James Whitesel Hayworth
Big Mama - As told by Marguerite Witt Calvert to
Cindy Witt-Ervin
Georgia Frances Elizabeth
Lyons was born November 8, 1865 in Southwest Missouri to George Lyons and Sarah
Tucker Lyons. They
had a son 2 or three years older than Georgia.
George Lyons was killed in
his fields by the Yankees shortly before Georgia was born, and the small son’s
feet were held to the fire to force Sarah to tell where supplies were hidden on
the farm.
After that he was a cripple, but much loved by
Georgia for all of their lives.
Sarah later married James
Polk Moore, but he was a very strict stepfather and did not permit Georgia to go
anywhere.
Consequently the older crippled brother helped
her slip out her bedroom window and down a tree to the ground so she could go to
church meetings which she would continue to enjoy all her life.
Georgia
Lyons was Irish, and many Irish traits were predominant in Georgia.
She was barely 5 feet, had beautiful blue eyes
and very red hair.
Until almost the end of her life she danced
the lively Irish jig and always was surrounded by music.
She purchased one of the first Victrolas and
played pianos in Arlington Heights neighborhood in Fort Worth, Texas about 1921
and all the grandchildren were always permitted to play both.
Several young ministers of
the Disciples of Christ faith were traveling from Kansas City southward and
stopping to preach in various communities.
James Whitsel Haworth was one of the young
men, and within a few minutes he and Georgia married.
This was about 1883.
He had been a Quaker and continued to use
“thee” and “thou” in his speech.
He was 20 years older than Georgia and had
been previously married to Edith Dorsey (or Dorsett), but she died in
childbirth.
James had an English background and was very
handsome with card hair and full beard.
At least 6 of the young men in our family
inherited his dark hair and beard.
James and Georgia lived in
Southwest City, Missouri but soon moved on down to Bloomfield, Arkansas, which
was near the present town of Rogers.
They bought an apple farm and had 6 daughters
with various shades of red hair.
He continued to preach and teach Sunday school
all the rest of his life.
About 1896 he decided to g to Texas with a
group of other pioneers.
My mother told me that one on the men in the 7
or 8 families in the wagon train was a half brother of Georgia of the Polk Moore
family.
Georgia (Big Mama as we
called her) had 6 daughters by this time, but one had died in infancy.
Big Mama planted evergreen trees around her
grave, and when the surviving daughters went back from Fort Worth to Bloomfield
in the 1950’s, they found the grave with the tall evergreens surrounding it.
The six Haworth daughters
were Mary Frances May (married Gus Zimmerman), Mattie (the baby who died at 6
weeks), Daisy Floyd (married Clarence Edward Witt) and twin Ada Floy (married
Jack Grigsby), Lillie Iora Josephine (married Jack Grigsby after death of Ada),
(obviously named for the half sister you mentioned), Della Nancy Lee (married
Mike Strawn), Annabelle (7th daughter whose father was W.F. Nichols,
Georgia’s second Husband).
On leaving Bloomfield, my
mother Daisy was having one last frolic before climbing in the ox-drawn wagons
to Texas, and she tossed her only toy – a rag doll – high into the air.
It landed so high in an apple tree not even
the men could retrieve it, so Mom had to leave not only her home forever, but
her beloved rag doll too.
She always loved watching “Little House on the
Prairie” as it reminded her so much of her family’s trip by covered wagon to
Texas.
Georgia and James Haworth’s
family came down the edge of Western Arkansas through the Boston Mountain Range
and arrived in Fort Worth after about 4 months.
At one point an Indian who Big Mama had fed
(he wanted his meat raw) asked Big Mama if he could take the little twin girls
back into a cave for the Indians Chief to see.
Evidently twins were rare in Indian tribes.
Big Mama went with them into the cave, and the
Chief was very pleased.
Their actual destination was
Cleburne, Texas about 30 miles below Fort Worth but I don’t know why except
there is a religious settlement on Seventh Day Adventists in a nearby community.
Or maybe the Moore brother was going there.
They stayed in Cleburne 2
years but moved back to Fort Worth and lived very close to the courthouse.
Grandfather Haworth had sold his apple farm in
Bloomfield to his cousin, but he never received any mail or money from the
cousin; and because there was another Haworth family in Fort Worth, Grandfather
went to court and had his name changed to Hayworth, to avoid and mix up
in the mail, but he never received the money for his farm.
His health was failing, as he
had a weakness in his lungs.
One morning he arose early to go down to the
Trinity River nearby and get water for breakfast preparation.
He fell into the Trinity River and drowned,
leaving Big Mama with the 5 little daughters to raise.
The church people wanted
Georgia to go back to Missouri where she had family to help her; but she refused
their offer of assistance, and when the good (?) church women came to get the 5
little girls to put them in an orphanage, she hid them under the bed until the
women left.
She sewed to earn money and held her little
family together still living near the courthouse.
About 1905 she married
William Fletched Nichols from North Carolina and they became parents to
Annabelle, Big Mama’s 7th daughter.
About this time she rode the train back to
Joplin, Missouri to get an orphaned baby boy in the family.
His name was Van Pollard and was the pet of
all the six daughter.
Georgia and our
step-grandfather, Mr. Nichols, moved a little farther out from the town area and
settled on West 5th Street where they lived until 1923 when they moved 7 miles
southeast of downtown to get from the frequent flooding of the Trinity River
which was behind the 5th Street house.
The piano and Victrola
previously mentioned weathered the floods, as did a bookcase which had to be
tied up in a tree to keep it from washing away.
It was passed on down to Annabelle, and when
she had to give up her home at age 80, she had the bookcase sent to me with a
letter of its history.
I am the book lover of the family which must
be the reason she sent it to me.
Georgia (Big Mama) owned a
small acreage in the new settlement (Glen Garden), and she and Mr. Nichols had a
huge garden each year as well as many fruit trees and flowers.
I now have iris and lantana in my yard from
her big front yard.
My own family (Daisy and Ed
Witt) and their 4 children bought an acre across the road from Big Mama at the
same time in 1923, and I well remember moving on the Interurban (like a street
car, but larger) out to our new home. I was 6, my big brother Edward was 11, and
my baby sister Dorothy was a month old.
She rode in a dresser drawer on the seat on
the Interurban, and it was quite an event.
We all loved the rural life
and we always had a cow and chickens, so we ate healthfully all through the
depression years, what with orchard and garden.
Big Mama fed families from her garden when
they were in need.
Right up to the last years of
her life she quilted, sewed and raised chickens and never lost her love of
music.
Still had the Victrola and player piano!
She suffered greatly from cancer during the
last months of her life and finally died on July 30th, 1935.
She was 69 years old.
She was a vivacious and colorful and a very
courageous pioneer lady.
Counting just the family that I know of, she
has well over 100 descendants living in or near Fort Worth.