The Weeks Family Materials consists of genealogical charts, vital records, official documents, and personal materials, including news clippings and correspondence. Photographs are also included; the subjects are identified, however the photographs are undated. Evenso, the bulk of the photographs appear to date from the mid- to late-1800s. Of particular note is a personal diary kept by Mary Lena Weeks between March of 1927 and March of 1928, with a retrospective entry dated April of 1958. The diary details the social life of a young woman, a teacher, in Dallas in the late 1920s.
Although the genealogical charts reach back into the 1500s, the bulk of the collection concerns the lives of Samuel A. Weeks, his wife Eva Lena Copeland Weeks, and their descendants (especially Mary Lena Weeks Browne).
The Weeks family had been considered a pioneering family in Ardmore, Oklahoma, where they settled in the 1890s. Samuel and his brothers operated a plumbing business there for many years. When Samuel Weeks moved his family to Dallas from Ardmore, Oklahoma in 1925, they originally settled in the Oak Cliff section of Dallas and attended the Oak Cliff Presbyterian Church. After Samuel Weeks' death, the family purchased a home in University Park and joined the Highland Park Presbyterian Church.
A majority of the materials in the collection pertain specifically to Eva Lena Copeland Weeks, who married Samuel Weeks in 1899, and her daughter, Mary Lena Weeks. Mary Lena Weeks Browne's documentation for membership in the United Daughters of the Confederacy and the Daughters of the American Revolution form a major portion of the collection.
SAMUEL A. WEEKS was born in Indiana in 1870. He moved with his parents to Ardmore Oklahoma (then Indian Territory) in 1895 and operated a plumbing business (Weeks Bros. Plumbing) with his brothers. He married Eva Lena Copeland in 1899 and remained in Ardmore until the mid-1920s, when he moved to Dallas for work as a plumbing contractor. Once in Dallas, he joined the Oak Cliff Presbyterian Church, He was also a member of the Masons, Shriners, Knights Templar, Odd Fellows and Elks. He died in April of 1927, and is buried in Ardmore, Oklahoma.
EVA LENA COPELAND WEEKS was born in 1874 in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Her family moved to Texas in 1878 and she was reared in Sherman, where she later attended the Kidd-Key Conservatory of Music. She married Samuel Weeks in 1899 in Van Alstyn, Texas, and moved with him to Ardmore.
Eva Lena and Samuel Weeks had four children: Benjamin (born 1901 in Ardmore, died 1904); Jonathan Russell (born 1902, married Virginia Andrews of Tyler, died in 1931); Mary Lena (see details in biographical sketch below); Lois Betty (born 1906 in Ardmore, married 1928 to Thomas Howard Duckett, Jr. and married again in the 1940s to Howard Federer, died 1971); and Alice Louise (born 1908 in Ardmore, married William Tyler Duncan, died in 1990s).
The whole family moved to Dallas in 1925, but Samuel died in 1927. Eva Lena Weeks then moved the family from Oak Cliff to University Park. She joined The Kentucky Club of Dallas in 1941 and remained on the membership rolls until her death in 1959. (See MA 97.3 The Kentucky Club of Dallas.) In 1950 she published a book entitled "Youth Road" (non-fiction), followed by "Voice from the Mesa" (fiction) in 1951. Both volumes were published by Dallas-based The Story Book Press, which operated under owner-editor-publisher Paul Heard from the 1930s until the 1950s.
The Story Book Press also published the "Wildfire Magazine," in which two poems by Eva Lena Weeks were printed in 1950 and 1952. After her poetry was published, she applied for and qualified in 1952 for membership in the National League of American Pen Women.
She moved to Hartford, Connecticut, in the mid-1950s to live with her daughter, Mary Lena Weeks Browne. Eva Lena Copeland Weeks died on November 16, 1959, and is buried in Dallas.
MARY LENA WEEKS was born in Ardmore, Oklahoma in 1905 and was a member of the 1923 Ardmore High School graduating class. She attended Southeastern State Normal School (now Southeastern Oklahoma State University) in 1923 and 1924. When her family moved to Dallas, she found a job as an elementary school teacher.
The diary she kept during 1927 and 1928 give intimate details of a young single woman's social life in Dallas. She married Paul K. Browne in June of 1930. They had one daughter, Paula Copeland Browne, born in 1935.
Mary Lena Weeks Browne graduated from Southern Methodist University with a B.A. in comparative literature in 1932. She received her permanent Texas teaching certificate in 1932. When Paul Browne was promoted and moved to The Travelers Insurance headquarters in Hartford, Connecticut, she became certified to teach in Connecticut in 1952, with permanent certification awarded in 1955. She earned a Masters in Education from the University of Hartford in 1955.
Mary Lena Weeks Browne qualified for membership in the United Daughters of the Confederacy in 1950 by documenting descent from James J. Turner, a major in the 30th Tennessee Infantry. She qualified for membership in the Daughters of the American Revolution in 1952 by documenting her desscent from Jonathan Weeks, Jr. of Wyoming, Pennsylvania, a private in the Revolutionary War.
She died in August, 1983 in Hamden, Connecticut, and is buried in Dallas' Restland Cemetery.
The Weeks Family Materials contains correspondence, photographs, genealogical information, ancestral charts with references, news clippings and memorabilia accumulated between c1895 and 1983. Of particular note is a young woman's diary kept during 1927 and 1928, as well as the qualifying documentation for membership in the United Daughters of the Confederacy and the Daughters of the American Revolution.
SERIES I - EVA LENA COPELAND WEEKS (1930-1959)
This series consists of two subseries. Generally, the materials in this series are related to the activities of Eva Lena Copeland Weeks. The first subseries consists of news clippings, regarding publication of her books, the Kentucky Club of Dallas activities, and copies of obituaries and memorials. Also included are a typed anecdote of her maternal grandmother (Betsy Turner), the Dallas Kentucky Club membership directory for 1941-1942, typed copies of her poems published in Dallas-based Wildfire Magazine (1951 and 1952), address books, copyright documents regarding "Voice from the Mesa", correspondence (1953-59), membership acceptance into the National League of American Pen Women, and a handwritten list of personal items. The second subseries includes letters from Eva Lena Weeks to Mary Lena Browne (1953-1955) and two copies each of "Youth Road" (1950) and "Voice from the Mesa" (1951), published by The Story Book Press of Dallas, Texas.
SERIES II - MARY LENA WEEKS BROWNE (1927-1958)
This series includes Mary Lena's diary (March 1927 to March 1928, with a retrospective entry dated April 19, 1958), which desscribes her social and work life as an elementary school teacher. Also included are copies of her teaching certificates for Texas and Connecticut, her graduatiion program from Ardmore (Oklahoma) high school in 1923, her Southern Methodist University B.A. commencement program (1932) and her University of Hartford M.Ed. certificate (1955). Materials include correspondence related to her employment as a teacher in Connecticut in the 1950s and correspondence with her father, mother and brother Russell in 1923 and 1924.
SERIES III - WEEKS FAMILY HISTORY AND DOCUMENTS (1616-1952)
This series consists of two subseries. Generally, the materials pertain to the history of the Weeks family from 1616 to 1952. The first subseries includes applications by Mary Lena Weeks Browne for membership in the Daughters of the American Revolution (accepted 1952) because of descent from Jonathan Weeks, Jr. (1738-1778) of Connecticut, a member of Col. Zebulon Butler's Regular Connecticut Militia. Also included is the certificate of membership (1950) of Mary Lena Weeks Browne in the United Daughters of the Confederacy as a descendant of James J. Turner, Major, 30th tennessee infantry. This subseries also includes the genealogical records (1616-1927), photocopies of reference materials and correspondence relative to the applications. Also included in family correspondence from Samuel Weeks to daughter Alice (1924), and Eva Lena Weeks to daughter Alice (1924-1930). There are included photographs of Alice weeks Duncan and Tyler Duncan (1976) and news clippings of Samuel Weeks' obituaries, letters of condolence and memorials, as well as news clippings regarding other family members. Some of these items are from the late 1800s and early 1900s and are fragile. There are several photographs and engravings of tombstones and ancestral houses. Of particular interest is a certificate dated February 18, 1920 to S.A. Weeks, evidencing 100 shares in the W.T. McArthur 41-acre tract in Eastland County. A note dated 1953 accompanies the certificate and indicates the Eastland County clerk found no record of the company or ownership. Undated items include a lock of hair from Addie to "sister."
The second subseries includes copies of correspondence from Raymond Weeks to Frances Weeks Boone (1941-1948) regarding genealogical information (Raymond Weeks was the family historian), copies of records (1840s), lists of ancestors with births, marriages and deaths (dating back to the 1600s), along with anecdotes and biographies and a narrative of Jonathan Weeks Sr.'s family. Correspondence between Raymond Weeks and Mary Lena Weeks (1938-1947) are included; these concern genealogy of the family.
SERIES IV - COPELAND AND TURNER FAMILIES (1790-1962)
Materials include typed copies of wills and inheritance records, marriage certificates and notes of births, marriages and deaths from the family bibles. Clippings regarding the Copeland family are included, especially death notices, obituaries and memorials; however, most of these are undated. A photograph of J. J. Turner and a lock-sized photograph of Colonel James Turner (c1860) are a part of this series.
SERIES V - VITAL RECORDS OF MARY LENA WEEKS BROWNE (1905-1983) AND PAUL KEITH BROWNE (1906-1978)
This series includes the birth certificate of Mary Lena Weeks, marriage certificate of Mary Lena Weeks and Paul Browne, Paul Browne's death certificate and Mary Lena Browne's death certificate and will.
SERIES VI - BROWNE FAMILY RECORDS (Incl. family histories 1821-1978)
Materials in this series include correspondence, handwritten notes and ancestor charts for Paul Browne's lineage. Also included are clippings related to family members, Paul Browne's accomplishments, obituaries and memorials, as well as a Yates Center (Kansas) High School list of graduates for the class of 1896 and "The Wesleyan Argoose" of June 7, 1968, commemorating the class of 1928. Articles written by Paul Browne for publications of The Travelers Insurance Company are also included.
SERIES VII - ANCESTOR CHARTS OF PAULA COPELAND BROWNE JOHNSON (1590-1983)
Materials include detailed genealogical charts and references, with an index.
SERIES VIII - MISCELLANEOUS MEMORABILIA
This series contains numerous photographs of Weeks family members, most identified but undated. There are photographs of portraits of Joseph Weeks (1771-1842) as well as a photocopy from "History of Hanover" section on the Weeks family. Also included in an oversized box are the certificate of discharge of Joseph Weeks from the Union Army on June 28, 1865, a certificate of membership of Mary Lena Weeks Browne in the United Daughters of the Confederacy, a certificate for Eva Lena Weeks from the Masons (1920) and the front cover of the Copeland family bible with a dedication dated 1868.
The collection is arranged in 8 series.
Texas/Dallas History and Archives Division has one collection relating to this family collection, that of The Kentucky Club of Dallas (MA 97.3).
This record series is indexed under the following controlled access subject terms.