Mary Aurelia Blaydes Castellaw

Photo: Mary Aurelia Blaydes Castellaw with some of her grandchildren, photo credit: Lynn Graves /

Lynn Graves, one of my many Castellaw cousins, recently found the photo above among his mother’s belongings. Lynn and I both descend from my third great-grandparents, Thomas Jefferson “T. J.” Castellaw (1808-1878) and Mary Elizabeth Cole Castellaw (1809-1875).

The older woman seated in the photograph is Mary Aurelia Blaydes Castellaw (1848-1933), the wife of T. J. and Mary’s son Jeremiah Fletcher Castellaw (1847-1915).

From Virginia to West Tennessee

Photo of Mary Castellaw, right, and two relatives who are unidentified, taken in Ennis, Texas; photo credit: Louise Kay Horton

Mary Aurelia Blaydes was born Feb. 22, 1848, in Virginia to Jesse Bill Blaydes (1811-1865) and Lucy Ann Rebecca Key Coleman Blaydes (1822-1899).

Census information associated with the family places her in Orange County, Virginia, in 1850. By 1860, she was living with her family in District 11 of Haywood County, Tennessee, with the household’s post office listed as “Belles Depot.”

Mary’s move from Virginia to Tennessee occurred during a period when many families were relocating west in search of farmland and economic opportunity. By the time the 1860 census was taken, Mary was 12 and living in the same section of Haywood County where she would spend most of the rest of her life.

Her father died Aug. 27, 1865, near Richmond in Hanover County, Virginia. Just weeks later, Mary married Jeremiah Fletcher Castellaw. Mary was 17. Jeremiah was 18.

Post-Civil War Marriage

Jeremiah was born May 28, 1847, in Haywood County. He was a son of Thomas Jefferson Castellaw and Mary Elizabeth Cole Castellaw and a younger brother of my second great-grandfather, Thomas Jefferson “Tom” Castellaw Jr. (1841-1879).

Like many young couples in West Tennessee, they began married life in a community still recovering from war, emancipation, economic disruption and the collapse of the agricultural system that had supported many of the county’s white landowning families.

Jeremiah Fletcher Castellaw and Mary Aurelia Blaydes Castellaw in Ennis, Texas

Jeremiah and Mary, or “Puss” as it seems her friends and family called her, became the parents of nine known children: Lucy Albina “Bina” Castellaw Cobb (dates unavailable), Egbert Osborne Castellaw (1869-1941), Thomas Jefferson Castellaw (1871-1970), John Coleman “Jack” Castellaw (1873-1951), Charles Castellaw (dates unavailable), Arthur Fletcher Castellaw (dates unavailable), Myrtle Castellaw (dates unavailable), Jelks Flournoy Castellaw (1888-1966) and Jessie Bibb Castellaw Shettlesworth (1890-1971).

Some names and dates vary among family trees, census records and published family accounts. The obituary published after Mary’s death named five surviving children: E. E. and T. J. Castellaw of Haywood County, J. C. Castellaw of Ennis, Texas, Jelks Castellaw of Gilmer, Texas, and Mrs. J. H. Shettlesworth of Vicksburg, Mississippi.¹

The initials “E. E.” in the obituary were probably intended to identify Egbert Osborne Castellaw.

The obituary did not name Mary’s children who had died before her, including her daughter Bina and at least some of the other children listed in family records.

Back row: Lucy Albina “Bina” Castellaw Cobb and Albert “Al” Lafayette Cobb, Arthur Fletcher Castellaw, Jack Castellaw, Thomas Jefferson “Tom” and Helen Moody Castellaw, Rosie Whitamose (girl the Castellaws raised) and Egbert Castellaw; front row: Paul Cobb & Flynn Cobb, Jelks F. Castellaw, Jeremiah Fletcher Castellaw, Charlie Castellaw (in framed photo) Mary Aurelia “Pus” Castellaw, and Jessie Beatrice Castellaw. (Myrtle Castellaw died when a small child).

I have written in the past about Jelks and Mary migrating to Texas then and returning home to the Holly Grove community leaving some of their family back in Texas. Their home and farm stood on Poplar Corner Road, about half a mile from Holly Grove Baptist Church.

In 1900, Jeremiah and Mary donated land west of Holly Grove Baptist Church for use as a cemetery. The cemetery remains in use, and many members of my Castellaw, Watridge, Williams and related ancesters are buried there.

Jeremiah died in 1915 and was buried in Holly Grove Cemetery. Mary remained in the community for another 18 years.

The grandchildren in the photograph

The young girl seated immediately to Mary’s left in the photograph at the top of the page is Lynn Graves’ mother. Standing behind Mary is her grandson Jack Pender Castellaw (1905-1927), the son of John Coleman “Jack” Castellaw and Eliza “Janie” Pender Castellaw (1880-1969). At the time the photo was taken, no one knew that young Jack would soon become part of a tragedy remembered at Baylor University still today.

Jack Pender Castellaw, one of Baylor University’s Immortal Ten who was killed in 1927

On Jan. 22, 1927, Jack joined Baylor basketball players, coaches and supporters traveling by bus to Austin for a game against the University of Texas. As the bus passed through Round Rock, Texas, it entered a railroad crossing in the path of a passenger train. The train struck the bus, killing 10 Baylor students, including Jack. Baylor continues to honor the Immortal Ten as part of its Homecoming traditions. A memorial installed on campus in 2007 depicts the 10 young men and preserves their story for new generations of students. You can read more about the tradgedy in this blog post.

Mary’s final years

Mary continued living in the Holly Grove community after Jeremiah’s death.

Nashville Banner, June 3, 1933, 5.

Her obituary reported that she died at her home on a Tuesday morning at age 85. The date was May 30, 1933. The brief notice described her as a Virginia native and identified her by her maiden name, Mary Blades, using the more common phonetic spelling rather than the family’s “Blaydes.”

Mary was buried beside Jeremiah in the cemetery they had helped establish more than three decades earlier.

She had lived through the Civil War, Reconstruction, the arrival of railroads and automobiles, the movement of several children to Texas and Mississippi, the deaths of her husband and children and the nationally reported disaster that claimed her grandson.

When Mary was born in 1848, Tennessee had been a state for just over half a century. By the time she died in 1933, Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945) was president, Americans were listening to radios in their homes and the country was struggling through the Great Depression.

For more of my genealogy research, visit rscottwilliams.info.