Hacking into history: Old photo reveals connection to Woodmen of the World

 Published in the Kerrville Daily Times February 28,

The "mystery photo" that started my search.

This week’s column will deal with the depths a history geek will dig to solve a mystery, and the tools we use to plumb the depths. Maybe it’s because I’m nosy, and being an amateur historian allows me to find a socially acceptable channel to satisfy that nosiness. Maybe I think of myself as a modern day Miss Marple. Whatever it is about me, I love a good mystery and will keep digging until I find answers to all kinds of weird questions I have involving local history.

I first saw the photo accompanying this column when I was 16 years old. It was tucked neatly away in my aunt’s expanding file of old photos. Every time I visited her, I would ask to browse her photo collection. She had some real gems in that expanding file.

I love a good ghost story, true crime and creepy tales, so of course, I was drawn to an image of what was obviously some kind of funeral. I had to know more about it. I asked my aunt about the photo, and she said she inherited the image from one of her relatives and didn’t know anything about it.

What struck me the most about the photo is there was only one woman in the photo — the widow, dressed in a black veil and dress. Everyone else in the image were men or boys ... and all the boys are holding axes! I wondered to myself “What the heck is going on here?”

The photo looked to be taken sometime in late 1800s or early 1900s. The widowed woman, with her three sons standing next to her, didn’t fit in with anybody (that I was aware of) in my family tree. I wanted desperately to know who these people were and why this picture was in with the family photos.

When I got older and became a more seasoned history buff, I realized this was a photo of a grave marker dedication for a member of the Woodmen of the World, a fraternal benefit society. Grave markers for Woodmen from that time period are very distinctive. Like the one in the old photo, most of the order’s grave stones look like felled logs or tree trunks. This one is a forked tree trunk with chopped logs at the base.

When I took a magnifying glass to the photo, I could barely make out that the banner behind the men said: “Cypress Camp Kerrville.” That was my first clue in solving the mystery! It was a gravestone somewhere in Kerrville.

Grave Marker of JW Busby
as it looks today.

As soon as I had that clue, I wanted to find the stone in the photo. Considering the time frame and knowing that it was a local photo, I decided to start looking in the Glen Rest Cemetery, near the Schreiner University Campus. The graveyard is where most of my Kerrville ancestors are laid to rest, and there happen to be a lot of Woodmen markers in that cemetery.

I did a lot of walking — A LOT — around the cemetery (a pastime I enjoy even when I’m not looking for anything in particular), only to discover that this particular grave stone is located a few feet away from where several of my ancestors are buried. The marker was closer to the highway than my family’s plot, and the stone was hard to find due to some large grave stones and a big, gnarled tree between the main part of the cemetery and where the marker in question was located — but I finally found it.

The grave belongs to J.W. Busby, born in 1871 and died in 1905. There is a long inscription on this stone:

“His many virtues form the noblest monument to his memory. Katie.”

“Tis hard to break the tender cord when love has bound the heart. ‘Tis hard, oh so hard, to speak the words, must we forever part? Dearest loved one we have laid in the peaceful grave’s embrace but thy memory will be cherished ‘til we see they heavenly face. Wife and Sons.”

So who was J.W. Busby? Why did my family keep a photo of his marker dedication all of these years?

My next stop was the Kerr County History Center. The library has some great resources in the center, and I was able to find microfiche for both The Kerrville Daily Times and the Kerrville Mountain Sun. I eventually found Mr. Busby’s obituary in the May 27, 1905, issue of the Kerrville Mountain Sun.

I actually did research the hard way on this mystery. This was a few years before the online miracles of Findagrave.com and Newspaperarchive.com were developed. These websites would have been a lot easier on the eyes than the microfiche machine and would have saved me a lot of time if they existed back then. 

JW Busby's Obituary

Six months after making a new home in Kerrville, J.W. Busby had a painful accident and died, leaving his wife and three kids behind. I also found an advertisement in an earlier copy of the Kerrville Mountain Sun for Mr. Busby’s brokerage business, but still no clue on why a photo of his funeral would end up in my family photos.

When I told my mom that I had found the mystery grave and the name that was on the stone, she said she remembered a man by the name of Thelma Busby coming to Kerrville when she was a child and that she was told he was a cousin on her father’s side.

Luckily, that branch of the family is well documented, with more than one publication devoted to its genealogy. I dug out one of the old books, went back a few generations in my branch of the family tree and found Thelma Busby. He was the son of J.W. (John William) Busby, who was a second cousin to my grandfather. The other two children in the photo were named Willie and John.

A lot of families came to Kerr County in 1905. It was considered a land of opportunity for families in the Deep South. Many were struggling to make ends meet after the Civil War, even almost 50 years after the war ended. I imagine Mr. Busby brought his family to Kerrville from his native Mississippi because he had relatives here that were doing well and decided to try his fortune here.

After J.W.’s death, his wife and children left Kerrville. It took me a while to find out what happened to them. When I told the story of the Busby family to another local historian, Deborah Gaudier, she pointed me to the 1920 census. At that time, Katie and her sons were living in Chicago. Her sons, Willie and Thelma, had railroad jobs, and John worked for the Checker Cab Company. Census records can be easily accessed on Ancestry.com and a few other sites and are a great way to track down people who disappear from the local record.

Digging into history is fun, even if it takes several years to uncover full stories. Legwork, asking the right people the right questions and using online sources are the best way to get started. You never know where history will take you.

Next week, I’ll tell you about jail breaks and how a scandalous red nighty helped one woman escape the Kerr County Jail.