Susan Maria “Sudie” Jackson

In this post we will look at Susan Maria Jackson, the youngest daughter of Ancil McDonald Jackson and his first wife Seletia Ann West Jackson. .

The fifth child of Ancil McDonald Jackson and Seletia Ann West Jackson was Susan Maria “Sudie” Jackson who was born on October 8, 1868 in Stockdale, Wilson County, TX.  She was just over two months old when her mother Seletia died on December 20, 1868.  We do not know what took Seletia at the young age of just 25 but it was a tragedy for her five young children, Fannie, Mollie, Willie, Lizzie, and the baby Sudie.

We don’t know where the nickname “Sudie” came from.  Just information passed down over the years.  Regardless, Sudie was a tiny baby left without a mother.  Ancil’s brother Nathan and his wife Susan Jane Tinkle Jackson lived very close to Ancil according to the 1870 census and it is likely that her namesake Aunt Susan helped a lot after the death of her mother. Her father, Ancil, remarried in just less than a year to Temperance Ellender Wallace from East Texas, more about her in the next story.  The couple married on December 9, 1869.  Temperance raised Sudie and was the only mother that she knew growing up.

As the years passed, Sudie grew up in relative affluence as the daughter of a wealthy landowner and rancher.  She likely attended school along with her sisters and brother.  Soon the family grew with the birth of eight more children (six who lived past infancy).  A large brood indeed!  

At the age of 16, Sudie met and married Little Barry Champion Buckalew from Bandera, Texas.  The wedding took place on May 30, 1886 in Wilson County.  There was likely a big celebration at the Jackson Ranch similar to that described in Mattie Jackson’s book “The Rising and Setting of the Lone Star Republic” about Sudie’s older sister Mollie’s wedding to Robert Henry Sutherland. 

Little Barry Buckalew was from a prominent family in Medina, Bandera County, TX.  Bandera County is located to the northwest of San Antonio. Little Barry’s father Little Barry Champion Buckalew Sr. was born in Alabama and later married a widow Mary Ann Clarkson North in Union County, Arkansas in  1849 before coming to Medina County.  In 1860 the family included two of Mary Ann’s children from her previous marriage, William Grandison North (1844-1973) and Delaware “Della” North (1846-1879) as well as their own children Melissa (1855-1961), Eliza C. (1857-1864), and Little Berry Jr. born in 1859.   Two more children; Mary Ann (1861-1891) and Robert Henry (1865-1938) had arrived when tragedy struck.

On January 26, 1866, Little Barry Sr. was killed by Indians while returning from San Antonio where he had taken a load of shingles to sell and bring back supplies.  You can read all about the account in the book, “Pioneer History of Bandera County” beginning on page 45. After this tragedy, Mary Ann returned to the town of Bandera with her children, bought a lot and lived there to send the children to school.  She later remarried James Walter Sier in 1868. 

Little Barry Jr. grew to manhood in Bandera County and on May 4, 1882 he married his first wife Amanda Bybee born May 3, 1863 in McClendon County, TX.  The couple had two children together; first Isabelle born Buckalew January 28, 1886 and then Grace Jean Buckalew born February 27, 1889.  Now the mystery begins….

It appears that Little Barry Jr. moved from Bandera County to Wilson County at some point before 1886 as he married Susan Marie “Sudie” Jackson on May 30, 1886 just two months after the birth of his daughter Isabelle and before the birth of Grace in 1889.  So what was going on there?  I can find no divorce record for Barry and Amanda, but apparently they “mostly” stopped living together after Isabelle’s birth in 1886.  Amanda went on to remarry Theodore Lockhart Hughes in 1895 and they had one other child together.

It hard to say how it happened that Barry Jr. married our Susan Maria while he was already married to Amanda Bybee but apparently things like this happen so who knows the real story.  However it appears that the marriage to Susan Maria Jackson worked out for Barry and the couple had 12 children together. Their first six children were born in Wilson County, but by 1900 Barry and Sudie had moved back to Bandera where they had five more children.

The first child Verner Virgil Buckalew was born on April 3, 1887.  After his family moved back to Bandera he married Letha Ann Gordon (1891-1958) sometime in 1909.  Their children were daughter Willie Louise (1908-1998), Louis Preston (1911-1970), Mary Ethel (1912-1990), Floyd Verner (1914-1958), Virgil L (1917-1980), and Agnes Marie (1923-2000).  Verner died March 29, 1942 Robert E. Lee, Coke County Texas.

The next child was Aramentia Melissa “Mollie” Buckalew who was born on August 17, 1888 in Wilson County. On April 25, 1906 she married Thomas Watt Hill (1882-1955) in Kerr County Texas.  The couple had six children: Blanche Sarah Hill Hyde (1907-1981), Lillian Hill who was born in 1912 and died less than a year later in 1913, Buelah Jane Hill Kuelhler (1914-1999), August Pinkney Hill (1917-1979), Marvin Wesley Hill (1919-1920) who lived less than a year, Adriam Donald Hill (1924-2002) and Sadie Lee Hill Constanzo (1928-2014).  Aamentia died January 28, 1948 and is buried in Kerr County Texas.

The third child Little Barry Champion Buckalew III was born April 13, 1891 in Wilson County.  He was obviously named after his father and grandfather.  Lille Barry III married Haytee Lee “Hattie” Moffett (1890-1957) in Bandera County on August 27, 1911.  They had three daughters: Audra Josephine Buckalew Anderson (1912-1995), Marjorie Jewel Buckalew Bays (1918-2015), and Eleanor Sue Buckalew Lee (1924-2023). Little Barry III died on July 7, 1963 in Brownwood, Texas.

The fourth child was Seletia Ann Buckalew who was named after her Grandmother Seletia Ann West Jackson.  She was born on October 8, 1892 in Wilson County.  She was married twice, first to John Henry Reed on March 7, 1914 in Bandera.  They had one child John Henry Reed Jr. (1915-2001). By 1930 the family moved from Bandera to Wyoming where Seletia divorced Henry Reed sometimes before 1920 and lived with her brother James.  She and her son moved to Wyoming where she is listed as divorced on the 1930 census.  Shortly after, she married James Herald Ballard in Wyoming on December 1936.  Sadly, he died on November 2, 1937 after they had been married less than a year. She died in Worland, Washakie, Wyoming on August 31, 1972. 

The fifth child of Sudie and Little Berry was Dovie Florence Buckalew born April 1, 1894 in Wilson County. The family moved back to Bandera before Dovie was 6 and that is where she grew up.  She married Henry Augusta Schramm in San Antonio.  The marriage license date is October 28, 1916 which is two years after their first son George Lee (1914-1952) was born.  Not sure about the timing of the marriage license.  Perhaps they were married without a license earlier.  They had one other child Howard Augusta (1917-2003).  Henry died on December 9, 1952.  Dovie who generally went by Florence continued to live in San Antonio until her death on April 9, 1986.

The next child was Mary A. “Mollie” Buckalew who was born on March 24, 1896. Some Family Trees say her name was Mary A. Melvina “Mollie” Buckalew. Mary Melvina would have been her Aunt Mary Melvina Jackson Sutherland, her Mother’s older sister. Mollie went on to marry Daniel Earl Dunn (1895-1985). Daniel was from New York City and the couple married sometime before 1929. Since they had no children that I could identify, its hard to estimate a date. Mollie died on May 28, 1985 in Broward County, Florida.

The next child was James Madison Buckalew, known as Jim, was born in on Feb 19, 1898. He was the last child to be born in Wilson County before his family moved back to Bandera.   He married Vera Eloise Swinney (1901-1985) in Kerr County, Texas on September 8, 1922.  They had five children: James Berry Buckalew (1924-2002), William Calvin Buckalew (1928-2004), Windle Lee Buckalew (1931-2007),  and twins: Winson Dee “Buck” Buckalew (1931-2015) and Windle Lee Buckalew (1931-2007), both born on April 3, 1931.  James died on December 26, 1987 in Stanislaus, California.

The seventh child was Daisy Dimple Buckalew who was born on February 28, 1900 likely in Bandera.  On July 31, 1918 she married John J O’Larnic (1874-1951).  John was 44 and Daisy was 18 when they married. John was born in Hungry and immigrated to this country with his family in 1893 when he was 18 years old.  In 1899 he enlisted in the Navy in 1898 and fought in the Philippine Islands in the Spanish-American War.  The couple had two children: Gladys Irene Buckalew Baca (1919-1992) and John Harris O’Larnic (1921-1992). Daisy died March 23, 1984 in San Antonio.

Child number eight was another son, Shelly Lee Roy Buckalew who was born in Bandera on Mach 17, 1902.  He married Lorina Byrl Spivey (1907-1992) on July 22, 1923.  They had only one son, Herman Elmer Buckalew (1929-1960) before Shelley died of Typhoid Fever on December 19, 1929 in Mills County, Texas at just 27 years.

The next daughter, Susan Marie Buckalew was obviously named after her mother.  She was born on August 20, 1904 in Bandera County.  She married Louis George Sutherland (1900-1978) on May 16, 1920 in Bandera County, TX.  Louis is not a part of the Wilson County Sutherland Family that are my ancestors. The couple had a number of children: Ellis Berry Sutherland (1921-2010), Florence Evelyn Sutherland Mahan (1923-2001), George L. Sutherland (1927-1944), Coy S. Sutherland (1929 – ?).  I find no record of this child after the 1930 census.  He may have died young.  The next child was Melvin Marshall Sutherland (1929-2011), Oren Wayne Sutherland (1934-2004), Dorothy Sue Sutherland Williams Thorman (1935-2002).  Susan Marie died September 21, 1990 in Mills County, Texas.

Next we have Velma Viola Buckalew who was born on November 6, 1908 in Bandera County.  She married Theodoric Vincent Swinney (1902-1981) on January 10, 1934.  The couple had three children: Velma Pauline Swinney Williams (1925-2016), Florence Pauline Swinney Goble (1929-2014), and James Avil Swinney (1935-?). Velma died July 16, 2006 in Paradise, Wise County, Texas.

Last but not least was Ancil Aaron Buckalew named after Sudie’s father Ancil Jackson and her uncle Aaron William “Pony” Jackson who was Ancil’s brothers.  Ancil was born on July 31, 1910 in Bandera County.  He later married Mary Frances Quarles sometime before 1933 when their first child was born.  They had three children Mary Carolyn Buckalew Dye (1933-2013), Ancil Weldon Buckalew (1940-1993), and Joyce Sue Buckalew who was born in 1945 and died at the age of 18 in 1964.   Ancil died on July 15, 1974 at Port Aransas, TX.

Sudie died on March 28, 1911 about a year after the birth of her 12th child Aaron Ancil. Little Berry Jr. found another bride and married Rachael Ann Elizabeth Zumwalt Pierson on November 28, 1919. Little Berry Jr. only lived a few more years and died there in Bandera County on June 18, 1923. This would have been just a month after the picture of all of his children (above) was taken. Rachael went on to remarry John Butler (1864-1949) and had one daughter Lilly Jane Butler (1930-2016).

Wow what a big family!  Sudie and Little Berry had 12 children and at least 34 grandchildren. Sharing all of the ancestry information about Sudie’s descendants would fill a book.  If anyone has a special interest in some member of the family, just comment on this story and I can give you what I have found so far.  Genealogy research is never over.  You may notice that I rarely mention any living persons in my BLOG to protect their privacy. If anyone has pictures to share, please let me know so I can add to this story for everyone to enjoy.

Next time I will re-introduce Temperance Ellender Wallace Jackson who was Ancil McDonald Jackson’s second wife.  They had another 8 children together including some of the most interesting family members.  Stay tuned…

• Posted in: Uncategorized
• Tagged: Aaron Ancil Buckalew, Amanda Bybee, Ancil McDonald Jackson, Aramentia Melissa Buckalew, Daisy Dimple Buckalew, Daniel Earl Dunn, Dovie Florence Buckalew, Grace Jean Buckalew, Haytee Lee Moffett, Henry AUgusta Schramm, Isabelle Buckalew, James Herald Ballard, James Madison Buckalew, John Henry Reed, John J O'Larnic, Letha Ann Gordon, Little Barry Champion Buckalew, Lorina Byrl Spivey, Louis George Sutherland, Mary Ann Clarkson North, Mary Frances Quarles, Mary M "Mollie" Buckalew, Rachael Ann ELizabeth Zumwalt Pierson, Seletia Ann West, Selitia Ann Buckalew, Shelly Lee Roy Buckalew, Susan Maria Buckalew, Susan Maria Jackson, Theodoric Vincent Swinney, Thomas Watt Hill, Velma Viola Buckalew, Vera Eloise Swinney