Edgar Homer Shaddix

EDGAR HOMER5 SHADDIX  (JEFF JOSHUA4, WILLIAM M.3, WILLIAM2, WILLIAM1) was born July 25, 1891 in Marietta, Cass Co., Texas, USA, and died November 09, 1969 in Marietta, Cass Co., Texas, USA.  He married NONA G. CHAPMAN in Commerce, Texas, daughter of JOHN CHAPMAN and EMMA ADAMS.  She was born February 17, 1897, and died November 10, 1964 in Marietta, Cass Co., Texas, USA.

Edgar Homer Shaddix, affectionately known as "Mr. Ed," was the 9th child of Jeff Joshua Shaddix and Ellen A. Grau (Whitmore).  He grew up in a family that was fairly well of for the day and age, but with so many children, they were far from having everything they wanted.  Edgar went off to World War I at around 27 years old.  See his WWI pictures below.

Upon his return home from the War, Edgar became a teacher at the Almira School in Cass Co., TX.  This school is no longer working, but the town of Almira is still in existence, though it is extremely small.  See the picture below of the Almira School class.  Edgar is the teacher on the right.  I was told that the picture was taken in 1922, but I would venture to say it was much later than that; maybe closer to 1932 judging by the difference in age of Edgar and the clothing worn by the students.  If anyone has information regarding the Almira School or this picture, I would love to hear from you.

Edgar married Nona G. Chapman and lived in Marietta.  He owned the grocery store in town during the Great Depression and apparently came out of the Depression with a good bit of money and land, presumably from loans he made in the form of money and supplies/groceries.  Looking in the deed records (can take 1-2 mins. to load) of Cass Co., one sees that he owned quite a bit of land and when he died, he left around 1000 acres to his two children.  That 1000 acres is what was left after all of the sales you can see in the images.  In today's market where $1000 is pretty much the minimum purchase price per undeveloped acre, that would be approximately $1,000,000.  Between 1978 and 1981, my grandfather, Royse C. Shaddix Sr., went on to sell a good portion of his inheritance to Buck Florence and his wife, Patricia.  Today Baylor University offers a scholarship in their names:

Patricia and Buck Florence Scholarship
A significant gift of land has been received from Patricia and the late Buck Florence in appreciation for Baylor Law School. Proceeds from sale of the land will be used to endow a scholarship for the benefit of a deserving student or students selected by the Faculty Scholarship Committee.

I don't know if this was the same land or not, but it was a substantial amount of land.  See deed records (can take 1-2 mins. to load) for more information.  I have included deed records for other Shaddix names in Cass County, as many of them are Edgar's brothers, sisters, parents, and children.

Edgar's wife, Nona, suffered from rheumatoid arthritis and was confined to a wheel-chair for much of her life.  She passed away in 1964 and Edgar followed about five years later in 1969.  Edgar died of a myocardial infarction (MI), or heart-attack, while playing checkers at the local gas station on Hwy 77.  I am told by someone who was present that he just slumped over while playing and died without a sound at 79 years old.

I was also relayed a story of when Edgar bought a new Chevrolet in the early 60s and didn't know how to use the shift-on-the-column gears, so he drove everywhere in second gear.  They said when he started the car it would almost die, then rumble a bit and finally get going.  When he started going faster it would whine really loud as the RPMs started getting really high, but he never shifted from second!  The person that told me this story said that he and other children in town on bikes would hold on to the fins on the Chevrolet while Edgar drove through town and pulled them along.

 

This is a picture of Edgar from WWI.  Click on the picture to see a larger version! This is another picture of Edgar from WWI.  Click on this picture to see a larger version!

 

 

Left - Almira School picture.              

Right - Edgar's store in Marietta. He donated it to the town of Marietta, so it is now the Marietta City Building.

Click  to enlarge!

 

Left - Edgar Homer Shaddix's Death Certificate.

Right - Nona G. Chapman's Death Certificate.

Click on either to see a larger version!!!