Family History by Robert Monroe Fleming (Sr.)

Notes on Fanily History by Iva Causey Fleming
(Part 10)

Transcribed by Robert M. Fleming Jr.

The next son, John Madison, I met frequently during the first year of my acquaintance with the Cayce family. He then married and settled in a part of the State remote from ours. And I did not meet him again, or any of his family, until November 1970. When I met him and one of his sons at a term of the District Court held in the towns of Matagorda, then the county seat of Matagorda County. we were engaged adversely in a pending litigation over the distribution of the Hearst Estate. I as counsel and his children as parties, claiming as heirs. Thirty two years had wrought less change in his personal appearance than in any other instance with in my observation. He was taller than his Father by several inches. In his youth, when I knew him, He was sound in mind and members and under the tongue of good repute. ( Note: From certain sayings this story teller has used in recent diswriptions I would say he is Masonic - RMF) In 1876 it was evident that he had continued to preserve and enjoy these priceless passports. He was not an Apollo. He had not a genius for posing. His strong understanding took his own measure accurately, and guided his waycalverly, contentedly and successfully on life's stage out of the glare of the footlights.

The youngest son, Augustus, was one day younger than I. Mr Cayce kept a saddle horse of good quality, training and condition, for each member of his family. The horses grading according to the condition of the rider. His own horse and that of his "young lady" daughter, ( in the family there could be but one "young lady" daughter) were the best bloooded high-steppers to be had in the market. The most sure-footed, easy going, gentle,good blooded roadster, was for his wife. While hardy, showy, capable, well-gaited ponies were for the younger children. These pleasures horses were stabled and groomed like a racing stud. Augustus was in the habit of passing in and out among them, inspecting the feed and other features of their keep. One morning as he was passing throught he stable while it was yet dark, without speaking a word of warning he touched one of the horses on the croup. The horse let fly with both feet, as horses often do when nipped by another. The blow of both feet was planted full on the lad's abdomen. The stroke was mortal. He lingered in intense agony a few day, and was relieved by death. We had known each other only a short time but I felt like I had lost a team brother. We were the same size. Our head and foot measures were the same. Only a few days before he got hurt, his Father had got him a pair of fine dress boots such as young gentlemen then wore. I think that Gus had not worn them, or had them on except to try the fit. A few day after he was buried, his Father brought his pair of boots to our house, and said, "Gus wanted Andrew to have them". They were my first pair of such boots.

My Father's family and Mr. Cayce's were very intimant from the time of his settlement on the Bernard. in December, 1845, his daughter Jane married Gustous Aldolphus Bertrand. As already stated, in August, 1847, his daughter Elizabeth Hodges married Thaddeus Constantine Bell. On the fourteenth day of September 1857, Mr Cayce died. In April, 1858 the youngest daughter, Sophonia Russell married Wyley Allen Parker. Early in the morning on the first day of March, 1871, Mr Cayce's granddaughter, Lula Bell married the writer of this sketch. We and a small company of of our kindred stood by the bed on which her sick Father lay, which the officiating clergy man in due form pronounced us husband and wife. Our carriage stood at the door to take us to oir house, two days journey away. When the young wife had pressedk her adieux on the loips of her Father. family and collected kin, and I had handed her into the carriage I quickly passed through the company and exchanged the parting hand-clasp and fit words with each. When I came to Grandma Cayce she said, "Andrew, I once thought you might become my son-in-law. I will love you just as much as a grandson". Two letters which I insert in the Appendix show substantially all that I have been able to learn Major Cayce's ancestors and collateral kindred.

Mr Thaddeus Bell continued to devote himself to the business of cotton planter, until the close of the Civil War brought even to Texas, (june 19, 1865), the actual emancipation of the slaves. He voted against the ordinance of secession. He believed that it was impolitic to the degree of madness and unpatriotic in the highest degree. He how ever submitted to the powers tht be and rendered such services as was required of him by the confederate and State authorities. During the war, February 24, 1864, his wife Elizabeth, died on their plantation in Matagorda County. In 1867 he was appointed Superintendent of the Texas Penitentiary. There up on he moved his family to Huntsville, in Walker County, Texas. That institution then had its single location in the State. On February 24, 1868, he married Miss Cornelia McKinney. On July 8, 1868, the twentieth anniversary of her birth, Amanda, his oldest child married Joseph Bates, a son of General Joseph Bates of Brazoria County. In December 1869, Colonel Bell's term of office expired, and early in 1870 he moved his family to Harris County and settled on Buffalo Bayou, a few miles from the city of Houston. Here, on March 1, 1871, his second daughter, Louisa (Lula) married the writer of this sketch. At the time of this marriage Col. Bell was on his death bed. He had been ill for several months with cancer of the kidneys. He died May 22, 1871. Of his children, one daughter, born in 1860, survived her birth only a few weeks. Four sons and three daughters survive. They are now widely scattered. Several years ago his widow married a man named Meade. She now resides in Walker County, Texas. James Hall Bell returned from Centre College in 1842. Soon after his return he went with the volunteers to expel from Texas the Mexican forces, under General Adrian Woll, who had made sudden irruption on the Western border, captured San Antonio and appeared to threaten a serious invasion of the more settled portions of Texas. He was a member of Captain J Shelby McNeel's company in the army which General Alexander Sommerville moved in the fall of that year to the Rio Grande River. Hw obeyed orders lawfully returned with General Sommerville, and thus escaped the bitter experience of those who fought and fell or were captured at Meir. Very soon after returning from this campaign he commenced the study of law at the home and under the instruction of Mr William H Jack, the most eminent lawyer and eloquent orator then in Texas. After the death of Mr Jack, James Bell went to Cambridge, Massachusetts and matriculated in the law department of Harvard University, where he remained until he received the gr aduate's degrees. He returned to Texas and was taken into partnership by Honorable Robert J Towns, the surviving partner of Mr Jack's law firm. In February 1856, a few weeks after completion of his thirty first year, James Hall Bell was elected to the office of judge of the First Judicial District which then included Fayette County and the three counties below it on the colorado River, the County of Austin, which then embraced Wallet, and the two counties below it on the Brazos, and the county and city of Galveston. In August, 1858, he was elected to the office of Associate Justice of the Texas Supreme Court, which then was, as it is now, composed of one chief Justice, and two Associate Justices. In 1859, he moved his family to the State Capitol where he established his permanent residence. He strongly apposed secession. When the Southern heart began to burst into flame, in November, 1860, there was in Texas some division of sentiment on the subject of secession. It was then claimed, and is still claimed, that the great majority of people of Texas favored the secession and confederate movement. The Stat Supreme Court stood two in favor to one opposed. Many prominent citizens of Austin united in a call for a mass meeting, and invited the two Associate Judges of the Supreme Court to address the meeting in the hall of the House of Representatives. Both of the Justices accepted the invitation and delivered carefully prepared speeches in the support of their respective opposite views. Justice Bell concentrated all the force of his great learning and all the fervency of his ardent mind in his effort in that high place to stay the tide of passion then setting in. And drawing in it's wake, as he well saw, the flood of woe that followed fast. In February 1861, when the ordinance of secession was submitted to the vote of the people of Texas the Supeme Court, which then held it's sessions at Austin, Tyler and Galveston, was sitting at Galveston and Justice Bell went to his native county and to it's county seat, Brazoria, where hehad resided until his elevation to the bench, to cast his vote. It had been predicted by those who had control in that co. that there would not be a single vote against secession cast in it. The lawful and usual method of voting was by secret ballot. For this election the ticket used in Brazoria County, by order of the government caucus, was a piece of very highly colored stiff paste-board, just large enough tocontain on the face side the printed words, "For Secession". Justice Bell went up to the polls to vote and the presiding judge of the election, Hon. J H N-----, handed out one of these pieces paste-board, about half the size of an ordinary pasteboard card way station railroad ticket, only full twice as thick and stiff and impossible to fold without breaking, or to vote with out the vote being open to view of the officers and bystanders. With the words printed on it "For Secession" covering almost it's whole front surface. Justice Bell was at that time an expert penman. He raised his right knee and steadied it against the edge of the table at which the election officer sat, placed the ticket on his knee, asked for a pen, which was handed him with which he thoroughly blotted out the word "For". And in script that was small but beautifully distinct, he wrote the word, "Against" just over where the word "For" had appeared and handed the ticket to the presiding Judge. Who had it duly deposited in the box, remarking at the same instant, "Judge Bell, I am sorry to see you cast that vote. And you will regret it". This vote and the vote of his brother at the Columbia box the same day, were the only votes cast against secession in Brazoria Co.

It is meat to say here that Judge J H N ----- manfully bore his part in the war that followed secession. And when the war was over he manfully accepted the construction which it impressed on the constitution of our government. Justice Bell's quality as a public man in amply evidenced by the record he made for himself in the reports of the opinions of the high court of which in his thirty third year he became a member, by the independent vote ofa majority of the people of the whole state. I began the study of law in his office and, for several years after entering his office was a member of his household. He let me into full partnership with himself in the practice of law a short time before his elevation to the bench.

And at a time when he was without dispute the leading lawyer in the First Judicial District of Texas. He was to me then and always an elder brother. Yea, much more - the friend that sticketh closer than a brother. As a man in private life he excited the admiration and won the hearts of the great host, he became and remained his jealous personal friends. At the tim he cast his vote "Against secession" I thought and still think that of all menI had known or have known, James Hall Bell the most gifted, the most accomplished and the most attractive. In physigue he was of medium size, close knit, strong and active. His complexion was aruddy blonde. His eyes were blue, clear and piercing. His hair was light auburn, very fine, much inclined to curl and he had thich hair until he passed middle life. He wore his hair put straight back from his forehead and long enough to reach the back of his neck. His head and face strongly resembled Lord Byron's. He died March 13, 1892, at his home in Austin. His six surviving children all of whom were then married, had become parents, and were living in and near Austin, united with his wife of his youth in making all his bed in his sickness, which was protracted and painful. Upon his death his life companion, the Mother of his children, gave up housekeeping and made her home in the circle of the families of their children, until her death, which occured October 31, 1895.

After Madam Bell made the final distribution of the Bell Estate in 1848, she gave up housekeeping for a while, but in a few years she established her self in a quiet home at the foot of the "Island betweent he prongs of Bell's Creek about one mile west from West Columbia. She was happy and useful in her new home. A niece of hers who had grown up in her house as one of her own children lived with her the first few years in the new home. And then was established in a separate home only a few hundred yards away. Her children, grandchildren, o ther kindred and many friends were never failing a source of congenial companionship. Her faithful servants whom she had trained took all the care of the household she would permit, and the tenderest care of her. Her means are adequate to meet all of her wants and the charities she delighted to dispense. On May 17, 1856, just eighteen years from the death of her husband, she was thrown from a carriage and so severely injured that she died on the 30th of the month. Within my memory she had not been ill. She was in her fifty seventh year, but her natural force was not abated. Her work as a cultivated christian lady in thewilderness and her as the Mother and head of a family was done, and had been well done. But she was still in the active vigor of middle life when she received her mortal injury. She had very blue eyes, a perfect blonde complexion and rich auburn hair. And was in stature (net) five feet one inch, and weighed about one hundred and thirty pounds. Her remains were deposited in the family lot in the Columbia Cemetary in a place reserved for her between the grave of her husband and that of her Mother.

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