Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Monday, January 24, 2011
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Pioneer Family
There were no Interstates in 1876. By trail or train, you just toughed your way through it. The best thing about the trip, there was a lot of scenery but, how slowly it passed. In those days there were very few round trips. Once there one built a house or cabin and stayed awhile. A long while. That's the way it worked with the Barwise family. There were many lonesome days and nights before Papa and Mama and the kids got used to the idea.
Joseph Barwise probably looked forward to the day of departure. The family home sat looking out across a landscape that was flat, made that way by the flooding and draining of the Mississippi, Illinois and Missouri Rivers. He was a farmer as were all of his neighbors. Long ago the name originated in England, probably was spelled Barwiss. The name and its owner landed in this country in New York--the subdivision called Brooklyn.
I don't have records of their early life in this country. But, like all pioneers of that era, it was westward movement. It was the only way to go.
Who Am I?
My name is Howard DeMere, great-grandson of J.H. Barwise. I was born in Texas, in Wichita Falls, in 1925. There was nothing there when he got there. It's the place he founded, watched it grow into a city. I learned a great deal about Grandpa Barwise as I grew up. He helped govern the town, watching it grow with the help of his children. All of them assisted me into my journey to manhood. I am proud to be a member of that pioneer family. I will recount his journey and mine with details of our lives. We were Americans and proud to be and Texans, which became a state of mind as well as a place to live.
(NOTE)
Since I am a beginner at preparing a blog, I will have an assembly job to do when it comes time to put everything together. My purpose is to tell the history of the Barwise family--what I know of it from being part of it. hd
It seems strange to me, as a Texan, that the family originated in England. I had heard through information obtained through census figures and information on file in St. Charles County (Missouri) that the family member from England landed in New York (Brooklyn) and over a period of years made the trip cross country finally reaching Missouri where he became a prosperous farmer in St. Charles County. Thomas Barwise had a son he named Joseph Hodson Barwise and through a pioneer venture he wound up in Texas in 1876. He did not pick a spot to settle down until 1880 in an area northwest of Dallas about 140 miles near the Red River (a water supply in an arid land) and for some reason that's where he decided to stay.
Obviously, it took a lot of hard work. Nothing was quick or easy in those days. With money acquired in Missouri, he was able to purchase lumber and supplies. He built a house with the "first load of lumber brought into the area." The "falls" never amounted to much, but that became part of the name of the town he founded. Aside from ranchers, there were a good many native Americans (Indians). And history of the area relates that Wichita was derived from and Indian word of uncertain derivation. Wichita Falls became a settlement that grew quickly to a town and soon became a city and center of commerce. Therer were schools and churches and business and hotels and highways, Then, guess what! the railroad came and then oil was struck. Wichita Falls became Boom Town. There was money to support society and it was the city where I was born, went to school and Hardin Junior College. There was another impetus to financial success. The greatest of all and it was called World War Two.
And so it went.
Last name: Barwise
This interesting surname of English origin is a locational name form the hamlet of Barwise in Westmorland, deriving fromthe hamlet of Barwise in Westorland, deriving from the Old English pre 7th Century "beorgas" meaning "hills." The place name is recodrded as Berwis (1235, 1490) in the Registry of the Priory of Westerhal." The surname dates back to the late 13th Century.
(see www.surnamedb.com/Surname/Barwise). Church recordings include one Fraunces, daughter of John Barwis, who was christened on May 15, 1572, by St. Gregory by St. Paul, London, Thomas Barwise married Blanche Headding on October 9, 1748, at St. Katherine by the Tower, London, and, Elizabeth, daughter of Daniel Barwise, was christened on August 8, 1680, at St. James, Wetminster, One William Barwise, aged 23 years, a famine emigrant, sailed ferom Liverpool aboard the "Henry-Clay" bound for New York on April 26, 1847, John Adolphus Barwise is recorded in the death column of the Daily Telegraph dated January 6, 1894, The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Henry deBarweis, which was dated 1292, The Hundred Rolls of Derbyshire,during the reign of King Henry 1, "The Hammer of the Scots," 1272-1307. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced peersonal taxation. In England that was known as the Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling."
Joseph Barwise probably looked forward to the day of departure. The family home sat looking out across a landscape that was flat, made that way by the flooding and draining of the Mississippi, Illinois and Missouri Rivers. He was a farmer as were all of his neighbors. Long ago the name originated in England, probably was spelled Barwiss. The name and its owner landed in this country in New York--the subdivision called Brooklyn.
I don't have records of their early life in this country. But, like all pioneers of that era, it was westward movement. It was the only way to go.
Who Am I?
My name is Howard DeMere, great-grandson of J.H. Barwise. I was born in Texas, in Wichita Falls, in 1925. There was nothing there when he got there. It's the place he founded, watched it grow into a city. I learned a great deal about Grandpa Barwise as I grew up. He helped govern the town, watching it grow with the help of his children. All of them assisted me into my journey to manhood. I am proud to be a member of that pioneer family. I will recount his journey and mine with details of our lives. We were Americans and proud to be and Texans, which became a state of mind as well as a place to live.
(NOTE)
Since I am a beginner at preparing a blog, I will have an assembly job to do when it comes time to put everything together. My purpose is to tell the history of the Barwise family--what I know of it from being part of it. hd
It seems strange to me, as a Texan, that the family originated in England. I had heard through information obtained through census figures and information on file in St. Charles County (Missouri) that the family member from England landed in New York (Brooklyn) and over a period of years made the trip cross country finally reaching Missouri where he became a prosperous farmer in St. Charles County. Thomas Barwise had a son he named Joseph Hodson Barwise and through a pioneer venture he wound up in Texas in 1876. He did not pick a spot to settle down until 1880 in an area northwest of Dallas about 140 miles near the Red River (a water supply in an arid land) and for some reason that's where he decided to stay.
Obviously, it took a lot of hard work. Nothing was quick or easy in those days. With money acquired in Missouri, he was able to purchase lumber and supplies. He built a house with the "first load of lumber brought into the area." The "falls" never amounted to much, but that became part of the name of the town he founded. Aside from ranchers, there were a good many native Americans (Indians). And history of the area relates that Wichita was derived from and Indian word of uncertain derivation. Wichita Falls became a settlement that grew quickly to a town and soon became a city and center of commerce. Therer were schools and churches and business and hotels and highways, Then, guess what! the railroad came and then oil was struck. Wichita Falls became Boom Town. There was money to support society and it was the city where I was born, went to school and Hardin Junior College. There was another impetus to financial success. The greatest of all and it was called World War Two.
And so it went.
Last name: Barwise
This interesting surname of English origin is a locational name form the hamlet of Barwise in Westmorland, deriving fromthe hamlet of Barwise in Westorland, deriving from the Old English pre 7th Century "beorgas" meaning "hills." The place name is recodrded as Berwis (1235, 1490) in the Registry of the Priory of Westerhal." The surname dates back to the late 13th Century.
(see www.surnamedb.com/Surname/Barwise). Church recordings include one Fraunces, daughter of John Barwis, who was christened on May 15, 1572, by St. Gregory by St. Paul, London, Thomas Barwise married Blanche Headding on October 9, 1748, at St. Katherine by the Tower, London, and, Elizabeth, daughter of Daniel Barwise, was christened on August 8, 1680, at St. James, Wetminster, One William Barwise, aged 23 years, a famine emigrant, sailed ferom Liverpool aboard the "Henry-Clay" bound for New York on April 26, 1847, John Adolphus Barwise is recorded in the death column of the Daily Telegraph dated January 6, 1894, The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Henry deBarweis, which was dated 1292, The Hundred Rolls of Derbyshire,during the reign of King Henry 1, "The Hammer of the Scots," 1272-1307. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced peersonal taxation. In England that was known as the Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)