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 !