In 1972 The Bryan County Star published a special centennial edition of the paper to help Caddo celebrate its history. In an article titled “Caddo’s First Century” Elaine Braly writes about one of Caddo’s first residents, Bartholomew “Bat” Lane. I read the article and then did a little further research which turned up some excellent photos on Mike Boucher's website.
“Bartholomew Lane was one of the Irish immigrants who helped build the Katy railroad to Caddo in 1872. He had come from County Kerry, near the River Kenmare, an estuary on Ireland’s rugged coastline on the North Atlantic. But Lane’s wife and three small daughters, Jo, Kate, and Mary were in Wales waiting for him to send for them when he had found employment and a place for them to live. The employment had come with the railroad construction. But before he could send for his family to join him in the new world, his wife died. Lane paid a fellow worker on the railroad $1,000 to go to Wales and bring his children to America and the Choctaw Nation. In the crowded St. Louis station where Lane traveled to meet his children, he didn’t recognize the three, who had grown and changed since he had last seen them.
Lane, an Irish Catholic, blue-eyed and fair complexioned, spoke Gaelic. His attempts at English were hard to understand, but he courted and married a charming Indian maiden by the name of Frances Jones, a niece of the Choctaw chief, Wilson N. Jones. Frances was three-fourths Indian. Choctaw was her first language, but she also spoke English. Her mother, Jincy Jones, was a teacher in the Indian Mission schools.
Nine children were born to this second marriage of Bat Lane’s, all blue-eyed and fair skins, showing little trace of their Indian blood. The youngest of this second family was named Daisy Lane, who later married Cowboy Pink Williams and was Oklahoma’s second lady when Williams became lieutenant governor in 1954 and was again in the political picture when he was elected state treasurer.”
Note: A little item in the July 1899 paper led me to some interesting information about Bat’s daughter Mary, one of the children brought over from Ireland. She married a man named William Moon and she was known as “Mollie”. No, she isn’t the one buried in the mausoleum! Just a coincidence that they have the same names and lived during the same time period. That’s what makes research so challenging. Mollie visited her father here in Caddo and that’s why her name was in the paper. Her William Moon was from Texas (born in IL) and was a conductor on the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railroad. In the 1900 census they are listed in San Antonio with eight children. I understand they later made their home in New Mexico. She also has nieces and a nephew in her household with the last name “Smith” so perhaps one of her other sisters married a Smith. Too difficult to research such a common name without more information.
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