Date of Death: October 9, 1913
Age at Death: 83
Interment source:
Bay View Cemetery Association, Corpus Christi, Texas, Record of Interments
NO HEADSTONE
1. Biography
The Records of Interment of the Bayview Cemetery Association list Ellen Lawrence as died on October 9, 1913 at 83 years old. Unfortunately no extant Corpus Christi papers have been found at present so there is no obituary available from the Corpus Christi Caller. Ellen Lawrence is the spouse of Dr. David Henry Lawrence (16 Feb. 1810 to 14 May 1879). Dr. David Lawrence, a young physician of England came to Texas in 1840, bringing with him a young son, Theodore M. Lawrence (born in England) who had been in poor health. His father had apparently already lost the mother of the young man and hoped to save the son in the warm and sunny climate of Corpus Christi. He arrived in Corpus Christi as one of the first physicians and set up an office in the old St. James Hotel. He initially married a Miss Quinn (sister of Patrick Quinn), and his English-born son Theodore M. Lawrence married her neice, Sarah Ann Quinn (daughter of Patrick Quinn). Theodore M. Lawrence died in the yellow fever epidemic of 1867 despite his father’s valiant efforts to save him, and he is probably buried in Old Bayview Cemetery although he was not included in initial lists organized by local historians.
Dr. D. H. Lawrence also lost this second wife (Miss Quinn), and subsequently married on June 16, 1851 to “Lavinia Elenor Pettigrew†(see Nueces Records, volume A-misc. P. 107). “Ellen†(as she was usually called) can be found in the 1850 census records of Nueces County (p. 139A). She is living with her widowed mother Sarah (58 year old native of Georgia) and brother George. In the census record she is recorded as “Elen L. Pettigrew†who is 18 years old and a native of Arkansas like her brother. By the 1860 census she is married and living with Dr. D. H. Lawrence (Nueces County 1860 census page 294B). In this census she is simply listed as “E. L. Lawrenceâ€. Already the couple have four children—two girls and two boys.
A contemporary, Mrs. Mollie Flavin, says of Ellen, “Old lady Lawrence was a precious woman. As a young lady she led the grand march with General Taylor here. She had marvelous hand paintings in her home†(see the compiled recollections of Miss Amelia Meuly, Mrs. Mollie Flavin, and Annie Moore Schwien, and an item in the Caller-Times of Nov. 26, 1933). The family lived at the edge of the town as it was then. Dora (Medora) Lawrence and Maggie Jones, daughter of Mrs. Sinclair, are said to have been the first young ladies of Corpus Christi to go away to college. They attended a state school at Huntsville, of which Dora was one of the first graduates. She later taught school in Laredo. Dora was one of two children which Ellen had the sad task of burying prior to her own death. Her daughter Dora S. had attended Huntsville Normal Institute and was teaching in the public school in Laredo to help her widowed mother (beginning in September of 1883) when she became sick and ultimately died of typhoid fever on 24 April 1884. At the time she was residing at the home of Capt. S. T. Foster and her mother was at her side (Corpus Christi Caller of May 4, 1884 on page 5, col. 3). Dora is also buried in Old Bayview Cemetery along with her brother Marion E. Lawrence who died at his mother’s home of typhoid pneumonia after a number of months of struggling with the disease (Corpus Christi Caller of January 13, 1884 on page 5). He was only 30 years old. Ellen thus lost two of her children as promising young adults within a couple of months of each other in1884. The Caller reports that Ellen ordered from Mr. R. Joseph stones and fence for the graves of her husband, son, and daughter (Corpus Christi Weekly Caller of September 8, 1893). However, no stone survives to honor her memory. Her son Walter saw to her interment according to the Records of the Association. He subsequently died in Nueces County on April 19, 1923.
Research and transcription: Michael A. Howell
2. News item about grave, 1893
S. S. Lewis
Ellen Lawrence
D. H. Lawrence
Marion E. Lawrence
Dora Lawrence
Beautifying the Graveyards
Mr. R. Joseph has just returned from Laredo and San Diego where he has been erecting monuments and iron fences. In the last named place he put up a fine fence and monument for the late Theodore Weidenmueller. In this city he has filled several orders, among them a monument and fence for Mrs. Dr. Lawrence over the graves of her husband, son and daughter. He has also erected a beautiful iron fence around the grave of the late Mr. S. S. Lewis.
Source: Corpus Christi Weekly Caller, September 8, 1893
Research by: Msgr. Michael A. Howell
Transcription by: Geraldine D. McGloin, Nueces County Historical Commission
Source: Unknown newspaper
Research by: Geraldine D. McGloin, Nueces County Historical Commission
