St. Boniface Catholic Church, Dodson Prairie, Palo Pinto County, Texas -- photo by Rafael Seibert ©2004
Dodson Prairie, Bruce/Withers Family, and a Note to the Warrens
This message came to me last week from Susan White, Missouri Virtual School, SueWhite@smsu.edu . She wrote: "I did a search online, and it brought up an article on your website that mentioned Dodson Prairie. My Dodson family history/lore indicates this area was named for my ancestor. Have you any history on Dodson Prairie that you could share with me or give me a referral to someone who might know who the early settler's were?"
My answer to her went like this:
Interestingly, the first thing I found was this about the church.
TX Dodson Prairie - St Boniface- 1912- 1987 German, Czech. p. 11 CAPH - North Texas Catholic. I was aware of some German surnames in the Dodson Prairie area, but I had not realized the Church was German and Czech!
OK...here is the rest of the story.
Dodson Prairie is about six miles west of Palo Pinto. It is a broad stretch of land whose boundaries are determined more by the lay of the mountains and the creeks than by definite lines. It is north and west of the Crawford Mountains. On the south it is bounded by a canyon through which Lake Creek flows. It is at the headwaters of Eagle Creek. (Note: I had no idea there was an Eagle Creek in Palo Pinto County.)
In about 1857 Nathan B. Dodson lived in the area, and one source says it is named for him. Another source says that it is named for George Dodson who was living there between 1863 and 1866, at least. In 1863 he fought off a band of Indians, and he did so again in 1866 with the help of Jack Conatser.
Other Dodsons who are associated with the area are Rhoda Dodson who married Alexander Hittson in 1786, and their child, Elizabeth, married a George Dodson (don't know if it is the same George). Another Dodson associated with the area is David Dodson who was a descendant of Stephen Lee.
Dodson Prairie was surveyed by Judge J. J. Metcalfe in 1870 for the Palo Pinto County Land District granted by the state to the Texas and Pacific Railroad. Metcalfe Gap on its west was named for the Judge.
The first permanent settlers of Dodson Prairie were these families: Peach, Hittson, Slaughter, Crossland, and Metcalfe. In 1883 J. D. Griffin owned the land and in 1884 N. W. Griffin owned it. W. K. Bell purchased it in 1889, and in 1898 Alfred Horsenail of England purchased it.
About 1900 a group of Germans, who had first migrated to Austria and Czechoslovakia, immigrated to the United States and settled in the Schulen-Weinmar area of the Prairie. These families were Teichman, Rieb, Telchik, Thiels, Nowak, Popps, Bergers, Dreitners, Kaspers, and Beyers. The first baby baptised there was Ophelia Holub, in 1907. John Nowak donated the land for the cemetery in 1909, and the first Mass was celebrated in 1911.
Susan's reply to my message said: "Thanks so much for the history on Dodson Prairie. None of the names listed were my direct family line--John and Martha (Oliver) Dodson. But my assumption is that they were related to the rest of the Dodsons in the area in some way. As you will read below, my John settled in Peoria near Hillsboro and at some point moved to the Dodson Prairie. My guess is that a family member was the reason for John locating to Texas after mustering out of the Confederate Army in Arkansas. I may have to do some more research to see if either Nathan or George were cousins, uncles, etc. to John. The quotes below are from some of the family documents that have been passed down to me.
" 'After being mustered out of service in the army he became a farmer in Bossier Parish, Louisiana, where he married Martha Measles, daughter of a successful farmer. He moved to Amity, Arkansas, later returning to Texas, where he spent several years as a building contractor, building many homes in Whitney, Sherman, and other Texas towns. He then returned to his original vocation, farming. He resided at Pilot Point, Peoria, and Palo Pinto, Texas."
" 'I remember our farm in Palo Pinto County lay in the area bounded by the Brazos River on the south and Boggy Creek on the west. In October 1885 he sold his Texas holdings and removed to Arkansas. He bought, improved, then sold successively, farms in Boone, Carroll, Washington, and Crawford counties in Arkansas.' (Written by my Great Uncle Joseph Harvey Dodson who was born in Cook County, TX in 1878.)"
"John became a builder-carpenter and contractor, and for several years he went where building was being done, farming on the side with the help of his family. Some places in Texas where John moved to are Bonham, Pilot Point (where Arthur Wellington Dodson was born 8-22-83), Denton, Dodson Prairie (named for John?), and Henderson."
"My John's wife, Martha Oliver Dodson, was half-sister to John C. Snead, a sheriff in Hill county who was killed in the line of duty. John and Martha were married ca 1876. It is believed that John Dodson built a number of buildings including a church, possibly in the Dodson Prairie, Mineral Wells, or surrounding areas. My guess is that John and Martha Dodson could have lived on Dodson Prairie some time between the birth of Joseph in Cook County 1878 and their move to Arkansas in 1885."
My husband, Rafael, and I visited Dodson Prairie to take photos and to see the cemetery. The 1975 transcription of the cemetery can be seen online at http://www.rootsweb.com/~txpalopi/cemeteries/dodson.htm . I noted the following surnames at the cemetery: Teichman, Holub, Stanzel, Brothers, Beyer, Telchik, Chapman, Slemmons, Nowak, Popp, Spotts, Lawson, Berger, Bates, Ankenbauer, Dreitner, Speer, Roden, Mackey, McCoy, Lewallen, Schlebach, Rabel, Boyd, Twombly, and Werry. We also noted, on our trip, that just north of the church is the Springer Gap Community Center. If anyone has information on Springer Gap, we would like to hear about it!
Next I heard from Connie Collins: "Hello Sue: I am descended from John Bruce and Elizabeth Clay Bruce parents of Horatio Gates Bruce and Clarissa Bruce who married Withers brothers (one at a time). conniecollins@earthwave.net ."
Connie then enclosed the Bruce / Clay family pedigree chart and certainly connects with our local Bruce / Withers clan:
And finally I heard from Dale Wester, WESTDALE@centurytel.net ,a Warren cousin: "Warren cousins, I am desecended under Mehitable North and Nathaniel Church, b. 20-Jan-1723, d. 11-Aug-1755, the 6th generation descended under Richard & Elizabeth North. I am looking for the parents of Mehitable.
Also, note: THE MAYFLOWER QUARTERLY, Published by The General Society of Mayflower Descendants, vol. 69 No. 4, December, 2003 on Richard Warren's spouse, Elizabeth Walker, daughter of Augustine Walker."
A website you might want to check out is call Tennessee Pryors at http://www.tnpryors.com/ . It contains census extracts from Palo Pinto County.
If anyone can add to the Dodson, Bruce, Withers, or Warren stories, please send them along to me at P. O. Box 61, Mineral Wells TX 76068-0061 or email me at siouxcitysue@cox-internet.com . And until next time, you all come back, you hear?