Ancestors

James Marion Passmore

James Marion Passmore was born on 2 December 1866 at Louisville in Barbour County, Alabama. He was the first child of Samuel Passmore, who had come home from the Confederate army, and Mary Jane Hagler, who had married him early that year. He went by J. M., or Jim.

Soon after the Civil War the family moved west to San Augustine County in East Texas. In June 1880 the census taker found them at San Augustine: Sam, 36; Mary J., 32; and their children John M., 13, William E., 10, Thomas S., 7, Walter, 4, Francis, 2, and Emma, 1. The census entered the oldest boy as John M. and gave his birthplace as Florida. His brothers were W. A. "Eck," Stephen Thomas "Tom," Walter Jackson "Doss" and Lee Edward Passmore, and his sisters Frances Eudora "Fannie" (later Allen), Emma Elizabeth (later Vail) and Mary Ada (later Page).

Before his second marriage he had two daughters: Mary, born about 1889, and Minnie Rose, called Dama, born in 1894. The name of their mother is not known here. Minnie Rose later married a Vail.

On 16 July 1902, in Panola County, Texas, he married Iola Adkison, a farmer's daughter of that county, fourteen years younger than he was. Their son James Elmer was born at Carthage, the county seat, on 5 October 1903, and Homer Eldridge followed in 1905. In 1910 the family lived in Justice Precinct 1 of Panola County: J. M., 43, born in Alabama; his wife, entered as Ida, 28; Elmer, 6; and Homer, 4.

By 1920 they had moved to Shelby County, next door. The census that year lists Jim M. Passmore, 53, his wife Iola, 38, and their sons Elma, 15, Homer, 13, and Jim M., 7. His daughter Mary, now Mrs. Buckner, 31, was living with them with her small daughters Libby and Mildred. In January 1922 his widowed mother came to stay with him at Center, the Shelby County seat, and died in his house after a week's visit.

Late in life Jim and Iola moved to Cameron County, at the southern tip of Texas on the Rio Grande. The 1940 census found James M. and Iola Passmore in Justice Precinct 5 of that county, and the 1950 census found them there still. James Marion Passmore died at his home in Harlingen on Tuesday, 21 December 1955, after a short illness, nineteen days after his 89th birthday. The Orange Leader, in Orange, Texas, ran the news the next day under the headline "Orangeite's Uncle Dies in Harlingen," because his nephew Sam Vail lived in Orange. It called him "a retired farmer and a member of the Church of Christ" and said he was survived by his widow, three sons and two daughters. His funeral was held at Harlingen on 23 December. He was buried in Harlingen-Combes Memorial Cemetery under a red granite stone he shares with Iola, carved with a Masonic square and compass. Iola outlived him by five years.

If James Marion Passmore is in your family, start your own tree.

Cite: Heirology, "James Marion Passmore (1866-1955)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/james-marion-passmore-1866-1955-c30107.