Photo of Mary Aurelia Blaydes Castellaw and Jack Pender Castellaw

Photo/Lynn J. Graves

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Mary Aurelia Blaydes Castellaw with her grandchildren

Lynn Graves is one of my many Castellaw cousins that descend from my third great-grandparents, Thomas Jefferson "T.J." Castellaw (1808 - 1878) and Mary Elizabeth Cole (1809 - 1875). He recently found this photo of one of his Castellaw ancestors in some of his mother's belongings.

The older lady in the photo, Mary Aurelia Blaydes Castellaw, was born Feb. 22, 1848 in Virginia. 

By Oct. 5, 1865 she was in Haywood County, Tennessee where she married Jeremiah Fletcher Castellaw, one of T.J. and Mary Castelaw's sons. He was one of the brothers of my second great-grandfather, Thomas Jefferson "Tom" Castellaw, Jr.

In 1900, Jeremiah and Mary donated the land west of the Holly Grove Baptist Church in Haywood County, Tennessee to be used as the cemetery. It's still in use today and many of relatives are buried there.

Jeremiah and Mary were the parents of nine children; Lucy Albina "Bina", Egbert O., Thomas Jefferson "Tom," Jack Coleman, Charles, Authur Fletcher, Myrtle, Jelks F. and Jessie Beatrice. 

Immediately to Mary's left in the above photo is Lynn's mother and directly behind her is her grandson, Jack Pender Castellaw, from her son, Jack Coleman Castellaw.

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Jack Pender Castellaw

Sadly, Jack Pender Castellaw was one of ten Baylor University basketball players who lost his life in a bus accident in 1927. The players are now referred to as "The Immortal Ten."

On Jan. 22, 1927, coach Ralph Wolf was taking his first Baylor basketball team to play a game in Austin against the University of Texas. 

Rain hampered the vision of the chartered bus driver as debris from the road sprayed the windshield of the bus. In Round Rock, Texas, just miles from the team's arrival in Austin, a speeding train from the I&GA Railroad Company rammed into the side of the bus at a railway crossing near the center of the city. 

Ten of the 21 players, coaches and fans in the Baylor party that traveled on the bus that day were killed. Source

At the first student assembly each fall at Baylor, they still set out empty chairs for each of the Immortal Ten and the university dedicated a large memorial to them in 2007.

Mary Castellaw died on May 30, 1933 in Haywood County. 

You can read much more about Jeremiah and Mary Castellaw and their family in the Castellaw section of my website.

For more blog entries, visit my Blog Home Page or to check out the genealogy research about my specific family lines, go to my Haywood County Line Genealogy Website.