SKIDMORE, Mrs. Frank O. (Carrie Wharton), Beeville Bee-Picayune, December 1954:

Mrs. Frank O. Skidmore 99, Pioneer of Bee County, Dies In San Antonio on Saturday
    	
Mrs. Carrie Wharton Skidmore, a native of Texas and widow of the late F. O. Skidmore, a 
pioneer of Skidmore, Texas, died Saturday, December 11, at 2:30 p.m., at the home of her 
daughter, Mrs. C. W. Price, in San Antonio.  She was 99 years, seven months, and four 
days of age.  Funeral services were held in the Galloway Mortuary chapel Monday 
afternoon at 2:30 o clock.  The Rev. W. L. Jenkins, retired Methodist minister, assisted 
by the Rev. W. C. Binford, pastor of the Friendship Baptist church at Orangedale, officiated.  
Sidney I. Malone, accompanied at the organ by Mrs. W. J. Coleman, sang "Beyond the 
Sunset" and "Sweet Bye and Bye."  Pallbearers were Melvin McKinney, Willie Skidmore, 
Wayman Schewitz, Robert Ellis, Sam Schewitz, and John Ellis, all grandsons of the deceased.  
Burial was in Evergreen cemetery near Skidmore.
     	
"Grandma" Skidmore as she was affectionately called by her legion of friends in Southwest 
Texas, was born at Sutherland Springs, Texas, May 7, 1855, in the home of her step-grandfather, 
John Sutherland, for whom the town of Sutherland Springs was named.  She was a daughter 
of Richard Hoag and Eleanor (Reed)) Dickson.   
    	 
On August  3,  1871,  She was married  to  Frank 0.  Skidmore at Rockport.  Mr. Skidmore died in 
Oaxaca,  Mexico, where he had mining interests, on October 30, 1915.  Mrs. Skidmore moved to 
San Antonio to make her home with her daughter about two and one-half years ago.  Prior to that 
time for the past several years,  the family had met annually in Skidmore for a reunion.
     	
Mrs. Skidmore's maternal grandfather was a Dr. Read,  a direct descent of Charles Read, a signer 
of the Declaration of Independence, who fought under Gen. Sam Houston at the Battle of San Jacinto, 
April 21,  1836.   Her paternal grandfather, Abashair Dickson, a member of Fanning Red Rover, was 
killed in the Goliad massacre.
     	
Grandma Skidmore was a cousin of Jefferson Davis, President of the Southern Confederacy.  At an 
early age, her parents moved to Rockport. She had the distinction of being a slave owner. While yet 
a young girl she was given a slave girl to be her companion.   This was a custom among the  slave 
owners of the southern aristocracy before the War Between the States.

After her marriage to Mr. Skidmore, which occurred at the age of 16  years, she and her husband  
moved  to  Bee county,  where  they established a ranch on the Aransas river near the town of Skidmore. 
During the late 1870s, Mr. Skidmore trailed cattle across Texas to Kansas. He trailed 10,000 longhorns 
to Kansas markets in 1878.  The Skidmore ranch house on the Aransas River was a two 
(See Mrs. Skidmore, Page 8, Sec. 1)

Page 8: Mrs. Skidmore (continued from page one)
story frame building consisting of 14 rooms and 11 fireplaces, and was located on the main highway 
(dirt road) from San Antonio to Corpus Christi.  Almost every day there were guests for meals and lodging, 
for which no charge was ever made.

Grandma Skidmore withstood the last Mexican raid on Corpus Christi in the late 1870s.  She and her 
husband crossed the Nueces river at the old Sharpsburg Ferry in a two-horse buggy, not knowing they 
were only about two hours ahead of the raiders.  After reaching Corpus Christi,  she and her mother, 
Mrs. R.  H. Dickson, were shopping down town when the sheriff on horseback raced through the main street, 
calling all able-bodied men to arms, as the Mexican raiders were on the bluffs above the city robbing and 
murdering people.  So many terror-stricken people took refuge on the side-wheeler steamer Alabama that it 
sank.  Due to the  Mexican raids many claims were made against the government.  The Skidmores made a claim 
which was paid in 1948 to Mrs. Skidmore.
     	
Grandmother  Skidmore  was  a  passenger  on  the  first  scheduled passenger train east out of San Antonio in 
1878.  San Antonio was then the terminus of the Southern Pacific building west.  When the San Antonio & 
Aransas Pass Railroad was built south from San Antonio there was keen competition between Bee and Goliad 
counties. Rancher Skidmore helped turn the tide in favor of Bee county with a gift of cash and land.  The town 
of Skidmore near the ranch headquarters was named for him.
     	
Grandmother Skidmore lived through five wars - the Civil  War, the Spanish-American, World war I, World War II and 
the Korean War.   Her gift to the U. S. Armed Forces in World War II was 20 grandsons and great-grandsons, all 
volunteers.   She once said she did not want to outlive any of her children.  However, she has set a high mark for 
them to shoot at - 89 years and seven months.
     	
Mrs. Skidmore had nine children and, as she wished, they are all living and are as follows: R. O. Skidmore of Alice, 
who is 82 yours of age: Charles H. Skidmore, Oaxaca Mexico, Mrs. C. W. Price, San Antonio, Mrs. Josephine  
McKinney, El Paso, S. C. Skidmore, Houston, C. D. Skidmore, San Antonio,  Mrs. Lillie Ellis, San Antonio, Frank O. 
Skidmore, Jr, El Paso, and Mrs. Margaret Schewitz, San Antonio.
     	
Other descendants of Mrs. Skidmore are: F. O. Skidmore III of Chicago, S. C. Skidmore, Jr.,  and Troy Skidmore 
of Tucson, Ariz., Malone Skidmore of Austin, Mrs. Fay Angus of El Paso, Ansel, Melvin and Glen McKinney of 
El Paso, and Mrs. Henry Hall, Sr., and Henry Hall, Jr. Of Beeville.  Mrs. Skidmore had a total of 126 direct descendants, 
who extend into the fifth generation.  She was a member of the Methodist church.