Seeking Susie

I have decided to accept the challenge of Amy Johnson Crow over at No Story Too Small blog. Amy challenges us: 52 Ancestors in 52 weeks. I think this is an excellent challenge as I tend to focus on my brick walls, and this will force me to fan out in my tree and focus on other ancestors.

Please meet my 3rd great-grandfather, Alfred Gatewood Hoskins. This is week nine, and my ninth post in the challenge.

Smithia Anderson, A.G. Hoskins, Wevie Anderson

And look who is in the photo with him? The same two daughters I mentioned last week that Mary Elizabeth (Hoskins) Anderson left when she passed away. Smithia and Wevie Anderson, standing with their grandfather. Cousin Karen (Ball) Cowan had that photo, and I’m still surprised that there is a photo of A.G. Hoskins, but not one of his daughter, Mary Elizabeth. Not that I have found yet anyway.

Cousin Nell Blackburn had this photo of A.G. Hoskins.

Alfred Gatewood Hoskins

I also found this picture of my great-grandmother Wevie, and her stepmother, Eva (Dalby) Anderson. The photo is numbered, and I found this copy of the photo at the library in New Boston but never found a list of names to match the numbers. I wonder if #14, the man on the porch is A.G. Hoskins? It sure looks like him, but I don’t know if the time frame is right for it to be him as he died on 21 May 1897, and I believe Wevie was about 13 years old when he died. She looks older than that in this photo so I don’t really know if it is him or not.

Wevie (#10) and Eva (#7) Anderson, possible AG Hoskins

I’m not going to bore you with the census reports on A.G., mainly because you can see those on last week’s post about his daughter, here.

A.G. married Mary Lucinda Henri on 5 May 1836.  Mary was the daughter of George B. and Martha Henri.  This is where the original chain of Mary’s in my family began, and where my great-grandmother got her name of Wevie Henri Anderson.

A.G. and Mary had five children.  Four daughters, and one son, none of which would live longer than A.G.  Mary, his wife died in 1872, living A.G. widowed and to my knowledge he never remarried.  Their children were:

• Martha Catherine (Hoskins) Eubank (1837 – 1881)
• George Benjamin Hoskins (1838 – 1846)
• Isabella Jane Hoskins (1841 – 1857)
• Mary Elizabeth (Hoskins) Anderson (1844 – 1891), my second great-grandmother and last weeks post.
• Henri Anna (Hoskins) Wever (1848 – 1893)

He must have cherished his grandchildren, having lost all of his children.  Cousin Karen also had this photograph, and this is all the grandchildren of A.G. and Mary Hoskins.

Grandchildren of A.G. and Mary Hoskins

# 1 is Anna (Wever) Lanier, #2 is Eddie Eubank, #3 is Wevie (Anderson) Ball, #4 Smithia (Anderson) Norman, and #5 is Lela (Wever) Sutton.

A.G. Hoskins was a carpenter by trade, and it’s my understanding that he built all the cabinets that were in the old Bowie Co. Courthouse. He also held the offices of District Clerk, Justice of the Peace, County Clerk, and County Judge for a number of years.

A.G. Hoskins died on 21 May 1897, after being bedridden for five months and evidently in a lot of pain, but what he suffered from I have no idea.  This is his obituary:

Alfred Gatewood Hoskins Obit

This is his funeral card. Thank you Nell for sharing this with me.

AG Hoskins Funeral Card

He is buried in the cemetery I mentioned last week that his daughter is buried in, the Hughes Knight Cemetery, the one you have to climb through the fence to get to it. I’ve talked to Nell since last weeks post and we are planning on going to the cemetery hopefully in March.

In parting, I wanted to share a poem with you about the HOSKINS name that Alfred Gatewood Norman had in his genealogy works:

In 1066, From Nurenberg, in Germany,

Came the Earl Hoyskne, in our Pedigree.

With all his soldiers, horses and fleet,

The Anglo-Saxons the helped to beat,

Aiding his kin, William the Duke of Normandy.

In gratitude, for lending his aid,

William the Conqueror, in land repaid.

In Dorset, Herfordshire, and Somerset,

Hoskins descendants live there yet.

The name marches on in histories pages,

Each had sons, down through the ages;

God fearing men who fought and swore,

To uphold Hoskins honor, in every War.

Of every station in life, of every degree,

their lines trace down, in our pedigree,

Ministers, Doctors, Farmers, and Friends,

Working for a better world unto their end.

Nicholas Hoskins to Virginia in 1623.

John to Massachusetts in 1630, to Windsor in 1633,

William settled in Plymouth in 1645,

Leaving generations of descendants, many still alive.

Robert went to live in the wild Barbados,

Same year Thomas, North Carolina chose,

There’s not a state in the union today

Where you can’t find a Hoskins in the U.S.A.

They all lived wisely and saved right well,

Always left behind them, sons to tell,

Of position of trust each Hoskins carried,

The homes they built, the good wives they married.

Americans all Marshall, Wilton, and Flyer,

Hays, Wolcott, Grant, Thompson, and Tyler,

Lincoln, Hamlin, Foster, Webster, all share,

Some Hoskins blood lines that four presidents bear.

From the rocky coast of Main, Frothing the Sea,

Hoskins sailed around the world, down to the Florida Keys;

To every border of this wonderful land,

Hoskins founded towns from Iowa to the Rio Grande.

None stumbled, Faltered, in lust or greed,

But gave their all, when the land had need.

Not all died wealthy, but all were rich in things,

that faith and right that honor brings.

Gather around my kinsman, proudly bow,

While a fore our Hoskins Ancestors, a prayer is said:

Ask God not for riches, glory or fame,

Just Hoskins courage to farly play lifes game.

By Alice Hoskins

Hoskins Descendants, Newberry Library

This is how I descend from A.G. Hoskins.

AG Hoskins to Me