Friday, September 18, 2009
The family of Ruby Backen
Ruby Catherine Castle Church Backen was the daughter of Robert and Eleanor Church.
Robert was the son of Billy Church.
Billy Church married and lived in Sulpher Springs. According to my Grandmother Ruby Backen there was an open spring in a field behind the house. It was a rather dangerous area and Billy Church didn't want his wife to go back there. One day while he was away from the house chopping wood she needed to get some water so she went down to the spring without him. While she was there she fell into the spring and hit her head on a brick and drown. Robert was two months old at the time and his sister Lulie was two. The children were passed back and forth between two Aunts for a while.
Robert lived with his Uncle Jim and Aunt Sarah Blackman after his mother's death. They were well respected and fairly well off. Jim was a Circut riding preacher and Robert said that his Aunt Sarah would dress him up in a little blue suit and hat and send him off to church services with his Uncle Jim.
Billy Church remarried a woman named Pricilla who had 5 children and Robert went back to live with his father and step mother. He was often left to care for the children alone and blamed when his stepmother returned and things where in disorder. He was punished often and soundly so he ran away from home when he was eight years old.
A relative named Wilson Mitchel found him sitting on a fencepost in the woods crying one day. He had a bundle of clothes tied to a stick and he was very distraught. Mitchel took him home and kept him until his Aunt Sarah and Uncle Jim could come for him. He lived with them from that point on. He considered them to be his real family.
Grandmother Ruby tried to name some of the Blackman children and these are the names she mentioned. Jim and Grace (who ran a sanitarium in Florida) and Blanche.
Robert Church had a rough start. She mentioned that she was able to visit several of the places where he had worked. He worked for a bakery in Arkansas, and was also a delivery boy, and a farmhand. She said that he was a good man and that due to his teaching he was a strong Christian. He believed in doing right by his fellow man. He was not succesful financially but he was rich spiritually. He married Eleanor Harbison who was the daughter of James Matthew Harbison. The two men became very close and Robert looked up to him as a father figure.
Robert was the son of Billy Church.
Billy Church married and lived in Sulpher Springs. According to my Grandmother Ruby Backen there was an open spring in a field behind the house. It was a rather dangerous area and Billy Church didn't want his wife to go back there. One day while he was away from the house chopping wood she needed to get some water so she went down to the spring without him. While she was there she fell into the spring and hit her head on a brick and drown. Robert was two months old at the time and his sister Lulie was two. The children were passed back and forth between two Aunts for a while.
Robert lived with his Uncle Jim and Aunt Sarah Blackman after his mother's death. They were well respected and fairly well off. Jim was a Circut riding preacher and Robert said that his Aunt Sarah would dress him up in a little blue suit and hat and send him off to church services with his Uncle Jim.
Billy Church remarried a woman named Pricilla who had 5 children and Robert went back to live with his father and step mother. He was often left to care for the children alone and blamed when his stepmother returned and things where in disorder. He was punished often and soundly so he ran away from home when he was eight years old.
A relative named Wilson Mitchel found him sitting on a fencepost in the woods crying one day. He had a bundle of clothes tied to a stick and he was very distraught. Mitchel took him home and kept him until his Aunt Sarah and Uncle Jim could come for him. He lived with them from that point on. He considered them to be his real family.
Grandmother Ruby tried to name some of the Blackman children and these are the names she mentioned. Jim and Grace (who ran a sanitarium in Florida) and Blanche.
Robert Church had a rough start. She mentioned that she was able to visit several of the places where he had worked. He worked for a bakery in Arkansas, and was also a delivery boy, and a farmhand. She said that he was a good man and that due to his teaching he was a strong Christian. He believed in doing right by his fellow man. He was not succesful financially but he was rich spiritually. He married Eleanor Harbison who was the daughter of James Matthew Harbison. The two men became very close and Robert looked up to him as a father figure.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
A little about Ruby Backen (A wedding story)
A Wedding storyRuby Backen was the Daughter of Aelenor (known as "Big Mommie") and Robert Church. She was a beautiful wartime bride who married Roy Backen during World War II. He was dressed in his Army Uniform and she in a simple white suit dress which had some dainty embriodery, delicate beads, and tiny ribbons on it. Pinned to her dress was a beautiful corsage. She also wore a dainty black hat with a tiny veil, a watch, and a slender golden bracelet.
They were married by the camp commander. Her mother (Aelenor Church) and Roy's mother (Bertha Backen) drove to the wedding from Palacios,Texas. The wedding was planned and held in Mineral Wells by two friends. The cake was a single layer, topped with a small kissing bride and groom. There were four white candles on the table and a few crystal serving dishes. After the ceremony was over they went to the picture show to celebrate!
At the start of their married life they stayed in a small apartment. It had a room and kitchen priviledges. They stayed in that room until he was moved to Raleigh, North Carolina.
While living in Raleigh, Ruby rented a room while Roy stayed in the barracks. This arrangement didn't last long. Roy was then transferred to Camp Kilmer in New Jersey and Ruby rode back to Palacios, Texas with the wife of one of his buddies. She waited for him there until he returned from the war.
Ruby Backen and the kitchen Band
Grandmother Ruby Backen who will be forever remembered by me as Sweeny Grandmother was a member of a kitchen band. My cousin and I recently came across a pair of Lawrence Welks spoons which belonged to her.
To read a newspaper about her band check out a copy of The Facts from Wednesday, April 12, 1978.
To read a newspaper about her band check out a copy of The Facts from Wednesday, April 12, 1978.
Sunday, September 6, 2009
New Posts Welcome!
Dear Backens,
Feel free to post pictures, stories and background about relatives of the Backen family here. Try to identify the people in your pictures and stories as clearly as possible so that everyone will know which Backen the story is about.
Feel free to post pictures, stories and background about relatives of the Backen family here. Try to identify the people in your pictures and stories as clearly as possible so that everyone will know which Backen the story is about.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
A story about Ruby Backen and her Best Friend Viola Reader
Grandmother Ruby Church Backen and he friend Viola Hood Reader were almost inseperable. I called Viola "Aunt" and loved her very much.
Karen Spiller shared this story with my father.
When the girls were in their teens. Viola Reader and her friends, Mary, Laura, and Ruby Backen, were sitting together at church one Sunday night. One of them passed a note that read,"Let's go to the cemetery after the service."
A man sitting behind them at the service read the note and beat them to the graveyard. He then hid behind a gravestone. When they came walking by he jumped out from behind the stone and scared them to death. Viola claimed that they ran all of the way home!
"Aunt" Viola passed away on Tuesday May 19th, 2009. So now the two friends are together again. They are both loved and Grandpa Roy Backen is with them too. He passed away while I was writing this note.
Karen Spiller shared this story with my father.
When the girls were in their teens. Viola Reader and her friends, Mary, Laura, and Ruby Backen, were sitting together at church one Sunday night. One of them passed a note that read,"Let's go to the cemetery after the service."
A man sitting behind them at the service read the note and beat them to the graveyard. He then hid behind a gravestone. When they came walking by he jumped out from behind the stone and scared them to death. Viola claimed that they ran all of the way home!
"Aunt" Viola passed away on Tuesday May 19th, 2009. So now the two friends are together again. They are both loved and Grandpa Roy Backen is with them too. He passed away while I was writing this note.
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