Infant of John & Maude Hardwicke

Infant
Dau. of
John & Maude
Hardwicke
Age 1 day
A ministering spirit
sent to Thee
that where she is
There mayest Thou
also be

Photo Credit: Rosa G. Gonzales

---

This infant was the child of John Benjamin Hardwicke, Jr. and Maude Wareham. John B. Hardwicke, Jr. was born in Fayetteville, N. C. and died suddenly of a heart attack when only 40 years old in 1906. He was editor of a local paper, "The Texas Sun" at the time. His father, John B. Hardwicke, Sr. was from Buckingham County, Virginia and was the 3rd pastor of the First Baptist Church of Corpus Christi. The mother of this infant was Maude Wareham, born in Creston, Iowa in 1874. Maude had moved to the Corpus Christi in the early 1890s when only 18 years old to teach in such local schools as the one at Nuecestown. There she met and married John Benjamin Hardwicke, Jr. After his death she continued to edit "The Texas Sun" for a few years before going to work for the "Corpus Christi Caller". She subsequently married Mr. William Gerhardt shortly before World War I. She was a charter member (and for many years the President) of the Women's Monday Club and was very active in civic, church, charity, and welfare work in Corpus Christi. She also helped form the first Little Theatre for the city and became a radio broadcaster. Finally in the 1930s and 40s she did probation work for Nueces County. She died in a nursing home in 1965 at 91 years old. This little infant is unnamed, but rests in Old Bayview Cemetery with his parents and paternal grandfather.

Research and transcription: Michael A Howell