Joseph R. Beaver, Sr. and Catherine Clem – Grandfather and Aunt of Ed Beaver

I have been corresponding with Cousin Ada Beaver Brothers, daughter of John Wilson Beaver, and grandaughter of Joseph R. Beaver, Sr., and Catherine Clem Beaver. Ada is a widow living alone in Wichita Falls, Texas, and she was 87 years old September 13, 1984. Although she has a hearing problem and her eye sight is poor, she was able to give me a good bit of history of Great-grandfather Beaver’s second family. Combining that with information gleaned from Novella’s book, I have put together a chapter on that family. These are half brothers and sisters of my grandpa Joe Beaver, and they are half aunts and uncles of my dad. The preceding chapter gives statistics of Joseph R. Beaver, Sr., and his first family of seven children, of which Grandpa Joe, Jr., was the youngest. They lived across the road, in Missouri from a widow named Catherine Wilson Clem, Dad’s own aunt, and Great-grandfather Joseph was a widower.

Catherine Wilson had been married to a Mr. Clem in 1861, and they had a baby girl, Kitty. When Kitty was less than three months old her father was murdered. He went to answer a knock on the front door and a man shot him in cold blood. The killer was never identified.

Catherine was the daughter of my great-grandparents, John and Kitty Wilson. She was born in Kentucky in 1838. She moved to Missouri with her parents when she was about 20 years old. After her husband was killed, and when Kitty was a year old, she married that widower across the road. She was 25 and he was 56 years old. Grandpap John Wilson performed the ceremony. Aunt Catherine bore him five more children, making a total of 12 children named Beaver, plus stepdaughter Kitty Clem.

I give credit to Cousin Ruby Franklin Muhlbauer, who lives in Wichita Falls, for the information I present here, about Kitty Clem’s family;

Kitty Price Clem was born in Missouri, to Catherine Wilson and husband, Mr. Clem, in the year 1862. She married Sam Franklin Way 17, 1878. He was a brother to two Franklin boys who were married to two of Dad’s half sisters, Jo Ann and Sarah. They all had a triple wedding and Grandpap Wilson performed the ceremony. It was said that there were so many people they broke the floor in at Grandpap’s house. Kitty had cancer surgery, developed pneumonia and died in the hospital at Temple, Texas on March 15, 1915. Kitty had nine children:

1. William Henry, married Lou Clayton
   1. Clyde, Dicie. Clayton
2. George Francis, married Myrtle Mitchell, Maggie McClusky 
   1. Wesley, Lawrence, Koger, Lewis, Sam, Frances
3. JohnWilson, married Bessie Neal
   1. Boyd, Lloyd. (Boyd lives in Albuouercue, a friend).
4. Catherine Ella, married Otho Harrison
   1. Tirey
5. Pearl Amelia, married Guy Shipley
   1. Charlie, Lita, Kitty May, Thelma
6. Jim Clem, married Annie Thornton
   1. Klice
7. Michael Andy, died in infancy
8. Burgess Pickens, married Jennie Bell Clayton
   1. Burgess Price, Don Lee, Tonya Lynn
9. Joseph, married Mabel
   1. One son

Children of Great-grandpa Joseph and Catherine Beaver:

1. Mikiel Andrew Beaver was born April 17, 1865, in Bates County, Missouri, the oldest of Joseph Beaver’s second family. He was married to Mary Ida Hudgens April 17, 1901. They lived in several different counties in Texas where he was a farmer and day laborer. He died May 17, 1930.
   1. Two sons (both- deceased) , one daughter, Catherine
2. Posettie Beaver was born in Missouri in 1867. She married George Smith. Aunt Catherine lived with them after she was widdwed the third time. Posetti died of cancer and is buried at Portales, New Mexico. a. Alberta Smith Merrill
   1. Billy Merrill
3. David Luther Beaver was born in 1869, in Missouri. He married Ellen Stinnett. He died from pneumonia when their baby girl, Elizabeth (Lizzie) was small. His widow, Ellen then married a man by the name of Lee Roy Ford and they had a baby boy. She separated from Lee Roy and soon adopted the boy out. Lizzie went to live with Aunt Catherine. She grew up and married Bill Hughes. Lizie died in 1979 with cancer. Ada said “Cancer runs in the Beaver family.” How true!
4. Amelia Beaver was born in Missouri in 1871. She married Bowen King, and they had no children. Amelia died just three years after they married – breast cancer. She is buried at Millerville.
5. John Wilson Beaver was born May 19. 1872, in Paris, Missouri. He was two years old when the family migrated to Texas with the wagon caravan, settling, finally, at Millerville, in Erath County. He married Cynthia Nora Lee Nix. The marriage was performed by Grandpap Wilson. They had nine children, one was stillborn, and reared a niece and a grandson. John Wilson died May 6, 1938, of heart trouble. Nora died November 17, 1962. in a nursing home in Wichita Falls. They are both buried in Seymour, Texas. Their children were:
   1. Sadie Ethel Beaver, married Buford Brothers
   2. William Andy Beaver, married Bertha Minnix.
   3. Ida Rachel Beaver, married Dewey King.
   4. Joseph Francis Beaver, married Beulah Bell.
   5. Roy Preston (Jack) Beaver, married Naomi Hefner
   6. Rosettle Florence Beaver, married Mack Hooper
   7. Ada Madenial Beaver, married Rhaud Brothers
   8. George Samual Beaver, married Ida May Garner

Ada said, “All of us are gone except Ida Rachel and me.” Ida Beaver King is a widow, 83 years old who lives at Texas City, Texas. Ada says, “My father was an elder and a song leader in the Church of Christ for years, and he helped organize three congregations in Baylor County.” She said that after Great-grand-pa Joseph died in 1878, Aunt Catherine married Thomas Huckabay in 1881, and they moved to Seymour. He died and is buried at Millerville. Aunt Cathering sold her 46 acres of land to Charlie Giesecke for $500.00 She had paid $107.00 for it when she bought in from Henry Miller. She went to live with her daughter, Rosettie and husband George Smith, at Portales, New Mexico where they ran a sheep ranch. She died in 1919, and is buried at Portales.

Ada’s husband, Phaud Brothers, whom she married in 1919, served in World War I for two years, stationed in France. He was diabetic, and died January 16, 1949 at age 54. She has three daughters and a son living. One daughter died of cancer October 10, 1975. I hope to meet Ada tne next time we pass through Wichita Falls.