Cockrell family honors common ancestor

CORRIGAN -- On the tradi-tional Cockrell family reunion day members of the family gathered at the Union Springs Cemetery to honor their com-mon ancestor, Elisha Wood Cockrell, on attaining post-humous membership in the Daughters of the Republic of Texas. Elisha was the great-grand-daughter of James A. Truitt, a leader in Texas during the Re-public and in the early years of statehood. A state historical marker at the Truitt Cemetery in Shelby County documents his service. This is a new membership now available, and since fi ve mem-bers of the family have joined the William Carroll Crawford Chapter of the DRT, they de-cided to apply for membership for their family member. They have enjoyed getting to know other Truitt descendants in this chapter. The memorial medallion is placed on the graves of all members of the DRT and the family reunion day seemed the best time to do this and have as many people as possible wit-ness the ceremony. The ceremony included pledges to both the American and Texas fl ags which were provided by the Piney Woods Chapter of the Sons of the Re-public of Texas in Tyler. One descendant’s husband, David Hanover, is a member of that chapter and also the current state president of the Sons of the Republic of Texas. David generously loaned these fl ags for the ceremony and men-tioned that they had fi rst fl own over the United States Capitol building and the Texas State Capitol. He also brought greet-ings from the state president of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas to the group.Other items on the program included scripture readings, a history of the DRT, a Family Proclamation honoring Elisha Wood Cockrell for her heritage and her infl uence on the fam-ily. This proclamation was signed by her twelve surviving grand-children with signature pages available for each generation of grandchildren to sign. These signatures will be attached to the original document and be-come part of the Cockrell Fam-ily History which is currently being developed. In addition, the ceremony in-cluded a biographical reading, the placing of yellow roses on the headstone, and the unveil-ing of the medallion by Allen W. Cockrell, Jr., the oldest sur-viving grandchild, and a call to remembrance. Participants in the program included: Janie Cockrell, Janie Cockrell Brit-tain, Rita Cockrell Drabek, Jody Cockrell, Wanda Cockrell Clamon, Rhoda Peebles Tuffl y, Carolyn Cockrell Elmore, San-dra Cockrell Sherman, Elisha Burris Bell, Allen W. Cockrell, Jr., and Billy Mac Cockrell.The family was very pleased to be part of the fi rst history day for the area and appreciated those who attended that were in town for that event. One of these, Deborah Bur-kett, said, “The dedication, the printed program—all well done! When SFA sent me an in-vitation with the agenda for the day it was your program that sold it for me. I have wanted to meet and talk to members of the DRT for a longtime. Thanks again for such a mov-ing ceremony.” She also stated that she is now preparing her application for membership and for those of us who worked on the pro-gram that was one of our major goals: to inspire others to hon-or their heritage by supporting family and those organizations that recognize family heritage(This article was written by Rita Cockrell Drabek a mem-ber of the Cockrell family)