{"sEcho":1,"iTotalRecords":100,"iTotalDisplayRecords":100,"aaData":[{"bio_id":7,"bio_name":"Bloys, Thomas Dow","bio_title":"Thomas Dow Bloys","bio_sub_fk":316,"sub_fullname":"Campbell, Carol","bio_text_top":"Excerpted from:<br \/>\r\n<bi>A History of Texas and Texans<\/bi><br \/>\r\nPublished by: American Historical Society, 1914<br \/>\r\nBy: <sa>Francis White Johnson<\/sa> and <sa>Ernest William Winkler<\/sa>","bio_text_main":"<p><sa>Thomas Dow Bloys<\/sa>, postmaster of Honey Grove, has been identified with this county and the state of Texas since 1877. He was chiefly reared in Illinois, though born in Tennessee, and lie comes of parents intensely American in their instincts, whose reverence for the flag of their country overshadowed the relationship of blood or the circumstance of location, and whose sentiments of loyalty and hope for the integrity of the Union during its darkest hours found lodgment in the hearts of their children, and were thus perpetuated in their later progeny. <sa>Mr. Bloys<\/sa> is related either by blood or marriage ties to a number of the most prominent of American families, as will be noted in further paragraphs. <\/p><p>\r\n\r\nBorn in McLemoresville, Tennessee, on August 1, 1851, <sa>Thomas Dow Bloys<\/sa> is the son of <sa>Mordecai D.<\/sa> and <sa>Amelia Patterson (Yergan) Bloys<\/sa>. The father was born at Chester, South Carolina, in 1813, and died at Honey Grove, Texas, in 1893. His was an education of the pioneer type, but it served to permit him to cope with his fellows in his trade and to deal with the purchasers of his wares. He went to Tennessee early in life and there learned the saddle and harness trade, and it was there he met his wife, who was the daughter of a Welchman, who went to Tennessee from Chappell Hill, North Carolina, where <sa>Mrs. Bloys<\/sa> was bom in 1820. They married in 1840 and in 1856 moved to Stoddard county, Missouri, where <sa>Mr. Bloys<\/sa> became a merchant and followed his trade of a saddler. <\/p><p>\r\n\r\nWhile in Missouri the Civil war broke out and his love for the Union led him to seek a retreat among its friends, and his removal with his family to Illinois following in 1862, when they settled in the town of Salem. <sa>Mr. Bloys<\/sa> established himself in business in his Illinois home and continued in life there as a merchant and as an exemplary citizen until the burden of years began to weigh upon him, when he came to his son in Texas, and four years after the passing of his faithful wife, he too was laid away at her side. The children of his family were seven in number, and concerning them brief mention is made here as follows: <sa>John J.<\/sa>, the eldest, died from the effects of his soldier career in the Illinois Infantry soon after the close of the war; <sa>Rev. William B.<\/sa>, a graduate of Lane Seminary and a Presbyterian preacher who came to Texas in 1888, who has confined his ministerial labors to Fort Davis where he has built up a splendid interest in revival work, and where his success has been rewarded by the donation of a permanent camp ground by the public for the advancement of his cause; <sa>Thomas Dow<\/sa>, the subject of this review; <sa>Daniel<\/sa>, who died in Oklahoma City; <sa>Mrs. T. D. Wilkerson<\/sa>, of Enloe, Texas; <sa>Mrs. H. H. Harrell<\/sa>, or Centralia, Illinois, and <sa>Emma<\/sa>, who passed away in Texas, unmarried. <\/p><p>\r\n\r\n<sa>Mordecai Dow Bloys<\/sa> was unique in his political attitude and in his patriotism. His abnormal passion for the Union seems to have been the sum of the patriotic impulse of his parents, for all his brothers espoused the cause of the Southland and were among the bitterest of Rebels. His brother, <sa>Dan Bloys<\/sa>, was widely known as the ''Rebel Pilot\" of the Mississippi and spent his life steamboating upon the Father-of-Waters. Other brothers, living in Tennessee, devoted their efforts during the Rebellion to aiding and abetting the forces of disloyalty and raised up families of Democrats upon prejudice rather than upon principles founded upon patriotism and pure purpose.<\/p><p> \r\n\r\n<sa>Dow Bloys<\/sa>, as the subject of this review is everywhere known among his associates, came to mature youth with an education gleaned from the schools of Bloomfield, Missouri, and Salem, Illinois. His early manhood was spent as a clerk in Salem, and he came to Texas in search of a location for a business career by himself. He located in Honey Grove and engaged in the saddle and harness business, in which his rather had trained him, and continued in that work until he was made postmaster of the little village, <sa>President Arthur<\/sa> appointing him to the office in 1882. He had imbibed only principles of purest Republicanism from his home community, and he was awarded the honor of leadership among the followers of the faith in his county by common consent. When his first term had expired. <sa>President Cleveland<\/sa> replaced him with <sa>J. M. Gilmer<\/sa>, who vacated in favor of <sa>Mr. Waldron<\/sa> in 1890, and in 1898 <sa>Mr. Bloys<\/sa> was re-appointed by <sa>President McKinley<\/sa>. In 1902 President Roosevelt continued him in the office and in 1906 re-commissioned him, his reap-pointment in 1910 coming at the hands of Mr. Taft. His term of office will expire in 1914. Before the efforts of the government to eliminate employes from participation in party affairs as delegates, <sa>Mr. Bloys<\/sa> was invariably armed with authority from a Republican convention in his county or district to sit in conventions and to aid in naming candidates and delegates to national conventions, as well as to name presidential electors, and in all his experience has maintained his position with his party as a worthy and influential representative. During the years of his incumbency as postmaster, from first to last, <sa>Mr. Bloys<\/sa> has seen his office develop in rank from rural delivery service with one carrier to ten carriers, as constitnting the present day force, and has witnessed the appropriation of $50,000 by the government for a suitable federal building in Honey Grove.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p><sa>Mr. Bloys<\/sa> has been twice married. His first wife, whom he married in Honey Grove, was Miss <sa>Soffrona McDonald<\/sa>, a daughter of <sa>J. C. McDonald<\/sa>, one of the old landmarks in citizenship of the pioneer days. Their marriage occurred in 1879, and one year later <sa>Mrs. Bloys<\/sa> died, leaving a son, <sa>Joseph Dow Bloys<\/sa>, a civil engineer of Fresno, California, whose wife was a <sa>Miss Mary Hanna<\/sa>, a grandniece of <sa>Marcus A. Hanna<\/sa>, the spectacular statesman and politician of Cleveland, Ohio. On February 14, 1882, <sa>Mr. Bloys<\/sa> married in Salem, Illinois, <sa>Miss Marietta Davenport<\/sa>, a daughter of <sa>Dr. James A. Davenport<\/sa> and his wife, <sa>Nancy (Jennings) Davenport<\/sa>. The Doctor as a strong Union man and one of the hardy and patriotic Kentuckians, who was an aid to the ** \"underground'' work of the abolitionists in behalf of fugitive slaves. His wife was a sister of <sa>Mrs. Bryan<\/sa>, the mother of <sa>William Jennings Bryan<\/sa>, Secretary of State in <sa>President Wilson's<\/sa> newly formed cabinet.<\/p><p> \r\n\r\nOne son has been born to Mr. and Mrs. Bloys \u00e2\u20ac\u201d James E., who is assistant postmaster of Honey Grove.<\/p>","bio_text_bot":""},{"bio_id":1,"bio_name":"Boyd, Bill","bio_title":"Bill Boyd & His Cowboy Ramblers","bio_sub_fk":1,"sub_fullname":"GenWeb, TXFannin","bio_text_top":"<h3>William Lemuel Boyd<\/h3>b. 29 Sep 1910 in Fannin County, Texas<br \/>d. 7 Dec 1977 in Dallas, Texas","bio_text_main":"<br \/><br \/><img class=\"photo left\" SRC=\"images\/bio_images\/bill_boyd_1.jpg\"><sa>Bill Boyd<\/sa><br \/><hi>American western style singer and guitarist<\/hi><br \/>From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia\r\n\r\n<p><sa>Bill Boyd<\/sa> was born and raised on a farm near Ladonia in Fannin County, Texas as one of thirteen children. His parents, <al \"o=27774\">Lemuel<\/al> and <al \"o=27772\">Molly Jared Boyd<\/al>, who originally hailed from Tennessee, came to Texas in 1902. During the Great depression, the family moved to Dallas. Bill<\/sa> and his brother <sa>Jim<\/sa> (born 1914) tried to survive the hard times by working different odd jobs. <sa>Bill<\/sa> joined the Alexanders Daybreakers trio performing at early-morning radio shows. Together with <sa>Jim<\/sa>, he appeared on radio in Greenville, Texas and at WRR in Dallas. Meanwhile, <sa>Jim<\/sa> formed the \"Rhythm Aces.\" <\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>In February 1932, <sa>Boyd<\/sa> recorded with the \"Blue Yodeler\" <sa>Jimmie Rodgers<\/sa>. The same year, he formed the pioneering western swing band \"The Cowboy Ramblers\". His band consisted of himself on guitar, <sa>Jim Boyd<\/sa> on bass, <sa>Walter Kirkes<\/sa> on tenor banjo and <sa>Art Davis<\/sa> on fiddle. During the band's history, many of the members also worked simultaneously with the Light Crust Doughboys and Roy Newman's Boys.<\/p> \r\n\r\n<p>The Cowboys Ramblers made more than 225 recordings between 1934-1951. The band had their own popular radio show, \"The Bill Boyd Ranch House.\" They made their recording debut for Bluebird Records on August 7, 1934. In 1935, the Cowboy Ramblers had a huge hit with their recording of \"Under the Double Eagle\" which later became a western swing standard and remained in print for twenty five years. Other classics of the 1930s include \"I've Got Those Oklahoma Blues\", \"Fan It\", \"Wah Hoo\", \"Beaumont Rag\" and \"New Steel Guitar Rag\".<\/p> \r\n\r\n<p>The Cowboy Ramblers became major stars on radio and were offered work in Hollywood films and Boyd eventually appeared in six Western films during the 1940s. One of his other hits was \"If You'll Come Back\", #4, Jan. 1941.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>After the outbreak of World War II, <sa>Boyd<\/sa> joined \"The Western Minute Men\" promoting the sale of war bonds. During the 1940s, <sa>Jim Boyd<\/sa> often led the Cowboy Ramblers when he's brother was indisposed. Eventually, <sa>Jim<\/sa> formed his own band, the \"Men of the West.\" In the 1950s, the brothers terminated their radio show and became DJs. In the early 1970s, <sa>Bill Boyd<\/sa> retired from the music business. His brother Jim Boyd died in 1993. <\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>For his contribution to radio, <sa>Bill 'Cowboy Rambler' Boyd<\/sa> has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6101 Hollywood Blvd.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p><wp>Text is available under the <a href=\"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/3.0\/\">Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License<\/a><\/wp><\/p>","bio_text_bot":"<p><b>Many of his works appeared on the Bluebird Label<\/b><\/p><img class=\"photo right\" SRC=\"images\/bio_images\/bill_boyd_band.jpg\"><ul class=\"basic\"><li>The Train Song<\/li> <li>Poison Ivy<\/li><li>Weeping Blues<\/li><li>No Time For Tears<\/li> <li>Shame On You?<\/li><li>Trail To San Antone<\/li> <li>Riding on the Old Ferris Wheel<\/li><li>Put Me In Your Pocket<\/li><li>Jig in G<\/li><li>Frosty Mornin<\/li><li>When the Sun Goes Down Again<\/li> <li>The Eyes of Texas<\/li><li>The Master of Cowboy Swing<\/li> <li>Under the Double Eagle<\/li><li>Spanish Fandango<\/li> <li>Varsoviana<\/li><li>Blue Danube Waltz<\/li><li>I want to be a Cowboy's Sweetheart<\/li><\/ul>"},{"bio_id":9,"bio_name":"Carlton, Charles","bio_title":"Charles Carlton: Educator and Religious Leader","bio_sub_fk":692,"sub_fullname":"Historical Commission, Fannin County","bio_text_top":"","bio_text_main":"<p><bi>Founder of the First Church and Carlton College, Both in Bonham<\/bi><\/p>\r\n<p><img class=\"photo right\" src=\"images\/bio_images\/carlton_charles_pic.jpg\" alt=\"Photo of Charles Carlton provided by the Fannin County Museum of History\" width=\"249px\" height=\"355px\"  \/><sa>Charles Carlton<\/sa> [was born at] Eythorne, County of Kent, England, on Aug 21, 1821, the son of <sa>Charles<\/sa> and <sa>Mary Carlton<\/sa>. A member of his family, <sa>General Carlton<\/sa>, figured in the American Colonnial wars at Qu\u00e9bec. His father was a carriage maker by trade, and was a skilled mechanic.<\/p><p>\r\n\r\nComing to America, He here superintended the building of the first railroad in Louisiana, from New Orleans to Lake Pontchartrain, which was completed in 1829. He then returned to England and remained there until 1854, when he moved to Toronto, Canada, where he died in 1866.<\/p><p>\r\n\r\n<sa>Charles'<\/sa> mother, <sa>Mary Coveney<\/sa>, was a woman of much beauty and winning manners, Both parents were pious members of the Baptist church at Margate, to which place they moved when Charles was a child.<\/p><p>\r\n\r\nWhen a child he had the opportunities for attending school, but took little advantage of them. He like reading, however, and became familiar with the <bi>Bible<\/bi>, Bunyan's <bi>Pilgrim's Progress<\/bi> and <bi>Robinson Crusoe<\/bi>, which constituted his library, and he was a constant reader of the <hi>London Times<\/hi>.<\/p><p>\r\n\r\nWhen fifteen years of age he left home and went to sea as a cabin boy. After 10 months he left this service and returned home. He returned to sea after a few months, working a vessel plieing the Northern coasts of Scotland. After two years, he shipped on a brig bound for North America. When the brig reached port he went to New Brunswick, Nova Scotia where he worked in a shipyard for three years.<\/p><p>\r\n\r\nAt the end of this time he spent two years at farm work. Realizing his need for education he determined to attend school and entered Horton Academy in Nova Scotia, which he attended four months. At this time he felt himself called to preach. After a few effort he considered himself a failure as a preacher and concluded he was mistaken about his call.<\/p><p>\r\n\r\nFrom Nova Scotia he went to Boston, then to Buffalo and then to Fredonia, New York, where he found employment as a farm hand. His employer, <sa>Mr. Chaplain<\/sa> became interested in the young man. He learned that <sa>Carlton<\/sa> desired an education and wanted to preach. <sa>Chaplain<\/sa> introduced the young man to members of the Baptist church of Fredonia, who proposed to \"board him around\" if he would enter the academy and prepare for the ministry.<\/p><p>\r\n\r\nThis offer <sa>Carlton<\/sa> accepted. He cut wood and made fires to pay his tuition. During the summer vacation of 1845, he went to Clear Creek in Chautauqua County, where he preached and continued his studies. In 1846, he returned to the Fredonia Academy and attended it another session. On August 19, 1847, a council of Baptist ministers examined him on Christian doctrine and experience and set him apart to work at the ministry.<\/p><p>\r\n\r\n<sa>G. W. Lewis<\/sa>, of Fredonia, a friend, offered <sa>Carlton<\/sa> $100 toward defraying his expenses if he would go to Bethany College, in Western Virgina, of which <sa>Alexander Campbell<\/sa> was president, to finish his education. <sa>Carlton<\/sa> accepted the offer and attended Bethany College three years, graduating July 4 1849. <\/p><p>\r\n\r\nWhile attending Bethany College, he became interested in the teaching of <sa>Alexander Campbell<\/sa>, and having satisfied himself that <sa>Mr. Campbell's<\/sa> pleas for restoration of primitive Christianity as taught by the Apostles with all Christians using the bible alone as a rule and guide in faith and practice, was in accord with the teaching of the Scriptures, he united with the Christian Church and determined to devote his life to its cause.<\/p><p>\r\n\r\nAfter his graduation Carlton returned to Fredonia, where he married Miss <sa>Harriet Ann Taylor<\/sa>, who was born near his old home in England. After their marriage, they moved to Georgetown, Kentucky, where he served a church one year as pastor. Then they moved to Lexington, Missouri, for a short time and then to Van Buren, Arkansas, where he learned the pastorate he sought had been filled.<\/p><p>\r\n\r\nBeing without means and in a strange country he was at a loss for a means of livelihood, but not for long. He went to work with his own hand felled the timbers and erected a school house, in which he soon had a number of pupils, whom he taught, and thus was enable to support his family.<\/p><p>\r\n\r\nWhile in Van Buren, <sa>Carlton<\/sa> met the wife of the governor of Missouri. She became so impressed with him as a teacher and a preacher that she offered to furnish the means to build a good school building in Springfield, Missouri, if he would go there and establish a school. He soon had a flourishing school at Springfield. He also preached for the church at Springfield and soon became known as an able teacher and preacher throughout the state of Missouri.<\/p><p>\r\n\r\nOn January 4, 1860, <sa>Carlton<\/sa> experienced the first great sorrow of his life, in the death of his beloved wife. To them four children had been born, the youngest being an infant. The children were <al \"o=1238\">Charles T.<\/al>, <al \"o=3795\">Mary Ella<\/al> (married <al \"o=9112\">S. B. Howard<\/al>), <al \"o=1241\">Gracie<\/al> and <al \"o=1244\">Sally Joe<\/al>. All lived in Bonham and, with the exception of <sa>Mrs. Howard<\/sa>, were connected with Carlton College.<\/p><p>\r\n\r\n<sa>Carlton's<\/sa> second marriage was to Mrs. <al \"o=1243\">Sallie Abernathy<\/al>, in Springfield. She had three children, <al \"o=8\">John B.<\/al>, <al \"o=9\">Jesse M.<\/al> and <al \"o=18\">R. J. Abernathy<\/al>. She also had three step-children, <al \"o=6\">Frank<\/al>, <sa>Mollie<\/sa> and <al \"o=5330\">Cattie Abernathy<\/al>, a niece and nephew, <sa>Sallie<\/sa> and <sa>Jessie McQuigg<\/sa>. These eight, with the <sa>Carlton's<\/sa> four, made 12 children, whom they reared and educated.<\/p><p>\r\n\r\nIn 1861, his school was broken up by the Civil War. He and his family moved to Collin County, Texas, where he farm one year. He then moved to and organized a school that he taught in the second story of a blacksmith shop. While in Dallas, <sa>Carlton<\/sa> organized the first congregation of the Christian church ever in that city. He continued to teach and preach there until the close of the war. <\/p><p>\r\n\r\nIn 1865, <sa>Carlton<\/sa> organized a school at Kentuckytown, Grayson County, and taught there two years. In the fall of 1867, he was induced to come to Bonham to take over a school. He came and began his work in the old brick house, later to be known as the Masonic Institute, and in 1902, used by the public schools of Bonham. His school became known as the Bonham Seminary.<\/p><p>\r\n\r\nNot in the school room alone was he active, but took an interest in the affairs of government, having become a naturalized citizen of the United States. Besides his arduous labor in the school room, he did constant work in the Sunday School and in the pulpit. He was elected superintendent of Union Sunday School when he first came to Bonham and taught classes in the old courthouse for a time.<\/p><p>\r\n\r\n<sa>Carlton<\/sa> went actively to work preaching, delivering two sermons a week, and often more, and in a short time succeeded in organizing a congregation of Disciples of whom there were a scattering few. For years, he preached to his congregation in his school room.<\/p><p>\r\n\r\nWhen the congregation grew strong enough it bought a lot and erected a building on North Main Street, where it yet worships. Through all these years he labored as its pastor, and for many years he received no remuneration from the congregation for his services, not asking for it. The sum he did receive for the last few years was paltry, in view of his splendid ability, but it was all her desired.<\/p><p>\r\n\r\nHe took part in the organization of the American Christian Missionary Society in 1849, and continued to work for, and give up to the last. In his earlier life he not only taught school and preached in Bonham, but during the school vacation months he visited and preached all over the northern part of the state. His energies never tired, and his zeal never flagged. His labors were prodigious. <\/p><p> \r\n\r\nBeing the head of a large school, doing  the work of pastor of a local congregation, contributing to the columns of the religious press and not neglecting his social duties, it is remarkable that he yet found time to do so much work abroad.<\/p><p>\r\n\r\nThe secret of his success was a strong will, a strong mind and body, a fixed purpose, and a perfect method in his work. No hour was wasted, no opportunity neglected. The field of his life's labors was wide and the full effect of his work no man can know.<\/p><p>\r\n\r\n<sa>Charles (Uncle Charlie) Carlton<\/sa> died February 15, 1902. His wife (<sa>Aunt Sally<\/sa>) died in January 1900. They are buried in Willow Wild Cemetery.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Bibliography: <hi>The Bonham News<\/hi>; <hi>The Bonham Daily Favorite<\/hi>; <bi>Fannin County Folks and Facts<\/bi>; <bi>A History of Fannin County<\/bi> by <sa>Floy Crandall Hodge<\/sa>; <bi>Bonham, The Era Has Gone - But the Memories Linger On<\/bi> by <sa>Lucile Thompson Hackley<\/sa>; <hi>Carlton College Cleaner<\/hi>, the Carlton College Annual, 1902 Memorial Number. Also the bibliography for the article, <hi>Carlton College<\/hi>. Compiled by <sa>Tom Hymer<\/sa> for the Fannin County Historical Commission.<\/p>","bio_text_bot":""},{"bio_id":15,"bio_name":"Crawford, Roberta Dodd","bio_title":"Roberta Dodd Crawford","bio_sub_fk":175,"sub_fullname":"Allison, Malinda","bio_text_top":"","bio_text_main":"<h3>Roberta Dodd Sang in Bonham in 1928<\/h3><br>\r\nBy Malinda Allison, Fannin County Historical Commission<br>\r\n\r\n<div class=\"right\"><img class=\"photo\" src=\"images\/bio_images\/dodd_roberta_1928a.jpg\" alt=\"Roberta Dodd1\" width=\"300px\"  \/><br><p class=\"caption center\"><\/p><\/div><p>The <i>Bonham Daily Favorite<\/i> contains several articles about several concerts presented by Roberta Dodd in Bonham in March, 1928.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>It appears from the articles that she gave a concert in the Fannin County District Courtroom on Saturday, March 24, 1928 at 8 pm and then another concert at the Methodist Church in Bonham after evening services on Sunday, March 25.<\/p><p>\r\n\r\n<div class=\"left\"><img class=\"photo\" src=\"images\/bio_images\/dodd_roberta_1928b.jpg\" alt=\"Roberta Dodd2\" width=\"300px\"  \/><br><p class=\"caption center\"><\/p><\/div><\/p><p>\r\n\r\n<div class=\"left\"><img class=\"photo\" src=\"images\/bio_images\/crawford_roberta_bio8.jpg\" alt=alt=\"Roberta Dodd3\"  width=\"250px\"  \/><br><p class=\"caption center\"><\/p><\/div><\/p><p>\r\n\r\n<div class=\"right\"><img class=\"photo\" src=\"images\/bio_images\/crawford_roberta_bio9.jpg\" alt=alt=\"Roberta Dodd4\"  width=\"250px\"  \/><br><p class=\"caption center\"><\/p><\/div><\/p><p>\r\n\r\n<div class=\"left\"><img class=\"photo\" src=\"images\/bio_images\/crawford_roberta_bio10.jpg\" alt=alt=\"Roberta Dodd4\"  width=\"250px\"  \/><br><p class=\"caption center\"><\/p><\/div><\/p><p>\r\n\r\n<div class=\"center\"><img class=\"photo\" src=\"images\/bio_images\/crawford_roberta_bio11.jpg\" alt=alt=\"Roberta Dodd4\"  width=\"250px\"  \/><br><p class=\"caption center\"><\/p><\/div><\/p><p>","bio_text_bot":""},{"bio_id":14,"bio_name":"Dibley, John and George","bio_title":"John and George Dibley","bio_sub_fk":175,"sub_fullname":"Allison, Malinda","bio_text_top":"","bio_text_main":"<h3>A Fannin County Orphan Train boy is remembered<\/h3><br>\r\nBy Malinda Allison, Fannin County Historical Commission<br>\r\nPreviously published in the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ntxe-news.com\/\"target=\"_blank\">North Texas E-News<\/a>\r\n16 Ju 2018<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div class=\"right\"><img class=\"photo\" src=\"images\/bio_images\/dibley_john_e_marker.jpg\" alt=\"John E. Dibley tombstone\" width=\"300px\"  \/><br><p class=\"caption center\">Photo by |100|.<\/p><\/div><p>Recently this memorial was placed on the previously unmarked grave of <al \"o=2135\">John E. Dibley<\/al> at Willow Wild Cemetery, and learning about this from Carolyn Lawrence, I wanted to know who had purchased and placed this memorial.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>I spoke with <sa>Larry Dibley<\/sa> and his wife <sa>Dixie<\/sa>, who along with Larry\u2019s brother <sa>John Dibley<\/sa> and his wife<sa>Dorris<\/sa>, had purchased the marker.  <sa>Larry<\/sa> and <sa>John<\/sa> are the grandsons of <al \"o=45181\">George Dibley<\/al>, the brother of <sa>John E. Dibley<\/sa>.  <sa>Dixie<\/sa> has done considerable research on the family.  She learned that the family with several children had emigrated from England to New York City in 1887, when John was 5 years old.  There were three other children at that time.  <sa>George<\/sa> was later born in New York City.  Both boys came under the care of the Children\u2019s Aid Society in New York City.  It is not known what happened to the parents or why the boys came to be placed in the care of the Children\u2019s Aid Society.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>In the late 1800s the Children\u2019s Aid Society of New York sent children from New York City to towns in Texas to become foster or adopted children.  These children had been homeless, orphaned or abandoned.<\/p><p>\r\n\r\nAn article in the <i>Bonham News<\/i> of November 4, 1898 stated that boys aged between 12 to 16 years would be arriving on a train in Bonham on November 18.  The local Committee to receive the boys included <al \"o=5012\">Dr. R. E. Martin<\/al> and <al \"o=97486\">Judge R. M. Lusk<\/al>.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>John E. Dibley and his brother George Dibley arrived in Bonham on this train.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div class=\"right\"><img class=\"photo\" src=\"images\/bio_images\/dibley_john_pic.jpg\" alt=\"John E. Dibley\" width=\"200px\"  \/><br><p class=\"caption center\">John E. Dibley<\/p><\/div>\r\n<p>A November 19, 1898 Bonham newspaper stated:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div class=\"textblockquote indent\">\r\n<p><b>The Orphan Boys<\/b><\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>They all got homes and just as many more could have been accommodated easily.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Yesterday was distribution day for the orphans brought here from New York.  There was a meeting at the court house and the allotment of homes for the boys whose mothers and fathers have passed away took place.  It was a scene to touch the heart of those who love their fellow man.  There were good looking boys, handsome boys, and smart boys, all waiting for homes.  Willing and anxious hearts and hands were there to take them and share their all with them through life.  After each and every one had gotten his home, there were plenty of good people left who wanted boys to take home and feed, clothe and educate for further usefulness, whereas, had they been left to their fate in the great city of New York, they probably would have gone to the bad.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Agent <sa>R.N. Brace<\/sa> and Attorney <sa>Frederick King<\/sa> were on hand to represent the Children\u2019s Aid of New York the latter making an address.  These gentlemen are performing their work nobly and all praise them in their chosen occupation.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n<p><sa>John<\/sa> died in 1904 at the age of 19, six years after arriving in Fannin County.  According to a lengthy obituary in the Bonham News, <sa>John<\/sa> was placed with a farm family, however, he was in poor health and could not perform farm work. But he was taken in by the family of <sa>Sam Hampton<\/sa> in Bonham and nursed back to health by <sa>Mrs. Hampton<\/sa>.  He then began working for the <i>Bonham News<\/i>, and later became a student studying stenography and typewriting in a commercial college in Ft. Worth, Brantley Draughn.  However, he became ill in Ft. Worth and returned to Bonham, where he died shortly thereafter at S. B. Allen Memorial Hospital.  Another obituary stated:  \u201c<i>Everybody who knew <sa>Johnnie Dibley<\/sa> esteemed him highly and learned with deep regret of his death<\/i>.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div class=\"right\"><img class=\"photo\" src=\"images\/bio_images\/dibley_business_cards.jpg\" alt=\"Business Cards\" width=\"200px\"  \/><br><p class=\"caption center\">Business cards<\/p><\/div>\r\n\r\n<p>He was buried at Willow Wild in the plot of <sa>Dr. Richard E. Martin<\/sa> (see more about Dr. Martin below).  His brother <sa>George<\/sa> attended the burial <i>&hellip; \u201cand surrounded by friends saw the last flower laid by loving and kindly hands on his grave.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\r\n\r\n<div class=\"left\"><img class=\"photo\" src=\"images\/bio_images\/dibley_martin_plot.jpg\" alt=\"Martin Dibley Plot\" width=\"200px\"  \/><br><p class=\"caption center\">Photo by Larry Standlee<\/p><\/div>\r\n<p><sa>Dr. Martin's<\/sa> stone is in the middle of the photo and on the right is the stone for <sa>John E. Dibley<\/sa> and another orphan train young man, <al \"o=3851\">Harold Hudson<\/al>.<\/p>\r\n<div class=\"clearit\"><\/div>\r\n\r\n<div class=\"right\"><img class=\"photo\" src=\"images\/bio_images\/dibley_george_pic.jpg\" alt=\"Photo of George Dilbey as a young man\" width=\"200px\" \/><br><p class=\"caption\">Photo of Young George<\/p><\/div>\r\n<p><sa>George Dibley<\/sa>, <sa>John\u2019s<\/sa> younger brother, was placed with a farming family (<al \"o=91094\">John K.<\/al> and <al \"o=14758\">Thaney Cunningham Dickerson<\/al>), and continued to live in Fannin County, marrying <al \"o=45180\">Edna Cunningham<\/al> and having a daughter and a son, who was named <sa>John<\/sa>.  He farmed in the Dial community and died at the age of 68 years in 1959.  He was a member of the Methodist Church at McCraws Chapel.  He is buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Honey Grove.  His obituary makes no mention of his arrival in Fannin County on the orphan train.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div class=\"left\"><img class=\"photo\" src=\"images\/bio_images\/dibley_martin_r_e_pic.jpg\" alt=\"Photo of Dr. Martin found in George\u2019s New Testament\" width=\"200px\" \/><br><p class=\"caption\">Photo of Dr. Martin found<br>in George\u2019s New Testament<\/p><\/div>\r\n<p>As was stated in the November 4, 1898 newspaper article, one of the individuals in Bonham who was active in the placement of the orphan boys was <al \"o=5012\">Dr. Richard E. Martin<\/al>, who himself had taken in two of the boys on the same train on which <sa>John Dibley<\/sa> arrived.  One of the boys taken in by <sa>Dr. Martin<\/sa>, <sa>Harold Hudson<\/sa>, died in 1928 and is also buried in <sa>Dr. Martin\u2019s<\/sa> cemetery plot at Willow Wild.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>When I spoke with <sa>Dixie Dibley<\/sa>, she told me that while she knew that some of the boys who came on the orphan trains ended up with less than desirable arrangements, for <sa>John<\/sa> and <sa>George<\/sa> their removal from New York and subsequent lives in Fannin County were wonderful, considering the alternative in New York.  Although <sa>John\u2019s<\/sa> life was cut short, it was apparently very rich during the time he was in Texas.  And <sa>George\u2019s<\/sa> dear remembrance of his brother is obvious because <sa>George<\/sa> not only named his son <sa>\u201cJohn\u201d<\/sa> but also kept the photo, the business cards, <sa>John\u2019s<\/sa> Brantley Draughn textbooks and an obituary, which the family found in <sa>George\u2019s<\/sa> New Testament along with the photo of <sa>Dr. Martin<\/sa>.\r\n\r\n<div class=\"right\"><img class=\"photo\" src=\"images\/bio_images\/dibley_textbooks.jpg\" alt=\"Textbooks\" width=\"200px\" \/><br><p class=\"caption\">Textbooks<\/p><\/div>\r\n\r\n<p><sa>Larry<\/sa> and <sa>Dixie Dibley<\/sa> are fortunate that Willow Wild Cemetery has such good records and they were able to locate <sa>John\u2019s<\/sa> burial plot.  I know they are proud of the marker, as is the Willow Wild Cemetery Association.  <sa>Dixie<\/sa> wrote to me:  \u201c<i>Our ancestors lived much harder lives than we have lived.  We are grateful that they found kindness from others and paved a path for a better life for us.  They should not and will not be forgotten, for their existence mattered.<\/i>\u201d <\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>The memorial stone and this article shares this story with the Fannin County community.  Many thanks to <sa>Larry<\/sa> and <sa>Dixie Dibley<\/sa> for sharing this information and photographs.<\/p>","bio_text_bot":""},{"bio_id":3,"bio_name":"Gibson, Randolph Jr.","bio_title":"Randolph Gibson Jr.","bio_sub_fk":203,"sub_fullname":"Sparks, Carolyn Gibson","bio_text_top":"<div id=\"blockquote\">The following is an excerpt from a book entitled <span class= \"bibliography\"><br \/>That Road Leads Home - Part one: The Knarred Ol' Family Tree<\/span><br \/> by <span class= \"ancestor\">|203|<\/span><br \/>&copy;  filed with the Library of Congress, Dec 1999<br \/><\/div>","bio_text_main":"<h3>Randolph Gibson (Jr.) 1807 - 1886<\/h3>\r\n<p>Written by <sa>Carolyn Wylene Gibson Sparks<\/sa><br \/>\r\n3rd great-granddaughter<br \/>\r\n<div class=\"caption right\"><img class=\"photo\" src=\"images\/bio_images\/gibsonb.jpg\" alt=\"Muster Records for Randolph Gib_son described in text\" width=\"470px\" height=\"310px\" \/><br \/>To view actual size: right click on image, choose view image.<\/div>\r\n<sa>Randolph Gibson Jr.<\/sa> was probably born in Tennessee in 1807, as noted in <span class=\"bibliography\">History and Biographical Record of North and West Texas<\/sa>, (&copy; 1910) the son of <sa>Randolph Gibson Sr.<\/sa>, born in Kentucky, according to <span class=\"bibliography\">Story of Montague County, Texas; Its past and Present (1989)<\/sa>. On an 1819 Meigs County, Tennessee tax roll, <sa>Randolph Gibson (Sr.?)<\/sa> was listed as a member of Capt. John Robinson's company. Undoubtedly, <sa>Randolph Gibson Sr.<\/sa> served in that company, for<sa> Randolph Gibson Jr.<\/sa> would have only been 12 years old in 1819. However, on July 8, 1836 Pvt <sa>Randolph Gibson<\/sa> was listed on the \"Company Muster-in roll\" for <sa>Capt. Vernon<\/sa>'s Co. 1 Reg't (Smith's) 2 Brigade, Tennessee, Mounted Infantry of the Cherokee War. <sa>Randolph Gibson<\/sa>'s age was not stated, making it difficult to be certain whether <sa>Randolph Gibson<\/sa>, on the muster roll, was father or son. <sa>Randolph Gibson Jr.<\/sa> would have been about 29 years old in 1836. <sa>Randolph Gibson Sr.<\/sa> would l have been quite elderly, perhaps too old to have served in a militia in 1836. Two ensuing rolls on the muster to April 12, 1837 had a line titled \"present or absent\", on which the words were written \"not stated\". Muster-out date was April 13, 1837 in Decatur, Tennessee, but the form was not completely filled in as to salary paid, and several other lines remained blank. One can only speculate as to which <sa>Randolph Gibson<\/sa> served in the Cherokee War and what happened along the way that would explain why his presence or absence was \"not stated\". However, Tennessee mounted infantry companies such as this are not now known to have been \"spies\" according to information transcribed by Steve Arnold for the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tngennet.org\/franklin\/frindwar.htm\">Franklin County Men in the Indian Wars<a><\/a> website. Perhaps mystery is not uncommon in the Gibson family as far back as <sa>Randolph Gibson Jr.<\/sa><\/p>\r\n<p>In 1838, (either the father or son) <sa>Randolph Gibson<\/sa> and <sa>Jeremiah Chapman<\/sa> donated the land for the Fellowship Baptist Church of Christ, near Decatur in Meigs County, Tennessee. Exchange of land among siblings may suggest that the elder <sa>Randolph Gibson<\/sa> of Meigs County, Tennessee died before 1839, having been involved in early Meigs County civic life. A 1910 article about <sa>Barney Gibson<\/sa> gives a brief account of <sa>Randolph Gibson<\/sa>, stating in part, \"<sa>Randall Gibson<\/sa> and <sa>Sarah Brady<\/sa>, daughter of <sa>Farrell Brady<\/sa> and <sa>Elizabeth Smith<\/sa>, were both natives of Tennessee and members of representative families of the state.\" <\/p>\r\n<p><sa>Randolph Gibson<\/sa> made his living as a farmer. According to census records, the children of <sa>Randolph Gibson<\/sa> and <sa>Sarah Brady<\/sa> were: <sa>James Gibson<\/sa> (1843 - 1875) died in Arkansas, <sa>Charles Gibson<\/sa> (1844 - 1900) married <sa>Susan Ingram<\/sa> and died in Fannin County, Texas; <sa>Farrell Gibson<\/sa> (1847 - ?) moved to Gibson County, Tennessee; <sa>Smith Gibson<\/sa> (1848 - ?) married <sa>Josephine Hood<\/sa> and died in Tennessee; <sa>Elizabeth Gibson<\/sa> (1850 - ?) married <sa>Mr. Asberry<\/sa>; <sa>Harriet Gibson<\/sa> (1853 - ?) married <sa>Newton E. Hind (or Herd)<\/sa> in 1879 in Meigs County, Tennessee; <sa>Hiram Gibson<\/sa> (listed as the same age as <sa>Barney<\/sa> on the 1870 census), moved to Washington; <sa>Barney Gibson<\/sa> (1855 - 1916) married Margaret Elizabeth Wristen August 19, 1876 in Fannin County and died in Montague County, Texas; <sa>Mary Gibson<\/sa> (1857 - ?) married <sa>C. Hackleman<\/sa>. As was the case with many southern families, especially farming families, the Civil War ruined the Gibson[s] financially. Sarah Brady Gibson, wife of Randolph, apparently died some time after the birth of Mary Gibson in 1857.<\/p>\r\n<p>When war broke out in 1861, <sa>Randolph Gibson Jr.<\/sa> and <sa>Hiram Gibson<\/sa> were members of the home guard of the 6th district, sending their sons instead to march off to the battleground. <sa>Hiram Gibson<\/sa> sacrificed two sons to the Southern cause. In 1858, <sa>Jeremiah Chapman<\/sa> sold 127&frac12; acres and then 487&frac12; acres to the <sa>Collins<\/sa> family, a sale which had particular consequences in a lawsuit following the Civil War. At the close of the war, the widower, <sa>Randolph Gibson<\/sa> married a widow, <sa>Clementine V. Guffee<\/sa> on December 13, 1865 in White County, Tennessee. <sa>Randolph<\/sa>'s young wife, <sa>Clementine<\/sa>, bore him another son, <sa>William \"Willie\" Randolph Gibson<\/sa>.<\/p>\r\n<p>In 1871, the same year <sa>Randolph Gibson<\/sa> was drawn into a postwar lawsuit which involved former neighbors. Circuit court case no. 317, filed February 15, 1871, demonstrated the effects of war on friendships and family relationships. In the lawsuit, <sa>Enoch Collins<\/sa> , a union sympathizer, sued the Confederates under <sa>Col. McKenzie<\/sa> for encamping upon his estate in Meigs county to guard the river. <sa>Collins<\/sa> had been assisting Union men across the Tennessee River on their way to Kentucky. <sa>Collins<\/sa> asked for $40,000 in damages for taking property by force on October 1, 1863 and for forcing him and his family out of his house. The defendants named in the case were <sa>George W. McKenzie<\/sa>, <sa>William W. Lillard<\/sa>, <sa>Absalom Fooshee<\/sa>, <sa>Randolph Gibson<\/sa>, <sa>Smith Brady<\/sa>, <sa>John T. McCarty<\/sa>, <sa>Amos K. Butler<\/sa>, <sa>Allen Durham<\/sa>, <sa>Robert<\/sa> and <sa>John Powell<\/sa>, <sa>Thomas F. Hoover<\/sa>, <sa>Martin Payne<\/sa>, <sa>Isaac Baker<\/sa>, <sa>Jessie Martin<\/sa>, <sa>Arthur Ewing<\/sa>, <sa>George Baker<\/sa>, <sa>Jacob Ewing<\/sa>, <sa>John Baker<\/sa>, <sa>Samuel Woolsey<\/sa>, and <sa>John Blythe<\/sa>. <sa>Brady<\/sa>, <sa>Randolph<\/sa> , <sa>Gibson<\/sa>, and <sa>Fooshee<\/sa> were not soldiers, but abetted them. The outcome of the case is not known. However, with the already existing economic hardship of the Civil War, any amount of financial penalty that might have been levied would have been difficult to bear.<\/p>\r\n<p>As <sa>Randolph Gibson<\/sa> watched his estate dwindle, his sons - coming of age - began to leave home and search for their own places in the sun. <sa>Barney<\/sa> and <sa>Charlie<\/sa> left the familiar Tennessee River Valley to seek the more friendly skies of Texas while their father, <sa>Randolph Gibson<\/sa>, continued to farm the homestead and attempt to make a living on the ravaged farm for his now growing young family. <sa>Clementine Guffie Gibson<\/sa> gave birth to another son, <sa>Woodville Gibson<\/sa>, in 1875. In 1876, Randolph's youngest son, <sa>Barney<\/sa>, by his first wife, <sa>Sarah<\/sa>, took a wife and established a home in Texas. <sa>Randolph Gibson<\/sa>, growing older, may have found it too physically demanding to continue to work the homestead in Tennessee without the help of those sons. Another incentive might have been that he just wanted to be near his sons in Texas to watch his grandchildren grow. Whatever the reason, <sa>Randolph Gibson Jr.<\/sa> moved to Fannin County, Texas a short time after the 1880 Tennessee census. He bought land near Bonham, Texas and the little community of Savoy. About that time, an Indian school was flourishing in the community. Baptists and Methodists shared a church building on the banks of Caney Creek. Other surnames found on the markers in the Caney Creek (nicknamed Coontown) Cemetery including <sa>Deatheridge<\/sa>, <sa>Coonrod<\/sa>, <sa>Ray<\/sa>, <sa>Hodges<\/sa>, and <sa>White<\/sa>. <sa>Randolph Gibson Jr. <\/sa> died July 18, 1886 in Fannin County, Texas.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;[Read his <a href=\"miscellaneous\/3\">Last Will and Testiment<\/a> here.]<\/p>\r\n<img class=\"photo left\" src=\"images\/bio_images\/co-8.jpg\" alt=\"Scanned transcription of the will of Randolph Gibson, Jr.\" width=\"400\" height=\"301\" class=\"alignleft\" \/><p><sa>Randolph Gibson<\/sa> may have been involved in the Cherokee Wars, as a spy, and the Civil War, as a home guard. Whatever sins <sa>Randolph Gibson Jr. <\/sa> may have committed during the course of his life, he set an example of strength and endurance during trying times in our nation's history. Like his father before him, <sa>Randolph Gibson<\/sa> taught his children his faith in God. Though a man of deep religious convictions, <sa>Randolph Gibson <\/sa>may have succumbed to the economic temptations and social pressure which led people to choose the course they would follow in the horror that is called war.<\/p>\r\n<p>It is believed that <sa>Randolph Gibson Jr. <\/sa> was buried in Caney (Coontown) Cemetery, east of Savoy, in Fannin County, Texas. Though a search for the headstone in 1998 proved unfruitful, early records indicated that a <sa>Randolph Gibson<\/sa> (1818 - 1886) was buried in Coontown Cemetery. [The author, Carolyn Sparks, and Jim Thompson are pictured above finding the marker of Randolph Gibson in the creekbed near the cemetery!] At the time of the partial cemetery census, many of the wooden markers and headstones were already damaged from a fire that once engulfed the cemetery. Since then abandonment, neglect, and the ravages of flood waters have claimed Caney \"Coontown\" Cemetery, silencing one piece of history.<\/p><\/div>","bio_text_bot":""},{"bio_id":2,"bio_name":"Harper, Capt L. D.","bio_title":"Capt. L. D. Harper,  Confederate Veteran","bio_sub_fk":1,"sub_fullname":"GenWeb, TXFannin","bio_text_top":"<p>From <bi>The Ladonia News<\/bi> March 29, 1935:<\/p>","bio_text_main":"<p><sa>Captain L. D. Harper<\/sa>, who will be ninety years of age on his next birthday, in June of this year, is, according to information to the News, the oldest person now living in the Ladonia community.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p><sa>Mr Harper<\/sa> was born in Haversham County, Georgia, receiving his education in a log school house with no floors. When the Civil War broke out, he followed his two older brothers into the service enlisting in 1861, with <sa>Captain B. E. Stiles<\/sa> he went to Richmond and formed part of the 16th Georgia Regiment, commanded by <sa>Howell Cobb<\/sa>, who had been United States treasurer, but resigned when Georgia seceded. From Richmond <sa>Mr Harper<\/sa> went to Yorktown where he was under the command of <sa>General McGruder<\/sa>. Here he saw his first fighting when <sa>McClellan<\/sa> landed his army. Later he was in the Battle of Dam No. 1, the fight at Williamsburg, The Battle of the Seven Pines, the seven days of fight ending at Malvern's Hill where the company lost nine killed and twenty three wounded. Then on the raid to Maryland and in the Battles of South Mountain and Sharpsburg. Then back to Fredricksburg, Va., and in the first battle there, Under Burnsides, and at Chancellorsville where <sa>Gen. Jackson<\/sa> was killed, and the company lost eighteen men, with thirty-three others wounded. The next move was to Gettysburg, where <sa>Mr. Harper<\/sa> was wounded July 2, 1863, and with forty-three others was taken prisoner after lying on the battlefield four days.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Several weeks later he was paroled and sent to the hospital at Richmond, and as soon as he was able to travel, was furloughed home. While he was at home, he married <sa>Marietta Blair<\/sa>. As soon as he was able to serve, he returned to duty and was assigned to the Second Georgia Cavalry, <sa>Longstreet<\/sa>'s Corp. serving as Captain till the surrender, when he was mustered and paroled at Greensboro, Georgia in 1865.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Resuming life as a citizen, he was elected county treasurer of Banks County in 1870, served two years, then moved to Texas living first in Ellis County and in 1879 moving to Fannin County. At that time, <sa>Capt. Harper<\/sa> says there were only three or four stores in Ladonia, among which were the <sa>Haden<\/sa> store and the <sa>Dan Redner<\/sa> Store. For awhile <sa>Mr Harper<\/sa> ran a wagon to Dodd City, the nearest railway station, hauling supplies for the stores. Later, he operated three mail routes to Honey Grove, Commerce, and Leonard. During that time, <sa>C. W. T. Weldon<\/sa> started a private bank in Ladonia, the first in this section, and <sa>Mr Harper<\/sa> carried money for the bank, sometimes thousands of dollars. He never went armed while thus engaged, he says and though it was a well-known fact that he sometimes carried large sums of money, he was never held up or molested.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>In 1887 the first railway was built to Ladonia, doing away with the routes. In that year, <sa>Mr Harper<\/sa> was elected city marshall of Ladonia and served ten years, later he was constable for several years, and later as justice of the peace for six years. During all the years that he has lived in Ladonia, he says he has never failed to vote a straight Democratic ticket in every election til last year when he was too feeble to come to the polls.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p><sa>Mr Harper<\/sa> has three sons, <sa>W. B. Harper<\/sa> of Fort Worth, <sa>John Harper<\/sa> of Dallas, and <sa>Ben Harper<\/sa> of Honey Grove, and two daughters, <sa>Mrs Will Harkins<\/sa> of Bonham, and <sa>Mrs Vada Allbright<\/sa>, who makes her home with him. His wife passed away in 1925.<\/p>","bio_text_bot":""},{"bio_id":10,"bio_name":"Nelms, Americus Leonidas","bio_title":"Americus Leonidas Nelms","bio_sub_fk":175,"sub_fullname":"Allison, Malinda","bio_text_top":"","bio_text_main":"<p><bi>With the Early Settlers in Fannin County<\/bi><br \/>\r\nBy <sa>Mrs. C. L. Weddle<\/sa><\/p><p>\r\n\r\nFrom the:<br \/><bi>Bonham Daily Favorite<\/bi><br \/>31 Jul 1924<\/p><p>\r\n\r\n(<hi>The following article was written for the Progressive Farmer of Dallas, which offered prized for the best articles on \"Old Times in the South\" and was one of the articles winning a cash prize.  It will be of interest to old timers, here, who knew all the parties referred to.  <sa>Uncle Lee Nelms<\/sa>, the subject of the sketch, is expected to attend the Old Settlers reunion here this week. - Ed.<hi>)<\/p><p>\r\n\r\nMy father, <sa>A. L. Nelms<\/sa>, was born in Logan county, Kentucky, June 17, 1832, the youngest of a family of nine children, and moved with his parents, two brothers and five sisters, to Texas, when he was 14 years of age.<\/p><p>\r\n\r\nMy grandfather, <sa>John Arch Nelms<\/sa>, was a shoe and boot maker by trade and a minister by profession - a local Methodist preacher.  The Kentucky home was a typical log house of two rooms, covered with clapboards, which were held in place by weight-poles, nails being a scarce and expensive article at that time.<\/p><p>\r\n\r\nThe local preacher, licensed, but not ordained, drew no salary, so the living came from the making and mending of boots and shoes and also the occupations of two older sons, who farmed some, raising corn and oats, and some wheat, usually, for their bread.<\/p><p>\r\n\r\nThe trip to Texas was made in the spring of '46, for the purpose of obtaining a home, as they owned no home in Kentucky.  They traveled by land to Clarksville, Tennessee, then took boat on Cumberland River, descending Ohio and Mississippi rivers to New Orleans, then ascended the Mississippi to the mouth of Red River, then up Red River to Shreveport, then up Lade Soda to Jefferson.  They first set foot on Texas soil at Swanson's Landing, next to Port Caddo, between Shreveport and Jefferson.  Leaving boat at Jefferson, they traveled to Dallas in wagons.  Grandfather hired one ox-wagon to convey his family to Dallas, and left the main bulk of their provisions, a sufficiency [text missing] to get them after they got to Dallas, who returned saying that the warehouse fees had eaten up the supplies; however, it was suspected that the old man appropriated them to his own use, as he seemed to have plenty of money, whereas he had not before.<\/p><p>\r\n\r\nDallas at that time consisted of one general merchandise store, Smith & Patterson, proprietors; a blacksmith shop, a hotel, and five or six resident houses.<\/p><p>\r\n\r\nGrandfather's company camped in Dallas for about two weeks until they could have time to look at a location.  They selected a location in Collin County, on White Rock Creek, and began a settlement in Peter's Colony.  Married men were allowed 640 acres each, single men, 320 acres.  There were six married men and three single men in this ____ who were desirous of establishing a foothold in this new country.<\/p><p>\r\n\r\nGrrandfather and his family first lived in a little log cabin on the creek, then moved to the _____, where they lived in a little b_____ shanty.  They had no sooner arrived on White Rook than they began having illness.  Very little medicine was to be had, and no physician within less than 20 or 25 miles (no telephones or automobiles), so ____ a number of the company died of chills and malaria.  Grandfather lost two daughters, a son's wife with infant, and a small granddaughter.<\/p><p>\r\n\r\nSome had commenced to build but after a trial of about our months, they abandoned the settlement, some returning to Kentucky.  Grandfather and kin moved to Bonham, Fannin County, which was a town of about 75 families, give general merchandise stores, two drinking houses, later called \"saloons,\" and one ten-pin alley.<\/p><p>\r\n\r\nHere grandfather and two oldest sons, <sa>Uncle Chris<\/sa> and <sa>Uncle T. Nelms<\/sa>, worked at shoe and boot trade for two years, then the married son went into the saddle business.  They were all disabled to some extent by the sickness and hardships they had undergone, and father, the youngest child, who had had a spell of lung fever, was neither physically, nor financially able to attend school the direct year.  He did some work, however, his first job in Bonham being to cut up a load of wood for a German merchant, for 75 cents.  He got some schooling by piece-meal -  schools were all pay schools, all short terms.  He had attended two short terms of school in Kentucky, where he studied Goodrich's readers.  In Bonham, he attended five schools, perhaps covering a year's time in all and studied the Blue-backed speller and McGuffey's readers as high as the fourth grade.  He professed religion at a camp meeting in Bonham in the fall of '49.<\/p><p>\r\n\r\nIt is remarkable how Grandfather and his sons worked together, each son being on the alert to purchase provision for the family, or to make any kind of trade that would be for the mutual benefit of all.  Father as a young boy purchased produce and game from the Choctaw and Cherokee Indians, who came across from the Nation to Bonham to trade having bought from them many a ____________ dollar.<\/p><p>\r\n\r\nFather sometimes worked as a day laborer in the fields with negro slaves, and had good opportunity to observe the customs of slave-holding times.  I could give some interesting incidents relative thereto, but such as I can give I do not consider as particularly typical of the times in a general way, for where there was cruelty and inconsideration on the part of one slave-master or mistress, followed by the revenge of the dependent and helpless slave, there was perchance in many another case real human kindness, begetting profoundest humility and loyalty.<\/p><p>\r\n\r\nOur people manage to pay for a home in Bonham, which was a half-acre lot with a hewed-log house of two rooms.  The relative value of this property is shown by the fact that one of my uncles traded this same house and lot for 160 acres of land five miles west of Bonham, and two tracts of land in Collin County, one comprising 430 acres on Indian Creek and one of 200 acres on Potract (780 acres in all.)  The 160 acres became Grandpa's permanent home.  Uncle afterwards traded the 200-acre tract for a wagon and a span of mules, and sold the 420 acres for $2.50 per acre in gold, and carried the money home (from Collin to Fannin County) in his pocket, then purchasing the home near Ector, which is still owned by his heirs.  When Father married, Grandpa deeded him 80 acres (from the 160 acre tract), a part of which is included in the present home place where he still resides.<\/p><p>\r\n\r\nMy father and my mother first met each other at a quilting, in 1854, which was a social gathering common in those times, where old and young met together to work and to enjoy social conversation, as they did at the corn-shuckings and log rollings.  There was a big dinner and a party at night, form which the boys escorted the girls to their homes.  Mother had come with her parents to Texas in '53 and settled near where Ector now stands.  She and Father were occasionally together after they met at the quilting, walking or riding horseback to singings, meetings, an occasional party or picnic, and attended together one 4th of July celebration in Bonham.  They were married in 1856.<\/p><p>\r\n\r\nThen came the War in '61, to work all sorts of disburbance, if not havoc, in the homes both old and new.  Father enlisted in the army in July '62, Alexander's Regiment, Company E. and left wife and little son with his aged parents.  His company was seldom called into action, hence he fired only two shots during the war, those being at the battle of Prairie Point, Arkansas, in a skirmish with some cavalry.  His duty was mainly as a scout to watch the outskirts and prevent the interference of stragglers.  He was on post duty at Marshall about nine months of the time, and when not on duty, was employed by a German named Decker, to make boots and shoes, and was also at home on detail during one winter to make shoes for the army.  He was with his company at the battles of Nutonia, Missouri, and Mansfield, Louisiana, where he had a number of friends killed or wounded.  He was with his Regiment at Hempstead, Texas, when General Lee surrendered.<\/p><p>\r\n\r\nWe often hear people speak of \"the good old times,\" as though the old times were better than the present.  If those times were better than the present, no one would dare say that the people who developed this great county, had an easy time.  When we compare the resent with the times of our ancestors, three things stand out prominently in favor of the past: fertile soil; immense acreage of the very best range; a united, contented people.  The soil was fresh then, but erosion has greatly reduced its fertility, however, we have means and methods for restoring the fertility, and modern machinery by which we can handle a larger acreage.<\/p><p>\r\n\r\nThe people were closely united because circumstances forced them to be, for their own protection and progress.  They really knew and appreciated each other, and although at present we live more independently of our neighbors, circumstances are forcing the people of the rural South to unite more closely.  The people were contented, because they had a definite task, developing the country, and had faith to believe they were going to succeed, though no doubt the way sometimes looked dark. <\/p><p>\r\n\r\nHere's hoping that all young people, who read these articles on the Old South, will realize and appreciate more than ever the difficulties of the people who developed this great heritage they have given us.<\/p>","bio_text_bot":""},{"bio_id":8,"bio_name":"Pollard, Dennis","bio_title":"Dennis Pollard","bio_sub_fk":1,"sub_fullname":"GenWeb, TXFannin","bio_text_top":"","bio_text_main":"<p><bi><hi>The Dallas Express<\/hi>, Dallas, Texas<\/bi><br \/>Saturday, February 8, 1919, Page 5<\/p><p><bi><sa>D. P. Pollard<\/sa>, Wealthy Negro Farmer Passes Away<\/bi><\/p><p>Mr. <sa>D. P. Pollard<\/sa> was born in the state of Louisiana about the year 1855 on the 8th day of March.  Came to Texas in boyhood where he spent his entire life.  Was married Aug. 5th, 1886 to which wedlock there were born six girls and one boy of whom five girls and the boy survive.  He was a successful business man and made comfortable provision for his family.  Was especially interested in the educational welfare of his children, giving to each advantage which were happily improved.  He joined the Mt. Zion Baptist church about twenty-nine years ago and maintained his faith in that doctrine until his death.  The first marriage was broken by death about eighteen years ago and for five years he filled the place of both father and mother and the children learned to rely upon him for everything.<\/p><p>On June 1, 1904 he again entered in wedlock, marrying <sa>Miss T. E. Young<\/sa> with whom he has lived until his demise.  His death came almost unexpected which was a great shock not only to his family but to the community and his many friends both white and colored.<\/p><p>Until the last moment he tried to console his family by telling them that he would be all right in a few days.  However, God has disposed otherwise and the end came without a struggle.  He seemed to have only closed his eyes and fallen asleep.  And at 12:15, Thursday morning, Jan. 16th his spirit bade farewell to earth.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<p><bi><hi>The Dallas Express<\/hi>, Dallas, Texas<\/bi><br \/>Saturday, February 8, 1919, Page 5<\/p><p><bi>A Tribute to the Late <sa>Dennis Pollard<\/sa>, Who Departed this Life Jan. 16th at His Home Near Wolfe City, Texas<\/bi><\/p><p>It has been said that death loveth a shining mark.  In the death of the great man, <sa>Dennis Pollard<\/sa>, it can truly and justly be said that Fannin County and the race at large have lost one of their most noble men.  One whose place will be hard to fill if it ever can be filled.  We must again repeat that a great character has fallen for the noble qualities of the heart and mind made him great, yes great in heart, soul and mind.  These great qualities were ever gloriously manifested in manifold ways in the varied activities of his most useful life.<\/p><p>It has been said that a prophet hath little honor in his own country, but this noble man proved a great exception to this saying.  His undoubted integrity, his lofty and courageous spirit for high ideals and his many noble deeds performed for the welfare of his community, his country and the race at large commanded for him the respect of the whole people regardless of race.  His great unselfish services rendered for the general good and his fellowmen caused both white and colored, old and young in his neighborhood and surrounding country to give to him that cordial greeting, respect, and consideration to which he was so richly entitled and richly deserved.  <sa>Dennis Pollard<\/sa>, so to speak was a great beacon light to his race or as in the way of illustrating a great truth could be termed as a city upon a great hill and by these metaphors, light and city, the wonderful significance of a noble thought and grand truth can be obviously seen.  By honesty, perservance, industry, economy, great self sacrifice and judicious management, he had successfully surmounted the many oppositions, difficulties, prejudices and petty jealousness by which he was surrounded in this life and made a most creditable and successful landing upon the topmost rounds in the great ladder of success, prosperity and progress and thus demonstrating the possibility and capability of the Negro to achieve and accomplish great and noble things in his life.  His moral excellence and great Christian integrity served also a great Christian integrity served also a great light or example that humanity might be led to high grounds of Christian usefulness and be inspired to do noble things for God and humanity.  <sa>Dennis<\/sa>, as he was so familiarly called by his many friends did not live for himself alone while he loved and amply provided for his dear family and loved ones.  He was possessed by nature with a big generous, loving and sympathetic heart and a very amiable disposition.  He was at all times ready and willing to extend a helping hand to those in need and the unfortunate in general.  Many homes and scores of men and women, widows and orphans, the aged and decrepit and those in distress and poverty have so often received help and relief from their condition and want by this good man and made to go on their way rejoicing.  His counsel and wholesome advice was gladly given when sought.  There was no enterprise for the public good but what generously and willingly received his heartyly aid and support.  There was no need or call of the churches and institutions of religious or educational character but what he cheerfully contributed.  There was no charity that he failed to extend needed aid, no call of his country was ever unheeded.  His optimism was inspiring, his graciousness was ever manifest, beloved, honored and respected by all.  Truly, truly in the passing of <sa>Dennis Pollard<\/sa>, the state, the county and the race have suffered an irreparable loss.  Yea, the race has lost one of her best and noblest sons and representatives.  Not until we shall have been farther removed from this hour of sadness and tense grief and the stern realities of life shall be thrust before us as we make our onward march through life's checked scenes and dreary voyage and then O, then, will we be clearly able to truly comprehend the great loss of this noble man to his country, his family and the race.  It was my great pleasure to have been well acquainted with the above character and intimately associated with him for a number of years in fact, I have known him practically all of my life.  A number of years ago I taught school in his community for several terms and lived in his home, which gave me a splendid opportunity to know something about this great man.  I considered him one of the nature's noblemen.  to me he was a most dear and intimate friend and brother.  He was one of the very few friends I had in life that I could condole and trust.  His friendship, his counsel, his advice to me have always proved wholesome.  It seems to me in his death I have sustained a personal loss, like the family and other dear relatives.  I can hardly realize that I am to see him no more on this mundane shore and enjoy his sweet communion.  My grief and sorrow are too deep to be expressed by mere words.  This noble man in many respects stood alone in a class by himself.  He was of a unique character and I doubt very much that his life will ever be seen again in this present generation.  He was a few years past 60 but not an old man and he ranked among the wealthiest men of Fannin County regardless of race.  He owned 1400 acres of farming land besides other real estate.  He also owned plenty of the finest livestock of every description and numerous other valuable assets.  Just before his death he had recently erected a most beautiful mansion for the comfort and happiness of his dear loving wife and children whom he had and ever so devotedly cared and served through life.  He was especially devoted and interested in the educational advantages which were happily sought and improved by them.<\/p><p><sa>Denis Pollard<\/sa> was worth possible between $150,000.00 and $200,000.00 at his death.  His death came almost unexpected which was a great shock not only to his family but to the community and his friends at large, especially as the doctors had dismissed his case and he apparently seemed to be doing so well and even told his family that he would be all right in a few days, but this was not to be.<\/p><p>All that skill and loving care and attention could bestow was given to relieve his sufferings and preserve his noble life.  His devoted wife, children and others who loved him were ceaseless in attendance and care but his work on earth had been finished.  He met the fate that must come to us all soon or late with a bravery and resignation inspired by faith on the morning of Jan. 16th at 12:15, the exalted and gentle spirit of <sa>Dennis Pollard<\/sa> took its triumphant flight from its frail liniment of clay to enter that region of eternal bliss, where sickness, sorrow, pain and death are felt and feared no more.<\/p><p>\"Sleep on dear <sa>Pollard<\/sa>,\" I with a death loving host of friends hope by the grace of God to meet you again in a fairer clime than this into those regions of unmitigated joy and happiness and where parting is no more.  Sleep on dear friend, <sa>Pollard<\/sa>, farewell.<\/p><p>\"Life's duty has been well done.<br \/>Life's race has been well run<br \/>Heaven's crown has been well won.\"<\/p><p>A sincere friend, <sa>W. E. Johnson<\/sa>.<\/p>\r\n\r\nAdditional tributes may be read in <i>The Dallas Express<\/i> at <a href=\"http:\/\/texashistory.unt.edu\/ark:\/67531\/metapth278247\/m1\/5\/?q=%22dennis%20pollard%22\" target=\"_blank\">The Portal to Texas History.","bio_text_bot":""},{"bio_id":16,"bio_name":"Ross, Henry Bradford","bio_title":"Story of Ross Family Moving to Texas in 1800s in Ox Wagons","bio_sub_fk":1,"sub_fullname":"GenWeb, TXFannin","bio_text_top":"","bio_text_main":"<p><bi>The Bonham Daily Favorite<\/bi><br>Sunday, 23 Jun 1996<\/p>\r\n<h4><b>Story of Ross Family Moving to Texas in 1800s in Ox Wagons<\/b><\/h4><\/p>\r\n<p><bi>On March 17, 1958, <sa>Grace Ross Brown<\/sa> wrote a biography of her father, <sa>Henry Bradford Ross<\/sa>, early Fannin County settler.  The story is in her words and is as follows.<\/bi><\/p>\r\n\r\n<div class=\"right\"style=\"width: 410px\"><img class=\"photo\" src=\"images\/bio_images\/ross_henry_pic2.jpg\" alt=\"The Ross Homestead\" width=\"400px\"><p class=\"caption center\">The <sa>Ross<\/sa> home was located in the Snow Hill Community, Fannin County, eight miles south of Bonham. The home is gone, but some of the family still live on the land.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n<p><sa>Henry Bradford Ross<\/sa> was born in Mississippi on March 7, 1850.  When he was about 25 years old he and all his mother's family, and our mother's father's family, all came to Texas in ox wagons (1875).  It took them several weeks.  Our daddy and mother had one child, <sa>Mary Ellen<\/sa>, who was born Aug. 27, 1870.  She died while they were coming through Arkansas.  They buried her there and came on to Texas.<\/p><p>They, my father's mother, our grandmother and children wanted to go back to Mississippi and they went back in their ox wagons.  They stayed there until our two brothers were four or five years old.  Then they decided they wanted to come back to Texas.  They sold their belongings and came on the train.<\/p><p>Our grandfather had rented a house in the Taylorville Community, so our father and mother went there.  After a while pappa rented a place and moved to it.  They went through lots of hardships and lived very hard.  Just had biscuit on Sunday morn.  He said if I ever get able, I'll have biscuits three times a day and he eventually did.  I don't remember how long he lived at that place.  Finally, he and our grandfather bought 200 acres of land in the Snow Hill Community.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div class=\"left\" style=\"width: 255px\"><img class=\"photo\" src=\"images\/bio_images\/ross_henry_pic1.jpg\" alt=\"Henry and Mary Ann Ross\" width=\"250px\"><p class=\"caption center\"><sa>Henry Bradford Ross<\/sa> and wife,<br><sa>Mary Ann Biggers Ross<\/sa><\/p><\/div>\r\n\r\n<p>On Dec. 15, 1869, pappa married <sa>Ann Liza Biggers<\/sa> and fourteen children were born to them.  They raised nine to be grown.  Namely <sa>Tom<\/sa>, he married <sa>Alma Hammond<\/sa>; <sa>Ed<\/sa> married <sa>Maggie Herndon<\/sa> first time (she was <sa>Alma<\/sa>'s cousin), they separated.  Then about two years later, he married <sa>Lettie Childress<\/sa>; <sa>LouTishie<\/sa> married <sa>John Sudderth<\/sa>; <sa>Susie<\/sa> married <sa>Tom Armstrong<\/sa>; <sa>Rosa<\/sa> married <sa>Ed Stone<\/sa>; <sa>Gracie<\/sa> married <sa>Jim M. Brown<\/sa>, <sa>Sug<\/sa> married <sa>Tom J. Brown<\/sa>; <sa>Sippie<\/sa> married <sa>Jim P. Callahan<\/sa>; <sa>Lettie<\/sa> married <sa>Will Herriage<\/sa> first time - they separated - in a few years (2) married <sa>Plumer Hartwell<\/sa>.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Now back to my daddy's life.  During the Civil War, a man hired our daddy to go to war in his place.  He promised him $100.  Daddy was just a teenage boy.  When the war ended, he would not pay what he promised.  that made pappy very bitter toward him.  They fought with Bowie knives - I have our (granddaddy's on father's side) knife that he fought with.  Our grandmother did not come back to Texas with our father and mother.  In a few years she died.  Then he had a letter from his sisters and brother.  They wanted to come to Texas and live with them.  Pappy got money, I don't know how he managed to, and sent for them.  <sa>Aunt Martha, Aunt Tishie, Aunt Jane<\/sa> and <sa>Uncle Johnny<\/sa>.  They sold everything they had.  Left <sa>Uncle Johnny<\/sa> there because he didn't have a pair of shoes to wear.  I don't know how long he had to wait to get a chance to come.  Finally he also came to Texas.  They all lived close enough to visit each other until they died.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div class=\"right\"style=\"width: 410px\"><img class=\"photo\" src=\"images\/bio_images\/ross_henry_pic4.jpg\" alt=\"Ross Sisters\" width=\"400px\"><p class=\"caption center\"><bi>The <sa>Ross<\/sa> Sisters<\/bi><br>\r\nSeated, left to right:  <sa>Ada Regina (Sug) Ross Brown<\/sa>; <sa>Amanda Susiette (Susy) Ross Armstrong<\/sa>; <sa>Henry Lettie Ross Herriage Hartwell<\/sa> and <sa>Lutishie (Tish) Ross Sudderth<\/sa>.<br>\r\nStanding:  <sa>Mississippi (Sip) Ross Callahan<\/sa>; <sa>Rosa Ann Jane Ross Stone<\/sa>; and <sa>Gracie Gertrude Clara Mae Ross Brown<\/sa>.<\/p><\/div>\r\n<p>We don't know what hardships are.  They all went through awful and perilous times, yet they loved each other.  Our mother said it seemed like our grandmother was more devoted to our daddy than any of the rest of her children.  Guess it broke her heart when they moved back to Texas.  All of the broken family are buried down here in White Rock Cemetery.<\/p><p>I'll go back to when daddy bought their home.  He was 18 years paying for it.  They just gave $5 per acre.  Interest mounted to more than principal.  Things they raised to sell were very cheap.  I can remember lots of years he sold cotton for 2-1\/2 and 3 cents per pound.  Other things were just as cheap.<\/p><p>Oh folks did not have much money, but had lots of love and respect for one another.  When anyone got sick in the neighborhood, pappa and momma were there to lend a helping hand.  I've heard <sa>Aunt Tishie<\/sa> say if any of her children got sick she'd rather have my mother than a doctor.  Their family doctor told them to buy morphine by the jar and showed them how to dose it out.  So if anyone needed it, they could give it and save them a doctor bill.  As long as they lived, that is what they did.<\/p><p>Our mother's granddaddy was a doctor.  His name was <sa>Ivy<\/sa> (don't know his given name).  <sa>Grandpa Biggers<\/sa> married <sa>Uncle John Ivy<\/sa>'s sister first time he married.  I just have to write as it comes to my mind.  Place grandpa and pappa bought was known as the Bontwell home.  Grandpa sold 50 acres to <sa>Mr. Hartwell<\/sa> and later the rest to pappa.  Then he built a new home.  I don't remember exact year.  In 1889 the house we lived in stood south of the barn.  All of us girls were born in the old house but <sa>Tishie<\/sa>.  She was born in the White Rock Community.  When pappa started to build his new house, he sold the old house to brother <sa>Tom<\/sa> who had married.  He had bought 50 acres from <sa>Uncle Tom Freeman<\/sa>.  Moved the old house on it where <sa>Arch Ivy<\/sa> lived so long.  He gave pappa $100 for it.  We did not have much of this world's goods.  Lots of love and a wonderful home.<\/p><p>I don't remember any of them talking about any Indians being here when they moved here.  There had been.  I remember one instance daddy talked about the Indians catching <sa>Uncle Tom Freeman<\/sa> in the woods just southwest of our home.  They told him they would not kill him if he'd give them $25 dollars.  He had that much in a pocket.  Pulled it out and gave it to them.  The Indians cut 1\/2 of his right ear off, so they would know him if they caught him again.<\/p><p>I'll write some more.  It's been nearly a year since I started this.  Today is the 1st day of February 1959.<\/p><p>I'll get back to the Civil War days.  What I remember.  My daddy said the high officials in the army all had gold snuff boxes - kept them full of snuff.  If they took a bad cold they would pull those boxes out of their pockets and take a whiff of snuff - would make them sneeze and cure their colds.  He said folks parched corn for coffee, and scraped up dirt out of smokehouses to get salt.  I don't remember how they did it - seems like they poured water over it - let it set so long, then used the water.<\/p><p>Most grown folks went barefoot in those days.  They had one pair of shoes.  When they went to church, carried their shoes until they got nearly to church house, then they set down and put them on.  When church was over they'd start home, then set down and pull their shoes off.  Oh, they had to take care of them.  I've heard him tell boys just had long tailed shirts to wear until they were a teenager.<\/p><p>Women had looms had to make their own cloth.  Had spinning wheels to make their own thread.  If people had to do that now, we would know what hard times were.  Our mother used to weave our carpets.  We girls have tacked many, many balls of carpet rags.  She would weave strips many yards long.  One yard wide was the only width she could weave.  Then sew the strips together large enough for a room.  She made enough to cover four rooms.  Pappa persuaded her to sell the loom.  I believe we still had the carpets on floors upstairs when mamma died.<\/p><p>Cotton was $1 per pound when the Civil War ended.  They farmed with oxen.  Picked the cotton in baskets.  They did not put bit of leaves in.  I don't remember what kind of gins they had.  I wish I had asked more questions than I did.  Made me feel so sorry to hear about such hardships and how they had to live.  I've heard them tell about trading a hen for one gallon of molasses.  Had to eat them with cornbread.  Yes there was some happiness.  For they loved one another.  Had good neighbors.  That is more than I can say of lots folks now a days.  Well money is not everything in this life.  It will not buy love.<\/p><p>Pappa told me, when our oldest sister died, if he had lost one of us children, while we were at home, he did not think he could stand it.  If any of us was sick enough to have a doctor, nights did not get too dark or cold.  He would go to barn, get a horse, ride the seven miles to get the doctor.<\/p><p>As years rolled on and on, he became more prosperous and he was happiest when all the children would come home.  And he wanted someone there most of the time.  I told him once I did not see how he could buy so much.  He laughed and said, well it comes on by degrees.  He never went to school a day in his life.  Could not read nor write.  He could figure up how much bale of cotton would bring in his mind most as quick as buyer could with pencil and paper.  I remember him telling about knowing a man back in Mississippi.  Took a few bales of cotton to town and sold it, put money in his pocket and started home.  He had to camp all night on the road.  Way in the night, a man came up to the wagon and tried to rob him.  The old farmer killed him and he was the fellow that bought his cotton.<\/p><p>Guess I'll have this all messed up - will not interest no one.<\/p><p>February 7, 1960.<\/p><p>I decided I had better write some more of bygone years if I ever get this wrote.  I know my remarks are scattering, but maybe will interest the grandchildren and great-grandchildren when I'm through with earthly things.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div class=\"left\" style=\"width: 410px\"><img class=\"photo\" src=\"images\/bio_images\/ross_henry_pic5.jpg\" alt=\"Betty Stone Wood Family\" width=\"400px\"><p class=\"caption center\">Members of <sa>Betty Stone Wood<\/sa>'s family are: Back row - <sa>Samuel Edward Stone, Sr.<\/sa>, <sa>Samuel Edward Stone Jr.<\/sa>, <sa>Ben Hade Stone<\/sa>, <sa>Mattie Olivia Stone<\/sa>, <sa>Rosa Ann Jane Ross Stone<\/sa>, <sa>Hallie Mae Stone<\/sa> and <sa>Rufus Bradford (Bud) Stone<\/sa>.<br>Front row:  <sa>Bert Oba Stone<\/sa>, <sa> Edl Stone<\/sa>, <sa>Wynelle Stone<\/sa> and <sa>Mary Adline Stone<\/sa>.<\/p>\r\n<\/div><p>My daddy split rails -fenced his 100 acres, cut them eight feet long.  When they rotted he then made pickets out of Bois d'arc trees and fenced it.  As in those days there wasn't any stock law, he had an old yellow mare - he put <sa>Ed<\/sa> our youngest brother on her to mark off a straight line to dig ditch to put the pickets in.  He said that old mare would go just as straight as a man could.  <sa>Ed<\/sa> was a wee lad - all he did was set up there and hold the reins.  She was the mare papa raised a colt from to give to most of his children when they got married.  Yes, he gave all of us a mare and a cow when we got married.  <sa>Sug<\/sa> and <sa>Sippie<\/sa> married same day and he had to buy one of them one as he just had one left that he had raised.  <sa>Sip<\/sa> would not have married at that time, but our mother had typhoid fever - Papa thought she was going to die.  He made remark to <sa>Lottie<\/sa>, brother <sa>Ed<\/sa>'s wife, if <sa>Sip<\/sa> and <sa>Jim<\/sa> was going to marry, he hoped they would the day <sa>Sug<\/sa> married.  That is what they did - had double wedding.  <sa>Sippie<\/sa> was just 15 or 16 years old.<\/p><p>Our daddy would drink some in his younger days - I can recall a time when I was about six years old.  He and brother <sa>Tom<\/sa> went to town on Saturday in the wagon.  He was knocked out laying down in the wagon.  <sa>Tom<\/sa> was driving the team.  <sa>Aunt Tishie<\/sa> seen them pass and she knew what the trouble was.  So she and one of her boys followed them on foot.  When she got there she said I knew <sa>Henry<\/sa> was drunk.  She stayed all night.  <sa>Sug<\/sa> and me thought pappa was going to die.  Had little bedroom on front porch.  We were laying in there on the bed.  <sa>Ed<\/sa> and <sa>Tom<\/sa> were going somewhere.  That night they came in they told us poppa would be all right - he was just drunk.  Mamma made pallets on the floor for some of us girls.  When <sa>Tom, Ed<\/sa> came home sometime in night, I woke up.  <sa>Ed<\/sa> said <sa>Grace<\/sa> what did pappa get drunk on.  I said keg of beer.  They all sure laughed about me saying that.  I did not see anything funny about it.  Well, that broke pappa from drinking.<\/p><p>He was a good neighbor - would help anyone that asked him.  I remember he went on note for two men to borrow money and he had to pay those notes off.  He never had anything else to do with them.  If he owed anyone a dime, he would pay it and if anybody owed him anything, he expected them to pay it.<\/p><p>Brother <sa>Tom<\/sa> drank a lot.  Caused pappa and mamma lots of heartaches.  That is life - made up of happiness and sorrows - no one escapes it - oh, everyone's sorrow is not alike - most are different.  It comes in some form or another.<\/p><p>Daddy was great hand or person to want company.  When our oldest sister got married, he told mamma he was gonna invite the neighborhood to come to wedding.  He wanted to have a big dinner - wanted everyone to eat dinner with them.  He did not slight no one.  Even the <sa>Tom Freeman<\/sa>'s.  They was considered richest folks around.  Was over 100 ate dinner there.  Poor mother, I don't see how she held up to the cooking she done.  She dearly loved to cook.  When she was able she was cooking most of the time.  <sa>Gene Peevyhouse<\/sa> was a fellow that worked for <sa>Mr. Freeman<\/sa> for years.  He came to our home a lot.  I can remember him telling my daddy - he called him <sa>Henry<\/sa> - He said, why you and <sa>Mrs. Ross<\/sa> set a finer table than the <sa>Freemans<\/sa>.  And you have more to eat.  Daddy would laugh and say, \"I vowed if I ever got able to buy the food, I'd never go hungry again,\" and he did not.  The Lord surely blessed him or them in their later days.<\/p><p>Terriblest time I remember happening in our famiily - I was around 15 years old.  Brother <sa>Ed<\/sa> lived south of our home.  He rented some land to a fellow went by the name of <sa>Thad Penery<\/sa>.  He was crippled in one foot.  One morning <sa>Ed<\/sa> told him to harness up young pair of mules to work that day - it made the fellow mad - he cursed <sa>Ed<\/sa> and called him son of a bitch - oh that made <sa>Ed<\/sa> mad, but he was afraid of him.<\/p><p>Did not hit him - he told <sa>Tom<\/sa> about it, so <sa>Tom<\/sa> went to Bonham and saw the fellow.  He whipped him.  The fellow said, \"I'll get you for this.\"  Papa planned ice cream supper that eve late.  All the children were there.  <sa>Tom<\/sa> and mamma was sitting out on front walk- one was leaning against gatepost - one against the other.  <sa>John Sudderth<\/sa> just rode up on one of his mares.  He just throwed reins over the gatepost where <sa>Tom<\/sa> was sitting.  Yard, front porch was full of children.  Some of them looked up road, saw fellow coming on his horse in a long lope.  I was sitting on south side of walk with <sa>Rosa<\/sa>'s only baby <sa>Hallie<\/sa>.  <sa>Ed Stone<\/sa> made remark, \"<sa>Gracie<\/sa> you better come in house with the (his) baby.\"  Everyone laughed.  By that time the fellow that had gotten even with <sa>Tom<\/sa> jerked out a long-barreled pistol and shot two shots - one went in the post that Mama was leaning against, the other went in shoulder of the mare <sa>John<\/sa> had left there.  I guess that is all that kep him from killing Tom.  They were talking about <sa>John<\/sa> bringing the mare right to the gate for no one had ever brought horse that close before - seems like there was higher power had a hand in it.  I don't know when or why when it was over - I was on northside walk behind some flower bush.  On my knees holding the baby, just as tight as I could.  Soon as the fellow stopped shooting, <sa>Tom<\/sa> jumped up, run in the house got the shotgun, run out on south porch, gun was not loaded or he might have killed him.<\/p><p>Pappa said when they saw him coming he thought about going in house getting the gun and loading it bring it out on porch.  He did not and I guess was good thing for somebody would have been killed.  We have the bullet they dug out of the horse's shoulder.  Was lot of neighbors there beside the family.  Men just hunted for month for that man.  Laws got out too and hunted.  Never heard from him again.  I'm telling you everyone would stay at one place at night for month or more.  We was all scared.<\/p><p>Course was told on <sa>John Sudderth<\/sa> that he said he was not scared.  <sa>Uncle Johnny Ross<\/sa> said, \"Now <sa>John<\/sa>, I know you was, for you stepped on my feet crawling under the house.\"  The law and all the men hunted for him for a month or more.  Everyone was uneasy for a long time.<\/p><p>Daddy loved his family and we all loved each other.  All have passed away, but four of us girls.  It is so sad to give up loved ones, however we realize we was all born to die.  Our old home place looks so lonesome.  Everything going to the bad.  I still love every foot of the land.  None knows how glad I was for one of our boys to buy it.  Oh how we hated to think of it falling to someone that had no interest there.<\/p><p>Now back to our youngest brother, <sa>Ed<\/sa>.  He did not have the nerve brother <sa>Tom<\/sa> had.  He would fight a circus saw.  Fought <sa>Ed<\/sa>'s battle for him.<\/p><p>July 1960 - If I don't hurry and get this wrote, I may pass on from the land of the living before I finish this.<\/p><p>After our mother died, our daddy married again.  He married mother's cousin, <al \"o=43839\">Minnie McCarty<\/al>.  She married <sa>Tom Gilbert<\/sa> first time.  He died, then she married <sa>Allen Bryant<\/sa>.  He died after a few years.  She married our daddy and he died in 1927.  She never married anymore.  She died this year.  They had one child, little boy, he was two or three years old when he died.  Was a sweet child.<\/p><p>Our daddy had a horror of war.  Of course, it was more horrible in Civil War days.  They would destroy all who owned property they could get their hands on.  Get every bit to eat folks would have.  Take feather bed out, cut the ticks open, let feathers fly anywhere.  Take big hams out of smokehouses, not leave a bit for the women and children to eat.  I for one realize it would have made me bitter too.  I don't see how a human being could be so mean.  My mother just had one brother.  He was just a teenager.  She hid him in an old well.  Piled brush over him.  She would carry him water, something to eat, to keep the men from killing him.  He lived to be grown and was engaged to be married to a girl by the name of <sa>Mollie Echols<\/sa>.  He and our granddad went north of Bonham to get some hay.  Steep hill north of town.  The team got frightened and ran away with him, throwed him off and wagon ran over him and killed him.  He was buried down there.  I believe was Brown's Cemetery.  If I remember correctly, our mother grieved a lot, cause he and her were the only children by grandpa's first wife.  Course she loved her half sisters and half brothers dearly.<\/p><p>Times have changed so much in my lifetime.  I wonder, oh how I wonder, what will take place in the next fifty years.  If this old world should stand.  We children all have children now.  Our daddy lived to enjoy most of his grandchildren, yes in fact just two have been born since he died.  Our youngest boy, and sister <sa>Rosa<\/sa> had a little boy, <sa>Charles<\/sa>.  Both of them was born the year pappy died in 1927.  I believe he loved babies better than anybody I knew.  All our babies loved him.  He could get them to hush crying quicker than the mothers could.<\/p><p>I remember <sa>John<\/sa> and <sa>Tishie<\/sa> had six or seven children.  They got them a shepherd dog.  They would go to field and leave that dog with the children.  And he surely protected them.  One day he came to our home.  Pappa got his gun.  He just wanted to scare him to make him go back to where the children were, but he killed the dog.  I believe he hated it worse than anything he had ever done.  He said, \"I never hated anything as bad, because he was so good to stay with the children.\"<\/p><p>I'm getting a little ahead of a few things that happened.  Way back to time before I was born, or before I was old enough to remember things, there was a terrible thing that happened in the community.  Was some very bad men.  They were grown.  I don't think they were married.  Got to stealing horses.  I believe cattle too.  Law could not catch them, so they sent word to every man lived around here and other places to meet in certain place with sheriff and constables - they was going to try to round them up.  They were the <sa>Dyer<\/sa> boys - Think was three or four.  They had guns, they killed sheriff and one or two deputies.  Just one of the boys was killed that day, they captured two of them.  They were hung that night, by someone.  Folks got up next morning, they were hanging in a big tree in East part of Bonham.  Some of those trees are there yet.  Some fellow made cuff buttons out of part of the tree and sold them.  <sa>Uncle Johnny Ross<\/sa> bought a pair of them.  I imagine some of his girls still have them.<\/p><p>I've heard my mother talk about it.  Said it was the most miserable night she ever went through with - said they could hear the shooting going on and did not know who was being killed as every man available was over there.  All the men who went got their fighting clothes on.  When they saw their sheriff and deputy shot down,  I believe their names were <sa>Buckhannan<\/sa> and <sa>Ragsdale<\/sa>.  Pappy said they were two good men and they never forget it.<\/p><p>I took job of keeping cemetery clean and when I'm working down there, I have some very sweet memories and sad ones too.  That is one thing you can't take away from anyone - it is their memories.  I'm so glad of it.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div class=\"left\"style=\"width: 410px\"><img class=\"photo\" src=\"images\/bio_images\/ross_henry_pic3.jpg\" alt=\"Photo of Author's Family\"  width=\"400px\"><br><p class=\"caption center\"><bi>Author's Family<\/bi><br>\r\nThis is a photograph of <sa>Grace Brown<\/sa>, author of the story of her family.  Pictured left to right, <sa>Mamie<\/sa>, <sa>Reubin<\/sa>, <sa>Jim<\/sa> (her husband), <sa>Albert<\/sa>, <sa>Luther<\/sa>, <sa>Grace <\/sa>(author), and <sa>Virgil Brown<\/sa>.  Son, <sa>Robert<\/sa>, was not born yet.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>","bio_text_bot":""},{"bio_id":12,"bio_name":"Spiller, Roger Joseph","bio_title":"Roger Joseph Spillar","bio_sub_fk":null,"sub_fullname":", ","bio_text_top":"","bio_text_main":"<p><bi><sa>Roger Joseph Spiller<\/sa><\/bi><br \/>22 Aug 2017<br \/><wp>Arrangements By: R.L. Leintz Funeral Home<br \/>&copy; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ntxe-news.com\/\"target=\"_blank\">North Texas E-News<\/a> re-posted here with permission<\/wp><\/p>\r\n\r\n<p><img class=\"photo right\" src=\"images\/bio_images\/spiller_roger_pic.jpg\" alt=\"Photo of Roger Joseph Spillar provided by the North Texas e-News\" width=\"300px\" height=\"471px\"  \/>Leavenworth, Kansas &mdash;  <sa>Roger Joseph Spiller<\/sa>, 72, one of America\u2019s foremost military historians and theorists, died Sunday, Aug. 13, 2017, at his home in Leavenworth, after a long bout with cancer. He was born Oct. 19, 1944, on a ranch near Bonham, Texas, to <sa>Joel Leath<\/sa> and <sa>Verna Oliver Spiller<\/sa>.<\/p><p>\r\n\r\nFrom his Texas Ranger father, he learned a hatred of injustice; from his mother, a love of reading. Graduating from Bonham High School in 1962, he enlisted in the U.S. Air Force, serving for three and a half years on missions around the world as an air rescue medic.<\/p><p>\r\n\r\nAfter military service, he returned to Texas to pursue his education, completing a B.A. in English literature and international relations and an M.A. in history, both from Southwest Texas State College in San Marcos. There he met and married <sa>Irene Nicholis<\/sa> in 1971. That same year they moved to Baton Rouge, La., where he began his doctoral studies at Louisiana State University.<\/p><p>\r\n\r\nIn 1974 they returned to Southwest Texas State where he taught history and completed his dissertation, earning his Ph.D. in history from LSU in 1977. In 1978 he began his 27-year association with the Army as a visiting associate professor in military history at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, Ft. Leavenworth, Kan.<\/p><p>\r\n\r\n<sa>Professor Spiller<\/sa> was one of the founding members of the Combat Studies Institute of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, Ft. Leavenworth. His leadership and innovation helped turn CSI into the Army\u2019s in-house think tank for the study of warfare. His was a multi-faceted talent. In addition to his scholarship at CSI, he wrote a prize-winning novel, worked as an advisor to documentary filmmaker Ken Burns, translated and analyzed a French military classic, and authored numerous oft-cited articles for various journals. He was a contributing editor for American Heritage and a member of the Board of Trustees of the Society for Military History.<\/p><p>\r\n\r\nHis monumental three-volume Dictionary of American Military Biography (1984) received the American Library Association\u2019s award for best reference work of the year.<\/p><p>\r\n\r\nMuch of what this historian wrote was of contemporary significance. <hi>Sharp Corners: Urban Operations at Century\u2019s End<\/hi> (2001) presented a history of urban warfare, and was carried by officers into Iraq. In 2010 the University of Nebraska Press published <hi>In the School of War<\/hi>, a collection of his most influential essays on the teaching and writing of military history. Another critical contribution is his introduction to <hi>Between War and Peace: How America Ends Its Wars<\/hi> (The Free Press, 2011). \u201cSix Propositions\u201d shows Spiller the theorist at the apex of his craft, offering one of history\u2019s first philosophical expositions of the necessary conditions for the termination of wars.<\/p><p>\r\n\r\nHis best known literary work, <hi>An Instinct for War: Scenes from the Battlefields of History<\/hi>, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2005, received a number of national book awards. <hi>Instinct<hi> is a compelling work of fiction that examines the nature of warfare over three millennia by imagining the combat experiences of individual soldiers and leaders.<\/p><p>\r\n\r\nFrom 1982-1985 he served as Special Assistant to the Commander in Chief, United States Readiness Command in Tampa, Fla. In that capacity he turned theory into practice, advising two four-star commanders on policy and strategy.<\/p><p>\r\n\r\nAs a member of the Fort Leavenworth faculty he was Professor of Combined Arms Warfare, Director of the Combat Studies Institute, and then became the first George C. Marshall Distinguished Professor of History. For three years of that time, he also served as Personal Historian to the Chief of Staff, United States Army. But his most important work as an educator was to expand the intellectual horizons of two generations of military officers, many of whom went on to high command in all branches of the armed forces.<\/p><p>\r\n\r\n<sa>Professor Spiller<\/sa> received awards for distinguished civilian service from the Department of the Army and the Department of Defense and was named a Distinguished Alumnus of Texas State University in 1998.<\/p><p>\r\n\r\nUpon retirement from the Staff College, he was named professor emeritus. He later became an affiliated Professor of History at the University of Kansas, advising many doctoral candidates. In 2007-2008, he was the Ewing Distinguished Visiting Professor of Military History at the United States Military Academy, West Point.<\/p><p>\r\n\r\nIt was during this period of his life that he began working with documentary filmmaker <sa>Ken Burns<\/sa>. Over several years he consulted with Burns and Florentine Films on their 2009 series, The War, a path-breaking treatment of World War II. <sa>Burns<\/sa> engaged him again as a consulting historian on Vietnam, which will air later this year on PBS.<\/p><p>\r\n\r\nHis last work, <hi>Battle Studies: Charles Jean Joseph Ardant du Picq<\/hi>, which he translated, edited, and introduced, was published earlier this year by the University Press of Kansas. It is already considered the seminal treatment of its subject, a renowned soldier, and theorist of the nineteenth century.<\/p><p>\r\n\r\nTo his hundreds of colleagues in America\u2019s military history community, <sa>Roger Spiller<\/sa> was not just a towering intellect, but a cherished friend and mentor. Dozens of his fellow historians sought his counsel, and he graciously, gently, and insightfully edited their works.<\/p><p>\r\n\r\n<sa>Roger<\/sa> was an avid cyclist. He participated in 15 Bike Across Kansas rides and 12 Hotter\u2019n Hell Hundred rides near Wichita Falls, Texas. He made many friends on these rides, fell in love with the small towns of Kansas, and delighted in telling stories and spinning yarns in the evenings. He was especially happy when his son <sa>Galen<\/sa> joined him for those adventures.<\/p><p>\r\n\r\nHe had a talent for friendship. He was warm, attentive, generous, irreverent, and hilarious, often profanely so. At the same time, he was a keen judge of character, and he had no patience for hypocrisy, cruelty, stupidity, or arrogance. He was progressive, both in his thinking and his politics. And he was fiercely loyal. If you made his grade, he would say, \u201cI\u2019d ride with you.\u201d You never quite knew if he was referring to the horses of his Texas youth or the bicycles of his Kansas maturity, but you knew that you had received the highest compliment he had to bestow.<\/p><p>\r\n\r\nAbove all, he reserved his greatest love for his wife of 46 years, <sa>Irene Spiller<\/sa>, and their son, <sa>Galen Spiller<\/sa>.<\/p><p>\r\n\r\nIn addition to his parents, he was predeceased by several older siblings, including <sa>Howard Spiller<\/sa> and <sa>Roy Dean Winkler<\/sa>.<\/p><p>\r\n\r\nThe family is deeply grateful for the love and kindness of our dearest friends and neighbors. We also wish to thank <sa>Dr. Kathleen McBratney<\/sa>, and St. Luke\u2019s Homecare and Hospice, especially <sa>Megan<\/sa> and <sa>George<\/sa>.<\/p><p>\r\n\r\nIn keeping with his wishes, there will be no funeral service. A simple visitation will be from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. Tuesday, August 22, 2017, at the R.L. Leintz Funeral Home. In lieu of flowers, memorials are suggested to the Women\u2019s Community Y Child Development Center in Leavenworth. But the greatest honor to this extraordinary man\u2019s memory is to be kind to one another, stand for truth, and inspire others.<\/p>","bio_text_bot":""}]}