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Today was dedicated to trying to find family tree info on Sam's mother, Martha Sue Caldwell. We found her in the 1945 Daisy Chain (Waco High School yearbook) along with some newspaper articles in Newspapers.com. We've gathered some documents from Ancestry.com we'll analyze later for more data.
The visit to the Madison Cooper house was fun. Madison, Sr and his wife Martha came to Waco and started a grocery business building it up to multiple products and locations. Cooper Coffee was an advertiser in the yearbook mentioned above. They commission architect Glen Allen to build their house in 1905, which is located across the street from the Central Library location. Their son, Madison, Jr. did not take to the grocery business, but did buy a good bit of property and businesses. He served in WWII and after being denied re-enlistment he opened his home to soldiers for social gatherings and resting. For many years he wrote short stories that were rejected by publishers.Then he published Sironia, TX, a 2-volume novel which hit the NY Times Bestseller list and stirred up trouble since the characters were thinly veiled references to real movers and shakers in Waco. Cooper denied this, but no one really believed him. The book was finally knocked off the bestseller list by Gone with the Wind. He went on to publish a second book, Haunted Hacienda, which did not do as well. He never married, though kept company with a number of women socially. When he died he instructed his unfinished manuscripts to be burned, and all his property to go into a Foundation to support the civic life of Waco. The Foundation makes project grants to various non-profits in the area. The house is open for tours and can be used by non-profit groups for meetings. Interesting point, when we were at the library across the street we noticed they had several copies of Sironia that circulate. Surprised me since they are out of print and hard to find. When I asked the circulation clerk about being able to borrow them, she knew nothing about them. I pointed out the house across the street and suggested she enjoy a tour one day.
Today was dedicated to trying to find family tree info on Sam's mother, Martha Sue Caldwell. We found her in the 1945 Daisy Chain (Waco High School yearbook) along with some newspaper articles in Newspapers.com. We've gathered some documents from Ancestry.com we'll analyze later for more data.
The visit to the Madison Cooper house was fun. Madison, Sr and his wife Martha came to Waco and started a grocery business building it up to multiple products and locations. Cooper Coffee was an advertiser in the yearbook mentioned above. They commission architect Glen Allen to build their house in 1905, which is located across the street from the Central Library location. Their son, Madison, Jr. did not take to the grocery business, but did buy a good bit of property and businesses. He served in WWII and after being denied re-enlistment he opened his home to soldiers for social gatherings and resting. For many years he wrote short stories that were rejected by publishers.Then he published Sironia, TX, a 2-volume novel which hit the NY Times Bestseller list and stirred up trouble since the characters were thinly veiled references to real movers and shakers in Waco. Cooper denied this, but no one really believed him. The book was finally knocked off the bestseller list by Gone with the Wind. He went on to publish a second book, Haunted Hacienda, which did not do as well. He never married, though kept company with a number of women socially. When he died he instructed his unfinished manuscripts to be burned, and all his property to go into a Foundation to support the civic life of Waco. The Foundation makes project grants to various non-profits in the area. The house is open for tours and can be used by non-profit groups for meetings. Interesting point, when we were at the library across the street we noticed they had several copies of Sironia that circulate. Surprised me since they are out of print and hard to find. When I asked the circulation clerk about being able to borrow them, she knew nothing about them. I pointed out the house across the street and suggested she enjoy a tour one day.
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| The family's personal china. Fish reportedly were not unusual china patterns in early 1900s. |
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| Madison Cooper, Jr. |
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| The platform area at the stairwell used to be large enough for a band to set up and play for socials. |
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| Dining room |
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| Sculpture: "Thorn in my foot" |
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| Fresco commissioned by the family above the fireplace in the parlor |
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| Dinner chimes. |
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| Madison Cooper, Sr. |
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| Jr. used the egg timer shown on the top shelf. Any visitor had 3 minutes to make his point and move on. He was writing and trying to get published, but he kept that a secret. |
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| Someone's rendition of the fictitious town of Sironia, TX |
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| Sister Lucille's room has the best view. |
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| Madison's office on the third floor. It's dark so I used the flash. |
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| The top book on the stack is a Bible. The others are dictionaries. |
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| The big book on the table in a dictionary. |
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| His lighting was limited to this one fixture. |
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| Stained glass windows in the stairwell |
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