Third Generation

46. Thomas Bartle Oxley^1,28 was born on 19 Mar 1878 in Kansas.^28,83 He appeared in the census in 1880 in Centerville, Neosho Co., KS.⁷² Listed under Wiley W Oxley as Thomas Bartt, Son, Age 2, Born in KS. He died in 1969.²⁸
[Email from Pat (Hume) Clark - Abt 2001]
From Jenkin came Wilson T Oxley Born 3rd July 1799 Died 29th November 1868. From Wilson came Wiley Wilson Oxley Born 23rd July 1833 Washington Co., Virginia and died 29th July 1899 in Cabool, Missouri. He was married to Martha Fisher who was born 30th December 1843 in Wabash Indiana and died in 1878/9 in Neosha Co, Erie KS. I have a suspicion she died giving birth to my grandfather who was her 4th and youngest son. His name was Thomas Bartle Oxley and he was born on the 19th March 1878. I am trying to trace where he was born but don't have the facilities to check right now. He was my maternal grandfather and left the USA to live in South Africa because he was given land there. I remember him and he lived with my family just before his death in 1969.
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[Email from Pat (Hume) Tade - 12 Apr 2003 ]
My grandfather, Thomas Bartle, was married twice. Before he passed away he lived with us and I knew him. He never lost his American accent, was a tall and stern man but had a secret sense of humour. His favourite pastime was to play Canasta and he was a keen gardener and also loved horse racing. I believe he owned two race horses at one time. One was called Bay Green and the other Arathusa. He loved Arum Lillies and grew fruit when he lived in his house in Durban. (By the way, his house was near the Greyville Race Course in Durban where the Durban July Handicap Race is always run). I remember as a child, being chased away from his flowers and one time, when I was around 4 or 5, asking him what he was doing. He was wielding a long pole with a bag attached to a hoop and with a scythe attached at the very top. He told me gruffly to come and help him cut off some avocadoes. I remember him giving me a big one and showing me how to wrap it in newspaper. He took it away from me and said, since I helped him, the Avocado would be all mine. When it was ripe, he gave it back to me and I have loved them ever since. :-) He died of a 2nd stroke after my grandmother passed away the previous year. I have a note on him that says that he travelled the world, fought and engaged in espionage in the Boer War, settled and became a citizen of the Union of South Africa.
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[Email from Pat (Hume) Tade - 24 Apr 2003]
I can't remember if I told you that my grandfather owned three race horses and his house was very near a racecourse that is famous for it's Durban July horse race. Unfortunately the house was sold and then demolished to make way for a block of apartments. I did visit the area after the apartments were built and I saw that his large avocado tree was still living. I don't know if it still is. His house was in Greyville, Durban, South Africa. Every July they run the July Handicap even to this day. I have no idea if my grandfather's horses ever won or not, but I do know he had three by the names of Aresthusa (Sp) Bay Green and Now Now. By the time I came on the scene, I don't think he owned any. I never heard any mention of him being a heavy gambler in my life so he may have sold them. If there is no rumour in my family then he was probably an above board kind of person. The family seems to make up and spread many rumours but that was not one of them. I even heard that my grandfather had shot a Sheriff and that was why he had to leave America. I think that whoever started that rumour had watched too many cowboy movies or something! Ha ha ha.
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[Email from Joy (Chapple) Jefferies - 18 Mar 2004]
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Yes, you mentioned the spy aspect is interesting. The rumour that my grandfather had shot a sheriff, my brother, Wally said it is a possibility because he could "pack a gun". My sister, Shirley said she heard from my father, Aubrey Alfred Chapple, that it was a Chinaman he had shot. He did travel extensively. My Mother told me that he used to meet with Ghandi in Durban and that she had sat on Ghandi's lap as a little girl and what did he say? "What a fat little girl you are!" Americans used to supply Boers with horses. Wally said that Grandpa told him the Boers would have won if they did not do "trench war". Out of the trenches they always beat the English. As an American he could freely move between the Boers and the English. He married two Boer women. One of French extraction and the other of German or Dutch extraction although both were English speaking. This province is mainly the English speaking and Zulu province and most of the Indians are here. From the Tugela River to the North, it used to be Zululand but now it is all combined into KwaZulu-Natal.

I said my grandfather was an Electrical Engineer but brother Walter said he was an Electrical Linesman for the Corporation.
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[Email from Joy (Chapple) Jefferies - 1 Jul 2004]
When I was a little girl and going to my bus after school, I occasionally saw my grandfather on the top of a massive truck with a hydraulic lift to the overhead wiring in the city and he had a team of workers. There was a box at the top of the lift and he would be busy there doing the overhead wiring. I used to call "Grandpa Oxley" and he used to get his workers to bring the lift down. He would give me a "half-a-crown" money to buy flowers for my Mother and tell me to look after my Mother. He loved flowers and his avocado pear tree. Patty and I have shared memories of his garden. He always talked to me about flowers. Patty said he would chase her away from his precious lilies with his rake but then he showed her how to help him to hook down the avos with his contraption with a net and hook and line. She said it is still her favourite food.
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Thomas Bartle Oxley and Marie Antoinette "Marianne" De Lange were married before 1905 in South Africa.²⁸ They were divorced before 1916.²⁸ Marie Antoinette "Marianne" De Lange was born on 16 Jan 1884 in Dundee, Natal, South Africa.²⁸ About 1905 she had an occupation of milliner in South Africa.²⁸² She died on 12 Jan 1936 in Durban, Natal, South Africa.²⁸ Thomas Bartle Oxley and Marie Antoinette "Marianne" De Lange had the following children:

189	i.	Elbert Wyatt Oxley was born in 1905 in Durban, Natal, South Africa.28 He died in infancy in 1905.282
+190	ii.	Gladys Lillian Oxley.
+191	iii.	Constance Mildred Taxanna Oxley.

Thomas Bartle Oxley and Aletha Cornelia "Lettie" Herbst were married before 1916 in South Africa.²⁸ Aletha Cornelia "Lettie" Herbst was born on 22 Jul 1895 in Ngoma, Zululand, South Africa.²⁸ She died about 1968 in South Africa.²⁸ Thomas Bartle Oxley and Aletha Cornelia "Lettie" Herbst had the following children:

+192	i.	Iris Irene "Bekkie" Oxley.
193	ii.	Avon Thomas "Abie" Oxley was born in 1923.14,282
+194	iii.	Millie Oxley.
+195	iv.	Ada Lillian Oxley.
+196	v.	Renee Oxley.
+197	vi.	June Rose Oxley.
198	vii.	Robert Leith "Bobby" Oxley was born in 1934.14
+199	viii.	Una Ruth Oxley.