on, don't you?

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*The quilt was framed by my niece Jennie at the Aaron Brothers on North Academy in Colorado Springs. She does GREAT work! If you bring something in for framing, ask for her by name. :)