Brazoria “Oakie” Bennett daughter of James Madison and Maranda C. Dye Bennett was born 23 Feb 1864. Her unusual name was given to her because she was born while the family camped near the Brazos River, as they were returning from a trip to Parker County, Texas.
She married Jasper “Jeff” Robins Caldwell (b. 06 Mar 1861 in Dallas County, Texas) on 03 Apr 1883 in Dallas County, Texas. Oakie and Jeff attended the Tripp Baptist Church. They were cotton farmers and apparently quite successful. At one point they owned over 400 acres but lost most of it after 1920 during the depression, when cotton prices fell disastrously.
Oakie was a midwife and was something of the community nurse. She never became sick herself. She was so successful in bringing people through typhoid fever epidemics that even the doctor would come by to get her to help. She nursed many people through the 1918 flu epidemic. In 1911 she served at the first President of the Long Creek Cemetery Association. She was an excellent seamstress, made her own soap, gardened and canned all their vegetables, had a hen house with about 50 hens, raised and slaughtered calves and hogs, and got money for Christmas by selling half a dozen turkeys each year.
Jeff and Oakie had four children; Sara Elizabeth, Robert Benjamin, William Carson and Rachel May Caldwell. In addition to these they took in at various times numerous children, who at one for one reason or another were in need of care and mothering, a total of up to 25 in all. These included; Oakie’s younger twin sisters, Minnie and Maggie Bennett; grandniece Evelyn Wilson (daughter of Jonathan Buckalew and Daily Violet Bennett Wilson), nieces, Essie Florence and Rosa Jacobs (daughters of Samuel Benjamin and Florence Vitula Bennett Jacobs); and grandchildren; Albert Lawrence, Richard Edwin, Walter, Gerta and Stella Mae Gray (children of Alfred King and Sara Elizabeth Caldwell Gray).
Jeff died on 15 Apr 1923 in Dallas County, Texas and Oakie died 07 Dec 1926 in Mesquite, Dallas County, Texas. Both are buried with many other family members at Long Creek Cemetery. Their marker is inscribed with "They Lived for Others"
From the book, “The Families of Long Creek Cemetery,
Sunnyvale, Dallas County, Texas”
Compiled by Robert N. Bennett with addition information supplied by
Elizabeth Jones.