| Family Notes & Photos | ||||||||||
| This section may contain notes, photographs and/or scanned documents. Items, if possible, should be listed in chronological order or a time frame that matches an individuals or subjects place in the Family History Line. Where possible indicate or include peoples names, places, times, dates and sources of information. | ||||||||||
| The William Riley and Susan Miller Bethel Family | ||||||||||
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| William Riley and Susan Nell Miller Bethel. See below Susans diary, or yearbook as she called it, is very informative and gives an extremely good glimpse into the lives of people in the area in the late 1800's and early 1900's. | William Riley Bethel and five of his children. Front - Robert Lee Bethel, William Riley, Eban Baker Bethel (Eben, a forest ranger, was murdered in 1936 while investigating a forest fire). Back - Nellie Mae Bethel Smith, Cora Belle Bethel Bently, Blanche Miller Bethel Gilmore. (Photograph from 1935 or early 1936. His son William Austin Bethel had moved to California). | |||||||||
| MUST READ excerpts from SUSAN MILLER BETHELS DIARYS for 1917, 1918 and 1919 ! Read 1917 1918 1918 ver. 2 1919 (Partial) These few pages give a great deal of insight into the everyday lives of the people in Scott County during that time. Susan was the wife of William Riley Bethel and they lived most of their life in Cauthron. The diary of Susan Nell Miller Bethel presents a wonderful but somewhat sad view into the lives of people in Scott County in the early 1900's. When you read her diary you will find many members of the Bethel family mentioned as well as numerous friends, neighbors and residents of Cauthron, Bates, Gipson and Weeks. The lives of the people was pretty hard in those days and the terrible flu epidemic during that time made their lives even more difficult. |
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| The William Riley Bethel Family of Cauthron in 1915. People are from left: William R. and wife Susan (Miller) Bethel, Robert Lee and wife Mary Etta (Harrell) Bethel holding Edna Gray, Thomas J. and wife Beulah M. (Bethel) Gray, Henry J. and Clara Mae (Bethel) McCord, Lillie (Bethel) and husband Isaac I. Ransom. The children in front are Ora Bethel (Harrison) and Henry Bethel daughter and son of Robert L. and Mary E. Bethel. William Riley Bethel was a Methodist Preacher and Farmer in Cauthron. | Robert Lee and Mary Etta (Harrell) Bethel with their Children and Grandchildren at Waldron in about 1929. Husband with wife from left - Henry and Beulah (Davis) Bethel, Robert L. and Mary Etta (Harrell) Bethel, Thomas J. and Beulah (Bethel) Gray, Issac Ike and Lillie (Bethel) Ransom, Henry J. and Clara Mae (Bethel) McCord, Ray and Ora (Bethel) Harrison. Robert Lee Bethel was a merchant in Waldron for many years. He was on the Bates School Board in 1911. | |||||||||
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| Robert Lee and Mary Etta (Harrell) Bethel. Mary Etta's father was Henry Hamilton Harrell of Weeks, her mother was Sarah Roxie Ann Whitaker. (Note: I haven't been able to find who or where Sarah Roxie's family was from, if you know please let me know! J. Cook) | Robert Lee and Mary Etta (Harrell) Bethel with their daughters. Left to right are: Lillie Ransom (wife of Ike Ransom), Clara McCord (wife of Henry J. McCord), Etta, R. Lee, Ora Harrison (wife of Ray Harrison) and Beulah Gray (wife of Tom Gray). | |||||||||
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| The William Austin and Cordelia (Williams) Bethel Home in Gipson in about 1920. Austin, Cordelia, Juanita, and Wayne are on porch. Austin Bethel was a partner in the mercantile busness with James S. Cook at Gipson until about 1922. Their house (seen above) had burnt and they decided to move to San Diego, California where Austin was in the Concrete Construction business for years. They took-in the younger Cook children (Iva, Faye and J. Otto) when James S. Cook died in 1918. Austin was a brother of Robert Lee Bethel. | Juanita Bethel, daughter of William Austin and Cordelia Bethel. She had moved to California with her parents and lived there with her own family for years. | |||||||||