trusty rifle any emergency that threatened the interests of that
primitive society. Mankind owes a debt of gratitude to this class of men
and their noble wives, who instituted the vanguard of civilization in
the virgin wilds of the Lone Star State. With their lives they guarded
her advancing columns, and now, when peace and plenty while upon us,
their children, we can but admire their devotion. All honor to the few
survivors who yet linger. One by one they are gathering home but Texans
will cherish
their memory in grateful hearts.
Cavitt married Miss Clara J. Sparks, daughter of W. C. Sparks a
prominent citizen of Bell County, Texas. The fruit of this happy
marriage is thirteen children. Ten survive him: Sheridan A. Cavitt of
McGregor, Texas; James V. Cavitt of Holland, Texas; Bell Cavitt of
Keyser, West Virginia; Mrs. Cora Armstrong of Bryan, Texas; Mrs.
Florence(?) Goode of Bay City, Texas; Sidney Cavitt of McGregor, Texas;
and Joe F. Cavitt, Samuel Cavitt, Miss Ruth Cavitt and Miss Lizzie
Cavitt of Wheelock, Texas. Three, Annie, Minerva, and william preceded
him to the better land.
In 1874 Mr, Cavitt joined the Presbyterian Church at Wheelock, and from
that time to his death lived a consistent Christian life. His religion
was not of the emotional type, but was to him a principle of living.
His love for his family and for his God is a deep, living power, which
looked beyond the immediate present, acting and planning for the good
life as a whole. As a consequence he was a man of strong common sense
and ,quick justice, sought after and highly prized as a counsellor in
both social and ecclesiastical affairs.
About ten years before his death he was stricken with paralysis, which
disqualified him for active duty. But under the affliction of a
weakened body he was patient and submissive, and was never heard to
complain. With patience and fortitude he met the ills of life, and with
temperance used its good.
Will Cavitt, the handsome, winsome, manly, adored of all girls who met
him, had graduated from Washington and Lee University and returned to
Wheelock to go into business will his father. Actually to take over for
Volney Cavitt a business too great for him to manage after the stroke
from which he never recovered fully.
There was not a girl in the town or probably Robertson County who
wouldn't have exchanged ___? chance for a front seat in heaven to have
Willie for her sweetheart. All children loved him and little boys
followed him delighted when he stopped to pay pitch and catch.
Tragedy struck a heartbreaking blow to a community in this young man' s
death. Dr. Graves, the great surgeon of that era, came post haste from
Galveston to operate on Willie, using an improvised operating table in
the Cavitt kitchen, but it was too late. The newspaper reported:
MR. WILLIAM S. CAVITT
William S. Cavitt: aged thirty-one years, son of Volney Cavitt, ,of
Wheelock, Texas: died at his father's home on February 16, 1897, after a
few days of intense pain and suffering, which he bore, as was
characteristic of his life, with patience and fortitude. He leaves an
old father and mother, six brothers and four sisters who loved and
honored him.
In this strange dispensation of providence, his parents are deprived of
the son they leaned affectionately upon in their declining years, for he
turned a deaf ear to fortune's tempting offers feeling it a glad duty to
minister to the comfort and welfare of loved ones at home.
=119=
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