Our Family Heritage...Texas Pioneer Martha Jane Marley Carroll

Martha Jane Marley Carroll was the oldest of the fourteen children of Elisha S. Marley and Mary Josephine Leatherwood.  She was a Texas Pioneer and my Great Grandmother.  This is Her Texas story...

My Daddy ran away from home when Grandpa Marley and Uncle John joined up with the Carolina's Militia to fight the Yankees. They wouldn't take Daddy. Said he was too young. He didn't start out for Texas, but ended up here, married my Mama, and started a family. Mama birthed fourteen children, and raised twelve of us to adulthood.

I was named after my Grandmothers, and everyone called me Janie.  My siblings had short names like John, Ann, Ben, Ida, Bill , and longer ones like Zachariah, Holbart, Wardie, and Samuel.

I married Mr. Stephen Bennett Carroll in Jack County, Cleburne, Texas.  He called me Mrs. Carroll right up to the day he died  on June 23, 1903. 

Mr. and Mrs. Stephen Bennett Carroll and their children. 

Othello Elisha Columbus born August 18, 1895

Merritt Douglas Carroll born November 3, 1896

Effie Estella born June 22, 1900

Mary Ella born July 14, 1902

Dear Family and Readers of CollectInTexas Gal,

As 'Keeper' of the Our Family Heritage and in Honor of Mother's Day,

I dedicate this Post and the Ones to Follow to the Mothers of Our Family.

Martha Jane Marley Carroll  was my Daddy's Grandmother.  His Mother, Effie Estella 'Stella', is the little girl standing in the portrait with her brothers, Othello and Merritt and sister, Mary Ella, taken in 1902.

The photographs are originals from the Family Album shown in the background.  It was passed to me as 'Keeper of Our Family Heritage' from Great Aunt Mary Ella's Son, Thomas.