Kate Selser Currie Gilfoil was born
3/12/1853; died 6/2/1939. She was the second child of Hester and W. C. Currie. She is buried next to her husband, James H. Gilfoil, in Silver Cross Cemetery, Tallulah, Louisiana.
If someone has a better picture of Aunt Kate than this, I wish they'd come forward with it. This is the best that I can do with mine.
1908 Aunt Kate Letter to W. C. and Sallie Gibbens Currie, Sr.
These adorable little girls are Aunt Kate (Kate Selser Currie Gilfoil), standing, and Aunt Leila (Leila Ada Currie Riley), sitting.
(The following is a poem written by Aunt Kate. The type written copy is in Aunt Annie's scrap book, which I have.)
DREAMS OF MY CHILDHOOD
by
Kate S. Gilfoil
I'm dreaming today of my childhood,
��� My childhood so joyous and free,
When I played with my daring sister,
��� Or we sat neath some tall forest tree.
How we loved to stray through the forest,
��� The forest so dark and grand,
Or guide o'er the wild prairies some steed
��� With our strong young hands.
My sister oft rode with the fleetest
��� In that far off Texas land
And would race with our darling brother
��� While I'd be the judge so grand.
And often we were with our Grandfather
��� With his heart so tender and true
To catch the dear little fishes
��� From the Lake with its waters of blue.
And many were the cute little bird nests
��� That oft in our rambles we found.
But never one I remember
��� Did we carelessly pull to the ground.
And Oh! the bright green bonnets
��� We fashioned from leaves so rare,
Then gaily trimmed them with flowers
��� To wear o'er our shining hair
Oh! bright was youth's early morning
��� To my fair young sister and me.
As we lightly sped through the forests
��� Or gaily climbed up some tree.
For our mother was kind to her children,
��� So loving and kind was she
That she ne'er raised single objection
��� To their childish and innocent glee.
And once now well I remember,
��� How I hid in the tall green grass
And tremblingly watched some travelers
��� In a white topped wagon pass.
The grandfather we loved so fondly
��� Has gone to his heavenly home,
For the Angels of God came for him
��� One sunny November morn.
And my lighthearted frolicksome sister
��� Has for years in graveyard lain,
And they fitted a slab of granite
��� O'er the young face now free from pain.
Mother, dear, fond, loving mother,
��� With her heart ever gentle and true,
Is anxiously, eagerly waiting
��� For the angels to come for her too.
The sun in the west is sinking
��� And the shadows are lengthening fast,
And I hear the Kadydids chirrup
��� In the thick velvety grass.
But the joys of my childhood have vanished.
��� They will never return again
And I'm longing to dwell with Jesus
��� In the land where none knoweth pain.
The End
(From this poem, we know that the family was definitely in Texas. But, when, we do not know. There are differing accounts as to where the family was during "the war". Aunt Annie says that they were in Texas from 1862 to 1869 and this is what I want to believe.
The grandfather mentioned in this poem is surely Hester's father, George Selser, who died with the family at Omega, Louisiana on November 29, 1875.
The brother must have been Howard C. Currie, because her half brother, George Selser Richards was nine years older than she and in childhood that's a big difference age wise. And her other half brother, Abe Whitaker Currie, was even older.
The "lighthearted frolicksome sister" must have been Sybelia Antoinette Currie Riley, who did die young after a long illness at the age of 23.
Since Hester was still living when this poem was written, I'm thinking that Aunt Kate would have been about 56 or less.)
Stay tuned there is much more to come on Aunt Kate
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