FHB Carrie Watson

Family History Book: Carrie Estille Watson (1873-1953)

Carrie Estille Watson was born on 12 December 1873 in Alabama, either in Calhoun or Morgan County, to Charles M Watson and his wife, Mattie Smith. She was their second child. Not much is known about her childhood, but at some point she traveled to New York, where she was trained as a haberdasher. After she returned, she married Clarence Eugene Cusack (1868-1952) in Morgan County, Alabama in about 1899. In 1900 they were living in his hometown, Livingston, Sumter County, Alabama, where their first two children, Charles Eugene (1901-1970) and Harris Watson Cusack (1903-1977) were born. By 1905 they had moved to Dallas, Texas, where their next two sons, Clarence Francis "Frank" (1905-1976) and Thomas Bert (1906-1984) were born. Before 1910 they had moved to Tucumcari, New Mexico. My grandfather, Herschel Watson, Sr., said he remembered seeing his aunt, Carrie, and her family leave Dallas in what he said was the last wagon train to go west from that town.

After they got to Tucumcari, their last child and only daughter, named Carrie Martha Cusack, was born on 10 January 1910. Sadly, she died on 9 July 1911, just one and 1/2 years old. Clarence is listed as a post office clerk on the 1910 census in Tucumcari. While they lived there, Carrie's older sister, Irene, moved into their household with her daughter, Pauline. Irene and Pauline may have moved there shortly after Irene's husband, Thomas Franklin Marshall, died in 1913, but at any rate they were there by 1920 according to the census for that year. Irene was still living with them in 1930 in Alamogordo, New Mexico, where Clarence was still working for the post office, but by 1940 Irene was living with her daughter and her husband in El Paso. Pauline had married Robert Maurice Combs in September 1929, and lived in Colorado in 1930.

By 1940, Carrie and Clarence had moved to San Bernadino County, California, where they were living along with their eldest son, Charles Eugene and his second wife, Alpha Jane Fainter (1898-1972). Charles and Alpha had married sometime between 1935 and 1940. Charles had previously married Gene (or Jean) Beldsoe (1903- ?) in 1921. Clarence, who was 71 in 1940, and Carrie, who was 66, did not report employment on the census and are presumed to be retired at the time of the 1940 census. All their sons worked at the post office, except Frank, who was an attorney. Clarence died in San Bernadino in 1952, and Carrie also died there, in 1953.

Descendants of Carrie Watson:

• Charles Eugene Cusack (1901-1970), married 1st Gene Bledsoe (~1903- ?), married 2nd Alpha Jean Fainter (1898-1982)
• Harris Watson Cusack (1903-1977), married Waurine Howard (1905-1990)
• Clarence Francis "Frank" Cusack (1905-1976), married first Gilberte Marie Bourdel (1919-2015), married 2nd Julia Dagmar Hertzog (1894-1958)
  • Jacques Andre Cusack (1939-2016)
  • Frankie Estell Cusack (1947-2019), married Alan M Hirchberg
    • (3 great-grandchildren, living)'
    • Cary Joe Hirchberg (1967-1969)
  • (grandson, born 1953, living)
    • (great-grandson, born 1980, living)
    • (great-grandson, born 1987, living)
      • (great-great granddaughter, living)
  • (grandson, born 1958, living)
• Thomas Burt Cusack (1906-1984), married first Olive M Short (1908-1942), 2nd Rose Mary Alumbaugh (1901-1952), 3rd Anita Wroithe (1913-1972)
  • Barbara Jean Cusack (1934-2006), married David Severson
    • (great-grandson, born 1957, living), married Karen Naydine Pentek (1950-2016)
    • (great-granddaughter) Sherri Lynn Severson (1958-2004), married first Gary Dean Hansen (1954-2008), married 2nd Jack Wesley Green
      • (great-great-grandson, born 1978, living)
    • (great-grandson, born about 1959, living)
• Carrie Martha Cusack (1910-1911)

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