Chasing Our Tales, March 2004, Letters

This column is devoted to the many letters and emails I have been receiving. I hope that if you have answers for some of these folks, or questions, you will let us know!

The first letter comes from David Clark, dclarke@mtnsun.com , and concerns the Gloves of Palo Pinto County:

"I enjoyed reading your tale of Willow Pond Cemetery and the Glover Family. Thanks for writing it. I, too, have Glovers in my family who settled in the Ranger, Texas, area. Thomas Aquilla Glover, according to family lore, drove cattle on the Chisholm Trail sometime after 1865 and perhaps as late as 1875. Thomas was a Confederate soldier from Alabama during the Civil War. After the war, he tried some farming in Alabama, then supposedly worked some fishing boats on the Texas Gulf coast before working cattle. In 1875, he married Mary Margaret (Mollie) Hodges (or Hodge) in Robertson County, Texas. By 1883 they were having children and living in or near Ranger, Texas. His daughter, Sarah Ellen, my great-grandmother, was born in 1888 and other children were born into the early 1890s. Mollie Hodges was apparently from Palo Pinto County and was 1Ž4 Cherokee.

"So far your article is the first I've found that even mentions the Glover name in either Palo Pinto or Eastland Counties, whether or not they're related. I'm wondering if you have run across Thomas Aquilla Glover or Mollie Hodges or their family in your research. I'd like to hear from you." -- David Clarke

The next letter comes from Godeleine de Rochefort, neuville1@worldonline.fr . She is in France and is interested in the Lynch family:

"I am very interested by all what you say. I am French. As you know, Charles and Sarah Lynch had four sons: Charles, the judge; John who founded Lynchburg; Christopher; and Edward. The last one died young. .My ancestor is Christopher. Do you know somebody who's ancestor is Christopher? I am looking for his children's names. Cordialement , Godeleine de Rochefort"

The next letter comes from Jack M. Glasscock, JMGandBJS@aol.com ,of Houston, Texas, who is interested in the Smith family of Palo Pinto and Erath counties. He writes:

"I am a cousin of Mary Jo whom you have communicated with recently about Saul Smith and his descendants. In your communication you mentioned 'And there amongst the Smiths was Saul who was born in 1799 and died in May of 1884.

"I have now discovered that he was born 4 December 1799 and died 17 May 1884. Saul married Nancy Tilitha (Talitha) Ann Dobson Smith (1805-1859) about 1824. They evidentially came to Texas when they were quite old, as their names appear on the 1850 census for Macon County, North Carolina, and at that time she was 44, and he was 50.

"In 1851 they followed Saul's mother, Mary Jarrett, and father, Samuel Smith, who migrated to Rusk Co., Texas in 1847.

"Saul and Nancy's twelve children include Joseph Bonaparte "Hog Joe" Smith who died in Victor, Erath County, Texas, in 1879. He was born in 1839 in Macon County, North Carolina. He married Florida A. Metzora Blair who was born about 1853 in Gainesville, Hall County, Georgia, and died after 1880.

"Joseph Smith died in Erath County, Texas. His obit in the Stephenville Empire Tribune stated: Smith, Joe B. 16 Oct 1908 at age 70 in Victor. Florida A. Melzora 'Mell' (Blair) Smith died April 1, 1944, in Victor, Erath County, Texas.

"Another son was Tullis (Tull) who married Cynthia Russell in Fannin County, Texas. Tullis was a surveyor and moved around a great deal. They lived in Menard County and eventually in Erath County, Texas.

"Other children of Saul and Nancy were Lucius Drayton Smith and John Dobson Smith.

"I descended from Lucius. Is there a book or magazine on them?

"Saul and Nancy appear to have lived in Van Zandt County, Parker County, Palo Pinto County, Erath County, and Smith County. It is thought that Nancy died and was buried in Smith County, and just for the record Smith County is named for General James Smith, a hero of the Texas Revolution and a prominent military figure in the Republic of Texas. I cannot find a connection between James Smith and Saul Smith.

"Our Elmwood Cemetery Saul had a brother named Aaron Smith and another named Samuel. Samuel married Mary Jarrett Smith, and they had ten children. However, Samuel could have been Saul and Aaron's father, as I have found a Samuel Smith, born 1765, in Virginia. He married Mary Jarrett in North Carolina. Perhaps some of you descendants of this Smith line can shed light on this.

"Saul did have a brother, Aaron, who moved to Texas in 1846 but then moved to Forsyth County, Georgia where he died in 1890. Saul also had a brother Samuel C. Smith who died in 1889 in Smith County, Texas and is buried in Pleasant Hill Cemetery in Rusk County, Texas.

"Saul's father, Samuel, is who was born in 1765 in Virginia and married Mary Jarrett. In 1847 Samuel and Mary headed up a wagon train that departed from North Carolina on November 4 or 5, 1846. They arrived in the New London community, Rusk County, Texas, on January 1847. They would have arrived sooner but Samuel wouldn't travel on Sunday.

"We Smith cousins thank you for the Elmwood Cemetery and other information you have so generously provided."

Here is some information about the Victor Community and Cemetery in Erath County. Victor Cemetery is about 14 miles northwest of Dublin, Erath County, Texas, at the end of Farm Road 2156, near the Comanche County line. In Dublin, Farm Road 2156 is called the Highland Road. There is a sign about 10 miles from Dublin to let you know when you are in Highland. The Round Grove Cemetery is a mile or two west of FR 2156. The Round Grove Cemetery is at the site of Round Grove Baptist Church, which was active from 1871 until April, 2000.

The 2000-2001 Texas Almanac lists Victor as a ghost town, but it lists Highland with a population of 60. I don't know whether they included the people at Victor and Round Grove, since the boundaries of a community are arbitrary. The Erath County. Index of Landmarks and Vanished Communities lists Highland and Victor as populated places but does not list Round Grove. A school census for an eight-year period released in 1949 listed schools at Highland and Victor.

The Victor Cemetery is definitely at Victor, but whether Victor is part of the Highland community is subject to interpretation.

The following Smith has ties to the Victor, Erath County, Cemetery:

John Norval Smith b: 1844, TX, d: , Victor Cemetery In Erath Co., TX
Susan Adeline Nance b: 1847, TN, d: , Victor Cemetery In Erath Co., TX
Norval Elbert Smith b: 1867, TX whose spouse was Hattie Smith (were they cousins?)
Mary Elizabeth (Lizzie) Smith b: 1869, TX, d: 14 Sep 1965 whose spouse was Lou Currin
John Henry Smith b: 9 Sep 1870, TX, d: 12 Sep 1946, Stephenville, Erath Co., TX, whose spouse was Minnie Amelia Lang
Annie Mae Smith whose spouse was a Wilson
Lela C Smith b: 1874, TX whose spouse was J. William Warren
William C. (Bill) Smith b: 6 Mar 1875, TX, d: 13 Dec 1928, Victor, Erath Co., Tx whose spouse was Jessie Smith
James Thomas Smith b: 1877, TX, d: May 1949, CA whose spouse was Ellen Gregg b: 7 Jul 1876, TX, d: 26 Nov 1953, CA
Burl Nathanial Smith b: 22 Feb 1881, TX, d: 4 Mar 1955, Granbury, Hood Co., TX whose spouse was Theodocia (Dolly) Allen
Alice Lucretia (Allie) Smith b: 10 Jan 1882, TX, d: 15 May 1972, Klondike, Delta Co., TX whose spouse was Ed Currin
Josie Smith b: 14 Nov 1886, TX, d: 11 Jul 1969, Big Spring, Howard Co., TX whose spouse was Lon M Gray
Susie E. Smith b: 3 Apr 1888, TX, d: 26 Jun 1978, Tarrant Co., TX whose spouse was Earnest Proctor

Other Smiths who appear to be related to the Victor Community Smiths are John Henry Smith, Ollie Myrtle Thompson, and Lois Mae Smith Radford. This leads us to the Gray family. Lon Gray was married to Jesse Smith in Erath County, and another Erath County Gray was Curtis Gray, who was born in 1908.

Do YOU have information about the Smiths, the Lynches, or the Glovers? If you do, please share them with us! You can write me at P. O. Box 61, Mineral Wells TX 76068-0061 or email me at siouxcitysue@cox-internet.com .

You guys get out there and do your genealogy and share it with us, as have these folks. And until next time, you take care!