Several times a week , with the labors of the day completed and evening closing in around their Annetta farmhouse , former slave and Buffalo Soldier Lawson D . Gratz would read to his children , something daughter Ella Mae never forgot . She would always recall those intimate moments , the flickering yellow light of the fireplace , the kerosene lanterns , and the books her father cradled in his rough hands as he sought to broaden his children ’ s horizons . He kindled within her a lifelong passion for reading and the power it imparted . Little did he know that one day a library would bear his daughter ’ s name .
Born May 19 , 1903 in Annetta , some nine miles southeast of the county seat of Weatherford , Ella Mae Gratts * was the 12th of 14 siblings . Her father , who ’ d lived a rather remarkable life , was a strong influence . Born a slave in 1839 , the property of Kentucky industrialist Benjamin Gratz , Lawson Gratz worked as a farmhand until his master enlisted him in the Union
“ But you know what , given what her father went through as a slave , Civil War soldier and Buffalo Soldier , probably the stories and the life he lived made her strong enough to handle situations like that . Because , what else could you do ? You had to just live and press forward or give up , and she wasn ’ t the kind of person to give up .”
Army , the 114th US Colored Infantry stationed at Fort Nelson , Ky .
Proving himself a capable soldier , Gratz became a “ Black Dispatch ,” traveling between North and South to report on Confederate troop movements , a very dangerous job — secret agent-type stuff . According to family sources , Gratz was present at Appomattox Courthouse April , 9 , 1865 , when Gen . Robert E . Lee surrendered to Gen . Ulysses S . Grant , effectively ending the bloody Civil War . In May 1865 , First Sergeant Lawson D . Gratz mustered out of the military , but later , in 1867 , rejoined the army , ultimately ending up in the Tenth Cavalry as a Buffalo Soldier . He served in the Indian Wars of the West , fighting Kiowas , Cheyennes , Comanches and Apaches . Gratz left the army in 1873 , separating at Fort Richardson , Jacksboro , Texas .
A free man , Gratz drifted west to wild Fort Griffin where he took employment hauling buffalo hides between the fort and Weatherford and Dallas . Some four years later , on Sept . 27 , 1877 , he took a 16-year-
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TEXAS BUTANE CO ., INC . Morris & Judy V . ( Kemp ) White South Side Square • 103 W . Church • Weatherford , Texas 76086 Propane Sales & Service Since 1958
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AUGUST 2018 PARKER COUNTY TODAY
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