Rhoda Caroline Gardner (Ussery)

This will establishes Rhoda Caroline as the daughter of Welcome Ussary http://www.cindyhcasey.com/squwill.html Her husband, Marmaduke Gardner was theexecutor of his father-in-law's will.

On Nov 18, 1832 in Barnwell Dist., SC, she married Marmaduke Gardner.

According to her great-granddaughter, Naomi Lide, Rhoda had 27 dresses, all made from scratch by the loom or spinning wheel. Both she and Marmaduke were fancy dressers. In 1854, after having lived in Mississippi, Rhoda traveled with her husband and children to a tiny community in Texas called Siloam, located north of Sam Smith Springs, later called Lawhon Springs. Once settled, Marmaduke organized a church known as Siloam with six whites and one Negro slave as members. Gardner organized other churches in the area and ordained three ministers, John C. and Joseph Lawhon and J.S. Dunbar. The Negro slave was referred to in Gardner's records as his "prized slave." Gardner had a large family, and enough equipment to start all over again when he arrived at the Siloam site December 1, 1854. (Rhoda was in poor health and wanted to move where game was plentiful.) During the Civil War, Gardner made boots for the Confederate Troops; he was a blacksmith, hunter, farmer and one of the early Universalist preachers in Texas. He began to preach May 12, 1848 and was ordained Sept. 2, 1849, and received the fellowship of the General Convention Jan. 10, 1872. He was pastor of the Universalist Church in Williamson Co., TX twenty-five years. He travelled very extensively in Texas and did a great amount of missionary work. The first church building was erected in an elm grove on the bank of a creek near an old schoolhouse about two hundred yards from there the school stood in 1938. When that church burned, a new one was built "at the springs," then was moved to the town of Siloam and reorganized in 1910. (Source: Notes on the Places of Williamson County)

By 1837 the fathers of both Marmaduke and Rhoda had passed away. A will by his grandfather, signed on the 12th of September 1837 indicates that the grandfather was still alive.

Upon Rhoda's death, Marmaduke wrote the following obituary for The Herald:

Death of Mrs. Gardner.

Bro. Burruss: It now becomes my painful duty to inform you that my dear and faithful wife that has stood by me for nearly 46 years, has left us and gone to the better world. She was born in N.C., Montgomery County on December 21, 1814- Her maiden name was Rhoda Ussery. When quite an infant, her parents moved to S.C., Barnwell District. We were married in 1832. In 1836 we moved to Mississippi and in 1854 we came to Texas. She died July 30th 1878, aged 63 years 7 months 1 week and 2 days. She raised fifteen children to be grown, five sons and ten daughters; and now has living 73 grand children and nine great grand children. She possessed all the qualities that are noble in women. She was truly a Granger in all her domestic relations, --was ever delighted in the highest degree, to associate with brother and sister masons, and above all, as a christian, she surely possessed the right to claim the promise, 'blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.' For 40 years she had been subject to violent attacks of a severe cramping of the feet and hands, often the whole body would be more or less cramped, and soon all the alarming symptoms of Asiatic cholera would be realized. Often have I seen her barely escape death. But the violence of this last attack, set at defiance all our old and successful remedies; she lived only 46 hours from the time she was taken. Death had no terrors for her, for when in good health we often talked on that subject. She was in her proper mind during her whole illness, but for the last 12 hrs was almost speechless. Seeing Mrs. Ducy (a member of the christian church), a lady she much admired, standing by her bed side, a short time before she breathed her last, she tried to talked to Mrs. Ducy, but could only make her understand that she was going to die. All at once, to make her understand, she raised her hands, looked upwards, clapped her hands, and exclaimed in an audible voice, 'PREPARED!' Mrs. D. gave her to understand that she fully understood her meaning. In a short time after this, without a struggle, without even a long breath, she 'fell asleep in Jesus,' as quietly as ever an infant slumbered on its mother's lap.

She often thanked God that he had spared her to see all her children married, settled and doing well. Her loss to me is irreparable; so far as this world is concerned. Our association as husband and wife, has been a haven of uninterrupted happiness. Only a few years at most, and our association will be renewed, I hope, in that house of many mansions, eternal in the heavens, where Jesus dwells; where we shall see him ashe is and be like him,--Amen.

The Grangers buried her with all the honors that their Order could confer. More than 140 grown persons testified their respect for her by their presence at the burial. M. Gardner McDade, Texas.

GEDCOM Source

@R-797266623@ Texas, Death Certificates, 1903–1982 Ancestry.com Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. 1,2272::0 Texas Department of State Health Services; Austin Texas, USA 1,2272::771571102

GEDCOM Source

U.S., Find A Grave Index, 1600s-Current Ancestry.com Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. <i>Find A Grave</i>. Find A Grave. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi. 1,60525::0 1,60525::39840500

GEDCOM Source

U.S., Find A Grave Index, 1600s-Current Ancestry.com Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. <i>Find A Grave</i>. Find A Grave. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi. 1,60525::0 1,60525::39840500

GEDCOM Source

@R-797266623@ 1870 United States Federal Census Ancestry.com Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. 1,7163::0 Year: 1870; Census Place: Williamson, Texas; Roll: M593_1609; Page: 394B; Family History Library Film: 553108 1,7163::11038517