Leita Bel Wood (1910-1994) was born northeast of Rowlett, Texas in the Liberty Grove community. She was the daughter of James W. “Polk” and Ida White Spence Wood. After Leita Bel was grown, she operated a store on Elm Grove Road. Leita Bel latter married William L. “Bill” Nichols (1908-1985). Bill always stood out as […]
Both Thomas Edward Nix and Virginia Peak were born in South Carolina. Thomas was born in Barnwell County in 1829, while Virginia was born on 17 October 1837 in Lancaster County to John H. Peak and Mary Sylvester. On 20 August 1854, they were married by a Baptist preacher at the home of Virginia’s mother […]
Pioneer member Wilbur Roe has shed some light on his early years spent at the Wylie Hotel. Wylie had several hotels back in the earlier days. The drummers would take the train to the Wylie Depot and then check into one of the hotels before calling on the local merchants in an effort to drum […]
Late last Thursday morning (Oct. 26, 1911) Floyd, the little sixteen months old baby of Mr. and Mrs. Albert Foster, was fearfully burned and died in a few hours afterward. Our information is that Mr. Foster, when at home, always did the milking, but was a little late rising that morning, and fearing that his […]
“I have lived in Dallas County fifty-two years,” said John H. Cullom, County Tax Collector. “My father, the late Peter Cullom, known as Uncle Peter, who lived at Nashville, Tenn., brought me, as a small boy, along with the rest of the family to Texas in 1877. My mother’s brother, Henry Hollis, had [preceded] us […]
Among the more engaging figures in the banking world of Dallas in the closing years of the last century was J. C. O’Connor, the former telegraph operator, stagecoach driver, railway station agent, and gold prospector who came out of the West in the 1870s to find his real fortune in Texas. When he first came […]
It was on August 1, 1900 that Arch Bickle and Abner Todd, along with their families left Stone County, Arkansas and arrived 18 days later in Garland, Texas to make their home. These men were first cousins. Mr. Arch Bickle, his wife Roxie (Gaylor) Bickle, Allie, age 2, and Joe Bickle, the baby, had one […]
GRANDMA’S HANDMADE QUILT There’s a lot of history behind this ole handmade quilt. A history that would have easily faded had we not paused to record its unique origin. It’s one of many made by my great-grandmother, Carah Belle Poovey Pelton (1877-1967). ‘Carry’ was born in a log cabin near Raney and Yeager Road. Her […]
Will Conner was born on October,29, 1971 at Bickle’s Cove in Stone County, Arkansas. He was orphaned at age two and raised by the Joseph Walker Bickle family there. In 1892, Will and friends, Andrew and Ulysses “Liss” McIntire, with a wagon and two horses came to Texas. They settled at Garland, where Will later […]
George and Miley Nelson were the first residents of the Liberty Grove Community to own a television. Miley Hatley Nelson was born in the foothills of the Ozarks alongside the Arkansas River. She was the only child born to Martin and Willis Hatley. However, her father already had six children before he married Willis, and […]
Wesley Fletcher Curtis and his wife, Elizabeth Pearl, arrived with some of their family in Dallas County in 1873. As indicated by a deed, they purchased two-and-one-half acres in the Lagow Survey in east Dallas and built a house. Two years later they moved to the area now in north Mesquite where they settled first on the […]
According to Beatrice Pelton Merritt, it was sometime around 1922 when the old Liberty Schoolhouse (northeast of Rowlett) and the Elm Grove Schoolhouse were closed. These schools were merged and the principal of the new Liberty Grove School would be Professor J. K. Wells. This new modern school had four rooms for grades one thru […]
Elizabeth Jane Routh was born near Knoxville, Tennessee in 1828. She married 25 October 1850 to James Thomas born 1822 in Tennessee. One year after their marriage, she accompanied her brothers Jacob and Joseph Routh, her mother, and an orphaned niece, Rachel Elizabeth Mann, to Texas, leaving Dandridge, Jefferson County, Tennessee on October 2, 1851, […]
The unofficial Mayor and First Lady of Rowlett would have been celebrating their 95th birthdays this week had they remained with us. But, Vernon Schrade passed to his reward on December 12, 2015 and Lorene followed on August 16, 2016. They were married for 69 years. Vernon was the son of Gottlob and Martha Bryant […]
John Vest Folsom was born in Coryell County on November 11, 1898 to Agnes Ann Traller and Samuel Christopher Folsom. Samuel, the son of Nancy Cobb and Elias Folsom, was born in Georgia in 1857. Agnes, the daughter of Sara Steven-son and Joseph H. Traller, was born in Gatesville on July 5, 1869. Her father […]
James Paris Goodnight (1831-1885) and Mary Ann Hill (1835-1900) were married on September 21, 1854 in Franklin, Kentucky. Early in October, 1854, they left for Dallas County, Texas. They traveled for six weeks with a party of several families, using horse-drawn wagons to transport themselves and their household goods. They settled on a farm in […]
Dearest, sister Jane, This country is unbelievable! You cannot imagine the weather. Last weekend we had ice and a bit of sleet.Today the temperature feels like early summer. I am not even wearing a coat as I begin this epistle. I look out over the countryside and see a few patches of green. This morning […]
The roots of the Patrick Community in southeastern Dallas County reach back to Ireland. Isaac Patrick and his wife came from Ireland and parented John Patrick. John married Elizabeth Calloway and had a son named Alexander, November 14, 1794, in Virginia. Alexander moved to Madison County, Kentucky, and married Catherine White in 1818. From their […]
James M. Parker was born October 1, 1801 in Shelby County, Kentucky. He came to Pleasant Valley (now part of Sachse, TX) in the early 1850’s and settled on a farm that consisted of wild prairie grass so thick that it would take a double yoke of oxen just to break it open. James had […]
John Neely Bryan seems to have been one of those mortals whose lives show spurts of considerable practical initiative, alternating with the instinct to wander off into dreams. And as so often happens, his spirit must have been the unhappy battlefield of these conflicting drives. His romantic approach even in business is suggested by the […]
