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| This is the Tipton home at 3800 Mattison in the Arlington Heights neighborhood of Fort Worth |
On
September 18, 1891 the Fort Worth Gazette ran a short article announcing
that Mr. and Mrs. W.S. Tipton had moved from Albany, Texas to Fort Worth three
weeks earlier. This article mentioned that Mrs. Tipton was a cousin of City
Attorney Powell. It also mentioned her time spent at the White House during
President Johnson’s administration noting that she was known as the “Little
Fairy of the White House”. The piece described Sarah as, “refined and modest,
but proud of her White House days.”
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| This home is at 3804 Mattison - the address given on some of the Tipton documents |
Sarah visited her brother Bud Stover at his Stephen’s County ranch the week of August 25, 1893.[1] Several similar visits were reported by The Albany News in 1898, 1899 and 1900. During these trips she sometimes went alone and on other trips she took one of her sons with her or both she and Winfield went together.
An
1895 directory shows Sarah and Wynn living at 1101 Burnett Street in Fort Worth.
Wynn and their son Eugene were both working as clerks for the Railway Postal
Service.[2]
When the 1900 census was taken, they were at the same location. On this census
Sarah was listed as “Sallie S. Tipton”. Their son Robert was living with them –
he was 24 and still single. They had two black female servants. Grandville
Nelson, age 20 was from Mississippi, and Beatrice L. Snooker of Texas was 22.
There were also two white boarders in the household – Clinton J. Taylor and
Frank H. Hurt. Wynn was employed as a clerk for R.M. Sevier as was Clinton. The
other boarder was a railroad postal clerk, and their son Robert was listed as a
stenographer.
Also in 1895, I found an article headlined “The South was Slighted” that reported that few southerners were represented in the Republican caucus. In the article it reported the group would support Gen. Henderson of Illinois for the position of clerk and W.S. Tipton of Tennessee as sergeant-at-arms.[3] It is hard to know for certain that this reference is of our W.S. Tipton. A similar topic was covered in 1900 with the headline, “The Split Occurred – Tennessee Republican Convention Followed Time Worn Precedent”. In that article W.S. Tipton was nominated for railroad commissioner. [4]
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| Article describing the Tipton's move to Fort Worth from Albany, Texas |
There was a short snippet in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in 1904 that noted that Sarah had “returned home from a trip to Chicago, St. Louis and Niagara Falls.” It included no explanation for why she apparently made the trip alone. Given that Niagara Falls was part of her itinerary suggests that this was a vacation rather than a trip to visit family. In 1906 Sarah’s son Robert move to Los Angeles, California to take a position with the Illinois Central Railroad.[6] He left his position with the Fort Worth and Denver Railway where he had served as Passenger and Ticket Agent for four years and was Secretary of the Fort Worth City Passenger Agents’ Association.[7]
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Sarah would have been 52 in 1900 when her daughter Maude married Arthur G. Wilmore. Amazingly, this event did not seem to make the newspaper – at least I have not found anything about it which I imagine was well celebrated at the time. The following year Sarah’s son Robert married Jennie Emerson Pearson. In March of 1902 Sarah’s mother, Joanna Gaines Stover died and was buried in the Tipton Family Cemetery. In December of 1905 son Eugene married Emily Caroline Colston.
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| Eugene Tipton is on the left in this photo from the Fort Worth Sun-Telegram, 1953 |
Winfield
was part of a week-long fishing party in 1904. He went deep sea fishing with a
group of railway mail service men in Galveston, Texas. Their objective was to
catch tarpon and sharks.[9]
The
Tipton family moved to the Arlington Heights neighborhood of Fort Worth in 1907
and that is where they were when the 1910 census was taken. They were shown living
at 175 Arlington Heights Road on the census. Wynn was 62 and working as a
Superintendent for the railroad. His son Robert was living with them and was an
auditor for the railroad. Sarah was 61. Robert’s wife Jennie P. and their three
children Winnie R. 7, A.W. (Arthur Wilmore Tipton Jr.) 5 and J.P. (John Pearson
Tipton) 2 were also living with Wynn and Sarah. According to the Fort Worth
directory they had a telephone at this home.
While they lived in Fort Worth Sarah was actively engaged in community affairs. She was mentioned in the society column of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram on November 10, 1912 as having been a guest at the T.A.G. Club.
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| Mrs. Eugene Tipton, second from the right Fort Worth Sun-Tribune, 1928 |
In
1916 Sarah suffered the loss of her younger sister Carrie, my great
grandmother, who died in Los Angeles, California. Sarah was 67 at that time.
On
January 6, 1920 Wynn and Sarah were living with their son Robert and
grandchildren at 1108 W. 5th Street in Fort Worth. At that time Robert
was widowed and there were four children in his household – a daughter Wynne
17, Wilmore 14, John 12 and a daughter Sarah L. age 8.
A
city directory lists Winfield S and Sarah residing on Mattison Avenue in
Arlington Heights in 1923. According to Wynn’s obituary, their home was one of
the first three homes built in the new neighborhood. In 2021, Arlington Heights
is still considered one of the nicest neighborhoods in Fort Worth. Their son
Robert, who was working as a carpenter, was living with them and their son
Eugene, a clerk at RMS, and his wife Emily were living nearby in Arlington
Heights. When the 1925 directory was published it showed their street address
as 3804 Mattison Avenue. That is where they were living when Sarah died on
April 12, 1926 from stomach cancer. She was 77.
Sarah was buried at Greenwood Cemetery in Fort Worth, having lived in Texas for 49 years and in Fort Worth for 40 years. Services were held at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church.[10] At the time of her death her sons were living in Texas and her daughter Maude was residing in Oklahoma City. “Mrs. Tipton’s four grandsons and two nephews were pallbearers. They are Wilmore, John, Colston Tipton , and John L. Cassell, grandsons and Howard and Sidney Oates nephews, all of Fort Worth”.[11]
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| Sarah S. Tipton Nov. 20, 1848-Apr 12, 1926 |
Sarah’s daughter Maude died five years later. She was 60 years old and died while living at 3800 Mattison Avenue, so at some point she apparently had returned to Fort Worth from Oklahoma City.
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| Maud P. Wilmore, Dec. 12, 1871-May 22, 1931 |
Fifteen years later Sarah’s husband Wynn was laid to rest with her at Greenwood Cemetery. Winfield Scott Tipton died on December 30, 1941 at the age of 94. According to his obituary Winfield was “survived by two sons, Eugene Tipton of Fort Worth, assistant division superintendent of the Railway Mail Service, and R.W. Tipton of Breckenridge.” He had six grandchildren and eight great grandchildren.
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| W.S. Tipton, Apr 25, 1847 - Dec 30, 1941 |
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| Sarah Tipton's death certificate |
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| Winfield S. Tipton death certificate |
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| Stover Sisters. I am confident of the identification of Mary and Carrie Stover. The question is whether the third image is of their sister Sarah. I would be grateful to anyone who can confirm this. |
[1]
Albany News, Vol. 10.
[2] On
20 February 1915, Eugene and eight others filed a suit against the Railway
Postal Clerks’ Investment Association in the District Court of Tarrant County.
The case was appealed in 1914 – Tipton v. Railway Postal Clerks’ Investment
Company, but the appeal was denied.
[3] Fort
Worth Gazette, Nov. 29, 1895, Vol. 20.
[4]
Houston Daily Post, April 21, 1900, vol. XVI.
[5] Galveston
Tribune, July 4, 1898, p. 4
[6]
“Tipton in California”, Fort Worth Star-Telegram 13 July 1906.
[7]
“Passenger Men Esteem Tipton: City Ticket Agents Present Letter to Former
Associate”, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 21 June 1906.
[8] Albany
News, Aug. 3, 1900, p. 6
[9] Galveston
Tribune, May 26, 1904, Vol. 24.
[10]
Tipton – Mrs. W.S. Tipton obituary Fort Worth Star-Telegram 13 April
1926.
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