Persons Of Interest Connected to Ennis, TX, Pop. 10,000 What Were Ennis People Aware Of ?

[Tom Scully]

The Kennedy Assassination and follow on murder of Lee Harvey Oswald did not take place in a vacuum. In late 1963 Dallas was home to as many as 750,000. The Kennedy Assassination was a big
deal. People talk, but anyone who has ever lived in a small town, especially growing up in one...... and who has later moved to a big city, notices the contrasts between everybody knowing everybody compared to the experience of living, working, and "talking" in a big city. It is easier to feel at home and accepted in a big city than it is in a small town because in the latter, roots seem to be a distinct
advantage, even a requirement.

As news of the Assassination filtered out, and especially after the publication of the Warren Report, what were they talking about in nearby Ennis in Ellis County, TX? (see bottom, center on map)



A couple of interesting ingredients to stir up "the mix," aside from the actual JFK Assassination "investigation" witnesses who were documented as Ennis residents.:

Lee Anderson Webb
[TABLE]
[TR]
[TD]Birth:[/TD]
[TD="align: left"]Apr. 4, 1881[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Death:[/TD]
[TD="align: left"]Mar. 12, 1923[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="colspan: 2"]http://findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=52536129

Family links:
Parents:
James Abner Webb (1857 - 1918)
Julia A Webb (1861 - 1939)

Spouse:
Laura West Webb (1883 - 1970)

Children:
Sidney Lester Webb (1908 - 1972)*
Alvie Royce Webb (1911 - 1975)*
Ora Geline Webb McLemore (1915 - 1992)*
James Richard Webb (1917 - 1984)*
Ollie Faye Webb Davis (1920 - 1973)*

Siblings:
Lee A Webb (1881 - 1923)
Margaret Ann Webb Noel (1885 - 1974)*
William Rufus Webb (1889 - 1962)*
Harvey Leonard Webb (1902 - 1964)*

*Calculated relationship

Note: Spouse: Laura Webb (1883-1970)[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="colspan: 2"][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="colspan: 2"]Burial:
Crisp Cemetery
Crisp
Ellis County
Texas, USA[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="colspan: 2, align: left"][/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]

http://files.usgwarchives.net/tx/dallas/.../nreed.txt
Nancy N. Forston-Reed 1958, The Dallas Morning News

Mrs. Nancy N. Reed

Mrs. Nancy Niota Reed, 51, a resident of Dallas for more than 30 years,
died Wednesday at her home, 2727 Poinsettia Drive.

Mrs. Reed, who was owner and operator of the Kessler Cleaners, 1313 West
Davis Street, was born in Ennis. She moved to Dallas after completing high
school and had lived here ever since.

Survivors include her husband, Edward M. Reed, Dallas; one daughter, Mrs.
Davey Williams, Dallas; four brothers, Willie M. Forston, Ennis; A. E.
Forston, Tyler; Ira L. Forston, Orange; and Ernie S. Forston, Dallas; three
sisters, Mrs. O.H. Williams, Ennis; Mrs. Ruby Watkins, Dallas; and Mrs. Boyd
L. Johnson, Dallas, and three grandchildren.

Funeral services will be held Thursday at 2 p.m. at the Campbell Funeral
Home, with Linwood E. Bishop officiating, assisted by Melvin Wise.

Burial will be at Prairieville.

Pallbearers will be O.V. Campbell, Charley Wise, U.C. Adams, Ernest
Emerson, John Nicks, and Edward Patton.

Nancy Reed's 1958 obit is displayed directly above. In 1946, OV Campbell was also a pallbearer in the funeral of Nancy Reed's mother, who
was buried in the same cemetery as Campbell's in-laws, the Webbs.: http://files.usgwarchives.net/tx/dallas/...orston.txt

So who is missing from the findagrave listing of Lee Anderson Webb? Why, it is daughter who is absent from the list of his children, Clarice Marie Webb Campbell,
wife of Ochus Virgil Campbell until her death in 1982. The obit above simply serves to illustrate that OV Campbell had many in-laws from Ennis.


In 1938, another person in the background of a primary WC witness died in Ennis.

A curious thing about this man is that he was a widower who married a women young enough to be his daughter, and this second wife was the first cousin of his son-in-law, James Eulys Bledsoe.:

1900 US Census. Mary Germany Bledoe's father's Dr. John Warren Germany, future wife, Icis Bledsoe is 7 years old. Her father James Madison Bledsoe, died three years earlier, in 1897:

[TABLE="class: p_embedTable table"]
[TR="class: p_embedTableRow"]
[TD="align: left"]Fannie Bleadsoe [/TD]
[TD="align: left"]38[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: p_embedTableRow"]
[TD="align: left"] Ethel Bleadsoe [/TD]
[TD="align: left"]16[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: p_embedTableRow"]
[TD="align: left"] Elgin Bleadsoe [/TD]
[TD="align: left"]14[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: p_embedTableRow"]
[TD="align: left"] Nellie Bleadsoe [/TD]
[TD="align: left"]10[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: p_embedTableRow"]
[TD="align: left"] Jcie Bleadsoe [/TD]
[TD="align: left"]7[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]

So, Mary Germany Bledsoe's husband James Eulys Bledsoe was the son of Marion Fletcher Bledsoe and Sarah Freeman, and Mary's step-mother Icie Bledsoe was the daughter of James Madison Bledsoe and Marion Fletcher Bledsoe and James Madison Bledsoe were brothers, sons of:

http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th...1365004219
.......John Wiseman (Bledsoe) married Mary Ann Neely? (not sure about Neely) They had
six children.
Martha Jane married Louis Peyton Savage Mother called her
Aunt Mott. He was uncle Pate.
Sarah Elizabeth married Thomas Brazzle Muse. She was Aunt
Bettie.
James Madison married Fannie Heflien ?
Icie Hawkins married John William Barham My great
grandparents
Marion Fletcher married Sarah Frances Freeman......

http://www.genealogy.com/ftm/g/e/r/Harol...-0021.html
Children of John Wesley Germany, Sr. and Elizabeth Harmon are:
...........

1. +Thomas Absolam Germany, b. June 18, 1834, Copiah County, Mississippi, d. May 08, 1900, Personville, Limestone County, Texas.
   

Children of John Wesley Germany, Sr. and Eliza Jane Morris are:

1. +John Wesley (Wes) Germany, Jr., b. November 29, 1843, Mississippi, d. July 07, 1931, Van Zandt County, Texas.
   
2. 
   

Thomas Absolom Germany (Mary Germany Bledsoe's grandfather) and John Wesley Germany Jr. (Eugene Benjamin Germany's father) were half brothers, sons of

John Wesley Germany (Sr.)

Birth 4 Jun 1796 in St Paul Parish, Columbia, Georgia, United States Death 5 Jul 1864 in Kemper, Mississippi, United States

John Wesley Germany's second wife, Eliza Jane Morris, grandmother of Eugene Benjamin Germany.

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi...d=13513942
https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fge11

GERMANY, EUGENE BENJAMIN (18921971). Eugene Benjamin Germany, industrialist, independent oil producer, and civic leader, was born in Sweetwater, Texas, on September 18, 1892, the son of John Wesley and Arona (Lea) Germany. He attended public schools at Murchison and Grand Saline, worked in the local salt plant, and was a student at Southwestern University at Georgetown from 1910 to 1912. Germany was a teacher and high school principal in Grand Saline for six years and during the summers attended Southern Methodist University, where he acquired training as a geologist. From 1916 to 1927 he worked in the oil business. He started at Mexia and became a lease broker, independent operator, and consulting geologist associated with enterprises including Gadley Oil and Calto Oil companies. In 1928 in Dallas he formed a partnership with Thomas Cranfill, the Cranfill and Germany Oil Company, which was later named E. B. Germany and Sons and had holdings in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and New Mexico.
Germany wrote for business and professional publications and published a regular column, "The Way I See It," in East Texas newspapers. He served as mayor of Highland Park from 1934 to 1942 and in 1940 managed the campaign of John Nance Garner for the Democratic nomination for president. He served twice as state Democratic chairman, under governors W. Lee O'Daniel and Coke Stevenson. In 1944 he was a Texas elector at large and campaign coordinator for five congressional districts for the Texas Regulars, an anti-Roosevelt faction of Texas Democrats. Germany was appointed chairman of the Texas Industrial Commission in 1958. In 1947 he became president of the Lone Star Steel Company, originally a government project, which he acquired in January 1948 and expanded into a fully integrated steel mill. During his presidency he used the right-to-work law to break a violent strike. He was later president of the Mustang Oil Company and its subsidiaries.
Germany helped build the Cozby-Germany Hospital, the first hospital in Van Zandt County. He was founder of the Preston State Bank, vice president of Dallas Methodist Hospital, director of Scottish Rite Crippled Children's Hospital, chairman of the board of the Highland Park State Bank, director of the International Travelers Assurance Company, president and board member of the Independent Petroleum Association of Texas, trustee of Southwestern University, president of the Texas State Parks Development Association, president of the East Texas Chamber of Commerce, and president of the Texas Manufacturers Association[SUP]qv[/SUP]. During World War II he was an organizer of the first air unit of the Texas Defense Guard (see TEXAS STATE GUARD). In July 1942 he was appointed intelligence officer on the wing staff of the Civil Air Patrol and group commander of the Dallas CAP.
Germany was a Mason and a Shriner. On June 8, 1915, he married Maggie Lee Wilson; they had three children. Germany died in Dallas on July 12, 1971, and was buried at Woodville Cemetery in Grand Saline. ....