Frank Atkinson
Confederate veteran
Date of Death: October 3, 1896
Age at Death: 70
Interment sources:
Marie Blucher, Librarian, La Retama Public Library, ca. 1940
As cited in:
Marrow, Mary, Bay View Cemetery. Corpus Christi: La Retama Public Library, 1962.
and
Ward, Charles A. and Brooks Noel. Cemetery Data of Nueces County, Texas. Corpus Christi: Coastal Bend Genealogical Society, 1990, Which cites Church records.
Photo Credit: Kirby E. Crabtree
- Ad from Corpus Christi Weekly Caller
Source Corpus Christi Weekly Caller, August 2, 1891
Research by: Msg. Michael Howell - Biography
Frank Atkinson
Frank Atkinson was born about 1839 in North Carolina according to the 1880 Federal census of Nueces County (p. 235). At that time (1880) he and his wife Margaret and children lived in San Diego, Duval County, Texas. Frank was a carpenter and builder according to the census and his advertisements in the Corpus Christi Caller (sample in Weekly Callers of August 1891 for example). He generally worked with his older brother Jerry. Apparently they did many things together because they also both enlisted and fought for the Confederacy during the Civil War. As builders they were known for their quality and willingness to travel wherever called upon in the coastal bend area. An article from the Daily Gazette (15 January 1876, page 4, col. 2) noted that at their shops on Mesquite Street the brothers had just erected a steam planing machine. When they tested the machine, Mr. Shoemaker had charge of the engine while the brothers operated the machine to plane moulding and do tongue-and-groove work. The machine was called the “Economist†and was manufactured by Frank & Co. of Buffalo, New York. In 1883 he is also listed working in a type of partnership with Reid and Sutherland (Corpus Christi Weekly Caller, 2 December 1883, page 5, col. 1).
At the time of the Civil War Frank enlisted in the Confederate ranks on February 1, 1863 (according to military records) and was discharged about May 23, 1865 (according to his widow’s memories). He served as a private in Duff’s (one record says “Fuff’sâ€) Partisan Rangers Regiment (latterly Co. D) of the 33rd Texas Cavalry, Co. D under Capt. Tom Rabb along with Ed Atkinson and Lee Riggs. Frank married Margaret Parker, a member of an early pioneer family of Corpus Christi. Her obit stated that she was the third white child born in Corpus Christi, subsequent to Lee Riggs (first) and Andrew Baldeschwiler (second). Margaret was the daughter of Thomas S. and Rachel Parker who moved to Corpus Christi in 1845 when General Taylor was stationed here. Margaret and Frank married on March 25, 1870 in Nueces County and raised three children: Mamie Hawley, Rachel, and Richard H. “Dick†Atkinson.
According to Margaret in her application for a pension as a needy widow of a Confederate soldier, Frank died on October 4, 1896 according to Margaret’s pension testimony. However, the death records of the city state that he died on October 3, 1896 of “apoplexy†(early Vital Statistic Records, p. 94 #1359). His widow, Margaret Parker Atkinson died February 10, 1931 at the home of her daughter Mamie Hawley Jones who resided at that time at 423 N. Tancahua Street in Corpus Christi. Frank and Margaret were survived by their children who remained in this area. Their only son, Richard “Dick†Atkinson, never married and was a sea captain who skippered early freight schooners that sailed into Corpus Christi. Later he was a tugboat captain, and then he worked in his final years as a guard at the port and a watchman on the Pleasure Pier in Corpus Christi. He died at this sister’s home (423 N. Tancahua Street) on October 1, 1939. Rachel Atkinson initially married on March 15, 1898 in her mother’s home to a Mr. Charles B. Meyers of Monterrey (C.C. Caller, 18 March 1898, p. 5). She subsequently married on April 14, 1902 (C.C. Caller, 18 April 1902, p. 5) to John Frandolig whose parents, Franz Josef and Hannah Ellen Anna Frandolig (married 6 Nov. 1854 in Victoria County) were early residents of Aransas County. They are survived by descendents in the coastal bend. Rachel, like her brother Dick, also died with her sister Mamie in the old family home at 423 N. Tancahua, on May 18, 1953. She was survived by a son Eugene and a daughter, Mrs. Sadie Ruth Blackard of Channel View, Texas (C.C. Caller, 19 May 1953, page 14B, col. 5). Frank and Margaret’s daughter Mamie Hawley married city constable M. K. Hawley in 1904. After he died in 1914, she married Earl Jones, a city fireman, who died in 1938. Mamie herself was a truant officer from 1926 to 1947. She died without any surviving descendents at the family home at 423 North Tancahua Street on December 7, 1954 (C.C. Caller, 8 December 1854, page 16B, col. 4).
Research and transcription: Michael A. Howell
- News Item
Frank Atkinson
Boiler Explosion
The quiet people of Corpus Christi were startled on Wednesday evening by an explosion heard for a distance of several blocks. Some thought an earthquake had struck them, while others thought the earth and heavens were about to mix. It proved to be an exploded boiler in the planing mill of the Atkinson Brothers on Mezquit street. For the first time since the enterprise has been started they had received a liberal order for planed tongue and grooved plank and were busily employed. During the day the steam gauge indicated at different times as high as 85 pounds of steam, and, notwithstanding the boiler was an old one, no danger was anticipated. Engineers had examined the boiler and pronounced it perfectly safe while carrying from 75 to 85 pounds of steam. Shortly after mid-day, and while the place was almost entirely empty, the engineer, Mr. Sam Shoemaker, stopped the engine, at the time carrying but 30 pounds of steam, and instructed the fireman, a negro man, to fire up. In a moment after the gauge indicated 60 pounds when the explosion occurred. Mr. Shoemaker, who was standing but a short distance from the boiler, was struck by a brick in the head and felled to the ground. Mr. Martin, who was standing in the door, was struck by a splinter or brick, but not seriously injured physically, but terribly frightened. The fireman was the only person sustaining injuries of any consequences. He was scalded. The boiler, which weighed some fifteen hundred to two thousand pounds, was raised off the ground a distance of fifteen feet, and driven a distance of two hundred feet, and landed in the lumber yard of E. D. Sidbury & Co. It first struck the roof of the house in which Mrs. Quinn is residing, demolishing a part of the roof and tearing out a good portion of the south end of the house. The steam chest at this point (illegible), covering a bed therein with boards and timbers in which a moment before Mrs. Quinn had been lying. In its flight to the lumber yard the boiler struck, including its stopping place, five times. The smoke stack was scattered in pieces. Not a vestige of the shed in which the boiler stood was left. The Atkinson Brothers, sustain considerable loss by the occurrence, but we hope soon to see them at work again.
Source: Corpus Christi Daily Gazette, 8 June 1876, page 4 column 1
Research and transcription: Michael A. Howell
