The Early Years of Mary Bernice Pyles
by Jimmy Don Ward
January 2013
My mother, Mary Bernice Pyles, was born on February 11, 1902, on her family’s farm just north
of Whitesboro, Texas. She was the youngest of 5 children of John Locke Pyles and Mary Ellen
Ward Pyles. She came along late in the family, being 10 years younger than the next oldest
sibling. Below is a photo of my mother at 3 months of age. My mother would go mostly by her
middle name, Bernice, or Bernie. Her children usually called her Mother. Mother grew up in a
middle class farm family, had many friends and relatives around, and generally had a happy
childhood from what I could reason.
Mary Bernice Ward’s Early Years in Whitesboro, Texas
Mother’s father, John Locke Pyles, had moved to north Texas with his sister’s family and
mother, from Georgia, following the Civil War. Mother’s mother, Mary Ellen Ward, had moved
to the North Texas area with her parents’ family, from Indiana, during the winter of 1876-1877.
Mary Ellen Ward’s father, William Simpson Ward, died soon thereafter. Mary Ellen Ward’s
mother, Lovica Cooley Ward, and she then lived with family and friends, and Lovica remarried,
although she divorced before too long.
Mary Ellen Ward met my grandfather, John Locke Pyles, while she was staying in the household
of John Pyles’ sister. Mary Ward and John Pyles married soon thereafter, in 1881, and started
their own family.
John Locke Pyles appeared to have been a good farmer, for the family was of moderate wealth.
He had three healthy sons to help out on the farm. A 1908 land plat is shown below. The J. L.
Pyles plat in at the upper center portion, under the bolder vertically printed name of BERRY.
Notice an east-west road on the northern edge of the property, and a creek on both the eastern
and southern boundaries. The biography summary of J. L. Pyles in the plat book also is shown
below.
Below is a satellite view and roads of the old Pyles farm, as displayed by MapQuest in 2012.
Note U.S. Highway 377 which runs north out of Whitesboro toward Oklahoma, and Orchard
Road which goes along the northern edge of the old property. The creeks are quite evident on
the eastern and southern boundaries. Small lakes are shown along the eastern creek.
Here is a nice photograph of the Pyles family when Mother was a little girl. It shows the farm
house, which I believe was better than it really appears here. From left to right, her mother Mary
Ellen Ward Pyles, her father John Locke Pyles, her sister Gertrude, her brothers John and Will,
my mother Bernice, and her brother Cecil.
Same day, about 1910, probably on an Easter Sunday of the children – (l-r) Cecil, Will,
Gertrude, John, and my mother Bernice.
My mother’s father, John Locke Pyles, was a hardy man at aged 73, still working on his farm.
On a hot, summer August afternoon, he decided to cool off in a stock tank. During this cooling
off dunk or swim or such, John Locke Pyles experienced a stroke, and he died a day or two later.
He had survived many months as a fighting soldier in the Confederate Army, had migrated from
a devastated Georgia to Texas with his mother and sister’s family, and had headed a family and
built a farm.
Below is a photograph taken on the day of John Locke Pyles’ funeral. My mother (age 11 years)
is standing behind and just to the right of chair with the baby, with her hand resting on the back
of the chair. My grandmother is not in the photograph.
My Mother’s Teen Years
The best that I could tell from my mother’s telling of her childhood, it was a fairly happy life.
Although her father had died while she was only 11 years old, she still had a home on a good
farm with friends nearby and older siblings to help her mother and her.
My mother and her mother did not particularly get along really well. Also, it was tradition for
the youngest child, particularly a youngest daughter, to stay and care for any surviving parent.
Mother’s sister, who was 20 years older than my mother, and my mother were very close, and
she gave my mother the attention growing up that my mother needed.
Below is a photograph taken around 1916 with my grandmother’s young grandchildren. My
mother is standing directly behind her sitting mother. She seems to have such a forlorn look on
her face; perhaps she had met my father by then.
Below is a photo taken around 1918. My father likely had met my mother by this time, and was
courting her.