FRANK WOOSTER

The following bio was taken from page 452 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

A squabble over raising ducks brought the first of the Wooster clan to America over one hundred years ago. Descendants of James Wooster of Buckinghamshire, England, always a hard-headed lot, got into a fight one Sunday morning over the management of the family’s ducks. The row became so intense that the constable had to be summoned to break up the fight. Shortly after the disagreement, the boys deeded the land to their mother, Sara Wooster, and left for America.

One of those leaving for the United States in the early 1880’s was Frank Wooster (1856-1918). Frank, a direct descendant of Queen Victoria, was born in Buckinghamshire, England to James Wooster (1802-1863) and Sara Eggleton Wooster. He came first to Georgia, where his brother George Wooster had established a small business. After staying briefly with George, he struck out for Nacogdoches, Texas with his nephew, Jim Kingham, who settled there. Frank came farther north and settled in Rusk County in an area later to be named London by the English settlers of the community.

Wooster decided to settle in this area largely because of a lady named Mattie Green (1868-1945), daughter of J.W. and Elizabeth Maxwell Green, originally of Georgia.

After his marriage to Mattie Green in 1884, Wooster established a cotton gin on a hill just northeast of the junction of Highway 42 and 323 in Old London. They also purchased land for a farm and began their family. This farm, still in the Wooster family, is located on Wooster Road, just northeast of present-day New London. Their children included Forest Frank (1886-1937), Julia L. (1888-1966), Opal (1909-1933), Lorene (1902-1912), a stillborn infant (1908), and an adopted daughter, Bonnie (1912).

Frank Forest, Frank and Mattie’s eldest son, was married September 3, 1911 to Eva Fuller, the daughter of Francis M. and Mary Sikes Fuller. They settled on the Wooster land in New London and raised three sons: Finis (1913-1926), who died at thirteen of snake bite complications; Martis (1914-), who lives in Dallas and owns a typewriter service; and Frank Marion (1917-1981), who managed Henderson’s M.E. Moses Company for twenty-eight years.

Frank and Mattie’s first daughter, Julia Lena Wooster, never married and became a well-known educator in Rusk County. Opal, Frank and Mattie’s second daughter, died of cancer at the age of twenty-four. Their last daughter, Lorene, died at age nine of diphtheria. Bonnie, their adopted daughter, married George Goller and currently resides in Longview.

These are the children and grandchildren of Frank Wooster of Buckinghamshire, England. He is remembered by his daughter-in-law, Eva Wooster, as a determined, quiet man with a distinctive English accent. She recalls that when he said "hat," it sounded like "hot." He was a man who loved his children, and in his later years he would come to Eva’s house in the early mornings on the pretense of reading the paper, but he really came to play with his grandchildren—Finis, Frank M., and Martis—while Eva did her chores.

After a century in Rusk County, the descendants of Frank Wooster continue to make contributions to civic and business affairs of the county.

Submitted by Tony Wooster