following day Uncle Bill, Alec and Whit found his body less than two
miles from the house. He had been scalped.
Gradually there was a routine established in which Ann felt for the
first time in three years she was putting down roots and beginning to
make for her boys a permanent home. Her associates and business friends
volunteered some advice when the gentleman from Boston arrived on his
way out to California. The handsome three-story inn for which he drew
plans was decided upon. And so it was Ann Cavett Cavitt began to make
ready to accept guests who paid for their good meals and comfortable
night's lodging. The Stage Coach Inn of Wheelock was in business.
The new year was just around the corner when Ann got a letter from
Tennessee advising her that Andrew's sister, Mary, had died and Cavitt
Armstrong, her oldest son, was making preparations to come to Texas. He
hoped that he might be welcomed by his cousins who had probably grown
out of all recognition by now, and by Miss Ann, whom he had never
thought proper to call aunt, as she was his elder by only three years.
The visit of Cavitt Armstrong started out with rejoicing--everyone back
home had sent remembrances, everyone had sent messages and the news
flowed two ways until the candles flickered low in the holders and
everyone was sent off to their rooms. Cavitt did not leave the room as
Ann shuttered the windows and locked the door for the night, but stood
looking at her. "You know very well, that ever since Andrew brought you
back from Alabama I have had eyes for no one else, Ann. And I have
remained away thus long to let you get yourself in the frame of mind
that I know you would have to be before I addressed you--now that you
have been widowod, will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?"
Startled and taken aback by the suddenness of this proposal Ann's first
impulse was to order the kinsman from her house, and hear no more of it.
But on second thought, it might be less lonely, the boys needed a
father, but was this right? Was this man related to her? "Let's not
discuss this tonight, please, Cavitt. When you have had time to ruminate
over it you may change your mind. A ready made family of seven sons is
quite a chore, you know."
The Inn at Wheelock, Texas took on importance when the visiting
dignitaries came and remained for more of the delicious cooking Aunt
Margaret was still producing every day. The Guest Book showed frequent
passings that way of Sam Houston, John Breckenridge, Rufus C. Burleson,
R. E. B. Baylor, G. B. Cranfill and many others--some coming to hold
services in the new building the progressive people of Wheelock had seen
fit to build for a union church assemblies of lodges, and other public
gatherings.
All the excitement of a County seat town was present in the town of
Wheelock, and indeed for some six years it was the seat of the county's
business. The people of this place, coming from educated families back
in the old states, wished to have their children taught and saw to it
that academies and private schools were established.
All the while Andrew Cavitt's widow was becoming a part of the
Community, respocted as a levelheaded business woman and the head of her
house. Still, it is hard for a woman to act in the meeting places of
men, and finally in the fall of 1840 Ann consented to marry Cavitt
Armstrong. From that time until Volney took over the Stage Coach Inn the
big house was known as Armstrong House.
Uncle Bill had not been asked for his thinking with reference to the
wedding, and sometime later Ann was not sure she had been wise not to
consult her faithful counselor. The new husband seemed to become jealous
of the older boys' love and protection of their mother. Especially
Whitley with his kind patient ways seemed to
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The most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or touched.
It must be felt with the heart. Helen Keller
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Last Blue Promise...Poetry and Links to All my Web Sites
http://www.fortunecity.com/bally/meath/45/index.html
OR
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Bistro/6720/index.html
...It is in silence where music lies...
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Listowner CARRINGTON and CAVITT surnames
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