1. Armstead was about 6' tall with gray eyes and while his black hair turned gray in later life he still had a full head of hair.
2. Armstead & Jessie resided in Jones Prairie from 1876 until 1918...during that time all their children were born.
3. They were Baptists.
4. Throughout his life, he labored at a variety of jobs, including teaching. One of his early teaching jobs was at Turkey Peak, located in Brown County, Texas. But his first love was always farming. He labored as a stock farmer for the better part of his life and raised jersey cattle.
5. Although Armstead apparently moved with his parents to Brown County around 1890, he returned to Milam County where he married Jessie Lee Harrell.
6. Armstead died after undergoing surgical removal of his prostate gland. The immediate cause of this death was listed s myocarditis (inflammation of the heart muscle).
1. Jessie was about 5' l0" tall and had sandy red hair, being a large-framed woman who was always a little too heavy.
2. Jessie Lee's father was a Confederate veteran who came to Milam County from Martin County, North Carolina.
3. Jessie's mother came with her parents to Milam County from Coosa County, Alabama. Jessie's mother died when Jessie was only 8 years old. She kept house for her father.
4. When 15 years old Jessie's father died and she then went to live with her sister, Mollie Stidham.
5. Jessie Lee graduated from the Jones Prairie community school. She enjoyed school and wanted to attend college. However, Jessie Lee's family encouraged her to marry Armstead Rice, perhaps because Armstead was a cousin of Millie Stidham's husband, Benjamin.
6. Franklin Stidham (who was the son of Nancy Caroline Jones Stidham, daughter of Joseph Patterson Jones).
7. Armstead & Jessie settled in Jones Prairie from 1896 until 1918. During that time all seven of their children were born.
8. Their home was purchased, at least in part, with money that Jessie had inherited.
9. Soon after Armstead and Jessie married, two of Jessie Lee's sisters came to live with them. These sisters, Elma and Florence Harrell, continued to reside in Armstead's home until they married. Jessie Lee died of a mitral deficiency (defect in the heart valve).
1. Carrie was a school tracher.
1. A picture is in file.
1. Bud was a farmer...
2. He was a member and a deacon of the Bethel Baptist Church.
3. Bud's niece, Carolyn Rice, recalled that he was a kind person who was everybody's friend.
4. Mary Louise Rice, wife of Bud's nephew Lee Rice, Jr. remembered Bud for his good English and precise speech.
1. Jessie Eugenia and Bill Routh lived on a farm located near the Brown County communities of Zephyr and Blanket.
2. Jessie's niece, Carman Rice (daughter of George Rice), recalled attending a family reunion which was held at the Routh farm. All of William Henry Rice's children, except Bob Rice, attended the reunion.
3. At the time of the reunion, Carman Rice was less than twelve years old. She and her cousins enjoyed taking turns riding a cart down a hill. They took turns driving the cart. When it came her turn to drive, she drove the cart into a creek. The resulting collision resulted in a broken arm for one of the children (a son of Bill & Jessie Routh's daughter Sadie). The incident necessitated a trip to Brownwood, where a doctor set the child's broken arm.
1. George had a partnership in a Jayton drug store, later a partnership in a dray line.
2. He was an active member of the Republican party. He was appointed Jayton Postmaster by a Republican president. George's grandson, Robert Whitaker, heard that George was appointed postmaster because he was the only person in Kent County who would admit to being a Republican. He served that position until his death.
3. George's nephew, Lee Rice, Jr., recalled that his Uncle George was a smooth tempered, well respected man who did his job and then went home to his family.
4. George Rice's daughter Carman recalled that her father did not curse, even in the face of discomfort. She recalled that he would put on some Aqua Velva shaving lotion immediately after shaving; George responded to the sting of the lotion by shouting, "dad-gum; makes a fella' wish he had a tail to switch."
1. Lula's paternal grandparents were from Norway....
1. At some point prior to 1919, Bob moved to California.
2. Late in life, he married a California widow who had several daughters. Some family members recalled that Bob's wife was the widow of a Mr. Keaton, who may have been Bob's business partner. It is believed that Bob died soon after he married and that he had no children. Bob may have died April 1926.
1. This was widow Keaton.
1. In 1910 Lee was living at Rule, Texas, boarding with William and Ada Moore. Both Mr. Moore and Lee worked at an oil mill.
2. After their marriage Lee and Stella lived in Jayton, Texas, where he was in the ginning business. They moved to Meadow, Texas, in 1931 but in 1940 they returned to Jayton, where they owned a farm and home.
3. Lee Rice, Jr. recalled that his dad was smooth-tempered. Lee Rice, Sr. and Dr. M. W. Rogers, brother of Carrie Rogers Rice, were good friends and they batched together as young men. After Lee Sr.'s death, Dr. Rogers wrote that Lee was "like a brother".