Notes |
- Marriage Ceremony performed by George W Baines, Jr.
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From the Valdo James Smith Research document, The Sudburys of Virginia and Tennessee.
ROBERT J. SUDBURY was born on June 5, 1856 in Dyer County, Tennessee. On
November 28, 1877, shortly after he and his parents moved from Tennessee to
Milam County, Texas, he married LAURA TALLULAH E. FOSTER. The cere
-mony was performed by George W. Baines, Jr.
Laura had been born on September 12, 1859, in Georgia (probably in the town of
Morgan in Calhoun County), according to her great-grandson, Glenn Boyd. Her
parents were SAMUEL L. FOSTER and ELIZABETH SHEPPARD. Census
records from 1860 show Laura, at the age of almost one year, living with her
family in Morgan, Georgia, where her parents were running an inn. In 1870,
Laura's family was still living in Morgan, but her father had given up inkeeping
and had become a farmer. Glenn Boyd's best estimate is that Laura's family moved
from Georgia to Milam County, Texas sometime between 1770 and 1774.
After his marriage to Laura in 1877, Robert probably helped his father, John B.
Sudbury, farm John's land in Milam County. Following John's death, which
apparently occurred in 1888, Robert purchased the inherited interests of each of his
brothers and sisters in John's land for the sum of fifty dollars, and it became his
own. The deed evidencing this purchase is an interesting document, which can still
be photocopied in the Milam County courthouse in Cameron. A description of the
land Robert acquired under this deed can be found in entry number 1612, above,
for John B. Sudbury.
Unfortunately, Robert did not live to farm his new land for very long. He died on
July 18, 1891, presumably in Milam County, of unknown causes. His burial site is
also unknown to us today, though he may possibly be resting in an unmarked grave
in the Sandy Creek Cemetery, near Rockdale.
Laura survived her husband by almost four decades. Glenn Boyd gives the
following additional information about her later years:
Laura was known to use a cane during the last years of her life. She would
visit each of her children for a few weeks in turn. Laura suffered from
dropsy, an old term for diabetes. At least one of her children and several
grandchildren developed the disease, possibly inherited from Laura.
Laura died on March 17, 1927, and is buried in the city cemetery of
Thornton, Texas. The grave site is marked by a small curved stone.
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