Tom Mix: Idol of Every American Boy

Dad told me long ago that Tom Mix had been one of his favorite movie cowboys, which inspired me to argue, jokingly, that there was no such person. For my generation, John Wayne was the movie cowboy, and in all honesty I had never heard of Tom Mix until Dad shared his reminiscences with me. Yes Virginia, there was a Tom Mix, and he was the most popular western star of his era. I was anxious to learn more about him, and I soon discovered that there’s information a-plenty.
It must be said that research into the life of Tom Mix is difficult at best, as the road is paved with tall tales. The movie studios themselves were known to release blatant fabrications, spinning all sorts of biographical nonsense to enhance his hero status. Among the falsehoods that are circulated is his being born in El Paso, Texas, being a Texas Ranger (where he single-handedly captured the notorious Shonts Brothers), having served as sheriff of several towns, and his being a hunting guide for Theodore Roosevelt. It’s even been said that his voice wasn’t suited for talking pictures because his wife had shot him in the neck. All that is certainly entertaining, but looking beyond the hype reveals the real story. Read the rest of this entry »

Lost….and Found!

This image was found among our family photographs, boxes and albums of photos that go back nearly one hundred years. It was shown to several relatives, but none were able to identify the woman. Having resigned myself to the idea that it would remain a mystery, I posted it on this website in the “Unidentified Photos” gallery, just in case it might be seen by someone who can identify it. While I didn’t hear from anyone regarding the image, I’m happy to say that the mystery has been solved nonetheless. It turns out that this young woman, who my sister and I joked was too attractive to be a relative, was my mother’s college roommate.
The identification came unexpectedly as I was looking, for the first time, at mom’s freshman yearbook, the 1939 Battlefield. No sooner than I found my mother’s photograph than the one immediately above it caught my eye, the same photograph that had been in the possession of our family for so many years. It was Marjorie Burgess. Marjorie and my mother, Ellen Virginia Caldwell, attended Mary Washington College and were the best of friends. In mom’s album, alongside her picture, Marjorie wrote, “Here’s to 221 Willard  - Marjorie”. I soon learned that “Willard” referred to the freshman dormitory, Frances Willard Hall. Read the rest of this entry »

Bios/Photo Albums

For those who haven’t already found them, I wanted to point out the biography and photo album pages. Accessible from the menu at the far right, each of these pages consists of a brief biographical sketch of a family member as well as photographs, most being clickable for viewing larger versions.
For obvious reasons, the depth of the biographical data, and the number of photos, varies greatly from one individual to another. The creation of new pages and inclusion of additional photographs will be ongoing, and represent a large percentage of the work put into this site. In other words, please be patient, as this is a big project.
I’ve added a couple of new albums in the past few days, my grandfather Fred Caldwell being one and my great-grandmother Mary Belle Tipton (shown at right) the other. Over the next few weeks I’ll be adding more family member pages as well as adding photos to the pages already online, so stay tuned!

What motivated this project?

It’s a realization that comes to most of us at some point: I should have paid more attention to things over the years. It’s just so easy to get caught up in the drama of ones own affairs, finding one day that the people who you knew would always be there for you aren’t there anymore. Loosing my mother in 2004 and my father in 2007 prompted much reflection, as I suppose the loss of ones parents always does. It occurred to me that not only were my parents gone, but so too was a priceless window into the history of our family. They knew facets of the family history that were known to no one else, and that information was now gone forever. I should have paid more attention, asked more questions. I should have listened.
Having lost Dad (Doug Stevens, or “Pop” as I affectionately called him) a little over a year ago, I decided that I needed to make up for my previous indifference to the family history. This goal was further encouraged by the Hopson Family Reunion which, unfortunately, I was unable to attend. (Hopson’s are on my mother’s side) But thankfully my sisters, Carol Miller and Gail Aguilar, made the trip to Tiptonville, Tennessee and brought back with them a tremendous amount of information as well as contacts for further genealogical study. Additions to this site will be frequent, and I welcome any information that might be provided by fellow historians/relatives. I can’t guess how much time this project will require, but it will certainly be measured in years. I’ll be right here, plugging away at it.

- Mark Stevens