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FRANCIS MARION (FRANK) AND CYNTHIA ANNE ALEXANDER
Written by: Tommie Jo Alexander Stewart and Dorotha Jean Alexander Wade
The comments here are stories told of, and by my family, some handed down through several generations and are not necessarily being stated as fact. These stories are shared to bring life to a list of otherwise faceless names. They are family, previous generations, the past, and part of what makes us who we are.Frank Alexander, son of Richard and Matilda Alexander, father of Hawthorne Britton Alexander, is said to have run away from home at the age of 15. Very little is known about his early life. His mother may have died and his father remarried. He was the child of Richard's second wife and had an older sister named Sarah. There were two half brothers, Levi and Thomas, and a half sister Nancy who were children of his first wife Rachel Carr. I can only suppose that home life was hard and maybe abusive. He chose to leave the family and strike out on his own and never shared with his wife and children any details of his childhood.
Frank was a small man. He was a kind and pleasant man who loved to play the fiddle. He was self taught on the fiddle and played the breakdown tunes of that time. Not necessarily skilled but pleased with what he could do, it brought him and his family hours of joy. The home was filled with children and they were able to laugh and share what little they had with each other. In later years he lost an earlobe from cancer and died from the same disease on May 5, 1940 and was buried in the Afton Cemetery. I was one year old, so I do not remember him, but when I look at the one picture I have of him - I think I would have liked him.
Cynthia Ann "Anne" London was the mother of Hawthorne Britton. She was a sweet, kind lady. She was very tiny with white hair that she wore pulled back in a bun. Cynthia was a sweet, smiling, pleasant lady. I think she must have drawn children to her like a magnet, I know she did me. Her home in Afton was an old army barrack. The best I can remember there was one room at the front and a kitchen in the back. There was no running water. A large bucket on the kitchen table held drinking water. There was a long handled dipper that hung near the bucket for everyone to share. It was the sweetest tasting water I ever drank.
She spent her days making quilts. She sewed the tiniest squares of colorful material together to make warm covers for her family. She told her granddaughter that she could remember riding in a wagon in the Oklahoma Land Rush on the way to claim their land. Her parents were Carter Warner Bascum and M.E. London. Cynthia married Frances Marion "Frank" Alexander on December 27, 1887.
There were eleven children born to this union:
- Matilda and her twin who died in infancy
- Levi Warner who died in infancy
- Richard Carter
- Martha Louise
- Mary Ella
- Marimon Crocket
- Thurman Wesley
- Hawthorne Britton
- Dora and Ora, twin daughters
In her final years she lived with her daughter Dora White in Brownfield, Texas. After her death in 1965, they brought her back home and buried her next to Frank in the Afton Cemetery.
None submitted to date
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