The George W. Crysup Family

Facts by Reevel Crysup Wilson

George W. Crysup and Frances (Fannie) Ellington were married in Naples, Texas, and moved to Jacksonville in 1900, with their four younger children. The two older ones were adults at the time.

George was a farmer. He built their home where the gymnasium of Jacksonville Junior High now stands, and it burned, but the house was rebuilt on the same site and stood until purchased by the school board. Fannie Crysup resided here until her death in 1930. Her husband died in 1910. None of their children survive.

Jimmie, the oldest, married Lillie Hart and lived in Crockett and Bastrop. A son, Charles, lives in Austin.

W. S. (Billie) married Georgia Price of Omaha, and at her death in 1899, their children, Don Herschel and Berneece, came to live with their grandparents. Later, Billie married Leonora (Leo) Dear in Lufkin. They resided in Louisiana until 1919, moving here to make their home at the site of old Jacksonville. He operated a community store at Cove Springs which, after his death in 1938, she continued for a few years. They were parents of Reevel of Jacksonville, and J. W. of New Orleans. Berneece (Brooks), who died in 1949, was a prominent Bastrop banker, listed in "Who's Who for American Women" and "Who's Who in the Southwest." Don H. was a World War I veteran, employed by Southern Pacific and when he died in 1957, a representative of a monument company. His wife, Eva Manning, is retired from Beall Bros., with which their son, Don H., Jr., is associated in Rusk. Their daughter, Maryellen, a Sunday School teacher at Central Baptist Church, and an insurance agency secretary, died in 1969. Reevel (Mrs. Claude Wilson), the mother of a daughter, Peggy (Mrs. Jimmie I. Davis) and a son, Danny, both of Dallas, has been with Thompson Funeral Insurance Company since 1951. J. W. and his wife, Ruth Dennis, have one son, Jimmie.

Ann Beatrice (Mrs. Charles Aber) died in 1908, and her son, Ernest, died in infancy.

Estelle (Mrs. Will H. Sory) was a kindergarten teacher and among the first women elected to the Methodist Church Board of Stewards. The four Sory children included G. W., who died in infancy, Mary Frances, a teacher in Jacksonville schools before going to Mercedes to teach; Cynthia (Mrs. Andy McBroom) a drama teacher in California prior to her death in 1960, had one daughter, Amanda; and Dr. Crysup Sory, a radiologist in Corpus Christi, married to Catherine Moss of Jacksonville, whose son, William C, is studying to become a third generation doctor.

Festus, the youngest son, although crippled at age six, grew up to become a well-known businessman, sportsman and local city official. He opened the Festus Crysup Insurance Agency in 1909, and the next year married Vera Caperton, granddaughter of Mrs. Mel-vina Chessher. They were parents of three children: Charles died in infancy, Dorothy Nell (Mrs. William L. Summers) died in 1945, and Katie Jean, who married Barney Curl, Jr., and had two sons, David and Mark. She lives in Corpus Christi.

Theo (Mrs. A. F. Templeton) was active in civic, school and First Methodist Church organizations. They had four children. John Allen, former Jacksonville Journal owner, now is managing editor of publications for the Presbyterian Church in the United States. His wife is Jennie Laird, former Jacksonville First Methodist Church secretary, and they have a daughter, Emily. Shirley (Mrs. Trigg Bell), mother of six, one dying in infancy, teaches in St. David's Episcopal School in Dallas. The children are Alice Theo, Melonie, David, John and Stephen. Boyd (Red), who is retired, lives in a Jacksonville nursing home. Amelia (Tid) died in 1944.

For 72 years the Crysup family has been represented in the history of Jacksonville.

1903, back row, left: Beatrice Crysup Aber; third from left, Leo Crysup (wife of Billy Crysup); right, Billy Crysup. Front row, right, Estelle Crysup, wife of Dr. W. H. Sory, Jr.

Festus Crysup in his wheel chair.

Home of George and Frances Crysup. An earlier home on this site burned.

Mrs. G. W. (Frances) Crysup poses with the family's Model-T in 1926.