Mary Shipp Sanders

b. 27 December 1878, d. 14 October 1962

Mary Shipp Sanders, 1878-1962
  • Mary Shipp Sanders was born on 27 December 1878 in Georgetown, Williamson County, Texas.
  • Samuel Gillespie Sanders and Mary Wade Shipp appeared in the US federal census of 1 June 1880 in Georgetown, Williamson County, Texas. Other members of the household included Mary Shipp Sanders, Samuel David Sanders and Martha Johnson Pegues.
  • Mary Wade Shipp appeared in the US federal census of 1 June 1900 in Georgetown, Williamson County, Texas, at College Street. Other members of the household included Mary Shipp Sanders, Samuel David Sanders, Nannie Gillespie Sanders, Albert Godfrey Sanders, Shipp Gillespie Sanders, Martha Pegues Sanders, John Randolph Sanders and Samuel David Sanders.
  • She was attending school, according to the 1900 census.
  • Mary Wade Shipp appeared in the US federal census of 15 April 1910 in Georgetown, Williamson County, Texas, at College Street. Other members of the household included Mary Shipp Sanders, Nannie Gillespie Sanders, Albert Godfrey Sanders, Shipp Gillespie Sanders, Martha Pegues Sanders and John Randolph Sanders.
  • She was a high school teacher, according to the 1910 census.
  • Mary Wade Shipp appeared in the US federal census of 1 January 1920 in Georgetown, Williamson County, Texas, at 1516 South College Street. Other members of the household included Mary Shipp Sanders, Nannie Gillespie Sanders, Shipp Gillespie Sanders, Martha Pegues Sanders and John Randolph Sanders.
  • She was employed as superintendent of public instruction?, according to the 1920 census.
  • She officially witnessed the death of Mary Wade Shipp on 4 March 1929 at 2723 North Guadalupe in Austin, Travis County, Texas.
  • The following appeared on 30 June 1929 in the San Antonio Express: (Austin, June 29) Miss Mary Shipp Sanders, chief State rural school superintendent, has gone to Atlanta, Ga., to attend the meeting of the rural department of the National Educational Association. Miss Sanders was formerly county superintendent of Williamson County and later spent a year at Columbia University where she made a special study of rural school problems. The general theme of the Atlanta meeting is rural education in the South. All of the topics, speakers and presiding officers are Southern.
  • The following appeared on 2 September 1938 in the Denton Record-Chronicle: Misses Martha Sanders of the S. C. W. faculty, her sister, Miss Mary Shipp Sanders of Cleburne, and Miss Nora Bryant have returned from Lake J/[unalu]ska [sic], N. C., where they spent the summer. Miss Bryant attended the Methodist young people's conference and studied church dramatics in a religions training school.
  • The following appeared on 13 June 1940 in the Denton Record-Chronicle: Miss Mary Shipp Sanders, director of elementary education in Johnson County, is spending the summer with her sister, Miss Martha Sanders.
  • The following appeared on 18 July 1940 in the Kerrville Mountain Sun: Miss Mary Sanders of Elmdorf was in Kerrville the first of the week for a visit with her aunt, Miss Mary Shipp Sanders, a teacher in the Southwestern University in Georgetown, who was at the Methodist Assembly as an instructor. Miss Sanders lived in Kerrville at one time and is now a teacher in the schools at Pecos. While here she also visited with mr. and Mrs. Fred Evertson and with Miss Bech Breihan.
  • The following appeared on 2 August 1953 in The Denton Record-Chronicle: The Texas Almanac for 1871 devoted much space to assuring would-be immigrants in other states that reports of Indians and bandits were greatly exaggerated.
         The Almanac also described Denton County as one of the finest wheat counties of North Texas, and reported that Denton land could be purchased at from $3 to $15 an acre.
         A copy of the volume persuaded Dr. Samuel David Sanders, Confederate veteran of South Carolina, to emigrate. He settled in Georgetown, where he was on the faculty of Southwestern University, oldest in Texas. His son was a member of the original faculty.
         Dr. Sanders' granddaughter is Miss Mary Shipp Sanders of Denton, who now owns the old almanac.
         The "state of society" in Texas is described as follows:
         "We are aware that much has been said against the people of Texas. They have been charged with crimes and lawlessness unexampled in any other country. But while we can not claim that our population is exempt from these frequent acts of violence and disorderly conduct, so prevalent in other states of the union, we do deny there is any truth to the charge that lawlessness and crime are more prevalent here than in any other sparsely populated state."
         [. . . .]
  • The following appeared on 26 February 1961 in the Denton Record-Chronicle: Ethel Woodby, Recod-Chronicle Women's Editor) . . . at a dinner meeting of the American Association of University Women and Iota Chapter of Delta Kappa Gamma, I shared a table with Miss Mary Shipp Sanders. Do you know what she and her sisters, Martha and Nannie, are doing?
         They're spending a month in Mexico in a big house, staffed with servants, languishing in the sun next to a big lake! The house belongs to their brother who is a retired sea captain. He and his wife found they could live in a manner in which they were not accustomed in Mexico for the same amount they could live in the accustomed way here -- so they live in Mexico and have servants to wait on them.
         Mary says she's not sure she can get used to having someone do personal things for her. Worse would be to get usesd to such attention, then have to return to the old routine.
         All during the dinner meeting I noticed women slipping little packages to Mary. Just as curiosity was about to drive me wild, she explained what was going on. She collectsw stamps -- just ordinary United States stamps, even the purpos four-cent variety. She reads them to a friend up north who, in turn, sorts and packages them. They're sent overseas to be sold in novelty stores as foreign stamps. Of course they're foreign in another country.
  • At the time of her death Mary Shipp Sanders was living in Denton, Denton County, Texas, at 1902 Bell Avenue.
  • Mary Shipp Sanders died on 14 October 1962 at age 83 in Denton, Denton County, Texas, at Flow Memorial Hospital . Her death was officially witnessed by Martha Pegues Sanders.
  • She was interred at Odd Fellows Cemetery, Georgetown, Williamson County, Texas.
  • The following appeared on 15 October 1962 in the Denton Record-Chronicle: Miss Mary Shipp Sanders, 83, of 1902 Bell, a retired professor at Southwestern University in Georgetown, died at 10 a.m. Sunday in Flow Memorial Hospital.
         A native of Georgetown, Miss Sanders attended the University of Chicago and Columbia University. She had served as county superintendent of schools in Williamson County and as supervisor of education in Johnson County.
         Survivors include two sisters, Miss Nannie G. Sanders and Miss Martha P. Sanders, both of Denton; three brothers, S. D. Sanders of Boerne, Albert G. Sanders of Jackson, Miss., and Randolph Sanders of Mineola; and several nephews and neices.
         Funeral services will be held at 10 a.m. Tuesday in the Cole Chapel of the First Methodist Church. The Rev. Noel Bryant, pastor, will officiate, assisted by the Rev. Al Murdock. Burial will be in Georgetown Cemetery under the arrangement of Schmitz-Floyd-Hamlett Funeral Home.
         Miss Sanders had served the American Association of University Women as historian for a number of years and had been publicity chairman of the association this year. She was, at one time, director of Christian education at First Methodist Church in Denton and has been active in the Wesleyan Service Guild. She was an accredited teacher of training courses for Methodist churches.
         The family has requested that memorials be made to the American Heart Association or to the American Cancer Society.
  • Last Edited: 11 Dec 2013