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]