August Tubbe paid his taxes every year until he was exempted by his age to pay the poll tax. He also cheerfully performed every duty to the best of his ability of a citizen of the United States. He served on juries, voted in the various elections held in his county, and held several positions of honor and trust. August Tubbe's name was placed by a large part of the people of Nacogdoches County on the ticket for County Judge. Not wanting to serve the county in that capacity, August Tubbe encouraged voters to select his opponent for the position. However, two years later, in 1892, the people of the district placed August Tubbe name on the ticket for Representative in the Legislature of Texas. He was defeated by only a very small plurality.
During the many years of residency in the United States, August Tubbe citizenship and loyalty to the country of the United States was never questioned until 1917 after 62 years of his residency in the United States.
Mrs. August Belmont; Aug. Belmont; and Mrs. Butler...
Ernst August of Brunswick & bride (LOC)
AugustHe considered himself a citizen and had evidence of a good record as a loyal citizen of the United States as well as any natural born citizen would have. August Tubbe professed to have done at all times everything in his power to uplift the country and her people morally and religiously as God gave him light to see it.
The German Emperor nor the German Empire was not in existence until seven years after August Tubbe left his birth place, Prussia. August corresponded with his sister who remained in Europe for only his first twelve years in the United States because his sister died the twelth year that August lived in the United States. August never participated in any correspondence with any German, German agent or German sympathizer at any time.
August Tubbe had children, grand children and great grand children, all of whom married native born citizens of the United States. Non of the spouses were of German decent. The German culture was never practiced or cultivated in August Tubbe's immediate or extended family. The German language was never spoken by the August Tubbe family in the United States and his children had no understanding of German.
Page 3 Ironically, August Tubbe was charged with being an Alien-enemy as the conflicts of World War I emerged. He denied these accusations emphatically and believed the charges to be absolutely unreasonable. August tried to explain that all he had in the world was right there in Nacogdoches County, Texas. He questioned the authorities asking how could he be an enemy to that which he loved and upon which the very existence of his life depended. August stated that the idea was unnatural and in fact contradictory. He insisted that he had never been charged before with the violation of any law.
Helplessly August Tubbe submitted a request to the authorities stating his desire and prayer from his heart that he be granted the privilege to become a citizen of the United States in the manner of compliance that was necessary. He asked that he be returned home to his wife to take care of her and to continue his labor as a stock-farmer. August explained to the authorities his plea to be permitted to live as a loyal citizen of the United States according to law. He further expanded his wishes that the forces of the United States and the Allies would be successful in the present conflict; that the imperial German Government be overthrown; a Democratic Government be established in Germany; and, a permanent world peace would result. August Tubbe's plea was not honored and at the age of 72 he was held in confinement until the end of World War I.
Currently, April 1999, John August Tubbe and his wife Sarah who are both retired school teachers form the Goose Creek ISD, live on August Tubbe's farm in Nacogdoches, Texas. This farm has been in the Tubbe family since August Tubbe purchased it in 1870.
Along with the loyalty to the United States exhibited by August Tubbe, an admiration of great leaders of the United States and Texas seems apparent from the names given to several of the descendants of the Berry family. One of my great-great-great grandfathers was named Andrew Jackson Berry and he lived in Tennessee. Another great-great-great grandfather was named Sam Houston Gann who lived in Lufkin, Texas.
Farming remained the favored occupation for the generations of the Berry family from August Tubbe to my great grandfather George Hopson Berry. The Berry family was industrious Page 4 and active in community affairs. The majority of the Berry descendants of August Tubbe lived in the Angelina County and Nacogdoches County area.
My paternal grandmother is a descendant of the Bassett family from Ireland. Their journey to America occurred around 1848, which was within two years of the time that the Tubbe family arrived in America. The Bassett family members were farmers who originally settled in Georgia. By 1863, during the Civil War, the Bassett descendants moved from Georgia to Texas by way of covered wagon. These family members settled in Sulphur Springs, Texas in Hopkins County, where they remained for four generations.
An interesting person, within my paternal grandmother's family tree, was a physician named Dr. John L. McGehee who practiced medicine throughout the country side of Sulphur Springs from the 1920's to the 1940's. Dr. McGehee along with his daughter, who served as his medical assistant, made daily rounds by horse and buggy administering medical care to the residents throughout Hopkins County. Family artifacts include a leather bound tablet with all of the directions for creating medicines to treat a vast number of illnesses. Also, the family has the attendance records from Tulane University of Louisiana where Dr. John L. McGehee received his medical degree.
John L. McGehee, M.D. was a Mississippian by birth and he lived there prior to moving to Burkburnett in 1907. John was born in 1872 and was the son of native Mississippians. John's father was a farmer by trade and died in 1898 at age sixty-three. Hansford J. and Matha Gardiner McGehee were John's parents. His father was a staunch Baptist and a Democrat who lived a life of integrity. His mother was also a Baptist and of fine character. John was the fourth child born of a family of six children.
Until he was twenty-seven years old, John lived in Mississippi except for the years he attended Tulane in pursuit of his medical studies. He gained his early education in the public schools of his native community, following those years with three years of education at East Fork Academy in Mississippi. John had to provide his own funds to attend college. In order to accomplish this, John took a position in a loan office in Meridian, Mississippi. After a year's work Page 5 of saving he entered Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana. He graduated with his medical degree in 1900.
At that time, Dr. John L. McGehee returned to Mississippi but did not engage in practice there. Instead he moved to a newer territory, Texas, and began his practice in Tazewell. Five years later, in 1907, he moved his practice to Burkburnett, Texas where he was regarded as the leading physician of the place.
Dr. McGehee was a physician for the railroad, and in the matter of public service he was also active as the city health physician as well as being assistant county health officer.
Dr. McGehee was a member of the Baptist church and had a membership in the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Woodmen of the World. He was a Democrat but devoted little time to politics of the community beyond the demands of good citizenship in which quality he is not surpassed by any according to a statement recorded in a historical ledger.
Along with lives revealing virtues of responsibility, accountability, initiative, and exploration, and success, several lives from both sides of my family tree were marked with tragedy. Along with an early death of a wife and early deaths of several children, two of the male descendants died in a tragic way. One committed suicide and one died from extensive burns sustained from a gasoline explosion.
Most of the family males were farmers or self employed in a professional career such as store owner, doctor, dry cleaners owner, and engineers. The women worked in their homes as homemakers except for two great-grandmothers who worked in retail, one great-grandmother who worked in a family owned dry cleaners, one grandmother who taught school for thirty years, one grandmother who worked in a family owned engineering firm and my mother who is a curriculum director in education.
Female births dominate one side of my family and male births dominate the other side of my family tree. Since I am one of fourteen grandchildren on one side of my family and one of five grandchildren on the other side of my family, I know that our heritage and family history will continue to provide interesting stories for generations to come.
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