The Holiday
For us it would be a vacation, but for member RICHARD PETER TAYLOR his wife Lynne and three year old son Thomas of Derby, England, it is a HOLIDAY.
For you who may not remember, Richard contacted the Society in 1996 looking for an ancestor, George Hood who came to America in 1882 as a 17 year old adventurous lad. Richard knew that the last correspondence had come from a place called Naples, Texas, so from the Internet he was able to locate the Society to inquire about George.
Not only were we able to find out about George, we were able to put Richard in contact with his family. As a result we have enjoyed a HOLIDAY, not only for Richard and his family but for all of us who were able to meet them and also to enjoy sharing some of the sights in our area with them.
With family members they were able to visit San Antonio and NASA. Richard was very pleased with being able to visit the President Kennedy Memorials in Dallas.
From Houston they returned to Jefferson by bus to be able to see the country and were met by even more relatives. In Jefferson they were able to see where George Hood and his family lived and to visit with family members that were previously unknown to them. They are privileged to have been able to visit with Georgia Lee Hood Culpepper, 99, the fifth of George and Ella’s children who still lives in Jefferson.
On Friday Nov. 13 they came to Cass County to visit with members of the Society. A morning visit to the Court House, where George obtained his citizenship papers, and a visit with County Judge Charles McMichael.
Since Richard is a “Bobby” (a Derbyshire Constabulary Traffic Division officer) in England, a visit with Sheriff Paul Boone was in order and was thoroughly enjoyed by all. The after noon was spent by going to Texarkana to visit the State Line Kennedy Memorial and to obtain a pair of Cowboy boots that fit and a hat for Thomas. Then on to a barbecue lunch (a favorite) followed by a trip to Hope, Arkansas for a visit to the birthplace of President Clinton.
Dinner was enjoyed in Atlanta, at Lupe’s Mexican Restaurant in company with approximately 20 members of the Society. Every one enjoyed visiting with Richard and Lynne and exchanging information about life in two parts of the world.
On the 14, the morning was spent touring the area near Marrietta, TX where George had a farm. A family reunion in Jefferson with family from all over gathered to meet Richard and Lynne and Tom. On the 15m they returned to Dallas for the return trip home loaded with mementos from the many places they have visited and people they have met on their “HOLIDAY”.
They were generous and left numerous mementos for people to remember them by. We wish them a safe return home to DERBY (pronounced “DARBY”).
The Hood Family
George Hood, born in Selby, Yorkshire, England was a son of Sarah Arundel Hood and James Hood. George applied for his Passport on the 5th of April, 1882 and no doubt emigrated from England to the U.S. soon after. There were no relatives for him to visit in the U.S., so he traveled across the United States, finally settling in Mt. Pleasant, Titus County, Texas. There he met and married Mary Ella Michie in the late 1800s. Seven of their eight children were born in Titus County.
About 1907 a Mr. Hancock of Marietta in Cass Co. Tx. wrote a letter to George and Mary Hood in Mt. Pleasant, Texas, stating that a Seventh Day Adventist church School was underway and would like the children to attend the school. Quoting a daughter of George and Mary, “Pappa and Mama moved to New Hope, our milk cow tied behind our covered wagon, and we children attended our first church school at New Hope.”
About 1923 the Hoods moved their family to Jefferson. They lived in the Berea community and their children attended the Berea Intermediate school as it was known then.
George and Mary Hood had eight children:
Susan Almeda “Aunt Susie” Hood b. June 10, 1891 d. Oct. 14, 1993 Married: Henry Harrison Hopkins Jan. 4, 1905 Buried: Berea Cemetery - Jefferson, Tx.
Bernard Wilkinson Hood b. Jan. 1, 1893 d. Feb. 22, 1975 Married Lora
Buried: Berea Cemetery, Jefferson, Tx.
Sarah “Sally” Hood b. Jan. 19, 1895 d. Apr. 23, 1987 Married: Joe Reece Hopkins April 20, 1911 Buried: Berea Cemetery, Jefferson, Tx.
Gertrude Ester Hood b. Aug. 25, 1897 d. May 17, 1977 Married: Richard Eugene “Bud” Hayes April 16, 1917 Buried: Berea Cemetery, Jefferson, Tx.
Georgia Lee Hood b. June 1, 1899 Married: Curtis Culpepper Apr. 27, 1924
Louetta Hood b. Sept. 3, 1903 d. Sept. 30, 1990 Married: W. A. Brown Nov. 11, 1924 Willard Yokley & Wm. Jarrell Buried: Berea Cemetery, Jefferson, Tx.
Jimmie Lee Hood b. 1905 Married: Sidney Culpepper Dec. 23, 1923
C. L. Hood b. May 1, 1908 in Cass Co. d. Unknown in California Married: Cecil Cope
Most of the Hood girls lived to be in their 90s, at least one reaching 102 years.
The house where the Hoods lived in Berea is still standing. It has been renovated but is basically the same house. It was located near the church and school.
An interesting note: In one of the church papers a lady described her friend, Mr. Hood. She remembered when she was a child in the New Hope Seventh Day Adventist Church in Marietta, Texas, who had an elder, known for his kindness and gentle ways, was named Hood.
Whenever the group sang “America The Beautiful” and came to the line “And crown thy good with brotherhood,” she truly thought they were singing a tribute to their loving church elder, “Brother Hood”.
After learning that the Hood family had lived in Cass Co., Tx., Richard Peter Taylor of Derby, England, joined the Cass Co. Genealogy Society in an effort to find his American ancestors. To help Mr. Taylor, Charles Steger started corresponding with him in an attempt to help him find his family. Charles was able to locate the homesite where the Hoods had lived near New Hope, among other things about the family, including the imigration papers of Mr. Hood, which he found in Cass County. In checking the census records, Charles found that the Hoods were no longer in Cass County, but he didn’t know where they had moved. What Charles did not know at the time was, that the Hood family had moved only a county away - to Marion County, Texas.
It was in December, 1996 that I (Juanita Greenhill Harrell) noticed that Richard Taylor had another query in the quarterly of Cass County. When I read his query I immediately knew this was the Hood family who lived in Berea and still have descendants living here. I began to correspond with Richard, unaware that Charles Steger was in contact with him. The first letter I received from him stated “Success”! “I have been searching for my .American cousins for about 5 years”.
Charles and I have continued to correspond with Richard Taylor, who is a policeman, over the past several years and next month, November 11th, Richard, his wife, Lynne and small son, Thomas, will be arriving in Jefferson where he will meet his Hood relatives and will meet Charles and the Cass County Genealogy Society. Richard will be taken to New Hope to see where his Hood family lived in Cass County. They will be spending most of the month of November in the U.S.
My interest in the Hood family is that my daughter married into the family and I research family history for my grandsons, who are great-great grandsons of George Hood. I have known the Hood family all my life.
Richard will meet Ms. Georgia Hood Culpepper who is 99 years of age, and still lives in the Berea community. She is a daughter of George Hood and a first cousin of Joseph Arundel Hood, grandfather of Richard.
Juanita Greenhill Harrell
September 19. 1998