Place of Birth: Corpus Christi, TX
Date of Death: October 14, 1909
Interment source:
Bay View Cemetery Association, Corpus Christi, Texas. Record of Interments
NO HEADSTONE
Again, because of the absence of any extant local newspapers, it is not at present possible to find an obituary of Julia Brown. Nevertheless other documentation offers some information on this individual. Julia appears to be originally “Julia Hicks†who initially married E. M. Mack on December 7, 1879 before Pastor H. Washington (Nueces County Marriage Records, vol. E page 127). They subsequently divorced, and E. M. Mack married Mrs. Lavinia Riley on March 5, 1898 (Nueces County Marriage Records vol. F page 426). Julia married Nathaniel Brown (who was 5 years her junior) on March 21, 1885 (Nueces County Marriage Records vol. E page 286). Julia’s life was not easy and by 1900 she had lost 3 of the 5 children to which she had given birth. In the 1900 census records of Nueces County (ED 133, page 6B) Julia reports that she is a native of Texas (as well as her parents). Her husband, Nathaniel, however, is a naturalized citizen who came to the United States in 1884 (probably from Jamaica or one of the islands of the West Indies according to the census report). Like most members of the African-American community at that time, Julia and Nathaniel are both laborers. Julia is working as a “washerwoman†and her husband is working as a “drayman†(hauling supplies). They have managed to save enough to buy their home on Ramirez Street so they own it free of any mortgage. According to the 1900 census records, Julia was born in July of 1861 as the Civil War was beginning. She died at a relatively young age (only 48 years old) on October 14, 1909 and was buried in Old Bayview Cemetery whose western boundary was Ramirez Street.