Priscilla Jane Teale Wilson - Died in 1934 At The Age of 101
By Nina HARDEN
This transcription by Elaine Stone
Taken from June 1, 1977 Opportunity Valley News
Orange was still known as Green’s Bluff when young Priscilla Jane and her widowed father, Peter Teale, came to the little town to make their home. Peter stayed only a few years before returning to Upshur County, but Priscilla found true love and lived to be almost 102 years old.
Her direct descendants help to populate present day Orange County and the number among them the children and grandchildren of her four daughters, Mrs. D.A. Joiner, Mrs. J.A. Parish, Mrs. Henry Pachar and Mrs. L.P. Bazzano and son Matthew.
Born Nov.5, 1832, Priscilla Jane was but a year old when parents left Greenville County, ILL. To head South. They stopped first in Shreveport, LA. Or rather where the city now stands.
Peter worked as a wood cutter during the brief months of their stay here before moving on into Texas to locate for awhile in Upshur County. It was here that the young Mrs. Teale died and through Peter buried her there and moved further into East Texas, he was to return to this place to live out his own life and be buried by her side.
From Upshur County, they made their way to Burkeville. Priscilla was now a young lady and when the opportunity to find employment presented itself. She accepted. She became the nurse for W.H. (Uncle Billy) Stark, who had (or had) a small child in need of a woman’s care.
The urge to move on, brought the Teales to Orange where Peter set himself up as a carpenter and machinist. It was during his early years in Orange that he built or helped build, The Sabine Pass Lighthouse, still a landmark today.
The 85 foot tall tower provided a welcome beam of light for ships for a center until it was finally closed about 1955 and replaced by radio beacons.
Priscilla was 17 when she married John Wilson in 1849. He had come to Orange from Abbeville, LA. And had served as a sailor in the Texas Army in the fight for independence from Mexico. He also fought in the was between Mexico and the United States and as a volunteer in the Army of the Southern Confederacy in the War Between the States.
While John was off fighting in the war, his young wife took over the running of the household, which included such chores as of raising of crops and carrying corn to grist mill from their home place (Bruner Addition, today). The mill was located near the site of the old Gulf States Utility Company power plant.
Priscilla drew a pension from the government for John’s service during the Mexican War and at the time of her death was thought to be the last person receiving such a pension, or one of the very few who were.
She joined the Baptist Church while very young and was said to have been baptized in Adams Bayou on a cold winter day. At any rate, she was faithful to her belief and attended church regularly until the last few years of her life when she went as often as possible.
After Priscilla reached 95 or so, people began to take notice and each year she was treated to a party to celebrate her long life and her many friends and relatives would gather to wish her well and to listen to her relate her memories of the past.
She made her home with Annie Bazzano and on her 99th birthday, the Beaumont Enterprise carried the following article:
“Mrs. Priscilla Wilson, oldest woman in Orange, celebrates her 99th birthday today with an open house at the home of her daughter, Mrs. L.P. Bazzano, 601 12th street, and now is looking forward to the 200th year of her life“.
“With a broad smile, perfect vision and hearing, the aged woman received and greeted scores of friend throughout the day, pausing now and then to chat over happenings of the dim past with the oldest residents of this place which has borne three different names during her stay here”.
“First it was Green’s Bluff, then Madison and then Orange. This name as she remembered it, had a part in segregating Orange County from Jefferson County. The name was adopted on account of a huge Orange grove owned by the Kimbrough’s in North Orange. All marks of the once great grove of native Orange trees have long since faded.
“Among those calling on Mrs. Wilson today were her five children, the oldest of whom is 82. There were many of the more than 100 direct descendants of the aged woman who called and were speedily recognized by her.
“The fifth generation of descendants represented by James, 13, and Woodell, 11, Children of Mrs. James Grubbs were present. They are great-great-grandchildren.
“The generations of Mrs. Wilson include the following children: D.A. Joiner, 82; Mrs. Janie Parish, 73; Mrs. Henry Pachar, 62; Matt Wilson, 57; and L.P. Bazzano, 54.
“There are 36 grandchildren, the oldest of whom is 52; 48 great-grandchildren; and two great-great-grandchildren. It is thought there are other great and great- great - grandchildren who live in California.
“Eight of the nine children of Mrs. Wilson were reared to man and womanhood, three having died. The number of deaths in the family descendants has been remarkably small, a fact of which she is very proud.She never had typhoid fever, pneumonia, rheumatism or any other malady worse than ordinary chills and fever.
“Until late years she lived on a farm with her husband, John Wilson, who died in 1911 at the age of 96. Her husband had grown cotton, corn, potatoes and other crops on most of the high land sections of Orange County during the early years of their married life.
“She told some of the visitors who called on her today that her memory now was not as good as it used to be especially when it came to recent happenings, although she manifested a clear mind when it came to happenings as far back as 95 years ago when she lived in Upshur County“.
“Mrs. Wilson was born in Greenville, Ill. On Nov.5, 1832 and at the age of one of her parents, Mr. And Mrs. Peter Teale, moved to Shreveport where they remained about a year. During the time the family lived there her father and another man loaded the first cord of wood on a steamboat on the Red River.
“At the age of 16 her father moved the family to this place where he was engaged in carpenter and mechanical work. Her father built the lighthouse at Sabine Pass which is standing today. He later went back to Upshur County where he died and was buried.
“Mrs. Wilson was married to John Wilson on May 17, 1848. She cannot recall at whose house it occurred. She thinks they were married by the late Capt. Tom Davis.
“Saw milling in Orange started about 80 years ago as Mrs. Wilson remembers it. While not much of a politician, she voted many times.
“The outlook for her making the 100 mile post was regarded as good by the scores of people who visited her on her 99th birthday. “I never gave the subject much thought”, Mrs. Wilson said. She often hears the telephone ring when other members do not hear it on account of Communicative sounds”.
“Well, Priscilla not only made the 100 mile post, but the 101 as well and only needed two months to make the 102 mark.
On her 101 birthday, she told an Enterprise reporter:
“I was born on Nov. 5, 1832 in Greenville County, Ill. And my father and mother brought me to Shreveport, La. When I was less than a year old and then we moved across the Louisiana line to Texas, settling first in Smith County and then moving over to Upshur County.”
“ I do not remember the trek to Texas, being less than a year old, but I do remember hearing my family talking of the journey which we made in wagons drawn by oxen. I can also recall stories told me by my father the late Peter Teale who died in Orange. An Indian chief after being captured alive told my father that some redskins raided a community once of white people and when he saw a pretty baby at it lay smiling in its cradle, he passed it by. A few steps away he came to another baby as it lay crying in its cradle. The crying baby was pierced with a long stick the other end of which was stuck in the ground in order to suspend the body so that it might be seen by others of the pale faces.
“I have survived five wars of the nation now including two wars with Mexico, the Civil War, the Spanish American War and the World War. My great-grandfather Henry McAdams, took part in the American Revolutionary War and fought Indians for years back in the early days of this nation.
“My husband, John Wilson was a veteran of the Mexican War and the Civil War. A blanket carried by my great-uncle Henry McAdams in the battle against the Indians, riddled with bullet holes, was either lost or destroyed even though it was suppose to be kept for an heirloom.
“My grandfather Henry McAdams, even though he was too old for military service in the Mexican War of 1836, still went with my two uncles, Henry and Bill to the battlefield many times.
“A man named Jack Merriman was running a saw mill at Orange when we reached here 82 years ago, and I remember that late D. Call conducted a general store on the river bank.
“At my age of 101 years I am glad to see that the burdens are lightening for my daughters, granddaughters, and great-granddaughters. I have made a rule early “early to bed and early to rise”.
It was perhaps this rule that helped Priscilla Jane to reach 101, almost 102 years of life. According to her obituary she died at 12:30 o’clock Monday morning September 3 at the home of her daughter, Mrs. L.P. Bazzano. Her body lay in state at the First Baptist Church from 9 to 10 a.m. The next day and the funeral services were conducted by Rev. Edgar Eskridge, the pastor who was assisted by Rev. E.T. Drake pastor of First Presbyterian Church. Members of various church choirs of the city sung hymns as part of the service and burial was in the Evergreen Cemetery under the direction of the Wheeler Funeral Home.
Her grandsons were pallbearers, including W.L. Joiner, Chesley Pachar, Jessie Parish, George Parish, Ed Baxter and Claude Wilson.
Annie Bazzano was Priscilla’s youngest daughter and posed at the age of 78 with two older sisters, Elizabeth Pachar, 80, and Jane Parish, 87, for an Enterprise reporter when the Baptist Hospital was built in Beaumont.
The captain noted: “Orange women go without hats to raise funds for room in the new Baptist Hospital.” The ladies were present for the dedication of the “Priscilla Room” a four bed maternity ward named in honor of their mother. The Priscilla Class of the First Baptist Church of Orange had provided $1,000 for the room by going without new hats and “raising funds by other means”.
Jane, named after her mother, married Jim Parish and was widowed while her children were young. They owned land near the site of the Little Cypress Baptist Church and the Parish Cemetery was begun as a family graveyard.
Two of Jane’s daughters lived in Orange, Jimmie Gay, named for her father, and Nellie Pruter, both well past 70 but retaining both youth and charm. Both are widows.
Last year Mrs. Gay was interviewed by two students of the Little Cypress-Mauriceville school for an article in the school’s official organ*, “Bearfax” as part of the bi-centennial observance.
This article carried a picture of the first school in the Little Cypress area which was built by Sam Holden and burned in 1927. In this story, Mrs. Gay told Paula Baker and Sissy Hargis:
“As a kid, those were really happy days”. Mrs. Lewis Gay, born in 1901 was the former Jimmie Parish, named for her father. At age three, Mrs. Gay lost her father, who had died leaving her mother, Janie Parish the sole supporter of eight children. Their home was located. Near present day Little Cypress Baptist Church”.
“Gardening, farming and raising livestock was their main source of produce. Due to the large size of her family, little of the produce was sold, The meat was from smoked and stored in the smokehouse to keep it from spoiling.
“Her uncle had a sugar cane mill so syrup was always available .Hog fat was used for cooking oil and cream was used to make butter.
“I remember my arm getting so tired from sitting on the back porch churning butter”. stated Mrs. Gay. The one room school was located about one mile from our home. Warmth was provided from wood stove heaters. All grades were taught by one teacher. When she was three years old she began going to school with the teacher.
“I hated those bonnets,” they made us wear when they would take to school, she commented. She made me wear when they would take me to school”, she commented. The teachers and preachers always stayed at her home.
“Sunday afternoons were the time of most recreations. Church dinners took place in the church yard. Mrs. Gay’s family gave homemade ice cream parties in the yard for the church. Playing croquet was an all time favorite. Swimming and fishing was done in a beautiful bayou behind the barn.
“ She walked one mile to school every day and on her way she passed a tree on a sandy hill that is still standing today. The Tree is located on West Bluff road across from Mize Plumbing.
“Mrs. Gay’s mother worked night and day for her family. She and her daughters would make the clothes and wash them with a scrub board. At night the family would be sitting by the fireplace and at least one of the children would have to go to the bathroom. “So mama would take us all out to the outhouse”.
“In case of an emergency one family, the Starks, had a telephone that people would use to call Dr. A.G. Pearce. He would come down a dirt road in his horse and buggy to treat his patients.
“Mrs. Gay remembered being out in the pasture playing around with the cows when one of them hooked her in the arm. “The next year, in the same month, the same cow hooked me again in the same arm”.
“When she was nine her family moved to town on John Street. Today Mrs. Gay enjoys doing needle point and embroidery. She remembers those early days well. She smiled and said “Those were the happy days”.
Mrs. Pruter, as a young girl was singled out as “One of the 10 most beautiful girls in Orange”, according to an old news paper clipping which showed these young ladies.
The article, entitled “Orange Girls are Fair of Face and Beauty Permeates the Place”, noted: “Another of the few towns that really can boast of many beautiful women and girls is Orange. The ten beautiful faces pictured above is good evidence to offer in proof of statement, but there is other evidence. These 10 pictures were selected by the photographer from a hundred or more in his studio. It is to be expected though Orange would not be a town of lemons. Rather it is a place where peaches grow as nowhere else.
Visitors returning from Orange usually talk about one of three things: the town’s industry, it’s progress, or it’s pretty girls, and the girls usually are mentioned when either of the other topics are discussed.”
Besides the names of Nellie Parish, the article listed Misses Lula Stephens, Amy Lyons, Ivy Gunstream, Minnie Lea Guyton, Bessie Peveto, Inez Smith, Ida Mae Levingston, Winnie Bland and Bessie Burton.
Jane Parish’s other children now deceased were George and Jesse Parish; Hettie Barber, Lettie Cooper, Lassie Clark and Bessie Burr.
(Ed. Note: Mrs. Nellie Pruter died in 1982.)
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