MARY JOSEPHINE (ROSS) THOMASON
Submitted by Frank Butcher, updated
May 28, 2007
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Mary Josephine Ross was born in Conecuh County, Alabama, and came to Texas in
1859 with her family at the age of nine. According to Frances Aline Rutherford
Thomason as told to Mary Beth Lenamon Fife, Jo was a first cousin to Sul Ross, a
Texas Civil War hero and early governor of Texas. Unfortunately, research
does not lend credibility to this assertion. When Jo married Daniel Benjamin Thomason, she became mother to two children (one from each of his two previous marriages) -- Jeffie Lona and William Napoleon (Billy). According to notes left by her great grandaughter, Mary Beth Fife, Jo showed considerable partiality to her own children by Daniel, and did not teach her children to accept their half brother and sister as family. Those same notes also indicate that Jo and her husband provided a music and elocution teacher for their children, suggesting that at least for a time, the family was well off financially. Even though Jo could neither read nor write, she apparently valued an education for her children. Jo had a brother, Presley Ross, who lived in Tehuacana and was a Methodist preacher. Another brother, Lace, of Oklahoma, entertained by playing the violin behind his back and under his leg. Jo's sisters were Frances Ross Wiggins of Thornton, Laura Ross Cowart (Bryan), and Nan Ross Sadler. Jo helped raise the child of her daughter Jennie, when Jennie died in 1901. Daniel was shot and killed in a land dispute with his son-in-law a year later, leaving Jo to raise her grandchild alone. In 1917, Jo went to Panola County to stay with her father’s kin, most of whom settled in that area after leaving Alabama. She was probably in poor health and financially destitute, since she filed for a Confederate Widows Pension while in Panola County, listing no real or personal property of any value. Likely, Jo was reduced to depending on help from family members, moving from home to home, and died of influenza in her niece’s home back in Limestone County on March 19, 1926. Frank Butcher 2007 |