Son of:
William Hanna "Willie" Madden15 Jun 1849 - 12 Nov 1938 |
Margaret Wilkinson MaddenAug 1852 - 10 Sep 1931 |
Fred was born 25 January 1883 on Matagorda Island.
Frederick John Madden met and later married Dora Lee Davis in Rockport, Texas on 25 September 1907 when Fred was 24 and Dora was 19 years old. Their son Preston Edward was born there on 9 September 1908. They moved to Port O'Connor for Fred to work as a carpenter during the building boom there. They bought a lot there in 1916, but the 1919 hurricane wiped out most of the town and they never built on their lot.
The family was listed as renting a home in the 1920 census in Rockport. By 1923 they had moved to Houston where they lived in a "rooming house" on Fannin St. Their daughter Clara Mae was born there on 13 July 1923. Sometime during WWII they moved closer to Fred's work as a carpenter at the Houston Ship Yard on Ave. W. Their final move was to 101 Bedford St. in Houston where Fred continued to work as a carpenter for a house building company.
This photo was taken in July, 1952 on the Blackjack peninsula in what is now Goose Island State Park. Fred was standing and Ken Bower was sitting in a large live oak tree that Fred said he played in when he lived there as a kid after his family left Matagorda Island.
Fred told me that when they lived there they had a small kitchen garden and some chickens. They shot wild turkeys and hogs and got the rest of their food from the bay; shrimp, oysters, crabs and fish. He built a small sailboat to use to get the seafood.
Fred died on 15 November 1968 from renal failure after being in a nursing home in Pasadena, Texas. He is buried in Forest Park Lawndale Cemetery, Houston, Texas beside his wife Dora Lee Davis Madden.
Children of Fred Madden and Dora Davis Madden:
i. Preston Edward- born 25 September 1908; died in Houston, TX 25 December 1990.
ii. Clara Mae - born 13 July 1923; died in Santa Fe, NM 19 December 2003 and was buried in the Houston Naional Cemetery above her husband James Lee Bower.