From Obion County TN to James Bond: The Files and Chiles Wedding Invitation 1907

The Moran's were invited to a good many weddings in their day but I believe this is the first time I've ever seen the wording "will give in marriage their daughter".  The standard fare seems to be "you are invited to attend the wedding/marriage" of bride X to groom Z.

Mr. and Mrs. and Francis Marion Files

will give in marriage their daughter

Jewell

to

Mr. Harsh Edmonds Chiles

Wednesday evening the fifth of June

one thousand nine hundred and seven

at eight thirty o'clock

Presbyterian Church 

Itasca, Texas

You are invited to be present

                 At Home

              after July first

              Itasca, Texas

And what an interesting name combination as well.  Files and Chiles.  Mrs. Jewell Files Chiles.  :) I wasn't able to find much about the Files family.  Jewell was born March 23, 1880 in Files Valley Texas, the daughter of Jane Simpson and Francis "Frank" Marion Files. Frank was originally from Oglethorpe Georgia

And who was Harsh Edmonds Chiles?  He was the son of Henry Clay Chiles and Isabella "Belle" Edmonds, the widow of Jefferson Parr.  Harsh was born July 27 1879 in Obion County Tennessee and would've been a contemporary of J.W. Moran's children Fannie, Harrell, James, Ida and Marion.  His sister, Minnie, married John P. McElwrath of Kentucky.  Which makes me wonder if that McElwrath is related to this McElwrath who was born in Tennessee but when he retired from his Dry Goods store in Dresden he moved to Kentucky.   Harsh and Jewell are residing in Itasca Texas at the time of the 1920 Census and have three children: Harrell Edmonds "Eddie", Marion Clay and Jane.  I wonder....could their son Harrell be a nod to Charles Harrell Moran? And what a surprise!  Harsh was the president of a bank.  Harrell Moran was the head cashier and Jim Moran the President of the Dresden Bank.  It seems that so many Moran friends were in the banking industry!  By 1930 Harsh and Jewell had another daughter, Charlotte.

Their son, Harrell "Eddie" Chiles attended Wentworth Military Academy and graduated from the University of Oklahoma with a B.S. in Petroleum Engineering.  founded the Western Company of North American and was at one time an owner of the Texas Rangers Baseball Team from 1980 until 1989 when he sold the Rangers to a group of investors that included a well known name, George W. Bush.  He was also an Oil tycoon

And fame touched the family even more in the grand daughter of Harsh and Jewell Chiles, Lois Chiles.  She is the daughter of Barbara Wayne Kirkland and Marion Clay Chiles, who operated an offshore drilling company run by brother Eddie.  Lois starred opposite Robert Redford and Barbara Streisand in The Way We Were and appeared in the 1974 version of The Great Gatsby as Jordan Baker and she was also a Bond girl appearing as Dr. Holly Goodhead opposite Roger Moore in the 1979 Bond movie, Moonraker.

Sometimes I have to ask myself, how cool is that?? Research rocks!

Dresden Enterprise Apr 24 1896 - The Illustrated Edition Part 4 "Hon. Rice A. Pierce"

This is the fourth in a multi-part series featuring the April 24 1896 edition of the Dresden Enterprise.  If you missed the previous posts you can find  part one here, part two here and part three here.

Hon. Rice A. Pierce.

A history of Union City and Obion county would be incomplete without reference to Hon. Rice A. Pierce, the distinguished statesman and lawyer, whose popularity just now is overshadowing nearly everyone else in his congressional district.  Mr. Pierce has made a reputation for consistency of which any man should feel very proud.  He has stood before those who denounced him for his financial view and defied them, and now sees them coming over and joining hands with him.

It was in 1892 that Mr. Pierce, then a member of Congress, began his fight for free silver.  He and land were alone in that fight.  Mr. Pierce made a speech which those who heard it remember well, because some of them who oppose him then are repeating the same speech now.  He made a strong speech, but free silver was not considered the hope of Democracy then, as it is by some Democrats now, and he went down in defeat, both in his fight for the free coinage of gold and silver and for his re-election to Congress.

In ninety-two Mr. Pierce positively refused to support the gold plank in the Democratic national platform.  this caused a bitter fight on him by those in his district who favored the gold plank.  He was assailed all over his district for free silver views.  He was denounced by leaders of his party, but he stood firm and said he could not be driven from his position.  He said that the free coinage of silver was the hope of the country and the Democratic party must solve the question.  But he was

defeated.  Another candidate took his place in Congress.  But during the past four years Mr. Pierce has stuck to his views and now finds the very men who opposed him and who compassed his defeat declaring that free coinage of silver is the hope of the nation and the slogan of the Democratic party ?ends of Mr. Pierce claim that his record in Congress and before the people is unassailable.  They point to his public acts. In February ninety-three, when Sherman tacked onto the civil sundry bill the 3 percent bond amendment, it passed the senate, but when it reached the house Mr. Pierce at once detected it and alone and single handed opened a fight against this amendment.  It was a hard fight and there were big odds against him, but he never flagged and kept up his struggle until he gained recruits and defeated it.  In this case as in others he was assisted first by Mr. Bland.  Many will remember the fight.  Mr. Richardson of Tennessee, was in the chair when it took place.  But it was a great victory for Mr. Pierce, and his friends point to it as a triumph for which they intend to reward him.  In the fifty-first Congress he introduced the only bill to bring about a graduated income tax and made one of the only two speeches delivered on this bill.

In ninety-four Mr. Pierce was asked to canvass the state for the Democratic party.  He consented and it cannot be denied that he did excellent work.  He is credited for this work by his friends, and Chairman Carroll said he did more for the ticket than any man in the state.

Mr. Pierce is now a candidate for Congress again.  The selection of a candidate is to be made by a primary at the regular August election.  It is no trouble to find his friends in Union City or Obion county.  He is the head and front of the free silver Democrats They are wildly enthusiastic for him. They declare he cannot be defeated for the nomination which is equivalent to an election.  They claim that he is the only consistent free silver Democrat in the party; that he has won the right to claim anything he wants.  They say that those very men who opposed him and defeated him are now falling over each other trying to get on Rice Pierce's platform.  He stands out pre-eminently as the original free silver advocate in Tennessee and it looks very much like he will take his old seat in Congress again.  These views are obtained from men who were both for and against him his last race.  As to his record on the financial question, even his enemies and political opponents are agreed and say that it "fits in mighty well with the present times."--R. Christopher in Nashville American.~~~~~

Additional information about Rice Alexander Pierce:

PIERCE, Rice Alexander, a Representative from Tennessee; born in Dresden, Weakley County, Tenn., July 3, 1848; attended the common schools in Tennessee; during the Civil War served in the Confederate States Army with the Eighth Tennessee Cavalry; after the war attended school in London, Canada; studied law in Halifax, N.C.; was admitted to the bar of the supreme court in Raleigh, N.C., in 1868 and commenced practice in Union City, Obion County, Tenn., in 1869; served as mayor in 1872; elected district attorney general of the twelfth judicial circuit in 1874; reelected in 1878 and served until 1883; elected as a Democrat to the Forty-eighth Congress (March 4, 1883-March 3, 1885); unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1884; elected to the Fifty-first and Fifty-second Congresses (March 4, 1889-March 3, 1893); unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1892 to the Fifty-third Congress; elected to the Fifty-fifth and to the three succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1897-March 3, 1905); unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1904 to the Fifty-ninth Congress; resumed the practice of law in Union City, Tenn.; chairman of the Democratic State campaign committee in 1929; died in Union City, Tenn., July 12, 1936; interment in the City Cemetery. 

The complete list of links in this multi-part series:
part one, part two, part three, part four, part five, part six, part seven, part eight, part nine, part ten, part eleven, part twelve, part thirteen, part fourteen, part fifteen, part sixteen, part seventeen, part eighteen, part nineteen, part twenty, part twenty-one, part twenty-two, part twenty-three.

A Visit with Bose Hutchcraft at Reelfoot Lake, 1936

Bose Hutchcraft and Jim Moran III, 1936

These two pictures were taken about 1936 at Reelfoot Lake. The tall lanky fellow is Percy Bose Hutchcraft and the other guy is Jim Moran III.  On the far right side at Jim's elbow you can see a small boat and that's the boathouse behind the two men.

Bose Hutchcraft was born in 1875 in Kentucky.  It appears that Bose and his siblings moved to Tennessee settling in Obion and Lake counties.

Bose married Ida Dickey May 13 1892 in Obion and they had three children: Nannie, Lottie May and Joseph Freeman Hutchcraft.  Nannie married Elbert Spicer. Lottie married Johnnie Cochran and Joseph married Mary Earl Bell.  In census records Bose's occupation is fisherman.  I think Ida died between 1910 and 1920.  Bose was living in Hornbeak when he passed away on October 6, 1944.  He and several of his Hutchcraft kin are buried at Antioch Baptist Cemetery in Hornbeak.

Pictured below, left to right, are Maibelle Shumate Harris, Jim Moran, Bose Hutchcraft and Virginia Shumate Moran.

Maibelle was one of Virginia's sisters.  She had moved to Fort Worth Texas and married Newton Temple Harris Sr., one of the founders of the Fort Worth Warehouse and Transfer Company.  It's possible that Newton was the one behind the camera that day.  Maibelle and family are interred at Oakwood Cemetery in Fort Worth.

Behind them and to the right are cabins at the Lake and I wonder if that car which can be seen through the boathouse belonged to Jim.

Updated February 2, 2013

Came across a postcard of Jim Hutchcraft's Place on Reelfoot Lake.  Jim's parents are Joseph Freeman Hutchcraft and Mary Earl Bell.  Jim is the grandson of Bose.  The postcard is dated July 3, 1958 and was sent from Jim Moran III to his infant grandson Charles Scott Moran.

Updated July 3, 2017

We recently visited Reelfoot Lake including Samburg Village and Spicer Park.  At the time I vaguely remembered having pictures of Reelfoot Lake by Sabin as well as pictures of a man named Bose Hutchcraft.  However, I didn't make the connection while we at Spicer Park that one of Bose's daughters had married a Spicer and also that Antioch Cemetery was just a hop skip and a jump down the road  We definitely would have taken the time to visit the cemetery and see if we could find the graves of the Hutchcraft family.

Here are some of the Hutchcraft goings on from newspapers of the day.

Attempted Jail Delivery-Adolphus Whipart, a white man, served his time in jail at Union City for peddling without license.  Upon gaining his freedom he went to a hardware store and purchased three fine saws and a rat-tail file.  That night he went to the jail and threw them into the jail corridor through the grated window.  The prisoners raked them into the cell with a broom handle, and Dave Collins and George Hutchcraft, two white men, were caught busily filing on one of the cell bars.  The other tools were found secreted in the cells.  Whipart had left town before the attempted delivery was discovered.
The Bolivar Bulletin (Bolivar, TN), March 23, 1900, page 4

Local and Personal-Charles Hutchcraft and Tom Deal will give a barbecue and bran dance at Reelfoot bridge, one mile north of Spout Springs, to-morrow, Saturday, August 10.
Commercial (Union City TN), August 9, 1901, page 6

Narrowly Missed Jugular Vein.  At Samburg, on Reelfoot Lake, Saturday night, a row started between Bose Hutchcraft and Mat Wallace on one side and Jim Kasacker on the other, in which it is learned the latter knocked both of his opponents down, and in turn received a serious cut on the back of the neck from a knife in the hands of Hutchcraft.  Had the cut been a little further to the front the jugular vein would have been severed.  No arrests have yet been made, at least so far as known.  The wound, though serious, is not considered necessarily fatal.--Badger.
Commercial, (Union City TN), June 27 1902, page 2

Enjoined from Fishing-John Bell and George Hutchcraft have been enjoined by J.C. Burdick, lessee of the hunting and fishing privileges for profit on Reelfoot from fishing on the lake, as they sold their catch to others than Burdick.  Mr Bell who is on Reelfoot will be officially notified at once, while Mr. Hutchcraft will have to be released from the Memphis jail before having the papers served on him, as he is awaiting trial on the charge of bootlegging.
Commercial (Union City TN), November 13, 1903, page 3

Samburg-Miss Nannie Hutchcraft is recovering from a spell of slow fever.
Commercial, (Unions City TN), November 12, 1909, page 3

Samburg-Little Freeman Hutchcraft, who has been sick of typhoid fever, is improving nicely.
Commercial, (Union City, TN), December 3, 1909, page 10

Samburg-Mrs. Ida Hutchcraft and family went to Fremont Monday to visit relatives.
Commercial, (Union City TN), April 15, 1910, page 8

Samburg-Mr. Bose Hutchcraft gave a dance Saturday night.  A nice time was reported.
Commercial, (Union City TN), April 22, 1910, page 2

Marriage Licenses-Elbert Spicer and Nannie Hutchcraft.
Commercial, (Union City TN), July 26, 1912, page 7

Circuit Court- Bose Hutchcraft and Jim Hutchcraft, felonious assault, on trial.
Commercial, (Union City TN), September 23, 1921, page 2