By late April, a month into our project, Ginger and I had made several trips out to the Wilks Cemetery and were equally charmed by that lovely spot in the woods and apprehensive of what we knew the future held. Our work had been focused on photographing the cemetery, mapping its layout, and finding out as much as we could about the people buried there. Coming home from a visit on 4/20/2018, I decided to see if I could find any living descendants of the Wilks. It seemed the next natural step. I began my search on Saturday, 4/21, and hit pay dirt almost immediately. Not only did I find a reference, I found a phone number. Mrs. Beulah Olive Dizmond Hipp, a daughter of Winnie Wilks Dizmond, and her husband, Mr. Ken Maynard Hipp, were apparently alive and well and living in Bonham. My heart raced with excitement and yet I debated with myself for some time before I picked up the phone - could I call someone out of the blue, tell them that I was researching their history, and brazenly ask to come visit them? Apparently, I could. Even though I had to screw up my courage to do it, I called.
Mrs. Hipp was very nice, confirmed that Winnie Wilks was her mother, and agreed to visit with Ginger and I. After conferring with Ginger, I called the Hipps on Sunday to arrange a date. Mr. Hipp answered the phone this time, and I could tell he was a bit skeptical of the whole situation, but he was kind, and the meeting was arranged. On Monday, 4/23, Ginger, David Cook, and I went to visit the Hipps in their home north of Bonham.
What a wonderful visit! They allowed David and Ginger to videotape while we chatted about the Wilks family, memories of growing up in Lamasco and Fannin County, the coming lake, and the cemetery. Mrs. Hipp mentioned early on that of her siblings only she and her older sister, Florence, remained living. While we were chatting, the phone rang. The caller turned out to be Florence and we had the pleasure of speaking to her as well.
After spending so much time in the cemetery and doing so much research, I felt such a kinship for the Wilks family, and speaking to actual members of the family was a special treat. We parted with plans to speak again and to take the Hipps out to the cemetery. Mrs. Hipp’s last visit there having been in the 1970s with her mother.
Visiting with Beulah in Her Home, photo by Ginger Sisco Cook.
The following Sunday I called the Hipps to arrange the trip to the cemetery and was told that Florence had passed away on Friday night. It was an unexpected blow after having just chatted with her a few days before. I felt sad down to my roots and could only try to imagine the terrible loss that Beulah felt. Our chat was quick and somber, but we did arrange the visit to the Cemetery for the next day.
At the appointed hour, I picked up Beulah and drove her out to the cemetery where Ginger and David Cook were to meet us. Mr. Hipp did not feel well enough to join us, so it was just the two of us driving out to Carson. We chatted as if we had known each other for years. Arriving at the Cemetery, David & Ginger were able to videotape Beulah talking about her family and previous visits to the cemetery with her parents. She recalled her father driving a wagon hitched to a team of horses - everyone crowded in the wagon bed - down to the cemetery for a day of cleaning and tidying the graves and the grounds. Looking up in wonder at the towering trees around us, she told us that In those days there were no trees in the cemetery. Any sapling that tried to get a start was promptly removed. She also talked about there being a different way of coming into the cemetery than the way we had come, skirting the grounds and entering from the east side. Mr. Hipp had also mentioned there being a well traveled road down into the Bottom that served the family farms in the area and that passed by the cemetery. it seems there was once a much more established road and a formal entrance to the grounds on the west. There are some fallen timbers and remnants of a fairly substantial fence in the area to the west of the cemetery today, but it is hard to say what they are. They could mark the old entrance or they could simply be an abandoned cattle corral.
Beulah and Wanda at Beulah’s Grandmother’s (Florence Wilks) Grave, video still by Ginger Sisco Cook.
Wrapping up that day, I assumed there would be more visits with Beulah in future, but I had a long stretch of demanding work days, Ginger was also juggling a full schedule, and the one time I called to see if I could drop by, I caught Beulah on a busy day. The weeks slipped away into months, and one morning my husband drew my attention to an obituary in the paper. Beulah had passed away in her home on Oct. 30, 2018, at the age of 81.
The visit we made to the cemetery was not Beulah’s last visit however. North Texas Municipal Water District arranged a visit to the cemetery for family members in late July. Ginger and I were not part of that event, but it was captured by a member of the Fannin County Historical Commission who did attend. I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall that day as the family members gathered and reminisced. I’m sure it was a happy day. As I write this post on Thanksgiving Day, I am grateful for my brief acquaintance with Beulah Hipp. May you rest in peace, Sweet Lady.
Wilks Family Visit to Wilks Cemetery, photo by Larry Standlee.
Story by Wanda Holmes Oliver.