Virginia
Caroline Wright (1862-1923) Great Grandmother
There are at least nineteen DNA matches between our trees and the trees of our DNA matches where CE and Virginia Caroline South are the common ancestors.
Virginia Caroline Wright was born in Damascus, Virginia on 22 June, 1862.
Her parents were James Hand Wright, a farmer and a veteran of the Civil War,
and Anna “Annie” Mary Rosenbalm Robinson Wright. Both her parents had been widowed
and had children by their first spouses: Annie had one son by John Calvin
Robinson before he passed away in 1860, and James had a daughter Maragaret by
his first wife Frances Sharp who passed in 1857. Their marriage was in 1861.
Virginia had a brother who died in infancy and an older sister Francis
Catherine called Fannie. She had younger siblings Robert, Charles, Martha, and
John.
She married Charles Emmett South on 23 May, 1884, at Fannie Printz’s
home. They lived in Washington County, Virginia, until 1896 when they took an
immigrant train to find a better life for their family. With stops in
California and then Illinois, where CE had some half-brothers, they finally
decided to join Fannie and her husband George Printz, as well as their mother
Annie Mary Rosenbalm Robinson Wright, in Callahan County. George was an
itinerant Methodist preacher who later moved his family out west to Ector
County.
Virginia Caroline always appears happy in photographs, pleased to be
surrounded by her family, but it must have been challenging raising her brood
of fifteen children. Two died in infancy and one at age ten, Effie. Five of her
children lived nearby as adults, and only one lived out of state.
Sadly, Virginia Caroline did not live to see her children’s successes and
families since she died in 1923 as the result of a fire in their home. Her obituary,
written by her brother-in-law George Printz, follows this page. She is buried
in the Clyde cemetery.
Transcription
of Virginia Caroline Wright South’s obituary written by her brother-in-law
George Printz
Virginia Caroline South (nee Wright) was born in Virginia June 22, 1861,
and met with a sad accident, by being fatally burned while endeavoring to light
an oil stove, at her home two miles northwest of Baird on the North Clyde Road,
on the morning of May 16, 1923, passing away that evening at 5 o’clock.
She was married to C.E. South in May, 1884, and came to Callahan County
in 1898. To this union fifteen children were born, twelve living and three gone
on before. Ther were eleven of these children at her funeral. One boy [Bascom]
who lives in San Francisco, California, was the only one absent.
Sister South had not been feeling well for several days before the fatal
accident, and in lighting an oil stove, her dress caught fire. When she tried
to open the kitchen door she failed in the effort and became so excited that
she sat down.
Her second attempt to open the door was successful. She managed to reach
a bucket of water on the gallery and attempted to put out her burning clothing,
but failed.
Then, too late, attempted to tear off the flaming garments. Her husband
found her where she had fallen. She was conscious until just before she died
and greeted the children as they came in with the same sweet, motherly smile
with which she had always welcomed them.
We realize what a severe blow thisis to the bereaved husband and children,
and may God, who alone can come to our hearts and lives, be gracious to all her
loved ones, for we know where to find her, and thank God, that if we are faithful,
we will meet her in the sweet bye-and-bye.
I have known her since she was thirteen years of age and a more sweet and
lovable character, as school girl and mature woman, I have never met in this
life. For thirty-five years she had been intensely religious and a consistent
member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. George Printz, her brother-in-law
[this was dated 1923 and bore handwriting indicating it was Olaf’s
mother, so I believe this came from his papers]
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