Hello:

I'm so glad to find your website.  This past year, after 3 1/2 years of looking, I finally found my Great Grandfather.   My Great-Grandparents separated, and were reportedly divorced, between 1908 and 1910.  None of my relatives, including my Grandfather, knew where he had gone to or what happened to him.  

His name was John Pinkney Sparkman and he was born in Mississippi in 1861/62.  He died in Como, Hopkins County, Texas in June of 1928, just six months after being placed in the county poor farm.  

I found court records pertaining to his placement (one was to grant him an allowance of $5.00 per month), the funeral home record of the cemetery where he was buried and his death record.  Sadly he died of pellagra which is a
vitamin deficiency association with severe malnutrition.

... I ...  ended up speaking with an elderly woman who knew my Great-Grandfather.  In fact, he had stayed with them for a while and it was her husband who took him to the poor farm.  She told me that her husband used to say "it was the saddest day of his life when he had to take Uncle Pink to the poor farm"!

     Rebecca Ramsey  OkRnRamsey@aol.com