Maggie Gaston Family
Luther Gaston
Maggie's Life History
Sat, 7th November, 2009
Tell us what you remember about Aunt Maggie, Sister Maggie, Mama Maggie. Share your times with her and any difference she may have made in your life
Birth/Childhood: She was born Maggie Bell Robertson, on October 9, 1896; the youngest fraternal
twin of the first set of twins born to Lee and Idella Robertson. Some say they
were as alike and as different as the term implies.
At the turn of the century she was 4 years old. She grew up in the Robertson household. She and her twin became the oldest living siblings, when Idella’s older children died. She attended Saint James School, held in the church, and completed the sixth grade.
Teenage/Early Adulthood:While at home, she cared for the younger children and helped her mother, who was crippled, with chores. She was amazingly talented in sewing and became the family seamstress, making dresses for herself and her sisters. She made dresses by hand and without a pattern. She was 15 years old when she married Arthur (Son) Gaston in 1912 and two years later on November 24, 1914 she had her only son, Luther Gaston.
Marriage/Family Life: Their first home was near her mother’s home. It was destroyed by a whirlwind. Arthur and Mr. Watson Gaston built a second house on the farm, using untreated lumber gathered from the sawmill. Finally, in the 60’s the government assisted in the re-modeling of this home and it became their third and final home. The farm was almost self-sufficient with cows, chickens, pigs and of course, horses, which were Arthur’s (Son’s) passion. There were fields with cotton, peas, sweet potatoes and corn. Sorghum and ribbon cane fields. There were gardens with beets, turnip greens and okra. Fruit trees with peaches, plums and pears. All ready for summer canning. With corn ground at the grist mill, syrup made at the syrup mill and salt pork from the smokehouse, they were ready for winter.
All of Maggie’s brothers: Andrew, F.S. (Stiney) and Orvin (Stump) lived with her and “Brother Arthur” at one time or another. They helped with the farm work and grew “truck patches” of their own until they could have their own land and farms. Her mother died when she was 35 years old and throughout her life she remained as the family matriarch for her younger siblings.Her father died when she was 60 and her twin when she was 72.In 1952 she took on motherhood again for a three-month old granddaughter that she would love and rear to adulthood.
Community/Social/Church Involvement: Most her community involvement was related to church. She joined St. James church when she was young and she would remain active there all her life. She served as a Sunday school teacher, for the adult and primary classes and the President of the home missionary Society that met at the church on fourth or fifth Sundays. They walked to different houses in the community for “circle” meetings on Wednesdays. In the fall, soon after school started, she would attend the Palestine Bowen District Association meeting at the campground.
She made a habit of visiting the older ladies of the community: Miss Jenny (Cain) Austin, Aunt ”Panola” (Espanola) Clewis, Mrs. Lottie (Cain) Clewis and Mrs. Isabell Tucker and sometimes Mrs. “Sam”(Sammie) Rogers, and of course she would stop in to check on Uncle Whitehead on the way home from church on Sundays. She also served as secretary for the Heroines of Jericho lodge.
Later Life: She had her first stay in a nursing home in 1975 (Angelina Nursing Home) in Palestine, when a blood clot threatened to rise to her heart. She recovered and returned home. At the end of the summer in 1977 she and Arthur (Son) moved to Palestine with her son Luther and his wife, Irma Jean. She was there when her husband, Arthur died in February of 1978 and her son, Luther, in June 1978. Her grandson, Willie Arthur, would also die in October of that same year. After a summer visit, back to her home that July, she moved to Elkhart, to stay with her sister Ruby (Doll) and her husband, Joe. She remained in her sister’s home until her health required more attention. By 1983 she was in the second nursing home (Elkhart Nursing Home) where she stayed until her death in 1985.
She survived: blot clots, high blood pressure, strokes, eye problems, demented gait and lived until Sept 13, 1985. She was 88 years old when she went to be with the Lord. She is buried in the Union Hope Cemetery, where she awaits the trumpet call of 1 Thess. 4:16
Things she enjoyed/stories she told/her favorites etc.
She enjoyed:quilting in the winter, Mission days at church, attending August revivals, rummaging through the “picture purse” for everyone’s photos, reading the Bible–and living the life it taught. Her favorite color was pink, and her favorite food, turnip greens.
Stories she told: How she jumped on the table to escape a mad dog and broke her little finger, how she killed a coach whip snake that lunged at her, severing its head with a hoe, Andrew (Ander’s cotton), Aunt Katie and the Easter dresses, the preacher and the Mrs. Laura Green.
<<<<<<<<<<<I Remember>>>>>>>
I remember (Maggie Mama, Aunt, Sister Maggie). Share your own special memories.
Here are mine.
I remember Mama…
a)Humming in the kitchen with the smell of coffee brewing on the wood stove.
b)Tying coins in the corner of her flowered handkerchief from the eggs she sold, for tithes.
c)Crumbling hard biscuits in a cardboard box where baby chicks slept in the dining room, because it was cold outside.
d)Making matching handmade dresses for me and my dolls, from second-hand clothes. Making slips and nightgowns of “outing” (flannel) to keep you warm in the winter.
e)Willie remembers- Big Auntie always cooked two pots of peas. One for her and Uncle Son.
At the turn of the century she was 4 years old. She grew up in the Robertson household. She and her twin became the oldest living siblings, when Idella’s older children died. She attended Saint James School, held in the church, and completed the sixth grade.
Teenage/Early Adulthood:While at home, she cared for the younger children and helped her mother, who was crippled, with chores. She was amazingly talented in sewing and became the family seamstress, making dresses for herself and her sisters. She made dresses by hand and without a pattern. She was 15 years old when she married Arthur (Son) Gaston in 1912 and two years later on November 24, 1914 she had her only son, Luther Gaston.
Marriage/Family Life: Their first home was near her mother’s home. It was destroyed by a whirlwind. Arthur and Mr. Watson Gaston built a second house on the farm, using untreated lumber gathered from the sawmill. Finally, in the 60’s the government assisted in the re-modeling of this home and it became their third and final home. The farm was almost self-sufficient with cows, chickens, pigs and of course, horses, which were Arthur’s (Son’s) passion. There were fields with cotton, peas, sweet potatoes and corn. Sorghum and ribbon cane fields. There were gardens with beets, turnip greens and okra. Fruit trees with peaches, plums and pears. All ready for summer canning. With corn ground at the grist mill, syrup made at the syrup mill and salt pork from the smokehouse, they were ready for winter.
All of Maggie’s brothers: Andrew, F.S. (Stiney) and Orvin (Stump) lived with her and “Brother Arthur” at one time or another. They helped with the farm work and grew “truck patches” of their own until they could have their own land and farms. Her mother died when she was 35 years old and throughout her life she remained as the family matriarch for her younger siblings.Her father died when she was 60 and her twin when she was 72.In 1952 she took on motherhood again for a three-month old granddaughter that she would love and rear to adulthood.
Community/Social/Church Involvement: Most her community involvement was related to church. She joined St. James church when she was young and she would remain active there all her life. She served as a Sunday school teacher, for the adult and primary classes and the President of the home missionary Society that met at the church on fourth or fifth Sundays. They walked to different houses in the community for “circle” meetings on Wednesdays. In the fall, soon after school started, she would attend the Palestine Bowen District Association meeting at the campground.
She made a habit of visiting the older ladies of the community: Miss Jenny (Cain) Austin, Aunt ”Panola” (Espanola) Clewis, Mrs. Lottie (Cain) Clewis and Mrs. Isabell Tucker and sometimes Mrs. “Sam”(Sammie) Rogers, and of course she would stop in to check on Uncle Whitehead on the way home from church on Sundays. She also served as secretary for the Heroines of Jericho lodge.
Later Life: She had her first stay in a nursing home in 1975 (Angelina Nursing Home) in Palestine, when a blood clot threatened to rise to her heart. She recovered and returned home. At the end of the summer in 1977 she and Arthur (Son) moved to Palestine with her son Luther and his wife, Irma Jean. She was there when her husband, Arthur died in February of 1978 and her son, Luther, in June 1978. Her grandson, Willie Arthur, would also die in October of that same year. After a summer visit, back to her home that July, she moved to Elkhart, to stay with her sister Ruby (Doll) and her husband, Joe. She remained in her sister’s home until her health required more attention. By 1983 she was in the second nursing home (Elkhart Nursing Home) where she stayed until her death in 1985.
She survived: blot clots, high blood pressure, strokes, eye problems, demented gait and lived until Sept 13, 1985. She was 88 years old when she went to be with the Lord. She is buried in the Union Hope Cemetery, where she awaits the trumpet call of 1 Thess. 4:16
Things she enjoyed/stories she told/her favorites etc.
She enjoyed:quilting in the winter, Mission days at church, attending August revivals, rummaging through the “picture purse” for everyone’s photos, reading the Bible–and living the life it taught. Her favorite color was pink, and her favorite food, turnip greens.
Stories she told: How she jumped on the table to escape a mad dog and broke her little finger, how she killed a coach whip snake that lunged at her, severing its head with a hoe, Andrew (Ander’s cotton), Aunt Katie and the Easter dresses, the preacher and the Mrs. Laura Green.
<<<<<<<<<<<I Remember>>>>>>>
I remember (Maggie Mama, Aunt, Sister Maggie). Share your own special memories.
Here are mine.
I remember Mama…
a)Humming in the kitchen with the smell of coffee brewing on the wood stove.
b)Tying coins in the corner of her flowered handkerchief from the eggs she sold, for tithes.
c)Crumbling hard biscuits in a cardboard box where baby chicks slept in the dining room, because it was cold outside.
d)Making matching handmade dresses for me and my dolls, from second-hand clothes. Making slips and nightgowns of “outing” (flannel) to keep you warm in the winter.
e)Willie remembers- Big Auntie always cooked two pots of peas. One for her and Uncle Son.
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Maggie and Arthur as young lovers in the 1920's
Maggie and Arthur grew old together with a favorite pet dog
Maggie's Photo Gallery
