Family History

I started working on the genealogy of my family a couple of years ago. I started this whole odyssey wanting to learn more about my paternal line of ancestry and immediately hit a stone wall at my great granddad John H Holmes. I could not, and still haven't found any information about the Holmes family before John. Very frustrating! John and his wife Anna (Goff) had six kids, 3 boys and 3 girls. They were living in the area around Brownfield, Texas during the 1920 and 1930 census periods. My granddad Red and grandma Stacy were also living in the same area and can be found on the 1930 census with my great granddad. I grew up hearing my dad tell the story about how one of his aunts, along with one of her two kids, had been murdered during this time. The story was that she had been raped and murdered by a black man in her own house. After killing her, the murderer realized there was a child in the house. Not wanting to leave any witnesses, he picked the young girl up and bashed her head against the stone fire place until she too was dead. Grisly! You would think it would be easy to find mention of such a murder in one of the newspapers of the day. I had looked previously for any evidence of such a murder but had come up empty.

Then I had a break. I was taking a closer look at the 1930 census and noticed that 10 year old Vivian Wadford was a person in my great granddad's household. She was listed on the census as "granddaughter". Curious but still not realizing the consequences, I began digging deeper. The 1920 census made no mention of her in his household. Not unusual since she may not have been born yet. After extensive searching, I found a family named Wadford in the Brownfield area on the 1920 census: Luther, Blanche, 3 year old Mildred and 0 year old Vivian! If this was the same Vivian, then Blanche must be the daughter of John and Anna. I had not previously come across a Blanche though. Brow furrows. I ran a search for Blanche and immediately came across newspaper articles about her murder. Eyebrows raise as eyes widen. Blanche and her 3 year old daughter were murdered by Virgil Sampson, a black man. Blanche was selling paintings outside the front of her home while 3 year old Mildred was playing on the porch. Virgil comes walking by carrying his shotgun and eventually makes advances towards Blanche. Blanche tells Virgil she is going to tell her husband and Virgil asks her not to do such a thing. Blanche stands firm and says that, yes, she will inform her husband of Virgil's advances. (Remember, this in 1920's Texas, it was a hanging offense for a black man to make advances towards a white woman.) Virgil shoots Blanche point blank with his shotgun. She is dead. Virgil then sees Mildred on the porch and shoots and kills her too. Unknown to Virgil, 3 month old Vivian is sleeping soundly inside the house and miraculously does not wake up to all the shooting. Virgil departs the scene. Luther comes home that evening and finds 2/3 of his family gunned down. Luther is eventually arrested for the murders and ironically, Virgil is a witness for the prosecution against him. Luther goes to jail, awaiting trial, for 18 months. Meanwhile, Virgil is arrested for assaulting a 14 year old white girl and sentenced to hang. Virgil never admits to this assault but he does come clean and confesses to killing Blanche and her daughter. Virgil is the last black man ever hanged in Lamar County Texas. Luther is set free and eventually remarries and lives out his life in Brownfield. Evidently, he gave up Vivian for John and Anna to raise.

So, there you have it. A family tragedy verified to be true, though the facts had been altered through the years somewhat. Very cool and exactly why I am doing this genealogy gig. I have found many more fascinating things about my family. More on that later perhaps.

The quest continues however for information on the Holmes family prior to great granddad John. Stay tuned.