Texas to Florida and back....

So, I am a 5th generation Floridian - on my daddy's side. On my mother's side, I am a Texan. Times were very hard in the 1930's. At some point, my maternal grandmother, Margie Carter Camp (Nana), decided that Florida was the land of opportunity. She and two of her three children (my mother, Gladys and my uncle Joe) headed that way for a better life. Her oldest son, James Earl Camp, decided he'd rather stay on her parents' farm with his grandmother Lilian, who had mostly raised him for a few years. I believe he was around 13 or 14 years old at the time.

Here is a picture of my mother, Gladys Lorraine Camp (Stokes) Benton and her two brothers in the early 1930's. My grandmother and her parents lived just outside Jefferson, Texas which is in far northeast Texas.


I am not sure of all the details on how or why Nana's ancestors moved into Texas. Most likely, they were in search of a better opportunity - is there a theme here? After the War between the States, many people from the south went west in search of new land and new chances. Nana's father was born in Georgia and her mother in Alabama. Charlie T. Carter was born around Doraville, GA in 1871. His father dies in Cass County, TX in 1875. Charlie (my great-grandfather) married Lilian Fason and together they raised nine children on a 400 acre cotton farm.

Here is a picture of Charlie with his youngest daughter, Lillie Mae Carter. It was taken some time before he died in 1931.


On Lilian's side, her father (William Duffy Fason)was born in Georgia and lived around Ashland County, Alabama for a few years. Sometime between the 1880 census and the 1900 census, they arrive in northeast Texas. His occupation on census records is listed as farmer. Lilian lived until 1942, and from my mother's accounts, was a wonderful grandmother and person. I did get to meet her brother, Travis, when I was a child, and he was a fun, eccentric fellow.


My uncle who stayed behind, James Earl Camp, passed away suddenly when he was only sixteen years old. Nana never quite got over that - having left him in Texas. Apparently he had a congenital heart defect and then he came down with pneumonia. It's hard to imagine, but in the 1930's they did not know penicillin would cure pneumonia! Here is a picture of my mother and Uncle Joe on the trip back to Texas for Earl's funeral. I found a letter he had written to mother and Uncle Joe among old pictures of Nana's when she died. It was such a sweet letter, and Earl talked about going to church. So, I'm looking forward to meeting him in Heaven one day.


Another find among Nana's old pictures were two very old photos of people I did not know. When I removed them from being glued to the page of an old album, I discovered one was of "Mr. Jim". That would be my mother's father, James Daniel Camp. The story I was told was that he had abandoned Nana and his children at some point, and they did not know what happened to him. I don't know the circumstances of the family separating, but I have recently learned more about what happened to him.

Through Ancestry.com I made a connection with Christine who is my mother's first cousin on the Camp side. She was always told that "Margie took the children to California". Grandfather Jim remarried, had two more children, James Leland Camp and Elizabeth Camp. He died in Shreveport, LA in 1963. James Leland is still alive and I may get to meet him this summer at the Camp Family reunion, which I have been invited to attend. I sure hope I get to meet him - my long-lost uncle! And, there sure were two sides to the story of my grandfather.

Here is a picture of James Daniel Camp with his brother Frank (Christine's father).


I've learned some interesting things through Christine and her husband. They've sent me records of Jim's grandfather, Daniel W. Johnston's service in the 2nd Mississipi Cavalry during the Civil War. I just love family history.

I think that's all the room I have for this time.