Dick and Betty Powell

Dick and Betty Powell with Aunt Tee and Aunt Clara.  I think this was taken at Carrollton, possibly at the house, below,  that Daddy bought about 1940.

Melton Powell and Brother Jesse

Labeled on back

A. Myrtle, U. Jess, A. Una & Carmen, U Melton, A. Gertie & Thelma, A. Bulah.

Thelma was born in October, 1912.

I think this photo came from Aunt Tee.

Gans, OK Powell Reunion 1943

Virginia Powell Smith shared this photo with me with no names.  I pleaded with her to name all in the photo and she called in the help of Willis "Skinny" Powell, her first cousin.  Skinny is the son of  'Lige Jr. Powell and Virginia is the daughter of Elmo Powell, JR's brother. Through their combined effort we have the following identities for the group.  I am guessing that the year was 1943, but it could be late in 1942.

Starting down in front sitting:
Willard E. Powell (1922-1991), John Wesley Powell 1877-1956), Avis Horton Powell (November 30, 1930), Donald Ray England (August 11, 1934), Fred James (Dub) Taylor (February 19, 1933),  Richard Powell (1934-1984), Willis Edgar (Skinny) Powell (August 19, 1934), Sally (Wiss) Powell England (1914-2003),  in front of Wiss Powell is Leroy Taylor (December 14, 1929) and in front of him Tommy Darrell England (1939-2014), then Emma Ruth Shofner (granddaughter of Levina Sandlin Shofner, Aunt Vine), Emma is the blond girl in white blouse,  Geraldine Anderson Russell (Jan. 1927-June 2010) is sitting holding Dorothy Imogene Powell Glasco (born 1939, she lives in Shafler, CA and has 6 children)

Standing L to R
Roy Taylor (no hat), behind Roy is Tom England (black hat), 'Lige Powell (1982-1954, he has hat and white shirt), Stella Jackie Payne Powell holding her baby Linda Faye Powell Unruh, Elsie Powell Taylor, Behind Elsie and Jackie in white hat is Elmo Powell (1917-2004, Virginia Powell's Dad),  coming back down is Ida Belle Sandlin Powell (1887-1983, she has hands folded in front of her and a button dress) behind Ida Belle is Quinton Powell (only part of face visible), by Quinton is 'Lige Powell Jr (wearing white hat.  He is Willis "Skinny" Powell's Dad.), Arbie Powell Anderson is between Ida Belle and 'Lige Jr. Powell, next to Ida Belle is Levina Sandlin Shofner (sister to Jim Sandlin making her Ida Belle's Aunt Vine, she has on a white dress), Jim Sandlin (Ida Belle's Dad in black hat and suspenders), behind and between Aunt Vine and Jim Sandlin is Roland Boyette and Lyda Morgan Powell (wife of Lige Jr.), holding baby in back row is Jack Powell, the baby is Wanda Lou Powell Wheat (b 1941), lady in white dress and white hat is Lilly Sandlin Moore, sister of Jim Sandlin, behind Lilly is Ernest Shofner (son of Levina Sandline Shofner), behind Ernest is Homer Powell (1913-1983), next to Ernest in black and white dress is Essie Barnes Powell (wife of Homer), on the end is Eva Jo Powell Dougan (1927).

I do not think Virgina and Skinny Powell gave the identies of the four girls sitting in front--girl with doll and three girls to her left?.

Virginia Lee Powell is Johnny on the Spot.  I emailed her abut the four girls and got this reply--

4 girls in front l-r... Me (Virginia Lee Powell b. 1938) with my head hid behind Bonnie Anderson  1939-2013  (Arbie),^^^^^^   Taller blond is Nathalie Powell ,   (1936-1959) Belongs to  (Homer)^^^^^^In dark dress holding a doll is Helen Ruth Powell,  b. 1933 to Lige Powell.  

Nathalie Powell died at such a young age that I had to ask Virginia what happened.  She was having a little surgery after the birth of her second child.  Here is Virginia's reply--She had just had her 2nd child and afterwards had to have some kind of surgery and as the nurses were getting her up, a blood clot went to her heart and killed her. 

Powell Cousins Kin Through 'Lige Powell

Virginia Powell Smith and her cousin Willis "Skinny" Powell got together and named the Powell cousins in this photo!
Standing back Row L to R
Avis Powell, Leroy Taylor, Fred "Dub" Taylor, Helen Ruth Powell, Richard Powell, Geraldine Powell, Donald Ray England

Elige Powell (their Grandpa) is sitting holding Wayne Powell and Bonnie Anderson, next is Dorothy Powell, Ida Belle Sandlin Powell holding Linda Faye Powell, Nathalie Powell, and Virginia Lee Powell clasping her hands together.

Down in front and almost cut out of the photo are: Darrell Englnad and Willis "Skinny" Powell

Linda Fay Powell was born in May 1942.  Virginia Powell was born in 1938.  From these hints I think this photo was taken in 1943 on the Powell Farm which was a mile and a half from Gans, OK

I bet 'Lige Powell loved the big reunion that day and Ida Belle worked her tail off fixing dinner for the herd!

Virginia said when 'Lige passed in June of 1954 her family (Elmo Powell) came from California. When the burying was over her family returned to California but left Virginia with her Grandmother Ida Belle.  Virginia drove her Grandma all over OK that summer. They visited kinfolk and went everywhere Ida longed to go!

Lige and Ida Bell Sandlin Powell

Virginia Powell Smith sent this picture to me by mail.  Lige and Ida Bell are younger than in the other family photo we had.  'Lige died in June 1954 one month before Grandpa Robert Melton Powell passed.  Richard Powell (our Great Grandfather) and 'Lige were first cousins!

Below is Richard and Elizabeth Cooper (Betty) Powell with their daughters Matilda (Tee) and Clara Powell.  I would guess that this picture was taken at Carrollton, AR.

Powell Reunion Gans, OK 2015

Virginia Powell Smith shared this photo of last years Powell Reunion at Gans, OK

I remember the year Sisters Fleta, Patsy and I attended the event.

I am sure it was in the late 1990s and of course Patsy was a hit that day, Fleet and I were just visitors, but Sister Patsy was the long lost relative they all loved to get to meet!

2015 'Lige and Ida Bell Sandlin Powell Descendents  Reunion Gans School Cafeteria

 In front, sitting.  Quinton and Eva Jo Powell Dougan.

 l-r,  Blue shirt, Donald Ray England,  (Sally Wiss)  Elmo Wayne Powell  (Elmo)  Helen Ruth Powell Ross (Lige) green blouse.   Leroy Taylor,  glasses (Elsie)  Behind Quinton and Eva Jo is Wanda Lou Powell Wheat and Linda Faye Powell Unruh, daughters of Jack Powell.  Willis Powell, checkered shirt in the back row. (Lige)  Avis Horton Powell,, glasses (Lige).   Me  in blue blouse, Virginia Powell Smith, (Elmo).  Behind me, A head belonging to Brenda England Taylor,(Wiss).  Phyllis Dougan Long, (Eva Jo).   On the right end standing,  Cathy Powell Craig,,(Quinton)

Sarah Elizabeth Powell Gann

Virgina Powell Smith shared this picture which I have seen before.  It was taken in the 1950's.  In the chair is Sarah Elizabeth Powell Gann (barefooted)--Sallie, behind her with the hat is Charles Alexander Powell and bare headed John Wesley Powell.  Charlie and John never married and John was deaf.  John lived in the house with Lige Powell until he died and then Ida Belle said he had to move.  He died in a Nursing Home.  I think Virginia said it was in Muldrow, OK.  Charlie had his own cabin on Lige's farm.

Sallie Powell married Cherokee Elias Swimmer Gann.  Swimmer died in 1920, but Sallie lived until 1959.  From Virginia's account of Swimmer, I think he had a problem with alcohol.  Virginia said the Ganns owned a farm near to 'Lige Powell.  Sallie had one daughter Mintie who married a George Patterson and then a Lem Cousins.  Her two sons were Rabbit and Foxy!  I think they were also called Jack and Doc Gann.

I have a copy of the translated Moravian diaries.  Thomas Gann was an overseer for the Vann Plantation at Spring Place, Georgia.  He married Catherine Hicks Miller.  Catherine was the daughter of Lydia Halfbreed and William Hicks.   She had a full brother George Hicks.  Catherine married a white man, Andrew Miller.  The Gambolds called him a trouble maker.  He was murdered in 1818 and his widow married Thomas Gann.  Catherine and Thomas had:  George, Elias, Isaac, and Ruth Gann.  George Gann married Mary Ann McCoy and Elias Swimmer Gann was their son.  Gans, OK is named for Swimmer and his two brothers.

Nancy Katherine Powell's family

When Lillian Southerland was born on March 17, 1892, in Oklahoma, her father, William, was 26 and her mother, Nancy, was 18. She had four sons and two daughters with Wesley Dubuc between 1914 and 1930. She died in 1935 in Oklahoma, at the age of 43, and was buried in Gans, Oklahoma.

The three men in the back row are Wesley, Joseph and William Dubuc.  The old lady in the sack like dress is Nancy Caroline Powell Southerland DeVault, daughter of Cyrus Powell and Elizabeth Dollison.  The three older women are Elma Dubuc, Mildred Dubuc and Jessie Barnes (wife of Joseph Dubuc).  The man with the crutch is George DaVault.  The three children are baby Ronald Dubuc, boy with hat Clayton Dubuc and young girl is Elgie Dubuc.

This picture was shared with the Sisters by Virginia Lee Powell Smith (Granddaughter of Lige Powell).    Here is what she wrote:
 Nancy K. Powell Southerland Davault, (Aunt Nannie) and her daughter's family. Lillian Southernland  Dubuc. (Pronounced Dee Bue)      (1892-1935)

Children of Lillian and Wesley Dubuc from my Ancestry Page!

Nannie Powell Southerland was a colorful lady.  Here is one account we received about Aunt Nannie!

According to my dad [her grandson], who spent a lot of time with her as a kid, she was the original "earth muffin"....making herbal remedes, etc.....

According to him, she was married three times...well, the 2nd one we really don't know if it was a marriage....when Southerland died, the lawyer that settled the estate (Bob White) ran off with her and her three kids to Yakima WA.....at age 13 my grandfather drove back to OK with a team of mules and a wagon....a year later, he and his uncle Charlie Powell went back to Yakima to get her and the two girls and bring them back to OK. She then married the Devault guy and they ran a general store of sorts in Gans, OK. Her sister Sallie lived in Gans, also. (from Donna Southerland Culpepper)

Note by Betty Powell--Of course, some of the memories of Nannie Powell Southerland  Davault are not correct but in each rings a little truth.  Henry Powell was one of many brothers.  I have copied the entire document as Nannie told it to Avis Powell!
From Avis Powell I have a two page transcript of a statement made by Aunt Nannie on October 15 1962.

Seven Powell brothers came from England and settled in seven different states. One, Dr. Dave Powell settled in Texas. Others settled in other states. (NOTE: Cyrus Powell did have a Uncle David Powell who was a Doctor in Texas, but he was from Kentucky, not England and there were eight brothers in the family.) 

William Henry Powell, father of Cyrus H. Powell, owned and raised race horses and ran a dry goods business.  He owned two known race horses, 'Screwball and Dolly Varden.' Screwball was one of the fastest in the U. S. of America. They lived in Missouri, and also lived in Louisville, KY.

Cyrus H. Powell was born in North Missouri.  He was married to Elizabeth (Betsy) Dollison, who was born in Ohio. Cyrus was a cattleman and had a large ranch (or lived on one and worked for the owner, not sure of this), in Wilbarger County, Texas. He was a veterinary. Due to the health of one of his children, (John W.), he sold his ranch and settled in Indian Territory that is now Tishomingo, Oklahoma. Then alter they moved to Gans, Oklahoma, and became farmers. Cyrus was married before he was married to Elizabeth (Betsy). They had three children, all boys. While married to this first wife, they lived in Fannon, Texas. She died at the beginning of the Civil War, and one of the boys died too. He took the two remaining sons to live with his parents, Wm. H. and Sarah Powell in Missouri. Cyrus went back to Texas, and joined up with the Texas Rangers, and fought in the Civil War. When Lee surrendered, he and seven others ran the 'Gauntlet', or what they called wouldn't surrender, but they were recaptured a little later, and were bent over bayonets until they said they surrendered. He served under 'Pap Price', in the Rangers. He talked about them being made to drink gun powder mixed in whiskey to make them surrender.

Cyrus rode his father's horses in the races because he was also small when he was young. HE was only 5 ft. 2 in. tall and until he was older, didn't weigh much.

They had a past time in Texas with fighting cocks. They fed them gun powder in the feed to make them fight better. He also told about when his father lived in Kentucky, and owned race horses. How a man with tow horse, their hair all matted and turned the wrong way, finally matched up a race, then he went off and cleaned and brushed his horses, and they were the best looking race horses on the ground that day and won the race. [NOTE: Willis Powell, my father, told this same story. According to my father, John Powell was the name of the man who owned the horses in the story.]


After the war, he married Elizabeth (Betsy) Dollison. They had six children. They raised five, three boys and two girls lived. His tow sons by his first wife came to live with them when they were in their tenns. One of the boys took pneumonia and died. The other boy, Andrew Jackson Powell, married. Never knew what happened to him for sure, but thinks he might be buried at Sulpher Springs, Oklahoma. They did live at Davis, Oklahoma.

Nancy Mary Kathryn Powell Southerland Devault (Nanny) is the only child of Cyrus and Betsy Powell, still living at this writing. At the age of 89 years. She will be 90 on the 19th of February 1963. This is being written October 15, 1962, by Elsie Bethel, her grand-daughter. Cyrus, Betsy and their children are buried at Fleetwood and Mitchell cemeteries.

End of story from Aunt Nannie

Found this picture on Ancestry!  It is Nannie Powell Southerland in rocker, Lillian Southerland--older girl, older man Wesley O. Dubuc, other two children are Nannie's boy and girl, Elenore and Albert Southerland.  Here is what was said about the picture:
The Southerland Family moved from Davis, Oklahoma to Aberdeen, Washington early 1900's. The Hercule DuBuc family was living in the Aberdeen area at that time. The Southerland's moved back to Oklahoma by 1910 and Wesley went with them. Lillian and Wesley were married abt 1912 in Davis, Oklahoma.

Lige Powell's Grandchildren

 Virginia Powell Smith said this is the grandchildren of Lige and Ida Belle Sandlin Powell in 1942. Below, she said is the Powell and Sandlin clan the same day.   Virginia is the age of Patsy and typing is a chore.  I may call her and have her look at the picture and write down the names as she tells me who is in the photo.

George Henry Aday

His life in pictures.