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| Photocopies of clippings 1903 |
The Tisdale family has another connection to the Magee Farm in addition to Aunt Mary Tisdale Magee. In 1898 the property was bought by Alfred Henry Sturdevant and his wife Harriet Morse of Illinois. They had six children, among them daughter Helen Morse Sturtevant who was 21 years old at the time. At a dance in Mobile Helen met a young man named Marion Eugene Tisdale, Belle's brother. They eventually became engaged to be married. It was Helen's younger brother, Bradford Sturtevant, whose drowning and funeral are reported in the first two clippings. Helen and Marion's wedding five days later is the subject of the third clipping.
TRANSCRIPTIONS:
DROWNED NEAR KUSHLA
SAD ENDING OF YOUNG BRADFORD STURTEVANT
Sunday afternoon Bradford Sturtevant, a young man, was drowned while bathing in Chickasabogue creek near Kushla. The waters of the creek were high and the current swift. It is supposed that he got out of his depth and was unable to swim out. The body was rrecovered some hours after. The Sturtevant family have been living in Kushla five years. Bradford Sturtevant was of both moral and social worth, a right manly fellow, and courteous to all. His parents are much afflicted by their loss. M. D. B.
Oak Grove, August 10, 1903
Necrological.
FUNERAL OF BRADFORD STURTEVANT
The funeral of Bradford Sturtevant, who was drowned while bathing in Chicasabogue creek on Sunday morning, took place from the residence of his parents at Kushla Monday morning at 11 o'clock. Dr. D. A. Planck conducted the services, which were largely attended. The interment was in the family burial ground at Kushla, where the new made grave was covered with handsome floral designs. The pallbearers were B. C. Davis, Jr., W. M. Davis, H. L. Davis, M. L. Davis, Jr., Chas. A. Sturtevant, J. M. Sturtevant.
WEDDING AT KUSHLA
Saturday, August 15, at the home of the bride's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Alfred H. Sturtevant, of Kushla, Ala., Mr. Marion Eugene Tisdale and Miss Helen Morse Sturtevant were married by Rev. D. A. Planck of Mobile. Owing to recent bereavement, the ceremony which was hastened by the ill health of the groom, was witnessed only by the immediate family. Mr. and Mrs. Tisdale left Saturday evening over the Southern for the mountains of North Carolina.
Marion Eugene Tisdale, Jr. wrote, “After the wedding ceremony, the bride and groom along with Alfred Henry and Harriet Sturtevant and the groom's mother Eliza Pratt Tisdale went out to the family cemetery where the bride placed the flowers she had carried on the newly made grave of her brother Bradford, near the grave of Benjamin Franklin Tisdale, Eliza's late husband...” “...Marion Eugene Tisdale evidently had an early stage brain cancer and was destined to live less than 11 years after the wedding...”
For more information about the house see my blog post of March 30, 2018. A Visit to the Magee Farm
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| Magee-Tisdale Cemetery, Kushla, Alabama Photo by Vera Zimmerman 2010 |
