Ella Elgar Bird Dumont
“…there were months that I did not see the face of even one
woman…”
Ella was born on July 3rd 1861 in Guntown,
Mississippi. Her father died of typhus during the Civil war and her mother
remarried soon after. Two years and two children later her stepfather also
died. The little family including
children, mother and grandmother migrated west to Johnson County, in the Panhandle
of Texas in 1867.
When she was fifteen she met and married James Thomas Bird.
They lead a nomadic life traveling in every direction from their base camp
hunting buffalo and other game, for several years. It was a solitary existence.
Ella was a crack shot, expert skinner and tanner, seamstress, sculptress and
later writer which only begins to hint at her talent and abilities. She carved
local gypsum rock and made many beautiful statues and vases.
Ella loved to sculpt and she regretted that she didn’t do more
of it, believing she had “buried a talent on those broad and barren prairies of
the Texas Panhandle.” Instead, she raised two children and earned extra money
by beading, making many fringed and beaded vests of buckskin which sold for $12
each. Beaded gauntlet gloves were $7 each.
Tom died suddenly in 1886, probably from ruptured appendix
while out on a roundup. In 1889 Ella
received a letter from an old friend, Augste Dumont pledging his love and
asking for her hand in marriage. Ella
replied she would rather remain friends.
They did marry however six years later where they lived in Paducah,
Texas on the lower story of the jail in “six nicely plastered rooms”. Aguste was a deputy sheriff, postmaster and
dry goods merchant there. Ella raised
flowers, poultry, and collected cacti boasting of a garden with more than 400
varieties. She wrote her memoirs and
spent thirteen years trying, unsuccessfully to publish them. They were finally published posthumously in
1898.
No comments:
Post a Comment