The father of John Hopkins Gay, Jr was John Hopkins Gay, Sr, born 1856 near the town of Kinston in Lenoir county, North Carolina. John Sr. was killed in a train accident near Carthage, Panola county, Texas in either July or August of 1880. Gay family folklore has assumed he was buried in a Carthage cemetery but no burial record has been found.
John Jr was known by his middle name of Hopkins, a family name beginning with the family of his grandmother, Mary Elizabeth Williams Gay, and passed down through several generations. John Hopkins likely never knew his father, John Sr. , being only 18 months old when John Sr. died. His mother moved her family back to live with her father, Henry Walker Rider (1816-1905) , a resemtful, querelous, martinet who never let his daughter forget that she had married against his wishes.
Sometime in 1902, John Hopkins was engaged to marry Sarah O'banion Phillips (1887-1959) of the adjacent Shelby county. Then he was killed by a fallen crane while working on a construction crew on a railroad near Carthage, Texas. The Gay family history relates that his brother, Samuel "Bert" Gay road his horse from Panola county to Shelby county to carry the sad news to the Phillips family. He and Sarah had never met - however sympathy and consolation gradually turned into friendship, then love, then marriage in December, 1905. They became my grandparents.
Don L. Welch, "Welch Family Tree", Ancestry.com.
John Jr was known by his middle name of Hopkins, a family name beginning with the family of his grandmother, Mary Elizabeth Williams Gay, and passed down through several generations. John Hopkins likely never knew his father, John Sr. , being only 18 months old when John Sr. died. His mother moved her family back to live with her father, Henry Walker Rider (1816-1905) , a resemtful, querelous, martinet who never let his daughter forget that she had married against his wishes.
Sometime in 1902, John Hopkins was engaged to marry Sarah O'banion Phillips (1887-1959) of the adjacent Shelby county. Then he was killed by a fallen crane while working on a construction crew on a railroad near Carthage, Texas. The Gay family history relates that his brother, Samuel "Bert" Gay road his horse from Panola county to Shelby county to carry the sad news to the Phillips family. He and Sarah had never met - however sympathy and consolation gradually turned into friendship, then love, then marriage in December, 1905. They became my grandparents.
Don L. Welch, "Welch Family Tree", Ancestry.com.
The father of John Hopkins Gay, Jr was John Hopkins Gay, Sr, born 1856 near the town of Kinston in Lenoir county, North Carolina. John Sr. was killed in a train accident near Carthage, Panola county, Texas in either July or August of 1880. Gay family folklore has assumed he was buried in a Carthage cemetery but no burial record has been found.
John Jr was known by his middle name of Hopkins, a family name beginning with the family of his grandmother, Mary Elizabeth Williams Gay, and passed down through several generations. John Hopkins likely never knew his father, John Sr. , being only 18 months old when John Sr. died. His mother moved her family back to live with her father, Henry Walker Rider (1816-1905) , a resemtful, querelous, martinet who never let his daughter forget that she had married against his wishes.
Sometime in 1902, John Hopkins was engaged to marry Sarah O'banion Phillips (1887-1959) of the adjacent Shelby county. Then he was killed by a fallen crane while working on a construction crew on a railroad near Carthage, Texas. The Gay family history relates that his brother, Samuel "Bert" Gay road his horse from Panola county to Shelby county to carry the sad news to the Phillips family. He and Sarah had never met - however sympathy and consolation gradually turned into friendship, then love, then marriage in December, 1905. They became my grandparents.
Don L. Welch, "Welch Family Tree", Ancestry.com.
John Jr was known by his middle name of Hopkins, a family name beginning with the family of his grandmother, Mary Elizabeth Williams Gay, and passed down through several generations. John Hopkins likely never knew his father, John Sr. , being only 18 months old when John Sr. died. His mother moved her family back to live with her father, Henry Walker Rider (1816-1905) , a resemtful, querelous, martinet who never let his daughter forget that she had married against his wishes.
Sometime in 1902, John Hopkins was engaged to marry Sarah O'banion Phillips (1887-1959) of the adjacent Shelby county. Then he was killed by a fallen crane while working on a construction crew on a railroad near Carthage, Texas. The Gay family history relates that his brother, Samuel "Bert" Gay road his horse from Panola county to Shelby county to carry the sad news to the Phillips family. He and Sarah had never met - however sympathy and consolation gradually turned into friendship, then love, then marriage in December, 1905. They became my grandparents.
Don L. Welch, "Welch Family Tree", Ancestry.com.
Inscription
Name and vital dates noted by 1 asterisk in photo. Inscription noted by 2 asterisks (Sleep in Jesus from which none ever wakes to weep) 8 line poem noted by 3 asterisks: 1st line reads: We miss thee from our Home, Dear Brother,
Gravesite Details
Stone is circular column about 6 ft tall. Circular stone atop with 4 rings and ball. Sketch make by Don L. Welch June 15, 1980.
Family Members
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