WATSON JOURNAL|ca.1918–19

This photograph (a reproduction my father had made in 1968) shows his grandmother Minnie Laura Wood Dobson (1864–1946) with several other women from Watson, Arkansas. His handwriting on the back identifies the women and dates the photo ca. 1918-19.

"Left to right: Edna Rice holds her daughter [but after research I think this is her son]; the young girl is Olive Griffith; behind Olive is Minnie Laura Dobson [with glasses]; then Mrs. Elva Rayder; little girl in front of her is Tootsie Rayder [this is actually Vivian Rayder]; older little girl is Audry Wilson; older lady is Mrs. Ezell."

They are all dressed up and without coats, so my guess is that the occasion for the group photograph is Easter Sunday. There seems to have been no shortage of cameras in either of my father’s parents’ families in rural southeast Arkansas, but it was still mostly special occasions that pictures were taken. Another guess is that my great grandfather, David Erastus Dobson (1862–1949), Minnie Laura’s husband, took this. But Granddaddy (Eugene Dobson Sr.) was about 14 and my Uncle Harry was about 17, both living at home, so one of them could have.

I found everybody in this picture on two pages of the 1920 Census of Watson, Redfork Township, Desha Co., taken on 10 Feb. 1920 by John Oakes, Enumerator.

On page 1:

Front Street:

Line 22: Edna Rice, age 19, is with her husband T. J. Rice and their son Thomas Rice, age 13 months. The census lists Mr. Rice working as a merchant in a grocery store. Edna's parents were from Indiana; Minnie Laura Dobson and David Erastus Dobson had come almost thirty years before from Mauckport, Harrison County, Indiana. Did the Dobsons know Edna’s family in Indiana?

Clay Street:

Line 33: Olive Griffith is nine years old, living with her family. Her father, H. D. Griffith Sr., from Mississippi, worked as a carpenter.

Line 35: Elva Rayder and her husband B. W. Rayder live with their four children, Samuel 17, Fern 16, Raymond 9 and Vivian [the census taker wrote 'Virginia'], age 5. Mrs. Elva Rayder and Benjamin W. Rayder are buried in the Watson Cemetery, according to the book, Desha County, Arkansas Cemetery Records, and posted online. Minnie Laura is buried next to her husband David Erastus Dobson there also. Thanks very much to Raylene Rayder Taylor, the granddaughter of Elva A. Haynes Rayder, for correcting the identification of her aunt Vivian.

On page 3 of the same census...

Front Street, living next door to D. E. and Minnie L. Dobson (and their sons Harry E., 18, and Eugene, 15, my grandfather) are (line 36) Margarett A. Ezzell, a widow, and her son Jerry [?] L. Ezzell, age 32, who works at a logging camp, and her granddaughter Audy [?] Wilson, age 12.

Bit of background

Watson, Arkansas, in Desha County, is a tiny little town out on the flat fertile lands by the Mississippi River where my grandfather grew up, the youngest of five children; his father owned a General Store. Later, Granddaddy married Lois Elizabeth Peacock of Tillar, built a house on Front Street near the railroad tracks, and they had a son, Eugene Dobson, Jr., my father. The family moved to Pine Bluff around the time Daddy was in high school. After Granny died in 1972, Granddaddy moved back to Watson, and lived there until his death at age 96. He is buried in the Tillar Cemetery (Drew County), next to his wife and son.

Sources:

Ancestry.com or Heritage Quest sometimes you can access these through your public library.

http://www.rootsweb.com/~ardesha/watsoncem.htm
http://www.rootsweb.com/~ardesha/newtncem.htm