Florence Alice Clarkson Groos: a Liverpool merchant's eldest daughter in San Antonio

Florence Alice Clarkson's birth and death records give her birthplace as Texas and her birth date as January 7, 1886. She was the eldest of William Banton Clarkson's and Alice Ann (Peaple) Clarkson's seven children. The 1900 census found her, 14, in the family's Houston Ward 3 household alongside her parents and six younger siblings, including her brothers Herbert and Percy, both later Army generals.

Bexar County issued the marriage license for Florence A. Clarkson and Fred C. Groos on January 9, 1907 (Marriage Records, vol. U, p. 619, certificate 24661). The Houston Post of Sunday, January 13, 1907 reprinted a report from the San Antonio Express: "The wedding of Miss Florence A. Clarkson and Frederick C. Groos was a beautiful and brilliant function, which was solemnized Wednesday evening at the home of the bride's parents, Mr. and Mrs. W. B. Clarkson, 213 Washington street." The Wednesday before that Sunday was January 9, the day the license was issued, so they married that evening. The family record's January 13 is the date of the Houston paper. The family's wedding photographs are the oldest images held of her. Their son was born in San Antonio on June 22, 1913. His birth was first registered only as a Groos child of "F. Groos" and "Miss Clarkson"; a 1969 amendment, requested by his uncle Gus J. Groos, gives his name as Gus Julius Groos Jr. and his parents as Frederick Carl Groos and Florence Alice Clarkson.

Still in San Antonio, 1930

By April 2, 1930, Florence, now 44, was living at 213 Washington Street in San Antonio, her father's house. William Banton Clarkson, 71 and widowed since his wife Alice's death in 1922, owned the property; the census lists Florence there with him.

Florence at her father's death, 1933

Florence was 47 when her father, William Banton Clarkson, died at 213 Washington Street on September 8, 1933; his death certificate names her as the informant. The following day's Fort Worth Star-Telegram listed her among his seven surviving children and reported ten grandchildren. His grave marker gives the same death date.

Florence's death in San Antonio, 1964

Her death certificate records that Florence died at Nix Memorial Hospital in San Antonio on March 8, 1964, aged 78. The previous day, a car had pinned her against the outside wall of a nursing home on Nueces Street. Her husband, Fred C. Groos, was the death-certificate informant. She was buried at Mission Burial Park on March 9.

About the evidence

The censuses, birth and death records, newspaper notice and family photographs support this account. The marriage on January 9, 1907 is Confirmed by the Bexar County license of that day and the newspaper's "Wednesday evening." The January 7, 1886, birth date used here differs from the June 1886 census statement described on her mother's page.

Sources

• 1900 U.S. Federal Census, Houston Ward 3, Harris County, Texas.
• 1930 U.S. Federal Census, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas.
• Texas, U.S., Birth Certificates, 1903-1932, Gus Julius Groos Jr., 1913.
• Texas, U.S., Death Certificates, 1903-1982, William Banton Clarkson, 1933.
• "Retired Cotton Broker Expires," Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 9 September 1933.
• Texas, U.S., Death Certificates, 1903-1982, Florence Alice Clarkson Groos, 1964.
• Find a Grave memorial 80747801.
• Bexar County, Texas, Marriage Records, vol. U, p. 619, certificate 24661: license of Florence A. Clarkson and Fred C. Groos, 9 January 1907 (Texas, U.S., Select County Marriage Records, 1837-1965; Ancestry).
• "Clarkson-Groos," The Houston Post, 13 January 1907, p. 44, reprinting the San Antonio Express (Newspapers.com image 94974974).
• Family wedding photographs, dated by the family to 13 January 1907.