Bible of Gladys R. McLean

THE BIBLE OF MRS. DALLAS DUNCAN McLEAN (Gladys Robertson McLean) by Malcolm D. McLean [This article was published in THE CHISHOLM TRAIL, quarterly of the Williamson County Genealogical Society, Round Rock, Texas, P. O. Box 585, Round Rock, TX 78680, Vol. 8, No. 3 (Winter, 1989), pp. 103-108.] **************************************************************

[Following is a portion of the cover letter Dr. McLean sent with this article. We appreciate Dr. McLean's contributions to The Chisholm Trail. --Editor]

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I should explain that my mother, Gladys (Robertson) McLean was a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Maclin Robertson, Sr., who lived in the Robertson Home in Salado. The two older daughters, Mary Elizabeth and Gladys, were sent to the College of Industrial Arts in Denton (now Texas Woman's University), but that did not work out too well because Denton was too far from home, and Mary Elizabeth got so homesick that she refused to go back after the holidays. Gladys was eager to continue, but her parents would not let her go back without her older sister.

Then Grandpapa bought what they called "the Jones Place" in Georgetown and moved down there to educate the five younger children: Birdie, Maclin, Jr., Sterling ("Rock"), Alice ("Bitsey"), and Gordon ("Little Rock"). The boys got their nicknames from the way they tackled on the football field. Alice got hers from her petite figure. Alice married Philip Sneed, of Georgetown, who was killed in an automobile accident. Then she married J. M. West, Jr., who had also attended Southwestern University.

Gladys (Robertson) McLean's grandson, John R. McLean, his wife Ellen, and their two sons (Malcolm H. and Douglas D. McLean) live on a ranch two miles south of Jarrell. The two boys attended high school in Georgetown. Therefore you can see that this article ties in closely, both with the history and the present residents of Williamson County. Cordially,

Malcolm D. McLean, Head

ROBERTSON COLONY COLLECTION

The University of Texas at Arlington

This week we decided to have my mother's Bible rebound. It is a huge tome, 12 inches high, 10 inches wide, and 4 inches thick, weighing slightly more than ten pounds, with board covers that have become detached, and the leather covering them is rapidly disintegrating into dust. On the spine it had once been marked: "COMBINATION EDITION," but most of those letters had already flaked off. On the front it is stamped in gold: "HOLY BIBLE." Inside, following the green marbled boards and a tattered blank leaf, there is a page ornately decorated in green, black, and gold, which reads: P R E S E N T E D

TO;

Gladys McLean ----------------------------

By:

Dallas D. McLean _____________________ Sept. 24, 1912 ______________________

Then comes a full-page depiction of "MOSES AND THE TABLES OF THE LAW." The next page is labeled: "PICTORIAL FAMILY BIBLE," in many colors. The title page reads:

SELF-PRONOUNCING EDITION. IN WHICH ALL THE PROPER NAMES ARE DIVIDED, ACCENTED, AND MARKED WITH THE VOWEL SOUNDS, SHOWING HOW THEY SHOULD BE PRONOUNCED. TRADE COMBINATION MARK HOLY BIBLE SHOWING IN SIMPLE FORM ALL CHANGES, ADDITIONS AND OMISSIONS THAT APPEAR IN THE REVISED VERSION, ENABLING ALL BIBLE READERS TO SEE AT A GLANCE WHEREIN THE TWO VERSIONS DIFFER. CONTAINING The Old and New Testaments. TRANSLATED OUT OF THE ORIGINAL TONGUES, AND WITH THE FORMER TRANSLATIONS DILIGENTLY COMPARED AND REVISED. CONFORMABLE TO THE EDITION OF 1611, COMMONLY KNOWN AS THE AUTHORIZED OR KING JAMES VERSION. COPIOUS MARGINAL REFERENCES, CHRONOLOGICAL TABLES AND MANY IMPORTANT AND VALUABLE AIDS TO THE STUDY OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. WRITTEN TO INCREASE THE INTEREST AND SIMPLIFY THE WORD OF GOD [Figure inscribed: HOLY BIBLE, THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD.] THE SOUTHWESTERN CO. PUBLISHERS AND BOOKSELLERS NASHVILLE, TENN.

On the verso, at the foot of the page, is this line: "Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1895, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington."

Following page 872, between the Old and New Testaments, I found a page reading as follows:

THIS CERTIFIES

That _________________________________________________

of ___________________________________________________

and __________________________________________________

of ____________________________________________________

WERE JOINED TOGETHER BY ME IN THE BONDS OF MATRIMONY

At__________ on the _____ day of _____ in the year of our Lord 19____

In Presence of Signed

______________________ _________________________

But this form had not been filled out, probably because Dallas Duncan McLean and Gladys Robertson had already been married on May 1, 1911, by Rev. Morphis, over a year before Dallas presented this Bible to Gladys on September 24, 1912, as will be shown below, and the Rev. Morphis was no longer available to fill out the form. [The purchase of the Bible was probably motivated by the discovery that I was on the way to be born, on March 10, 1913.]

Since this form had not been completed in the Bible, I wrote to Vada Sutton, County Clerk of Bell County, to see if the Reverend Morphis had returned the license to be recorded in Belton, the county seat of the county in which the marriage had been performed. By return mail Ms. Sutton informed me that the license had, indeed, been recorded there, in Book S. Page 373. The certified copy which she sent reads as follows:

The State of Texas

County of Bell

To any Regularly Licensed or Ordained minister of the Gospel, Jewish Rabbi, Judge of the District or County Court, or any Justice of the Peace, in and for Bell County-----GREETING;

You are Hereby Authorized to solemnize the rites of matrimony

Between

Mr. Dallas Duncan McLean and Miss Gladys Robertson

and make due return to the Clerk of the County Court of Said County within sixty days thereafter, certifying your action under this License.

Seal WITNESS my official signature and seal of office, in Belton the 28 day of April 1911

Hugh Harris Clerk of the County Court Bell County,

By Albert McKay Jr. Deputy.

______________________________________________________

I, Wm. J. Morphis, hereby certify that on the 1st day of May 1911 I united in marriage Dallas Duncan McLean and Miss Gladys Robertson the parties named above.

WITNESS my hand this 4th day of May 1911

Wm. J. Morphis

Preacher in Charge Salado Circuit

_______________________________________________________

Returned and filed for record the 4th day of May 1911, and recorded the 5th day of May 1911.

Hugh Harris County Clerk.

By Maude S. Dooley Deputy.

________________________________________________________

[Endorsed:]

THE STATE OF TEXAS

COUNTY OF BELL

I, Vada Sutton, Clerk of the County Court, in and for Bell County Texas hereby certify that the above is a correct copy of the record of the Marriage License as the same appears of Record in Book S Page 373 of the Marriage License Records of Bell County Texas

GIVEN under my hand and seal of office in the City of Belton, Bell County, Texas, this 4th day of Oct. 1988

Vada Sutton, County Clerk, Bell County, Texas

by L. Brown Deputy

________________________________________________________

Other pages between the Old and New Testaments of that Bible contained the following entries:

M A R R I A G E S

Married - Dallas Duncan McLean and Gladys Robertson, May 1st, 1911, at Salado, Texas, by Rev. Morphis.

Malcolm McLean and Mary Margaret Stoner, Feb. 11th, 1939 at Montell, Texas

Robert Dawson Eis and Gladyne McLean May 18th 1939 near Rogers, Texas

John Robertson McLean and Ellen Claire Miles, September 3, 1966, Corpus Christi, Texas.

James Cornelius Reed and Gladyne McLean Eis, October 31, 1952.

B I R T H S

Dallas Duncan McLean was born August 28th, 1890, near Rodgers [Rogers],Texas.

Gladys R. McLean was born May 13th, 1890, near Salado, Tex.

Malcolm Dallas McLean, son of Dallas Duncan McLean and Gladys R. McLean, was born March xxth, 1913, near Rodgers [Rogers], Texas.

Gladyne Gwendolyn McLean, daughter of Dallas and Gladys R. McLean, was born July xx, 1915 near Rogers, Texas.

Douglas Keith McLean, son of Gladys R. and Dallas D. McLean was born April 2nd, 1923 at Belton, Texas.

Sterling Robertson McLean, son of Gladys R. and Dallas D. McLean, born Feb. xxth, 1931 at Belton, Tex.

D E A T H S

Gladys Robertson McLean, died at 513® S. 10 St., Kingsville, Texas, on December 5, 1967, at 77 years of age, and was buried in the Robertson Family Cemetery, Salado, Texas.

Dallas Duncan McLean died at 10:20 a.m. on Monday, February 5, 1979, at 88 years of age, at the home of his son, Dr. Sterling R. McLean, 1501 South Wall Street, Belton, Texas. He was buried on Wednesday, February 7, 1979, at 10:00 a.m., in the Jefferson Reed Family Cemetery, Joe Lee, Bell County, Texas.

Douglas Keith McLean died at 7:27 p.m., July 31, 1981, in King's Daughters Hospital, Temple, Texas, and was buried in the Salado, Texas, Cemetery on August 2, 1981, in a grave just inside the north entrance, in the fourth space on the lefthand side of the road.

M E M O R A N D A .

Maclin Robertson [Sr.] was born July 26th, 1860 at Salado, Texas-- died April 25th, 1923 at Salado

Alice Woods Robertson [Mrs. Maclin Robertson, Sr.] was born February 13, 1868 in Washington Co. died May 31st, 1933 in Austin, Texas.

Roberta, daughter of Gladyne McLean and Robert D. Eis was born Sept. xx, 1940 at Austin, Texas

Children of John R. McLean and Ellen Miles McLean:

1. Malcolm Hugh McLean, born Wednesday, July xx, 1968, at 11:42 a.m., in Houston, Texas.

2. Douglas Duncan McLean, born Sunday, February xx 1971, at 6:30 a.m., in Houston, Texas

_________________________________________________________

Since we were going to have this Bible rebound, I thought it would be a good idea to examine it page by page and take out any items that might have been placed in it for safekeeping, and over toward the back of the book I found a printed leaflet which reads as follows:

HOW TO OPEN A BOOK.

Place the book on a smooth or covered table; let the front side down, then the under side, holding the leaves loosely in one hand while you open a few leaves at the end of the book, then a few at the front, and so on, alternately opening end and front gently till you reach the centre of the volume.

Do this two or three times and you will obtain the best results. If you open the book violently or carelessly you may break the back and cause the leaves to start. Never force the back of a book.

Many years ago a connoisseur, an excellent customer of ours, who thought he knew how to handle books, called on us when we had an expensive binding, just brought from our bindery, ready to be sent to a customer. He took hold of the volume, and tightly holding the leaves in his hands, instead of allowing them free play, opened it in the centre and exclaimed: "How beautifully your bindings open!" He had broken the back of the book and it had to be rebound!".

Heeding the foregoing advice, we took the Bible to a xerox machine and copied the pages containing the manuscript entries BEFORE having the volume rebound. ---oOo---

[NOTE: Dr. and Mrs. McLean have now retired and are living at 206 Golden Oaks Drive, Georgetown, TX 78628-3320, where the handsomely rebound volume is available to researchers.].