James David

J D Yancey Jr: In those later years, Mother was a kindergarten teacher. Dad was a gardener and sold his surplus strawberries, citrus, and vegetables to local grocery stores. He had a very extensive cactus collection. After Mother’s death, he moved to Dallas with us, and our yard was covered with super flowers and big crops of vegetables. He worked on his hands and knees! During his last year, we even together planted a flower garden at the nursing home where he had to live.

Biirth:	Mar. 13, 1881 Dallas Dallas County Texas, USA
Death:	May 8, 1977 Dallas Dallas County Texas, USA

Birth:	Aug. 31, 1895 Texas, USA
Death:	Mar. 3, 1975 Houston Harris County Texas, USA
Bettie was the daughter of Granville Theodore Storey and Theda Humphries. She married James David Yancey.

Birth:	Dec. 2, 1848
Death:	May 22, 1910
son of David Sr. and Rachel Davis (Medearis) Yancey Born in Marshall County, Tennessee Married to Jennie (Brown) Yancey

James D. Yancey Jr.: I am sure you sent this article because it deals with my father (James D Yancey Sr) and grandfather (Benjamin F. Yancey). I don’t think I had seen the article but my Dad told it to me many times. I will give you a little more background.

My grandfather had moved his family from Campbell in Hunt County to Angleton in Brazoria County near Galveston. The family planted cotton and raised bees for honey. My Dad, who was in his late teens, especially helped with the bees and was also a hunter and trapper for pelts. Mink were prize catches.

Then the 1900 Galveston storm came along, and left nothing but the floor of granddad’s house. Something like a couple of years later the family decided to move to Bridgeport in Washington state and raise fruit. My Dad became foreman for a large apple grower out of Scotland. Granddad had his own orchard. Things went relatively well until daughter Annie died in 1909. Dad said she was always sickly. Then granddad had an appendicitis attack. The only doctor who could operate was up the Columbia River in Spokane halfway across the state. On the trip Dad kept his father’s head in his lap. New information to me was that the steamboat had to take a side trip up the Okanogan River before getting underway for Spokane.

The rest of the story is that some time later my Dad himself also had an appendicitis attack. He had to make the same steamboat trip to Spokane. Fortunately he got there in time and the surgery was successful.

When the apple business declined a few years later, the family moved back to Texas and settled at Bay City where I was born. Dad’s sister Dovie married John Hopfinger, and they had premature twin girls. I have been told that the two little twins were carried in a shoebox on the train to Texas. One died almost immediately while the other survived about six months. Both are buried in Bay City. Aunt Dovie died in childbirth a year or so later and is buried in Bay City, too.

I am sure you know that granddad’s complete family was not listed in the article. It is:

                James David Yancey                           1881-1977
                Annie Lee Yancey                               1884-1909
                Benjamin Franklin Yancey Jr.               1886-1955       married and stayed in Washington.
                Dovie Alice Yancey                             1889-1920
                Earl Burnett Yancey                             1893-1974      names for a noted preacher, not the Barnett family
                Ivie Lou Yancey                                   1897-1975

A number of years after my Dad (James D Yancey Sr) died, Louise and I were in Washington state. We decided we would try to find where granddad was buried since Dad had never told me except for the general area. We drove from town to town and court house to court house. Finally we came to Bridgeport and stopped at the local library. There they were very helpful and showed us a lot of historical material and maps. They even had a map of the local cemetery with the location of granddad’s and Annie’s graves. We immediately went by and found them and took notes. The library also had land plat maps which showed the location of the home. We drove out and saw the land, but no buildings had survived. In fact, that particular area had been condemned because of rise in river level with the building of the dams. My brother, Marshall, also later went out and visited the same sites as well.

Grandma (Jennie) Yancey lived in Bay City for a number of years but later moved to Houston to be with Aunt Ivie and Uncle Jason Humber. She died when I was four and is buried in Bay City.