William Calmes Buck's Children: Emma Buck (1837-1933)

Emma Buck was the daughter of William Calmes Buck and Isabella Miriam Field.  She was born June 29, 1837 in Louisville, Kentucky.  When she was 14 years old, her mother died and the family moved to Murphreesboro, Tennessee where she and her brothers received an education at Union College.  In fact, they boarded at the home of the college president, Dr. Joseph Eaton.  In addition to receiving a formal education, Emma became a surrogate mother to her brothers.

In 1854, her family moved to Columbus, Mississippi where her father became pastor of the Baptist Church.  They lived in Columbus for about three years.

While visiting her relatives in Front Royal, Virginia in 1857, Emma wrote “Oct.  15.  Thurs.  Three years today since I was baptised.  How different everything seems to what it was then.  I pray that God would enable me to maintain my profession made on that day before many witnesses."

In the winter of 1858 and again in 1859 Emma was visiting with her sister, Mary Buck Davidge, in her beautiful home on Staten Island, New York.

During the Civil War, her brothers were fighting in the Confederate army and her father was a Chaplain while Emma stayed with friends in Alabama as a school teacher.  She spent much of her time sewing and knitting for the soldiers and taking care of the wounded.  In 1864, her father took charge of the Baptist Children’s Orphanage in Lauderdale Springs, Mississippi and she moved there to be with him.

Emma moved to the Waco, Texas area with her father in 1866.  Emma, her father and her brothers Silas and Field travelled from Mississippi to New Orleans by train, then to Galveston by steam boat and by train to Milliken where they changed to horse and wagon.  Her brother, Giddings, had moved to Texas in 1858 but left to fight in the Civil War.  Giddings returned to Texas in 1865.  Wm. C. Buck had purchased over 200 acres in what is now Waco.  Emma was thrilled to discover that their new home, a four room log cabin, had glass windows.  However, it was a long time before the house was fitted with beds and a stove as it was difficult to find furnishing and even food in those early post war years. 

In Waco, Emma was a charter member of the First Baptist Church.

On March 2, 1871, at her father’s farm in Waco, Texas; Emma married Gen. Richard Harrison M.D. when she was 34 years old.  Family lore is that she had not married previously because she was the caregiver for her father, Wm. C. Buck, but he convinced Emma that she should marry.   Their marriage performed by her father who died the following year.

Richard Harrison (1821-1876), a native of Alabama, was the son of Isham Harrison and Harriet Kelly.  He was born in Jefferson County, Alabama but reared in Mississippi.  He attended Kentucky Medical College and was a physician in Monroe County, Mississippi prior to his army service. Richard was one of a trio of brothers who all gained rank of general in the Confederate Army; he was Brigadier General - Surgeon. Rich first married Mary Ragsdale (1825-1855), daughter of Daniel Ragsdale and Nancy Haynes Greer of Mississippi. Together they had three children.  After her death in Mississippi, he married Mollie Tompkins, daughter of a wealthy planter in Georgia.   In Mississippi, Richard was a physician, planter, politician and soldier.  He served in the Mississippi Legislature from 1858 to 1861 and was Speaker of the House in 1860.  He served as president of the Baptist State Convention of Mississippi.    When he moved to McLennan Co., Texas in 1866, he combined medicine and farming.  Richard’s second wife, Mollie Tompkins, died in Texas in 1869.  In Texas, Richard Harrison became a trustee of Waco University. He also served as chairman of the deacons of First Baptist Church of Waco.

Emma Buck and Richard Harrison had two children:

• ·        William E. Harrison (1874-1878)
• ·        Richard Buck Harrison (1876-1964); married Emily Eaton, 1903.

Emma Buck Harrison was “One of the most remarkable women the Buck family has produced.  She was noted for her strength of character, her exceptional abilities, her indomitable will, and her devotion to duty.  She was "mother" to three generations: in her teens and twenties to her younger brothers (she was not yet fifteen when her mother died); to her own children and step-children in her thirties, and to her husband's orphaned grandchild in her sixties.  She inherited her father's physical stamina, and was active almost to the end of her long life of nearly 96 years. "A perfect balance of strength and gentleness; of justice and mercy" (Emma Virginia Buck). Those who knew her and still remain can speak of her only in superlatives.”  H. N. Buck, 1965

Gen. Richard Harrison M.D., died on Nov. 1, 1876 at the age of 55 in Waco, Texas. He was buried in First Street Cemetery, Waco, Texas.

In her last years, Emma Buck Richardson lived with her granddaughter, Mrs. Lula Harrison Marrs, in Waco.  She died at the age of 96 on January 18, 1933 in Waco, Texas.   Emma and her family were highly esteemed in Waco and the Waco News Tribune paid tribute to her in several articles and issues of the newspaper.  She was buried in First Street Cemetery, Waco, Texas beside her husband.