Submitted by: Marie Durrett Johnson
©2002
(While going through my mother's files, I found a Bible page that she had omitted. It was added to this record in 2007 - Jan Barnes)
This Bible was in the possession of Marguerite (Mickey) Durrett Aldrich Daniels and was probably given to her by her Aunt Annie Durrett Blackard, granddaughter of Hamilton and Lucy Durrett Ackerman. Most of the information is believed to have been recorded by Lucy Ackerman until her death in 1905. Annie or Mickey added dates past that time. Mickey's life story, written by her in 1999, is found at the bottom of this page.
Page 1
H. H. Ackerman was Born April 7th 1816.
L. W. M. Durrett was Born July the 21st 1825.
and was Married April the 28th 1842.
H. C. Ackerman was Born April the 3rd 1843.
Francis Durrett Ackerman was born November the 5th 1845.
Ann Elizabeth Madaline Ackerman was born Feb. 15, 1848.
Hamilton Luther Ackerman was Born Oct. 30th 1850
And died September the 14 on Wednesday 1853 aged 2 years ten months and fourteen
days.
Page 2
Henry Clay Ackerman died February the 2nd 1857 on Monday knight aged 13 years
and ten months.
Lucy Durrett Ackerman died April 11, 1905
F. E. Durrett and A. E. M. Ackerman was married Oct. 9, 1868
Walter Lamar Durrett was born Nov. 22, 1869. Died Jan. 9, 1870
Ernest Lee Durrett was born May 9, 1871 at Hendersonville, Tenn.
Robert Edwin Durrett was born March 16, 1875
Annie Durrett was born March 1, 1879
Frank Ackerman Durrett was born October 22, 1881 died December 2, 1881
Elmer Vernon Durrett was born May 14, 1883, died December 14, 1884
Herbert Eugene Durrett was born Feb. 14, 1886
Leslie Davis Durrett was born Nov. 1, 1889
Sewell Northcross Durrett was born July 27, 1893
Ann Elizabeth Ackerman Durrett Died Sept 11, 1895
Francis Edmon Durrett born Feb. 18, 1841 died Jan 25, 1917
Page 3
Ernest Lee Durrett was born May 9, 1871 at Hendersonville, Tennessee
Leila West was born June 17, 1877 in Douglas County, Illinois
Ernest Durrett and Leila West were married Nov. 6, 1895 in Parham, Sumner
County, Tennessee
Ernest Lester Durrett was born May 25, 1898, in Parham, Sumner Co. Tenn.
John Francis Durrett was born Aug. 29, 1901 in Nashville, Davidson Co.
Tenn.
Clara Durrett was born Aug. 9, 1904 in Parham, Sumner Co., Tenn.
William Dawson Durrett was born May 24, 1906 at Cottontown, Sumner Co.,
Tenn
Marguerite Durrett was born Jan. 13, 1909 At Greenbrier, Robertson Co.,
Tennessee
Marion Durrett was born Sept 26, 1912 at Delrio, Douglas Co., Wash. Died
April 15, 1917, at Sour Lake, Texas, buried in Rosedale Cemetery Sour Lake.
*See below for a scan of this bottom portion of the page. The
handwriting is smudged in several entries.
Stella Parsis? Durrett was born Jan. _ 1915 at Delrio Wash. Died March
9, 1915 buried in Delrio Cemetery
Mary Elizabeth Durrett was born Dec. 14, 1918 at Boyce? __? died June 9,
192_? buried in Rosedale Cemetery, Sour Lake, Texas
Ernest Lester Durrett died Nov. 15, 1910, buried in Delrio Cemetery at
Delrio, Douglas Co. Washington.
Ernest Lee Durrett died Aug. 23, 1922 in Texarkana, Texas, buried in the
old Durrett cemetery in Robertson County, Tennessee
Mickey's life Story
The following version of Mickey's life story was obtained from a brief interview with her the day after Christmas 1999 during her annual Christmas visit to her niece Tina (Clara) Frost in Concord California.
I was born January 13, 1909 in the town of Greenbrier, Tennessee in Robertson County. When I was about 6 months old our family moved to Washington State. We came back south to Sour Lake, Texas and oil field boomtown, when I was 7 years old. At the age 7 to 11, we lived in Arkansas, then in Louisiana and then moved back to Texas. When I was 11 we moved to Texarkana, Texas and I attended Texarkana Texas High School. I had my 13th birthday on Friday the 13th and thirteen has always been one of my lucky numbers.
When I was 16, I went to Houston to stay with my sister Clara and there I attended Rice University. In 1927, at the start of my junior year, I married Henry V. Aldrich (Fuzzy), a Colgate man. I continued to attend school at Rice. Henry became a Civil Engineer, and he was a registered Professional Engineer. He obtained his Art. Degree from Colgate and later his engineering degree from Austin in Texas. Henry got his nickname " Fuzzy" from his job. Fuzzy was the name of the lead engineer on the job. He also raced boats and named his boat Fuzzy. When he won a national boat race the headlines of the Houston paper sports page heralded " Fuzzy wins" in 2-inch tall print. And from then on his nickname was set.
In 1929 at age 20, I received my Bachelors degree with Honors in Spanish and two years later my Masters degree in French. I had written my thesis, but I also had to do an oral exam in Public in French!
Then came the depression, which we survived with the help of my sister and Husband's Aunt Mildred V. Bennett. There were five of us in the house, including Mother. Clara was the only one with a job. She was a Sears Roebuck department head. She made $18.00 a week. Fuzzy and Buddy (Clara's husband) were able to pick up part time jobs until the depression ended and then went back to work full time.
After the depression, Clara and I and our two husbands, rented a huge old home in Houston with a living room 16'x30' which opened into the dining room and kitchen. It had 5 bedrooms and 2 baths. We lived there for the next 11 years from 1937-1948. It was a delightful place for entertaining and we used to have New Year's Eve parties that lasted all night long. During this period I had been teaching Spanish, French and English part time.
In 1943 during WW II, I went to work as a secretary for the Director of the Houston City Planning Commission. I was offered better paying jobs but I loved the work, and the people I worked with, so I stayed there for 25 years. It paid off because I still get that good old City of Houston pension.
In 1947 we bought 4 acres of land next to our friends Gladys and Dan.
In 1948, Clara and Buddy had bought a house closer to town. It was kind of a duplex townhouse, and they rented the upper-half of the house. We moved to a little house in Houston.
During the years 1949-1959 we went east almost every year to visit Henry's family in the Catskills. We also usually stopped in Tennessee on our way to visit relatives.
In 1962, we built our new house on our 4 acres of land off Memorial Drive in Houston. It was so peaceful compared to our current little home, which was surrounded by 4 city streets with lots of traffic.
In 1967, Henry and I with my best friend Gladys Daniel went to Montreal for Expo '67. That's where I found the Durrett Coat of Arms. I had had the old French description of it since 1931, but there was one word I couldn't translate and it was the essential word Marigold. On the way home we were visiting Henry's cousin in the Catskills when Henry suffered an angina attack, so we hurried home to his doctor. He retired soon after.
The next year before I retired was a wonderful year. When I came home from work Fuzzy would have the table set, the salad made, and a Manhattan (with at least one cherry in it) waiting for me. He would have a vodka martini. Sometimes he would put an onion in it, instead of an olive, which of course made it a Gibson. And than sometimes he would put both an olive and a onion in it, and I dubbed that drink a Hoot'n-Nanny.
In 1967 on our way to Kerrville to visit Clara and Gladys during Thanksgiving, Henry had a massive coronary heart attack and was in the hospital until almost Christmas. For several years he had wanted to go to New Zealand, and I realized that if I didn't retire soon that he would never get there. So we sold the 4 acres and house for about 40 times what we paid for it, and I retired. We then moved to Kerrville.
In October of 1968, Henry, Gladys and I went to New Zealand. We spent a week in Tahiti on the way there, and 3 weeks later Henry died in Dunedin, New Zealand. Gladys somehow got me home to Houston where we buried Henry just after Thanksgiving.
Back home in Kerrville I got involved in all the Patriotic Ancestral Societies, Especially the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) Also the Garden Club, the Book Reviewer's Literary Club, etc.
In 1973 I married Thomas M Daniel, Henry's best friend in Kerrville. Tom and I had 6 wonderful years together until he passed away in 1978.
After Tom passed away, Clara and I had a lovely arrangement. One week she would come to my house every night at 6 pm. We would have dinner; she would spend the night and leave after breakfast the next morning. The next week I would go to her house and do the same. So we lived our own lives in the daytime, but didn't have to have dinner alone or sleep alone in an empty house.
In 1983, I bought a new house on Stephanie Drive in Kerrville. Clara enjoyed it with me until she died in 1988.
I continued to go the State and National DAR meetings, the Garden Club conventions, meetings of the Magna Charta Jamestowne, and the Ladies of the Thistle of the San Antonio Country Club. I still serve as Parliamentarian to many of these organizations.
At age 90, I no longer see as well, or walk as well as I use to, but continue all of my usual activities and I thank God for every day. I thank God for my 10 nieces and nephews and their families for which I feel very rich in family.
The End.
Well I will add a postscript for my 100th birthday in ten years.
(She didn't make it. Mickey passed away on December 23, 2000 in Concord, Calif. at her niece's house (Tina Frost) where this interview was taken in 1999.)
Genealogist's Companion Main Page