I want to add my thanks to Mr Wylie for all he has added to the ERATH Co . page activities. And, I think it is time I asked him (and all) a question on one of my ancestors (ggf), WILLIAM ALONZO (Willie) THOMPSON. WILLIAM ALONZO (Willie) THOMPSON, born March 26, 1868 in ? AL, mother M. A.(Mary Ann?) ( Evans) STARLEY. As a youth he was raised in the Charles & M.A. Starley household in Erath Co.(Duffau area). There were at least two stepbrothers--Fred and John Starley--also in the family. Further, some of M.A. Evans' siblings moved into TX from AL. They were George Evans and June Evans (married name unknown) June supposedly lived in the McKinney, Tx area and it is believed George lived in Erath Co at least for a while. After William Alonzo Thompson and Henrietta's marriage in Hamilton Co.on Dec 12, 1889 they lived off and on in both Hamilton and Erath Co where they raised their family of 6 children (one died young and is buried in Hamilton Co). They moved to OK in about 1902. My QUESTION is does anyone have any additional information on William Alonzo Thompson. We cannot find anything out on his AL birth location, the name of his father nor what happened to his father, nor when a marriage occurred between M.A. Evans and a Thompson. Any leads here deeply appreciated. William married Henrietta Rebecca Killion, daughter of James M. Killion and Eliza Lucinda (Lindsey) Mills Killion. James M Killion is buried in Valley Grove Cemetery in Stephenville, having died Aug 2 1915 while living with his son John M in Erath Co. For those wanting more information on the Killion family see my KILLION web page at: "http: //pages.prodigy.net/petesimmons/killions/killions.htm". I am interested in being in contact with all Killion family members. Pete Simmons BQXQ08A@Prodigy.com and petesimmons@prodigy.net

Check Railroad records of Texas Central, now Katy and Stephenville, Alexander Orient Railroad. Many towns on Railroads were established by the railroad and named after a Rr Executive, like Hamlin, Texas. My wife's nephew and his wife-s family own most of it now- Carl Mitchell and Joe Mack Riley. happy hunting, Charles Wyly On Mon, 10 Aug 1998 13:20:10 -0700 David & Dawn Roberts <djroberts@worldnet.att.net> writes: >Can someone tell me who the town of ALEXANDER TX was named for? >Dawn > > _____________________________________________________________________ You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail. Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com Or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]

Am trying to track down sister of my ancestor, Martha Roberson, who married an Archie Keahey. Any relations out there? Kathryn Coombs

Joe Lee wrote (Hi Cousin-in-law!) <<Mr Wyly, Do you happen to know where Squaw Creek is? I am aware of the one by Glen Rose but this one must be somewhere around the Duffau, Johnsville, etc. area.Looking fwd to hearing from you...Joe Lee in Evant, Texas>> Good Question! My ancestors Ellis Ragsdill, Sr. and his son John Milligan Ragsdill** are shown the 1860 census as living at Squaw Creek, Erath County. As two of John's siblings turn up at Glen Rose by 1880, I had thought originally that Somervell may have been formed from Erath and it was basically the same creek. NOT SO, apparently. Somervell was formed from Hood and Johnson counties, neither of which were formed from Erath, so it must have been a different squaw creek. One thought occurred in doing a GNIS search, however. Erath County is full of dams. Any chance that Squaw Creek could have been a tributary of a larger creek like Duffau Creek or Green Creek, etc etc that has been lost by having been dammed up or its source being dammed up or something like that. Just a thought. I know VERY little about hte county and am handicapped by never having BEEN there. Can Mr. Wyly enlighten us on when these dams were built and on any lost place names, etc. resulting from this? I'll bet if we looked in land records, Joe, for our respective ancestors who lived on Squaw Creek, we might get some latitude and longitude coordinates that would tell us where these places were?????? Or were the grants like colonial ones, with the boundaries being landmarks like "the hollow tree" and "the corner of Jones' place" Kathryn Coombs

Chandler - Parks. Some of the Chandlers lived in Stephencille. The ones dad talked about were Lawyers and one was a Judge. Another set- Maurice Chandler and his brother moved to Pony Creek near Miller Hill and started a dairy. One became Erath County School Supt. The other was a pastor and quit pastoring when he married a southern French girl and came to Erath County, where he, , Autrey Robinson family, and a Smith family became the backbone of the revised Pony Creek Church in 1940-50-s. He was an excellent teacher and a good neighbor. The church went on with or without pastors, most of whom were young beginning seminary students. Rev. Emil Becker of Stephenville First Baptist held outdoor summer revivals there. Maurice said his dad was a deputy in Freer, Duvall County and was trying to get one of their friends, drunk, to go home as quietly as possible. They went out the back door, a shot was fired, and Mr. Chandler was dead in the alley.. The boy's family all said he was with them, so he got off. The Chandler Brothers believed that "Vengance is Mine, saith the Lord, I Will Repay". He did. As the boy walked the streets of Freer, he would turn and watcch Chandlers until they were out of sight. Revenge killings were common then. I don't remember the exact details, but the mother and the son both met violent deaths- one suicide. The sister survived two jumps from a hotel into the San Antonio River and met a violent death. Parks- There was a Parks who ran a station and wholesale Oil office in West, Texas. His son Larry was in the Kiwanis Club with me. When I moved to McLennan County, he had become a used car dealer. He told me he had the same type German- Scotch- Irish and traces of Cherokee that I have from Georgia and the Carolinas. He was killed last year in a head on collision with a truck pulling a backhoe on the curve in Lake Shore Drive near the Brazos. I think he left children. Hope this helps- or is it more questions than answers? Charles Wyly On Mon, 10 Aug 1998 11:00:19 -0500 Eddie Bradley <BRADLEY@phybio.bhs.uab.edu> writes: >Hello Mr. Wyly, > >You seem to be quite a source of information on folks in Erath County >and I have enjoyed reading your contributions to this mail list. I >would like to tell the story of my great grandfather ending up in >Erath County and ask if you know of any of that family. > >Thomas Zebelon Parks fled from Ellijay in north Georgia in his late >teens or early twenties. He was drunk and had gotten in a fight with >another man and hit him in the head with a rock, causing a lot of >bleeding. Others seeing all the blood went to get the Law. Tom ran >back to his house, but soon the Sheriff and a posse had surrounded the >house and tried to take him. Tom slipped away and walked through the >mountainous back woods all the way to Dalton, GA where he hitched >wagon rides to Texas. > >In 1903 Tom married Mattie Gertrude Chandler in Stephenville, TX. You >might say he robbed the cradle because he was now 26 years old and she >was only 13. The marriage was performed by a Justice of the Peace >instead of a minister, which combined with her age makes me wonder if >it might not have been a "shotgun wedding". > >Sometime before 1910 Tom and Mattie moved to Copper Hill, TN where Tom >worked as an "oiler" with a mining company. Copper Hill is right on >the TN/GA border and not many miles to Tom's home down of Ellijay. >This made it easy for him to slip across the border to visit family >and then get back without the Law catching him. He was still worried >about the fight incident. > >Then before 1920 the family, now with three children, moved back to >Stephenville and settled there for good. Tom and Mattie had a total >of eleven children. The 5th child was Harry Weldon Parks, my >grandfather. > > >Mr. Wyly, if you have any information or stories on any Parks or >Chandlers in Erath County I would love to hear from you about it. >Also I have been unable to find any information about great >grandmother Mattie Chandler's birth family and am interested in any >Chandler stories you might know. > >Thanks for your contributions to this list > >Eddie (Parks) Bradley >Birmingham, Alabama > > > > > > > > > > > > > > ! > > > > _____________________________________________________________________ You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail. Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com Or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]

Mr. Wyly, I have thoroughly enjoyed your Erath stories and I am collecting them in hard copy for reference. Though it may be to far back, I was wondering if you had any stories or information on J W. MILLER m.Sarah Delitha HOOKER . Children were Minnie, Lester, Maude (Mollie,my g-mother), Lena, Martha(Mattie), Dewey, Jessie, Carl, Birdie. I have made copies of the advertisements my g-father placed in the Erath County Appeal, which is now on-line. Wonderful! Most important though is anything on my g-father, WE or WS SMITH. The stories I have put him on the HASTINGS ranch when he and my g-mother, Maude Miller, met and married, Nov. 1908 in Stephenville. Anything about him or this ranch would be appreciated. I have not been able to find out anything about him, his family etc. Thank you, Jan Hoblit

First, we have also been enjoying Mr. Wyly's posts to the list. We've been learning a lot! We would like to know if there is anyone who would like to contribute stories for us to put up on a specific page. We believe it would be interesting to all who visit the Erath page. We would put a copyright on the page with the submitter's name. We are looking for anyone to volunteer in gathering info specific on the county and the people. We would also like to put up a page of anyone who could do lookups in the books they have. This is based on written permission from the author, if the book is copyrighted. The copyright rules we have to follow for the Erath page are here: http://www.usgenweb.org/volunteers/copyright.html We haven't forgotten about the generous offer of the author of the Turnbow cemetery either to do lookups. We just need to get this page created. Anyone who might have suggestions as to what we might add to the page, please send them. We appreciate any input of any kind. We are taking a break on the cemetery indexes until the weather cools down a bit. It is going to be in the 90's this weekend, so we might consider going then. ;-) That is a cool down for what it has been. We could also accept gedcoms to be submitted to the local library. We can't put them on our page, but we can give them to the library, since they recently got computerized and have internet access now. We haven't talked to the director of the library about this yet, but it seems like something that they would be interested in. Our local genealogy meeting is tomorrow night, and we are looking forward to the elections for new officers that will be happening. We will try to keep you posted of any new projects that the society may take on that will affect you doing research in the county. We have a bad habit (more Annette's fault ;-) of starting too many projects at once. We have cemetery indexing, microfilm transcribing, local photo taking, Appeal newspaper, getting local basic info from public library, and some other things that we have yet to get done that we should. There is so much here, living in the county seat, that we have trouble choosing which way to focus our time on to help the most. If anyone is in the county and wants to work on indexing a cemetery, or has a laptop and wants to do some microfilm transcribing with us, or any of the other things, let us know! We'd love the assist, plus the chance to put some faces with the names that we see on this mailing list. We keep saying we're going to put up a mug shot of ourselves on the front page, but we DO want to keep visitors coming in, NOT going out.... hehe Sorry to ramble on. If you write to us, put TXERATH REPLY in the subject line so we can find it in the mire. Thanks for "listening"! Annette and Janice Erath Co., TX USGenWeb Coordinators http://www.rootsweb.com/~txerath/erath.htm

Mr. Wylie, your response to Joe Lee about the Laneys was interesting. My great great grandmother, Hettie May Long (daughter of Starl Davidson Long and Mary Elizabeth Ragsdill) was born in a rented cottage "on Tom Laney's place near Duffau Schoolhouse." Must be the same family. Kathryn Coombs

Emery GAMBLE married Martha ??. Emery born 1860 died 1897. Martha had at least two children, Barto GAMBLE, who worked for the post office as a mail carrier in Hico. She also had a daughter, Ethel,who married Sam LOONEY around HICO TX. Martha (Eddie) married John M STARLEY 24 Jan 1900. Is there someone who knows descendants of these families? Any information appreciated. Dawn

Was deleting and cleaning out my computer.Boosted an 8 meg Packard Bell to 24 megs almost for nothing, but it gets full. Know 2 Laney lines. Tommy, my age had a crippled dad who used to push a homemade cart sitting on it and sold razor blades. In later years a Stephenville service club gave him a gas powered 3 wheel wheel chair- cart, which he used around Stephenville. About the 1950's some friends who were drinking saw him and offerred to take him home and put his cart in the pickup. Then they thought it would be funny to put him out in Fort Worth. Sounded sick to me. They did , and he was killed near Cresson going back to Stephenville in the cart. Tommy was a well liked and hard working young man, Once we working daylight to dew fall after sundown during WW2 on Riggs- Hollis thresher and he asked off early for a date. The boss turned him down. He came bsck to field, grabbed a pitch fork, ate and swallowed a package of Beech Nut chewing tobacco. He threw up and turned all shades of green. They sent him home about 3 PM . By sundown we were still loading wagons and he drove by from Selden , blew his horn, and waved and had his date. The other Laney was Ben of Johnsville. His son in Skipper's Gap near Maratheal's Gap, married an Edwards and they adopted (I think) 2 children. Buster Edwards was her brother. Ben and Ruth and Mom and dad visited each other and shared fruit and vegetables in 1970-80's Dad at Selden & they at Johnsville. Help any? Charles Wyly On Sun, 09 Aug 1998 19:09:35 -0500 Joe Lee <jlee@centex.net> writes: >Dear Mr. Wyly. >I've been reading with great interest your recent messages 7 you seem >to >be extremely knowledgable about the area.Was wondering if you might >have >a good story or two about the Robersons who lived in the Duffau area & >the Wolfes of Clairette.My wife's ggrandfather & mother were Thomas >Walker Roberson( son of Tom & Peggy Emerson Roberson) & Mary Parlee >Wolfe Roberson( daughter of Samuel Henry Wolfe(killed in Civil War)& >Diannah Clark Wolfe, who after Samuel's death, married John S Laney & >moved from NC to Erath County...Looking Fwd to hearing from you...Joe >Lee in Evant, Texas > > _____________________________________________________________________ You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail. Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com Or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]

W.S. HUBBARD married Minnie STAHLEY (STARLEY) in or around ERATH CO TX. Minnie was born 1879. She grew up on a farm on the Little Duffau. Where did W. S. and Minnie reside? Did they live in Hico or Clariette or did they move further away. Did they have children? Anyone know descendants from this family? Dawn Da

Emma Jane Starley Henderson married Frank YOUNGBLOOD. Emma Jane lived on the Little Duffau as a child. Frank and Emma Jane (Sallie) lived in Abilene, TX. Did they have children? Any information appreciated. Dawn

Looking for information on J.M. HENDERSON married Sallie (Emma Jane) STARLEY 23 Nov 1899. Their children may have been Darrell, Otto and Hall HENDERSON. Sallie lived on Little Duffau as a child. Where did she and Mr. HENDERSON reside? Any information appreciated. Dawn

Looking for information on family of J.S.JOHNSON married Mary Lulu STARLEY 1 Jan 1890 by J.H. Harbison, Erath CO TX. Mary lived on Little Duffau as a child. Where did she and Mr. Harbison reside? Does any one know descendants of this family? Dawn

Mr. Charles Wyly, You are truly remarkable. Is this all in your head or do you have it on disks and can go right to it? Which ever is the case, you truly have a "gift". Thank you for the info. that you sent me. Joy Goade Zowie Beeville, TX

Thanks for the interesting info on the Johnsons, Mr. Wyly. Even though I don't connect to any of them, I enjoyed reading about them! You mentioned a Meador. I have Meador connections through my mother. Anything about Meadors? Thanks, Donna cage

Not sure. Must have been an older name for a creek I always wonderred why there was a Little Duffau running west from the Duffau towards Salem and Little Duffau Church, off hwy 281 and another Little Duffau leaving the main Creek which went north across Hwy 67through Rumph, Beech, Wakefield, Hurley, Riggs, and English land. Perhaps the latter, not far from the Pony Creek watershed had a different name when Indians were raiding Hurley homes. Don't think Arendell cabin is the oldest- maybe oldest still existing. When Pony Creek church was organized in 1860's by Great Great Grandad Dr. W.P.Hatchett and "Choctaw Bill" robinson, they, as a "Baptist Church of Christ" associated with the already existing Paluxy Baptist Association While the delegates were in Granbury word came that Indians were raiding on Richardson Creek. They finished their church business and returnetd home to find not one delegate had any damage from raiders. Don't think Beeches, Hurleys, Aycocks, Robinsons, and Underwoods lived outdoors. The oldest graves I have seen marked in the county are at Rock Church Cemetery on the Paluxy by the suspension bridge and old 2 story Rock church, school, & lodge Hall., upstream from Paluxy Town. Will let you know if I see one. There are 2 Indian Creek Cemeteries, one off 281 at Pleasant Hill church and one in Comanche County. The one at Pleasant Hill has very old graves. Indian Creek school was nearby and a church on Sundays. Take care, Charles Wyly On Wed, 12 Aug 1998 05:19:37 -0500 Joe Lee <jlee@centex.net> writes: >Mr Wyly, >Do you happen to know where Squaw Creek is? I am aware of the one by >Glen Rose but this one must be somewhere around the Duffau, >Johnsville, >etc. area.Looking fwd to hearing from you...Joe Lee in Evant, Texas > > _____________________________________________________________________ You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail. Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com Or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]

Dad grew up with a Johnson family at Selden (or near and in church and school with them. ) There were several boys and one girl. ALL were athletes and used to be active in baseball at Selden school picnics- Thanksgiving & othere. The boys were all over 6 feet tall. Dad said during family dinners they would start horseplay the day before returning home, never mad, and wrestle until they damaged the stairs banister and took the front door down. They would all laugh, quit, and fix everything better than it was before they went to their own homes. The older generation I knew were CLIFFORD JOHNSON ( W.C.) Cliff had 2 sons, Royce Lee, my age, and Jimmy, younger, who worked in an Arizina service station and ended up owning it and a refinery near it. ELMER JOHNSON, married a Brown- I went to Pony Creek Church and Selden church some with Elmer and familyElmer had one son and some daughters. One day , about the last year the Riggs- Hollis thresher ran, on the Johnson home place I saw Elmer and Marvin Tolar each grab a broad seed fork. They would walk up to a 10 bundle shock of oats, hit it from opposite sides, and throw the whole thing in a bundle wagon, late in the evening. I have seen him take a sack of oats, about 60 lbs. and grab one with each hand in perfect rythem, without grunting and alternately fill a trailer. Dad started playing with him ( I was about 17}, and dropped some ice down his back. He grabbed dad and picked him up with one arm and gently rolled him over his shoulder and back. , both laughing the entire time. JOTT JOHNSON TIM JOHNSON retired from running a dairy across from the Carey land and joining his dad-s home place. May have been part of the home place to the Duffau Creek- was in Johnsville School Dist. but they attended Selden, now Stephenville Dist. Sid (ALBERT SIDNEY) JOHNSON ( No, this one was not Johnston). Scotty Johnston and parents lived on \Cedar Point Road from U.S. 67. Scotty ran an auto parts store in Stephenville. M.E. JOHNSON- the only girl- married Gail Stevens, a Primitive Baptist Preacher who had a sandy Peanut farm across the road from the Moncrief Dairy , home of Tom Arendell's log cabin, first house in that part of the county . Gail had fruit orchard and a vegetable farm. Their sons were WILLIE GAIl, 1 year older than me. I used to see him at State Vocational Teachers summer workshops. He was a basketball official and one daughter played on a team that went to Russell. He married a Tate about the time he retired. Sid Van, Vance and Charles were the other 3 brothers. Hope I did not miss one. Think it was Sid who married a Neblett and did Production Credit or some farm agency in Gatesville and Waco. I have lived in the Waco area for about 20 years and kept touch with Stephenville through trips to see parents on the farm and in the rest home and various reunions. My apologies if I left some out above. Johnsons had an arena between Salem and Johnsville , or, between Selden and Duffau, where they broke horses and rode calves for fun on Sunday afternoon. This is just north of the present Dutch owned Dairies which import some of their workers from Holland and had a banquet and dance a few years ago with a band from Holland. All dairymen met their assignments then the party. This road leads into Duffau. There was a Lee who ran Dr. Malloy's Chalk Mountain farm & ranch. He was black and well respected- he was raised by a white couple with 2 sons his age when his mom died. They had two boys his age. When he went to Stephenville hae wore a suit, checked vest, tie, hat, & dress shoes.as an adult. They shopped Dublin some. He was an expert in helping neighbors doctor and train horses. He used to help a Meadors or other school board members kill a calf and at midnight he would start bar B O in a wash pot for Johnsville school closings. If any woman wanted to rest from housework or field and entertain the small kids she might take the cotton to the Riggs Gin at Johnsville. Mr. Lee would not gin ahead of the women but the men would not get ahead of him. He was well liked. We called him, at his request, the name Martin Luther King used with pride, not the one Jesse Jackson uses.We meant nothing derogatory and he knew that. Derogatory remarks are more in the tone of voice and attitude than the actual centuries old words. We all had fun eating and playing baseball together. On Tue, 11 Aug 1998 21:51:25 -0500 (CDT) Don Cage <doncage@flash.net> writes: >I find myself anticipating mail from TXERATH. Thanks Mr. Wyly! >Thought I >would post some of my connects. > >THOMAS MCLEOD LEE, b. Sept. 7, 1857, Ala. married REBECCA ARIZONA >SALMON, b. >Dec. 8, 1870, Erath Co. 7 Children, among them my Grandfather, HOMER >P. >LEE. He married JESSIE M. JOHNSON, daughter of LEONIDAS K. JOHNSON and >ERIE >HERPS. All of these people lived in Clairette and surrounding >area...Alexander, Salem, Hico, Walnut springs. > >THOMAS MCLEOD LEE came to the area from Barbour Co., Ala. with his >parents >and 1 sister, LUCINDA ELIZABETH LEE. His father was ANDREW V. LEE, m. >NANCY >MCLEOD. > >I have the LEES back to 1700's in N.C. I am having trouble with the >JOHNSON >and HERPS lines in my family. Anybody have any clues? Mr. Wyly, do >you >know anything of any of these people? > >Many Thanks, > >Donna Lee Cage >Cedar Creek, Tx. > > > > > > > > _____________________________________________________________________ You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail. Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com Or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]

Mr. Wylie: Have you ever heard of a PLACE called Pecan Bayou as opposed to a body of water? My ggrandfather is supposedly buried there but no one seems to know where it might have been back in 1869. Thanks, Jan

Mr Wyly, Do you happen to know where Squaw Creek is? I am aware of the one by Glen Rose but this one must be somewhere around the Duffau, Johnsville, etc. area.Looking fwd to hearing from you...Joe Lee in Evant, Texas