1900 US Census, Comanche CO, Texas
Listed in Household of John Willliams as
Lou Luker S. Dau Age 16

My Mother, Mattie Lou Luker Sturkie

from The Story of a Lifetime by Kathleen Sturkie Powell

She was always there when I got in from school. My mother did the house work and milked the cows. She did the washing on a rub board with no running water and hung the clothes on the fence.

She made quilts with frames hanging from the ceiling.

Mother was a good cook especially considering what she had to work with. Our breakfasts usually consisted of bacon, eggs, biscuits and syrup. We had bacon if Dad had killed a hog. Lunch was always the big meal of the day. We didn’t have meat everyday--chicken usually only on Sunday. During the week we ate whatever was in the garden--English peas, string beans, corn, potatoes, mostly vegetables and always corn bread for lunch. For supper we had left overs and/or just milk & corn bread. Mother made pies mainly for special occasions. We didn’t have dessert every meal. She made raisin pies and Dad’s favorite was sweet potato pie.

My mother was very neat, she had us sweep the yard until it was clean. We had no grass, it was clay or sand. There was no trash laying around.

She cooked for 8 people breakfast, lunch and dinner. She used to feed the thresher crew of 5 to 10 men.

She washed our clothes using a rub board and drawing the water out of a dug well. She milked 2 or 3 cows, morning and night, churned the butter and kept milk in a cooling pan as we didn’t have an ice box.

Her hobbies were sewing and quilting when she had time.

Which of your mother’s physical and personality characteristics did you inherit?
Calmness, I never heard my mother yell at her kids.. She was a kind and gentle person, a good cook and very good at saving.

Describe your mother’s traits with which you are least compatible.

I thought she let Dad run over her. She stood up to him when Hab was in the service. He didn’t think she could write him, but she let him know right away that she was going to write him and she did.

Did she experience much sadness or tragedy while you were little? How did she deal with it?

Her mother died and her brother Ben died, I think she took their death’s hard.

Happiest memory you have of your mother?
I slept with her when I was a senior in high school. After we moved to Gustine, we had just one bedroom. It had two double beds. Dad slept on one and mother & I slept on the other. I never thought anything about why they weren’t sleeping together. Dad was so big, I guess my mother preferred to sleep with me.

What is the most painful memory you have of her/
Her last years she was sick and had to rest a lot. I was holding her over the toilet the night she died. She had congestive heart failure.

Mother was a Methodist.

She died Oct. 4 1949. She had congestive heart failure at 64 years of age. She is buried by my dad in Baggett Cemetery, six miles from Gustine.

Most important things I learned from my mothers were patience, love and trustworthiness.

The third child of Benjamin Franklin Luker and Molly Catherine Ewing, Mattie Lou was born March 27, 1884. Lou was only two years old when her father, Frank Luker died of pneumonia. Molly, her mother, was left with three small children. Younger brother Benjamin Jr., was an infant. dd

Find A Grave Memorial# 13990357

1900 US Census, Comanche CO
Ir Sturkie Head bn. Dec 1859 SC age 40
Mary wife bn Jan 1863 age 37
William D. 17
Vesta 15
Mollie 13
Myrtle 10
Loyd 8
Dawn 3

1910 US Census, Pct 1, Comanche County, TX
William Dudley, age 27, md1 7 yrs, merchant,genl merchandise
Lu, age 25; md1 y yrs; children: 3/3; father born AL,mother bn MS
Opal I., age 6
Ira O, age 2
David P., age 7 mos.

Source Citation: Year: 1910; Census Place: Comanche, Comanche, Texas; Roll: T624_1541; Page: 11A; Enumeration District: 3; Image: 94.

1920 US Census, Pct 1, Comanche CO, TX
William D., age 37
Mattie L., age 35
Opal I., age 16
Ira, age 12
Paul age 10
Loyd O., age 7
Howard N., age 1 and 10 mos.

1930 US Census, Pct. 4, Comanche Co, TX
Will D. Sturkie, age 47, md@20
Mattie L., age 46, md@19
Loyd O., age 17
Howard N., age 12
Katheline, age 9

**Living next to Ira O. Sturkie

William Dudley Sturkie, son of John Ira Sturkie and Mary Elizabeth Cook was born November 2, 1982 in Comanche County, Texas. John Ira was born in South Carolina and Mary Cook was born in Florida--so William was born a first generation Texan. His father and mother had eloped and purchased a small log house where William was born. He attended school through the eighth grade at Graham’s Chapel School. The Graham’s Chapel or Baggett Community was populated by a mix of families who had moved west after the Civil War to seek a better life. The land was rich, wildlife was abundant--a wonderful place to start over after the devastation of the war.

Growing up in the Graham Chapel Community, Will courted Mattie Lou Luker, (daughter of Benjamin Franklin Luker and Mary Catherine Ewing) by writing notes at school. The couple married December 14, 1902. Their first born, Opal, was born March 8, 1905. Their children were Opal, Ira, Paul, Lloyd, Howard and Kathleen.

Will learned the merchant trade from his father. He lived in Hasse and worked in his father’s (John Ira Sturkie’s) store. Leaving there, he took a job in Waco with Meadow Brothers. a grocery wholesaler, about 1921. From Waco, (only a short time there) he moved the family back to the old Luker Farm where he farmed for a while before he moved the family to Gustine.

“My dad bought a Ford Model A when I was very young--about 6 years old. It had a rumble seat and we kids loved to ride in the rumble seat.”6

My Grandad Sturkie (W.D.) was sixty years old on the day I was born. As a small child it was always a mystery to me that he looked so old and we had the same birthday, November 2. Visiting his home in Gustine was a treat. His house was on the main street of town and he walked each day to his country store where he sold a little of everything from flour to seeds and baby chicks. In the rear of his store, Grandad maintained a huge incubator hatching hundreds of small chicks. Appalling to us small grandchildren were the bodies of dead hatchlings that were thrown out in the alley.

Will Sturkie was born November 2, 1882, oldest son of John Ira Sturkie and Mary Eliza Cook. Growing up in the Graham Chapel Community, Will courted Mattie Lou Luker, daughter of Benjamin Franklin Luker and Mary Catherine Ewing by writing notes at school. The couple married December 14, 1902.

Will learned the merchant trade from his father. He lived in Hasse and worked in his father’s (John Ira Sturkie’s) store. Leaving there, he took a job in Waco with Meadow Brothers. a grocery wholesaler, about 1921. From Waco, (only a short time there) he moved the family back to the old Luker Farm where he farmed for a while before he moved the family to Gustine.

W. D. Sturkie was described by his daughter Kathleen as very headstrong, “always right”, a good father, honest, sincere and a strict Baptist. In a letter to a Sturkie cousin in South Carolina, WD described himself as “a Baptist and a Democrat, a tough combination.” Will ran for County Tax assessor in 19?? and was defeated. He served as Justice of the Peace from 1942 until 1958 in Gustine, TX.

In 1926 Will Sturkie bought a Model A Ford, one of the first in the county. It had a rumble seat and his kids loved to ride in it.

After Mattie Lou died, he married Mattie Lula Ewing Koeph one of Mattie Lou’s best friends and a distant cousin.

The house on Main St. was the second Gustine house that Grandmother and Grandad owned. My memories of the first house are vague. All I recall is a slop jar Grandmother maintained to feed the chickens.

My memories of Grandmother Sturkie are vivid, and though she died when I was very young, I recall her wonderful family stories. Grandmother was tall, thin and had very black hair. How great it would be if I could talk to her today about her Luker/Ewing heritage. Grandmother came to Houston often to be treated by a cardiologist, Dr. Grunbaum. She, like her younger brother Ben Luker, suffered from congenital heart problems. I always remember that she was sick and seemed so tired. My mother said she was just “worn out” from farm work, raising a big family and putting up with my Grandad. Mattie Lou Sturkie was a gentle, loving steadfast Christian woman. She was very quiet, never complaining about life’s difficulties. Despite the fact that W. D. was so adamantly Baptist, she was a lifelong Methodist and never attended the Baptist Church.

Will lived in Hassee and worked in his father’s (John Ira Sturkie’s) store. He left there and took a job in Waco with Meadow Brothers , a grocery wholesaler. From there (only a short time in Waco) he moved the family back to the old Luker Farm where he farmed. Then he moved to Gustine, TX where he ran a grocery store.7

Served as Justice of the Peace in Gustine, TX, Comanche CO from 1942 until 1958.8

Probably named for his Uncle Wm. Cawthon Dudley Cook, son of JBF Cook and Lucinda Hutchinson, and spouse of Margaret Alta Sturkie, JR. who was the sister of John Ira Sturkie.

SSDI
William Sturkie
455-56-0584
75801 Palestine, Anderson, Texas
Born Nov, 1882
Died May 1971

Social Security Death Index
Name: William Sturkie
Date of Birth: Thursday November 02, 1882
Date of Death: May 1971
Est. Age at death: 88 years, 6 months
Last known residence:
City: Palestine; Elmwood
County: Anderson
State: Texas
ZIP Code: 75801
Latitude: 31.7467
Longitude: -95.6167
Social Security details:
State of Issue: Texas
Number: 455-56-0584

Find A Grave Memorial# 15793242