BRIDGE, William Berry McCampbell, Beeville Picayune, Thursday, 19 Mar 1914:

W. B. Bridge Dead

W. B. BRIDGE of Normanna, one of the oldest residents of the county, died here suddenly at 12:30 o'clock 
this afternoon from the effects of a stroke of paralysis. Mr. BRIDGE had come down from Normanna on the 
early morning train to attend the funeral of his niece, Mrs. Irene SEYMOUR. He went to the home of his 
daughter, Mr. C. O. WRIGHT, near the Sap station. He felt too badly to attend the funeral and expired soon 
after stricken with paralysis. He was 72 years of age. The remains will be shipped to Normanna tonight for 
interment in San Domingo cemetery tomorrow afternoon.


Beeville Picayune, Thursday, 26 Mar 1914, page 5 (Normanna news):

Among those called here by the death of W. B. BRIDGE last week were Judge COX, Mr. and Mrs. Tom SONLEY, 
Mr. and Mrs. Chas. WRIGHT, Mrs. H. H. BLACK, Mrs. Oscar NUTT, William, John and Lucius MOORE, Messrs. 
MALONE and JOHNSON, all of Beeville, W. B. HATCH of Papalote and son, George, of Eagle Pass, Mr. and 
Mrs. S. N. RICHARDS and daughter of Cuero, Mrs. Chas. MOORE of Burdette Wells.

WILLIAM BERRY McCAMPBELL BRIDGE

Was born near Travis, in Austin county, Texas, August 23, 1841. Died in Beeville, Texas, Mar. 19, 1914, buried in 
San Domingo Cemetery, Normanna, Friday, Mar. 20, 1914. He was the son of Benjamin S. BRIDGE and wife, 
Mary McCAMPBELL BRIDGE. An invalid brother, named Samuel died during the civil war and an only sister, 
Mrs. W. B. HATCH, died some eight or nine years ago while on a visit to her daughter, Mrs. Irene SEYMOUR of 
Beeville, to attend whose funeral Mr. BRIDGE had gone to Beeville the morning of the day he died, stricken 
with heart paralysis.

Mr. BRIDGE entered the Confederate army in April 1861 before his 20th birthday and served loyally and efficiently 
in nearly all the states in which battles were fought, having enlisted at Goliad in Capt. D. A. T. WALTON's company; 
Col. MARTIN's regiment and Gen. CARTER's Brigade. He served during the entire war and many of his most lasting 
friendships interrupted only by death, were formed in the array. Among many others were Mr. T. R ATKINSs and 
the late Wm. A. PETTUS of Goliad.

Sprung from a strong and sturdy race, the pioneer characteristics were well developed in W. B. BRIDGE. His father was 
killed by a falling tree as he lay in bed beside his son and the memory of the occurrence always remained a vivid one. 
His mother's brothers, James, Joseph, William and John were for years frequent visitors at the hospitable Bridge home. 
They died full of years. The family connection is a large and important one, descending through William Berry McCAMPBELL, 
a revolutionary soldier, and Indian fighter from good old pioneer ancestry. Mr. BRIDGE's mother, who was born in Alabama, 
came with her father and mother, brothers and sisters, to Texas in the early thirties. They were wrecked off Galveston island 
and walked the length of the island, barefoot and lightly clad. They founded the west Texas McCAMPBELL family, 
which settled in 1843 in Goliad.

Wm. B. BRIDGE was married to Miss Margaret Isabell McCAIN at St. Marys, December 2,  1875. She was a daughter of 
Rev. John N. McCAIN and wife, Mrs. Sarah Amanda HEARST MCCAIN (a second cousin of William Randolph HEARST), 
The ceremony was performed by Rev. McCAIN. Their home was in Goliad until 1884, when, on January 9th, they moved 
to Bee county on the beautiful ranch at Normanna, which was their home until May 10, 1907, when they moved into the 
present home in Normanna. Four children were born to them in Goliad county, Lula, Alba, Mary and Samuel Ross, and 
one, Sarah, the youngest in Bee county. These all survive and are now Mrs. Ford RICHARDSON and Mrs. James SHEIVE 
of Normanna, Mrs. Chas. WRIGHT of Beeville and Mrs. S. N. RICHARDS of Cuero. The little daughter of the latter, 
Ada Bell RICHARDS, aged three months, is the only grandchild. Samuel Ross remains in the home with his mother. 
When in 1884 the family moved to Bee county, the nearest neighbors were on the ranch homes of T. P. BRUNDRETT, 
W. B. ROBERTS, S. G. DAVIDSON and J. W. ROBINSON. The town of Walton did not exist.

Early in life he became a member of the Methodist church and although he lived in an age not calculated to develop the 
aesthetic side of man's nature, and his conversation was not always a sermon, yet his deeds toward his neighbors and 
the stranger in his gates were those of a Christian. His house was always open to the minister of the gospel without 
reference as to the denomination. His heart was as tender as that of a woman and children instinctively turned to him for 
favors or protection. No one ever appealed to him in distress without finding his heart, purse or earthly store wide open 
to their wants. He saw beauty in the flowers around him and rejoiced in their cultivation. Nothing gave him greater pleasure 
than to divide the products of his fine garden, which he always cultivated with his own hands, with his neighbors. As we 
often find the richest, ripest ear within the roughest, thickest shuck so when you penetrated to the inner nature of 
W. B. BRIDGE you found the warmest, tenderest heart pulsating with sympathy for those in want and glowing with warmth 
for all humanity. Requiescat in peace.