Emma King Bronson, Texas The following was written by Virgie Speights and published in Old Timers of Sabine County, Texas on June 4, 1964 It is quoted verbatim, except for minor typographical error corrections. Emma King (Negro) Emma King retired on her Sixty-second birthday May 2, 1964 from her job at the Wolfe Hotel in Bronson. It was a day of quiet sadness for you see, Emma was no ordinary employee at an ordinary hotel. Emma is the only Negro in Bronson, a town that has a reputation for not allowing one in the city limits. I dont see how we can stay here without Emma, mourned Mrs. Dolly Winkle, with Mrs. A. O. Wolfe echoing her sentiments. She is so wonderful---so always ready to do anything for anybody. Somehow, despite the sadness, there was an air of suppressed gaity, whispered secrets and a quietness when Emma came by. Then suddenly a cake with 62 candles appeared; someone handed Emma a gaily be-ribboned package, from which an electric mixer emerged, and a full-fledged birthday party was underway. Mr. and Mrs. A. O. Wolfe, owners of the hotel, and all employees had banded together to buy Emma a small inadequate token of their love and esteem. With overflowing hearts and misty eyes, they wanted to show Emma a bit of what she had meant to them and to the town for the past 57 years. Born in Many, Louisiana, the youngest of a large family, Emma lost her mother when she was three years old. Her father, grief-stricken and in a quandry as to how to manage to raise his motherless brood, he gave Emma to Mr. and Mrs. Charles Eddings, childless residents of Many at that time, who had fallen in love with the fascinating tyke. She came with the Eddings family to Bronson in 1906 where Mr. Eddings worked for Kirby Lumber Company and Mrs. Eddings, the former Miss Hattie Bickley, started a kindergarten. Mrs. Eddings, a woman of great character and infinite patience, lovingly trained Emma in the way that she should go. She taught her to read and write, and to love good books; she guided her in learning how to sew beautifully and to cook skillfully. She learned to keep an immaculate house and to keep herself clean and neat. Emma went to church regularly at the First Baptist Church with Mr. and Mrs. Eddings. Early, she took over the care of the church and kept it clean and fresh. At each service, she had her own special corner, where she always sat. Emma has always been humble and loving everyone with a love that forgets self. She seems not to think of her color. Its just the way God made me, she casually answers to the childrens unthinking asking of why she was different. As Emma grew up, she developed such a sense of maturity, with such apparent honesty and integrity that she became a leader among the young people. Parents soon began asking Is Emma going? when picnics and parties were planned. If Emma was going, then Susie or Jim could go, too. She was so brimming full of love and goodness, combined with such a sense of fun and laughter that she attracted the children like a magnet. As a teenager, she learned to drive the family Ford and once, when Hugh N. Wood and Gay Low sponsored a contest to see who could go the furthest on a gallon of gas, she won second place, when she went 41.1 miles on the gallon. The cars were lined up at Bronson with one gallon of gas in each and headed towards Beaumont, with the judges and most of the county tailing behind. When Emma reached Jasper, she yelled Which way is Beamont? It was really fun, she says, I dont remember who won first place. Emma has spent her life doing for others. The Eddings kept boarders and she was always helpful. If there was a school play, she helped to make the costumes. She seemed to glory in being useful. She chaperoned young people to Beaumont when the trains came to Bronson and ran excursions to the fairs and other festivities. Emma grew up loved and trusted, down to the present generation of Bronson folks. Beth Walker says that the children always flocked to her house, and she always gave them delicious jelly. She says James Daily, her son, thought that was the only place to get Jelly. The Eddings died and left Emma all they owned. She lived on in their comfortable house until her good friend and neighbor, R. W. Ellis, became unable to take care of himself. So what did Emma do? Just as you might expect, she promptly shut her own home up and moved over to take care of Mr. Ellis. Everyone sings her praises. College students visit her when home; Mrs. E. E. (Atrelle) Marshburn says, Shes marvelous and she can really cook! The Bickleys seem to think she is something special. They gave her the car she drives. And her price shall be above rubies. (Transcribed by Melinda McLemore Strong, November 2012) Emma King was born either on May 2, 1900 or 1902. The story above and several census records state 1902, while her headstone in the Bronson Cemetery and her death certificate states 1900. (Joe Bickley provided the information for the death certificate.) She died May 12, 1976 in San Augustine. Her father, Mose King, was born a slave in Texas, to parents who were born in Alabama, during the last few months of the Civil War. He was listed on the 1910 census as a 45-year-old laborer at a lumber yard in Many, Louisiana. In 1910, which was six or seven years after Emma went with the Eddings family, the census indicates that Mose King was 45 years old, had remarried and had nine children, step-children and grandchildren living under his roof. In 1920 he was listed as a farmer, and in 1930, he was a 65-year-old Baptist Preacher, still in Sabine Parish, Louisiana, in or near Zwolle. Barlows note: African-Americans came to Bronson in 1902-1903, just as they did to the dozen other sawmill towns which appeared almost overnight along the new railroad which created a timber harvesting and lumber manufacturing boom for the next 15 or 20 years. Bronsons black community was just north of town, east of the railroad. According to stories from my youth, George H. Head (1917-1995) who lived in Bronson and worked for United Gas at Magasco, often repeated the story that his father had lost money in a gambling venture one night in Bronson and while in a drunken rage, began shooting at every black man he saw. The black community soon disappeared from Bronson, leaving Emma as the sole remnant of their culture. Whether this was a major cause of the evacuation is open for debate, but it was most likely a contributor. Someday, Ill study the 1910 and 1920 census records to see if a black population was present during those years. Bronsons sawmill burned more than once, and this was probably also a catalyst in the exodus. (For more on Emma, see yesterdays post of R.W. Ellis store in Bronson) We would love to hear your recollections of Emma, or related stories, below. Let er rip!
Posted on: Sat, 20 Sep 2014 14:02:41 +0000
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