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Daughter of Benjamin and Catherine (Withers) Roper∼Obituary - Houston Post, 18 Dec 1941, Sec. 2, p. 10
ROPER -- Miss Mary Withers Roper, 84, died in a Houston hospital at 7:15 a.m. Wednesday. Miss Roper had been a teacher in the Houston public schools for a number of years and had taught in Mexico for three years. She resided at the Cotton hotel. She was born in Lynchburg, Texas, and had spent most of her life in Houston. She was a member of the Christ Episcopal church.
Surviving are a nephew, G. H. Roper, Sr., of Corsicana; five grand-nephews, Christopher Roper of Corsicana, Robert Roper of Waco, John Roper of Dallas, William Roper of Corsicana and George Roper of Houston; one grand-niece, Mrs. A. B. Garland of Corsicana, and five great-grand-nephews.
Services will be held at 2 p.m. Thursday at Christ Episcopal church with Rev. John E. Hines officiating. After the services here, the body will be taken to Cedar Bayou for burial in the Cedar Bayou cemetery. Active pallbearers are: J.C. Fulk, A.M. Bowles, R.H. Moffett, W.D. Cleveland, Frank C. Clemens and E.H. Dumble. Honorary pallbearers are Haskins Hartwell, A.D. Mims, B.S. Troxell, Chester Bryan, O.R. Smith, R.E. Wood, R.G. Kemp, Angus McDonald, Will Seaman, Joe Weingarten, Clarence Lindsley, George Hammond, John Hammond, Henry Fall, William S. Patton, C.G. Pillot, Dr. William G. Priester, John Gaillard, Dr. John Schilling, Doctor Robbins, Allen Wright, Perkins Wright, Clemens Wright, George Wright, C.E. Clancy, Jules Bujac, Clarence Meadows, Jesse Andrews, Otto Sens, John F. Sloan, Frank Schuwiler and Ben Rice. Setegast-Kopf company directing.∼From: Texas State Historical Association - Handbook of Texas (https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/roper-mary-withers)
ROPER, MARY WITHERS (1857–1941).Mary Withers Roper, school teacher, activist, committee member, missionary, and suffragist, was born to Benjamin Eliscus Roper and Catherine Withers Payne, both of Virginia, on October 22, 1857, in Lynchburg, Texas. The 1860 United States census recorded the family in Lynchburg, and her father was listed as a magistrate. Not much is documented about her life until the 1880s. According to the 1880 census, Mary Withers Roper, age twenty-two, was a public school teacher living in Houston, Texas. In 1888 she taught seventh grade at the Clopper Institute in Galveston, and she moved to Houston to teach seventh grade by 1897. In 1903 she traveled to the mountain resort town of Cloudcroft, New Mexico, to assist in opening a summer school for young girls from East Texas for the social season. Roper joined the Board of Missions in 1907 to work as a missionary teacher. On February 22, she left Houston for Tacuba, Mexico, where she taught at the Mary Josephine Hooker Memorial School. Roper later became assistant to the director of the Hooker School and Orphanage and the director of the Girls' Friendly Society in Popotla, Mexico City.
Roper's documented reform work as part of the woman suffrage movement began in 1903. The Texas Woman Suffrage Association held its first state convention on December 8, 1903, in Houston, where Roper was appointed to the Resolutions Committee. Their objective was to organize a state association to become part of the national organization of suffragists as well as to adopt and amend a constitution.
In addition to having an active role in the Texas Woman Suffrage Association and Texas Federation of Women's Clubs, Roper was involved in many other causes. She was elected first vice president and chosen delegate to the fourth district convention to represent the Woman's Club of Houston in 1913. She presided over meetings of the Women's Political Union of Houston. She also assisted in organizing programs and entertainment at many club meetings and read original magazine articles and papers on women artists of the time for the Woman's Club of Houston.
In October 1914 Roper became involved in the Houston Housewives League, which aimed to involve both single and married women in the community and help them to better manage their households. In June 1915 she represented the executive board of the fourth district of the Texas Federation of Women's Clubs for The Houston Post Good Roads car party on the Palestine campaign—the goal of which was to campaign for a highway between the cities of Palestine and Houston. She also served as part of the Committee on Resolutions in 1915, the Field Committee on Endowment in 1916, and chairman for the Fourth District State Endowment fund in 1916—all for the Texas Women's Federation.
Not all of her philanthropic endeavors were club-related. Presumably for home front support of World War I, in 1918 Roper was a speaker at a Red Cross drive asking for aid and provisions in the form of bandages, clothing, food, medication, and money. By the 1930 census, she was retired from teaching and living at the Cotton Hotel in Houston. A member of Christ Episcopal Church, she never married. She remained in Houston until her death at the age of eighty-three on September 17, 1941. She was buried in Cedar Bayou Masonic Cemetery in Baytown and bequeathed the remainder of her estate, in excess of $11,000, to the Rice Institute, later named Rice University. Her donation was a memorial to her mother, Catherine Withers Roper, and father, Benjamin E. Roper, who were "pioneering contemporaries" of the founder of the institution. It was designated as a permanent endowment, beginning in the 1943–44 academic year. The memorial fund scholarship was still available until at least 2003.∼Bio by William A Roper Jr
Mary Withers Roper was the daughter of Benjamin Eliscus Roper and Catherine Withers Payne (b 1826 - Campbell Co., VA; m 17 May 1843 - Hinds Co, MS ;d.ca 1872 - Lynchburg, Harris Co., TX). Her parents, both born in Virginia, migrated first to Clinton, Hinds County, Mississippi, where they married in 1843 and sometime between 1847 and 1850 to Lynchburg, Harris County, Texas.
Mary had an older sister Ella Roper (b March 3, 1844 in Hinds Co, MS; d July 21, 1844 in Hinds Co, MS), who died in infancy, and an older brother Wilson Alexander Roper (b 10 Nov 1847 - Raymond, Hinds, MS; d 1 Apr 1871 - Lynchburg, Harris Co., TX).
Her older brother married Matilda Jane Stotts (b 16 Apr 1844; m 7 Oct 1869; d 17 Feb 1921 - Corsicana, Navarro Co., TX)and they had one child George Henry Roper (b 5 Aug 1870 - Lynchburg, Harris Co., TX; d 1946 - Corsicana, Navarro Co., TX), before Wilson Alexander Roper's untimely death in 1871. The nephew, grand-nephews and grand-niece named in the obituary are all grandchildren of Wilson Alexander Roper and Matilda Jane Stotts, through their sole son George Henry Roper.
Mary Withers Roper lost BOTH her father and her older brother that same year - 1871- within a ten day period. She was therefore the only surviving member of her generation of the Benjamin Roper family from age 14. By age 22, she is shown in the United States Census for 1880 as residing in Houston where she became a public school teacher.
Mary Withers Roper's paternal grandfather, Rev. David Roper (b 27 Sep 1792 - Charles City Co, VA; d 28 Feb 1827 - Richmond, VA), was the founder of the Second Baptist Church in Richmond. Mary Withers Payne's maternal grandfather Dr. Nathaniel West Payne (b 1790 - VA; d 1841 - Lynchburg, Campbell County, VA) was a physician in Campbell County, VA. Robert Alexander (b ca 1710; d 1783 - Augusta County, VA), Mary Withers Roper's ancestor through her grandmother Catherine Wilson Alexander (b 17 Jan 1796 - VA; d 26 Jul 1838) was the founder of the Liberty Academy, later to become Washington and Lee University.
Mary Withers Roper's father, Benjamin Eliscus Roper, was a Schooner Master at Lynchburg, Texas. He also served as a Justice of the Peace from 1857, occasionally as an election officer beginning in 1858 and according to the Houston Republic was selected as a delegate to the Democratic convention in December 1857. During the Civil War, Benjamin Eliscus Roper served as the Tax Assessor-Collector for Harris County for the Confederacy.
According to Harris County deed records, Benjamin E. Roper disposed of vast parcels of real estate during the Civil War years, selling 5,252 acres to P. Reynaud in August 1864; 1,107 acres to J.M. Hooper in September 1864; 17,686 acres to C. J. Frost in September 1864; 5,054 acres to Frederick Stanley in October 1864; 3,767 acres to George W. Frazier in three transactions in December 1864; and 8,585 acres to William P. Walker in January 1865.
In her Will, Mary Withers Roper left the bulk of her estate to the Rice Institute (now Rice University) to endow a scholarship that now bears her name.
ROPER -- Miss Mary Withers Roper, 84, died in a Houston hospital at 7:15 a.m. Wednesday. Miss Roper had been a teacher in the Houston public schools for a number of years and had taught in Mexico for three years. She resided at the Cotton hotel. She was born in Lynchburg, Texas, and had spent most of her life in Houston. She was a member of the Christ Episcopal church.
Surviving are a nephew, G. H. Roper, Sr., of Corsicana; five grand-nephews, Christopher Roper of Corsicana, Robert Roper of Waco, John Roper of Dallas, William Roper of Corsicana and George Roper of Houston; one grand-niece, Mrs. A. B. Garland of Corsicana, and five great-grand-nephews.
Services will be held at 2 p.m. Thursday at Christ Episcopal church with Rev. John E. Hines officiating. After the services here, the body will be taken to Cedar Bayou for burial in the Cedar Bayou cemetery. Active pallbearers are: J.C. Fulk, A.M. Bowles, R.H. Moffett, W.D. Cleveland, Frank C. Clemens and E.H. Dumble. Honorary pallbearers are Haskins Hartwell, A.D. Mims, B.S. Troxell, Chester Bryan, O.R. Smith, R.E. Wood, R.G. Kemp, Angus McDonald, Will Seaman, Joe Weingarten, Clarence Lindsley, George Hammond, John Hammond, Henry Fall, William S. Patton, C.G. Pillot, Dr. William G. Priester, John Gaillard, Dr. John Schilling, Doctor Robbins, Allen Wright, Perkins Wright, Clemens Wright, George Wright, C.E. Clancy, Jules Bujac, Clarence Meadows, Jesse Andrews, Otto Sens, John F. Sloan, Frank Schuwiler and Ben Rice. Setegast-Kopf company directing.∼From: Texas State Historical Association - Handbook of Texas (https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/roper-mary-withers)
ROPER, MARY WITHERS (1857–1941).Mary Withers Roper, school teacher, activist, committee member, missionary, and suffragist, was born to Benjamin Eliscus Roper and Catherine Withers Payne, both of Virginia, on October 22, 1857, in Lynchburg, Texas. The 1860 United States census recorded the family in Lynchburg, and her father was listed as a magistrate. Not much is documented about her life until the 1880s. According to the 1880 census, Mary Withers Roper, age twenty-two, was a public school teacher living in Houston, Texas. In 1888 she taught seventh grade at the Clopper Institute in Galveston, and she moved to Houston to teach seventh grade by 1897. In 1903 she traveled to the mountain resort town of Cloudcroft, New Mexico, to assist in opening a summer school for young girls from East Texas for the social season. Roper joined the Board of Missions in 1907 to work as a missionary teacher. On February 22, she left Houston for Tacuba, Mexico, where she taught at the Mary Josephine Hooker Memorial School. Roper later became assistant to the director of the Hooker School and Orphanage and the director of the Girls' Friendly Society in Popotla, Mexico City.
Roper's documented reform work as part of the woman suffrage movement began in 1903. The Texas Woman Suffrage Association held its first state convention on December 8, 1903, in Houston, where Roper was appointed to the Resolutions Committee. Their objective was to organize a state association to become part of the national organization of suffragists as well as to adopt and amend a constitution.
In addition to having an active role in the Texas Woman Suffrage Association and Texas Federation of Women's Clubs, Roper was involved in many other causes. She was elected first vice president and chosen delegate to the fourth district convention to represent the Woman's Club of Houston in 1913. She presided over meetings of the Women's Political Union of Houston. She also assisted in organizing programs and entertainment at many club meetings and read original magazine articles and papers on women artists of the time for the Woman's Club of Houston.
In October 1914 Roper became involved in the Houston Housewives League, which aimed to involve both single and married women in the community and help them to better manage their households. In June 1915 she represented the executive board of the fourth district of the Texas Federation of Women's Clubs for The Houston Post Good Roads car party on the Palestine campaign—the goal of which was to campaign for a highway between the cities of Palestine and Houston. She also served as part of the Committee on Resolutions in 1915, the Field Committee on Endowment in 1916, and chairman for the Fourth District State Endowment fund in 1916—all for the Texas Women's Federation.
Not all of her philanthropic endeavors were club-related. Presumably for home front support of World War I, in 1918 Roper was a speaker at a Red Cross drive asking for aid and provisions in the form of bandages, clothing, food, medication, and money. By the 1930 census, she was retired from teaching and living at the Cotton Hotel in Houston. A member of Christ Episcopal Church, she never married. She remained in Houston until her death at the age of eighty-three on September 17, 1941. She was buried in Cedar Bayou Masonic Cemetery in Baytown and bequeathed the remainder of her estate, in excess of $11,000, to the Rice Institute, later named Rice University. Her donation was a memorial to her mother, Catherine Withers Roper, and father, Benjamin E. Roper, who were "pioneering contemporaries" of the founder of the institution. It was designated as a permanent endowment, beginning in the 1943–44 academic year. The memorial fund scholarship was still available until at least 2003.∼Bio by William A Roper Jr
Mary Withers Roper was the daughter of Benjamin Eliscus Roper and Catherine Withers Payne (b 1826 - Campbell Co., VA; m 17 May 1843 - Hinds Co, MS ;d.ca 1872 - Lynchburg, Harris Co., TX). Her parents, both born in Virginia, migrated first to Clinton, Hinds County, Mississippi, where they married in 1843 and sometime between 1847 and 1850 to Lynchburg, Harris County, Texas.
Mary had an older sister Ella Roper (b March 3, 1844 in Hinds Co, MS; d July 21, 1844 in Hinds Co, MS), who died in infancy, and an older brother Wilson Alexander Roper (b 10 Nov 1847 - Raymond, Hinds, MS; d 1 Apr 1871 - Lynchburg, Harris Co., TX).
Her older brother married Matilda Jane Stotts (b 16 Apr 1844; m 7 Oct 1869; d 17 Feb 1921 - Corsicana, Navarro Co., TX)and they had one child George Henry Roper (b 5 Aug 1870 - Lynchburg, Harris Co., TX; d 1946 - Corsicana, Navarro Co., TX), before Wilson Alexander Roper's untimely death in 1871. The nephew, grand-nephews and grand-niece named in the obituary are all grandchildren of Wilson Alexander Roper and Matilda Jane Stotts, through their sole son George Henry Roper.
Mary Withers Roper lost BOTH her father and her older brother that same year - 1871- within a ten day period. She was therefore the only surviving member of her generation of the Benjamin Roper family from age 14. By age 22, she is shown in the United States Census for 1880 as residing in Houston where she became a public school teacher.
Mary Withers Roper's paternal grandfather, Rev. David Roper (b 27 Sep 1792 - Charles City Co, VA; d 28 Feb 1827 - Richmond, VA), was the founder of the Second Baptist Church in Richmond. Mary Withers Payne's maternal grandfather Dr. Nathaniel West Payne (b 1790 - VA; d 1841 - Lynchburg, Campbell County, VA) was a physician in Campbell County, VA. Robert Alexander (b ca 1710; d 1783 - Augusta County, VA), Mary Withers Roper's ancestor through her grandmother Catherine Wilson Alexander (b 17 Jan 1796 - VA; d 26 Jul 1838) was the founder of the Liberty Academy, later to become Washington and Lee University.
Mary Withers Roper's father, Benjamin Eliscus Roper, was a Schooner Master at Lynchburg, Texas. He also served as a Justice of the Peace from 1857, occasionally as an election officer beginning in 1858 and according to the Houston Republic was selected as a delegate to the Democratic convention in December 1857. During the Civil War, Benjamin Eliscus Roper served as the Tax Assessor-Collector for Harris County for the Confederacy.
According to Harris County deed records, Benjamin E. Roper disposed of vast parcels of real estate during the Civil War years, selling 5,252 acres to P. Reynaud in August 1864; 1,107 acres to J.M. Hooper in September 1864; 17,686 acres to C. J. Frost in September 1864; 5,054 acres to Frederick Stanley in October 1864; 3,767 acres to George W. Frazier in three transactions in December 1864; and 8,585 acres to William P. Walker in January 1865.
In her Will, Mary Withers Roper left the bulk of her estate to the Rice Institute (now Rice University) to endow a scholarship that now bears her name.
Daughter of Benjamin and Catherine (Withers) Roper∼Obituary - Houston Post, 18 Dec 1941, Sec. 2, p. 10
ROPER -- Miss Mary Withers Roper, 84, died in a Houston hospital at 7:15 a.m. Wednesday. Miss Roper had been a teacher in the Houston public schools for a number of years and had taught in Mexico for three years. She resided at the Cotton hotel. She was born in Lynchburg, Texas, and had spent most of her life in Houston. She was a member of the Christ Episcopal church.
Surviving are a nephew, G. H. Roper, Sr., of Corsicana; five grand-nephews, Christopher Roper of Corsicana, Robert Roper of Waco, John Roper of Dallas, William Roper of Corsicana and George Roper of Houston; one grand-niece, Mrs. A. B. Garland of Corsicana, and five great-grand-nephews.
Services will be held at 2 p.m. Thursday at Christ Episcopal church with Rev. John E. Hines officiating. After the services here, the body will be taken to Cedar Bayou for burial in the Cedar Bayou cemetery. Active pallbearers are: J.C. Fulk, A.M. Bowles, R.H. Moffett, W.D. Cleveland, Frank C. Clemens and E.H. Dumble. Honorary pallbearers are Haskins Hartwell, A.D. Mims, B.S. Troxell, Chester Bryan, O.R. Smith, R.E. Wood, R.G. Kemp, Angus McDonald, Will Seaman, Joe Weingarten, Clarence Lindsley, George Hammond, John Hammond, Henry Fall, William S. Patton, C.G. Pillot, Dr. William G. Priester, John Gaillard, Dr. John Schilling, Doctor Robbins, Allen Wright, Perkins Wright, Clemens Wright, George Wright, C.E. Clancy, Jules Bujac, Clarence Meadows, Jesse Andrews, Otto Sens, John F. Sloan, Frank Schuwiler and Ben Rice. Setegast-Kopf company directing.∼From: Texas State Historical Association - Handbook of Texas (https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/roper-mary-withers)
ROPER, MARY WITHERS (1857–1941).Mary Withers Roper, school teacher, activist, committee member, missionary, and suffragist, was born to Benjamin Eliscus Roper and Catherine Withers Payne, both of Virginia, on October 22, 1857, in Lynchburg, Texas. The 1860 United States census recorded the family in Lynchburg, and her father was listed as a magistrate. Not much is documented about her life until the 1880s. According to the 1880 census, Mary Withers Roper, age twenty-two, was a public school teacher living in Houston, Texas. In 1888 she taught seventh grade at the Clopper Institute in Galveston, and she moved to Houston to teach seventh grade by 1897. In 1903 she traveled to the mountain resort town of Cloudcroft, New Mexico, to assist in opening a summer school for young girls from East Texas for the social season. Roper joined the Board of Missions in 1907 to work as a missionary teacher. On February 22, she left Houston for Tacuba, Mexico, where she taught at the Mary Josephine Hooker Memorial School. Roper later became assistant to the director of the Hooker School and Orphanage and the director of the Girls' Friendly Society in Popotla, Mexico City.
Roper's documented reform work as part of the woman suffrage movement began in 1903. The Texas Woman Suffrage Association held its first state convention on December 8, 1903, in Houston, where Roper was appointed to the Resolutions Committee. Their objective was to organize a state association to become part of the national organization of suffragists as well as to adopt and amend a constitution.
In addition to having an active role in the Texas Woman Suffrage Association and Texas Federation of Women's Clubs, Roper was involved in many other causes. She was elected first vice president and chosen delegate to the fourth district convention to represent the Woman's Club of Houston in 1913. She presided over meetings of the Women's Political Union of Houston. She also assisted in organizing programs and entertainment at many club meetings and read original magazine articles and papers on women artists of the time for the Woman's Club of Houston.
In October 1914 Roper became involved in the Houston Housewives League, which aimed to involve both single and married women in the community and help them to better manage their households. In June 1915 she represented the executive board of the fourth district of the Texas Federation of Women's Clubs for The Houston Post Good Roads car party on the Palestine campaign—the goal of which was to campaign for a highway between the cities of Palestine and Houston. She also served as part of the Committee on Resolutions in 1915, the Field Committee on Endowment in 1916, and chairman for the Fourth District State Endowment fund in 1916—all for the Texas Women's Federation.
Not all of her philanthropic endeavors were club-related. Presumably for home front support of World War I, in 1918 Roper was a speaker at a Red Cross drive asking for aid and provisions in the form of bandages, clothing, food, medication, and money. By the 1930 census, she was retired from teaching and living at the Cotton Hotel in Houston. A member of Christ Episcopal Church, she never married. She remained in Houston until her death at the age of eighty-three on September 17, 1941. She was buried in Cedar Bayou Masonic Cemetery in Baytown and bequeathed the remainder of her estate, in excess of $11,000, to the Rice Institute, later named Rice University. Her donation was a memorial to her mother, Catherine Withers Roper, and father, Benjamin E. Roper, who were "pioneering contemporaries" of the founder of the institution. It was designated as a permanent endowment, beginning in the 1943–44 academic year. The memorial fund scholarship was still available until at least 2003.∼Bio by William A Roper Jr
Mary Withers Roper was the daughter of Benjamin Eliscus Roper and Catherine Withers Payne (b 1826 - Campbell Co., VA; m 17 May 1843 - Hinds Co, MS ;d.ca 1872 - Lynchburg, Harris Co., TX). Her parents, both born in Virginia, migrated first to Clinton, Hinds County, Mississippi, where they married in 1843 and sometime between 1847 and 1850 to Lynchburg, Harris County, Texas.
Mary had an older sister Ella Roper (b March 3, 1844 in Hinds Co, MS; d July 21, 1844 in Hinds Co, MS), who died in infancy, and an older brother Wilson Alexander Roper (b 10 Nov 1847 - Raymond, Hinds, MS; d 1 Apr 1871 - Lynchburg, Harris Co., TX).
Her older brother married Matilda Jane Stotts (b 16 Apr 1844; m 7 Oct 1869; d 17 Feb 1921 - Corsicana, Navarro Co., TX)and they had one child George Henry Roper (b 5 Aug 1870 - Lynchburg, Harris Co., TX; d 1946 - Corsicana, Navarro Co., TX), before Wilson Alexander Roper's untimely death in 1871. The nephew, grand-nephews and grand-niece named in the obituary are all grandchildren of Wilson Alexander Roper and Matilda Jane Stotts, through their sole son George Henry Roper.
Mary Withers Roper lost BOTH her father and her older brother that same year - 1871- within a ten day period. She was therefore the only surviving member of her generation of the Benjamin Roper family from age 14. By age 22, she is shown in the United States Census for 1880 as residing in Houston where she became a public school teacher.
Mary Withers Roper's paternal grandfather, Rev. David Roper (b 27 Sep 1792 - Charles City Co, VA; d 28 Feb 1827 - Richmond, VA), was the founder of the Second Baptist Church in Richmond. Mary Withers Payne's maternal grandfather Dr. Nathaniel West Payne (b 1790 - VA; d 1841 - Lynchburg, Campbell County, VA) was a physician in Campbell County, VA. Robert Alexander (b ca 1710; d 1783 - Augusta County, VA), Mary Withers Roper's ancestor through her grandmother Catherine Wilson Alexander (b 17 Jan 1796 - VA; d 26 Jul 1838) was the founder of the Liberty Academy, later to become Washington and Lee University.
Mary Withers Roper's father, Benjamin Eliscus Roper, was a Schooner Master at Lynchburg, Texas. He also served as a Justice of the Peace from 1857, occasionally as an election officer beginning in 1858 and according to the Houston Republic was selected as a delegate to the Democratic convention in December 1857. During the Civil War, Benjamin Eliscus Roper served as the Tax Assessor-Collector for Harris County for the Confederacy.
According to Harris County deed records, Benjamin E. Roper disposed of vast parcels of real estate during the Civil War years, selling 5,252 acres to P. Reynaud in August 1864; 1,107 acres to J.M. Hooper in September 1864; 17,686 acres to C. J. Frost in September 1864; 5,054 acres to Frederick Stanley in October 1864; 3,767 acres to George W. Frazier in three transactions in December 1864; and 8,585 acres to William P. Walker in January 1865.
In her Will, Mary Withers Roper left the bulk of her estate to the Rice Institute (now Rice University) to endow a scholarship that now bears her name.
ROPER -- Miss Mary Withers Roper, 84, died in a Houston hospital at 7:15 a.m. Wednesday. Miss Roper had been a teacher in the Houston public schools for a number of years and had taught in Mexico for three years. She resided at the Cotton hotel. She was born in Lynchburg, Texas, and had spent most of her life in Houston. She was a member of the Christ Episcopal church.
Surviving are a nephew, G. H. Roper, Sr., of Corsicana; five grand-nephews, Christopher Roper of Corsicana, Robert Roper of Waco, John Roper of Dallas, William Roper of Corsicana and George Roper of Houston; one grand-niece, Mrs. A. B. Garland of Corsicana, and five great-grand-nephews.
Services will be held at 2 p.m. Thursday at Christ Episcopal church with Rev. John E. Hines officiating. After the services here, the body will be taken to Cedar Bayou for burial in the Cedar Bayou cemetery. Active pallbearers are: J.C. Fulk, A.M. Bowles, R.H. Moffett, W.D. Cleveland, Frank C. Clemens and E.H. Dumble. Honorary pallbearers are Haskins Hartwell, A.D. Mims, B.S. Troxell, Chester Bryan, O.R. Smith, R.E. Wood, R.G. Kemp, Angus McDonald, Will Seaman, Joe Weingarten, Clarence Lindsley, George Hammond, John Hammond, Henry Fall, William S. Patton, C.G. Pillot, Dr. William G. Priester, John Gaillard, Dr. John Schilling, Doctor Robbins, Allen Wright, Perkins Wright, Clemens Wright, George Wright, C.E. Clancy, Jules Bujac, Clarence Meadows, Jesse Andrews, Otto Sens, John F. Sloan, Frank Schuwiler and Ben Rice. Setegast-Kopf company directing.∼From: Texas State Historical Association - Handbook of Texas (https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/roper-mary-withers)
ROPER, MARY WITHERS (1857–1941).Mary Withers Roper, school teacher, activist, committee member, missionary, and suffragist, was born to Benjamin Eliscus Roper and Catherine Withers Payne, both of Virginia, on October 22, 1857, in Lynchburg, Texas. The 1860 United States census recorded the family in Lynchburg, and her father was listed as a magistrate. Not much is documented about her life until the 1880s. According to the 1880 census, Mary Withers Roper, age twenty-two, was a public school teacher living in Houston, Texas. In 1888 she taught seventh grade at the Clopper Institute in Galveston, and she moved to Houston to teach seventh grade by 1897. In 1903 she traveled to the mountain resort town of Cloudcroft, New Mexico, to assist in opening a summer school for young girls from East Texas for the social season. Roper joined the Board of Missions in 1907 to work as a missionary teacher. On February 22, she left Houston for Tacuba, Mexico, where she taught at the Mary Josephine Hooker Memorial School. Roper later became assistant to the director of the Hooker School and Orphanage and the director of the Girls' Friendly Society in Popotla, Mexico City.
Roper's documented reform work as part of the woman suffrage movement began in 1903. The Texas Woman Suffrage Association held its first state convention on December 8, 1903, in Houston, where Roper was appointed to the Resolutions Committee. Their objective was to organize a state association to become part of the national organization of suffragists as well as to adopt and amend a constitution.
In addition to having an active role in the Texas Woman Suffrage Association and Texas Federation of Women's Clubs, Roper was involved in many other causes. She was elected first vice president and chosen delegate to the fourth district convention to represent the Woman's Club of Houston in 1913. She presided over meetings of the Women's Political Union of Houston. She also assisted in organizing programs and entertainment at many club meetings and read original magazine articles and papers on women artists of the time for the Woman's Club of Houston.
In October 1914 Roper became involved in the Houston Housewives League, which aimed to involve both single and married women in the community and help them to better manage their households. In June 1915 she represented the executive board of the fourth district of the Texas Federation of Women's Clubs for The Houston Post Good Roads car party on the Palestine campaign—the goal of which was to campaign for a highway between the cities of Palestine and Houston. She also served as part of the Committee on Resolutions in 1915, the Field Committee on Endowment in 1916, and chairman for the Fourth District State Endowment fund in 1916—all for the Texas Women's Federation.
Not all of her philanthropic endeavors were club-related. Presumably for home front support of World War I, in 1918 Roper was a speaker at a Red Cross drive asking for aid and provisions in the form of bandages, clothing, food, medication, and money. By the 1930 census, she was retired from teaching and living at the Cotton Hotel in Houston. A member of Christ Episcopal Church, she never married. She remained in Houston until her death at the age of eighty-three on September 17, 1941. She was buried in Cedar Bayou Masonic Cemetery in Baytown and bequeathed the remainder of her estate, in excess of $11,000, to the Rice Institute, later named Rice University. Her donation was a memorial to her mother, Catherine Withers Roper, and father, Benjamin E. Roper, who were "pioneering contemporaries" of the founder of the institution. It was designated as a permanent endowment, beginning in the 1943–44 academic year. The memorial fund scholarship was still available until at least 2003.∼Bio by William A Roper Jr
Mary Withers Roper was the daughter of Benjamin Eliscus Roper and Catherine Withers Payne (b 1826 - Campbell Co., VA; m 17 May 1843 - Hinds Co, MS ;d.ca 1872 - Lynchburg, Harris Co., TX). Her parents, both born in Virginia, migrated first to Clinton, Hinds County, Mississippi, where they married in 1843 and sometime between 1847 and 1850 to Lynchburg, Harris County, Texas.
Mary had an older sister Ella Roper (b March 3, 1844 in Hinds Co, MS; d July 21, 1844 in Hinds Co, MS), who died in infancy, and an older brother Wilson Alexander Roper (b 10 Nov 1847 - Raymond, Hinds, MS; d 1 Apr 1871 - Lynchburg, Harris Co., TX).
Her older brother married Matilda Jane Stotts (b 16 Apr 1844; m 7 Oct 1869; d 17 Feb 1921 - Corsicana, Navarro Co., TX)and they had one child George Henry Roper (b 5 Aug 1870 - Lynchburg, Harris Co., TX; d 1946 - Corsicana, Navarro Co., TX), before Wilson Alexander Roper's untimely death in 1871. The nephew, grand-nephews and grand-niece named in the obituary are all grandchildren of Wilson Alexander Roper and Matilda Jane Stotts, through their sole son George Henry Roper.
Mary Withers Roper lost BOTH her father and her older brother that same year - 1871- within a ten day period. She was therefore the only surviving member of her generation of the Benjamin Roper family from age 14. By age 22, she is shown in the United States Census for 1880 as residing in Houston where she became a public school teacher.
Mary Withers Roper's paternal grandfather, Rev. David Roper (b 27 Sep 1792 - Charles City Co, VA; d 28 Feb 1827 - Richmond, VA), was the founder of the Second Baptist Church in Richmond. Mary Withers Payne's maternal grandfather Dr. Nathaniel West Payne (b 1790 - VA; d 1841 - Lynchburg, Campbell County, VA) was a physician in Campbell County, VA. Robert Alexander (b ca 1710; d 1783 - Augusta County, VA), Mary Withers Roper's ancestor through her grandmother Catherine Wilson Alexander (b 17 Jan 1796 - VA; d 26 Jul 1838) was the founder of the Liberty Academy, later to become Washington and Lee University.
Mary Withers Roper's father, Benjamin Eliscus Roper, was a Schooner Master at Lynchburg, Texas. He also served as a Justice of the Peace from 1857, occasionally as an election officer beginning in 1858 and according to the Houston Republic was selected as a delegate to the Democratic convention in December 1857. During the Civil War, Benjamin Eliscus Roper served as the Tax Assessor-Collector for Harris County for the Confederacy.
According to Harris County deed records, Benjamin E. Roper disposed of vast parcels of real estate during the Civil War years, selling 5,252 acres to P. Reynaud in August 1864; 1,107 acres to J.M. Hooper in September 1864; 17,686 acres to C. J. Frost in September 1864; 5,054 acres to Frederick Stanley in October 1864; 3,767 acres to George W. Frazier in three transactions in December 1864; and 8,585 acres to William P. Walker in January 1865.
In her Will, Mary Withers Roper left the bulk of her estate to the Rice Institute (now Rice University) to endow a scholarship that now bears her name.
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