Hi, i grew up in Johnsville between the Duffau Creek and U.S.67- we called it the main Duffau because of the sandrock and gravel springs and cold swimming holes. The Hurley or Prairie branch of the Duffau may have been longer, but sometimes dried up. Some Holders lived near us. Mrs. Odel Wright across the creek was a Holder. her brother, Jim Bob ran a washateria in Stephenville in 1940-60s approximately. He used to joke about the Box Holder mail in his box- he was Bob, not Box Holder. i grew up and attended school with two of the Wright children Tiptons seem to fall out out of the woodwork since leaving North Carolina 1790's to 1830's. like the Sevier descendants of Virginia and Tennessee and North Carolina. I attend church with one in Hewitt, Texas who says he never heard of the Tipton International farm Equipment and International dealers in Waco and Hillsboro. Texas. I met one Tipton who was running a convenience store in Eastland or Cisco, Texas. He was past 50. I asked him if he was a descendant of Sheriff Tipton and the Tiptonites who arrested my ancestor Col. John Sevier for treason after the Free State of Franklin fell,rejected by U.S. Congress, John Sevier, Gov., a North Carolina Militia Col. He cracked up laughing and said" You must be a Sevier descendant- only a Sevier or Tiptonite would know the story that well". It seems some of Gov. Sevier's sons, brothers, and former soldiers of his began drifting over the mountain for the trial. One horse had an empty saddle. They listened to the charges in court from Sheriff Tipton and the prosecution, the judge declared a recess for water and rest rooms , and Gov. Sevier and supporters calmly walked out to his horse, they mounted, and all calmly rode out of town back to Knoxville with no protest from the sheriff or judge. This time the G.T.T. on the court records meant Gone to Tennessee, over the "hill", if the name was in use, not "GONE TO TEXAS",as it was often recorded in Tennessee and Georgia. A small unmarked cemetery in McLenna County is now being researched . it has 4 to 6 visible headstones- incarved fieldstone north of Waco. They are thought to be pioneer graves. of 1870-1880's but no one jnows who. The land is needed by the Connally Schools expansion , Don Hancock, Superintendent. Michael Bradle of the Lampassas, Texas firm called American Archeology is waiting final approval to fhe Texas Historical Commission to move the graves with wooden coffins to a new site after Baylor University Forensic Labs try to learn more about those buried there. They will be re- interned at the Stanfield- Walker cemetery in Lacy- Lakeview, north of Waco. POSSIBILITIES: deceased cowboys buried on the Chisolm or more correctly, the Texas Trail? See Sunday, Jan. 31, 1999, Waco Tribune Herald front page Take care Charles A. Wyly Quarantined pioneers moving west before becoming ill? Paupers buried at County expense? Executed criminals or lynch victims of an overzealous vigilante Posse? . Probably not black- the rural cemeteries of much of Hill and McLennan County containing more than one race had no evidence of a fence, except the oldest ones in Waco proper. One cemetery in Hill county with 12 or more graves- across the creek from the biracial cemetery near Brandon- Bynum, Texas was supposedly of a white group accused of being hores thieves by a vigilance committee or posse. ___________________________________________________________________ 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/getjuno.html or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]