WILLIAM CARRELTON RIVES

 The following bio was taken from page 366 of the book entitled “Rusk County History” compiled and edited and used with permission of the Rusk County Historical Commission.

Transcribed by Claudia Schuster

 Submitted by Gloria Briley Mayfield, Rusk County TX Coordinator 

William Carrelton Rives (1876-1974), my father, lived two days beyond his ninety-eighth birthday.  He was buried April 3, 1974 at Bethel Cemetery, near the farm where he was born on March 31, 1876.  His parents were Henry Josiah Rives (1844-1920) and Mary Tipps Rives who were married in 1862.  She died in 1902.

 Henry Josiah, born in Ray County, Missouri, was the son of Captain Robert Rives (1820-1863) of Virginia and Missouri.  Both were Confederate soldiers.  At the end of the war, Henry Josiah migrated to Texas, settled in the Bethel community, established a farm, a saw and gristmill, and a cotton gin.  Dad was the third oldest of ten children.  All but four settled in other sections of Texas.  One brother, L.J. (born in 1886), and two sisters, Mary Rives (born in 1889) and Anne Wyche (born in 1896) still reside in Rusk County. 

Dad bought a farm adjacent to Grandfather’s where he, in 1902, settled with his bride, Ella Harper, daughter of neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. J.B. Harper.  Dad had four children: Sallie McElroy Thrasher (born in 1904), Henry J. (1905-1970), and twins, Wilbur C. (Buster) (1909-1973), and me, Wilma C. Rives.  We began school at Bethel, but in 1919 Dad moved us to a farm two miles south of Henderson.  We all graduated from Henderson High School except Buster, who joined the Navy at seventeen and became a career officer.

 Sallie attended Daniel Baker College in Brownwood, taught school, and graduated from Stephen F. Austin University in 1936.  She married Daniel McElroy in 1929 but became widowed in 1969.  In 1978 she married Marlen Thrasher, but in 1980 she again became widowed.  She learned to dance late in life and enjoys attending senior citizens’ dances.  She resides in Henderson.

 Henry J. attended Texas A & M, then worked in Rusk County as a civil engineer.  He married Pauline Allen in 1930.  They have one son, William Carrelton, born in 1932, who resides with his wife and three sons in San Antonio.

 Buster (1909-1973) in 1935 married Helen Powers of Chicago, who was born in 1916.  They had three children: Madonna Turner of Waco, Texas; John of Longview, Texas: and Michael Patrick (Mike) of California.  Buster’s second marriage in 1962 was to Edith Strong of Henderson.

 I, Wilma C., graduated from Henderson High School in 1928; taught school in Texas, California, and Michigan; graduated from Stephen F. Austin University in 1936; married Reverend R. Robert Rives and in 1938 we settled in a Presbyterian Parish in Garden City, Michigan.  Robert was a graduate of Stephen F. Austin University (1932); McCormick Theological Seminary, Chicago (1938); and Wayne State University, Detroit (1956).  He served as navy chaplain aboard carriers during World War II, and continued until retirement in the Naval Reserve (1968).  When Robert retired from the parish in 1972, I retired from teaching, each having put in thirty-four years of service.  After retiring, we traveled extensively here and abroad. 

Our immediate family consists of Mary Luella Wade (born in 1941), attorney-at-law of Norwich, Vermont; and Janet Ruth Rives (born in 1943), a special education teacher in Homewood, Illinois.  Our one grandchild, Rachel Ella Wade, born in 1973, lives in Vermont.

 In 1981 we purchased a home in Henderson and plan to return soon to live our remaining days.

 Submitted by Wilma C. Rives