Albert K. Kirby along with his wife and children left Piineville, Missouri and headed for Rockwall in 1882. They came in a covered wagon bringing their household goods and cow with them. They had to blaze a trail and ford rivers and streams, the larger ones being Arkansas, Canadian and Red Rivers. At some of […]
Charles William Darr, was born in 1855 at Willow Springs which is now Heath, Texas. His parents were Dr. John and Angeline Darr. His parents, along with other family members, traveled by ox drawn wagons from Gibson County, Tennessee. The women and children rode in wagons, with men walking. Sister, Betty, said she also walked […]
The family of William and Martha Lawhorn came to Texas from Schott County, Mississippi. They traveled by covered wagon and crossed the Mississippi River on a barge. Thomas L. Lawhorn was five months old when they made the journey. After a short stay near Duck Creek in Dallas County, the William Lawhorn family moved to […]
Rice Wells was born March 15, 1892 at Brown County, Texas. He was one of nine children born to James Madison “Uncle Matt” and Louisa Ballard Wells. Matt and Louisa were married on December 24, 1881 by J. L. Robertson, minister of the gospel. Matt had a little grocery store in the Liberty Grove Community, […]
Daniel “Dan” James Anderson married Julia Ann Raines in 1883. They were soon at home on the family ranch in eastern Rockwall County. Dan’s father, David Jefferson Anderson, had owned the property prior to the Civil War. Dan was the son of David and Elizabeth Burroughs Williams Anderson. Julia was the daughter of Thomas and […]
Rockwall, from its high ground commanding the eastern shore of Lake Ray Hubbard on the East Fork of the Trinity, began life as a twelve-mile-long panhandle of Kaufman County. That was shortly after the flag of the Republic of Texas was lowered for the last time, and when the legislature of 1848 created Kaufman County. […]
Claude M. Isbell was born June 28, 1884 in Rockwall County, Texas and died on July 22, 1962 at Austin, Texas at 78 years of age. Claude was the son of Joseph Marion Carmichael and Margaret McCulloch Isbell. He was raised by his grandmother, Mary Emma Isbell, as his mother died when he was quite […]
Samuel Spong was the oldest child of Uriah and Virginia Spong. Agnes Hoskins was the daughter of Henry Clay and Nancy Hoskins, early pioneers of Dallas County. Her maternal grandfather was Washington Routh who came to Texas before the Civil War from Tennessee. She moved to Rockwall County at the age of twelve. Sam Spong […]
William Lawson Lawhorn was born June 5, 1844 in Scott County, Mississippi. The son of Noah Lawhorn and Harriet (Slay) Lawhorn married Martha Kara (Mat) Smith on December 12, 1866 in a double wedding ceremony with her sister Elizabeth. She was only seventeen years old. Bill Lawson Lawhorn was converted and made a profession of […]
Sam Henderson McMurry, Sr. was born March 6, 1853 in Knoxville, Tennessee. He was the son of Boyd Montgomery McMurry and Margaret McCammon. He had one brother and four sisters. At the age of eighteen, he left home without telling his parents where he was going. Sam had twelve dollars in cash and a few […]
Archibald Register Hartman, like his brother, J. A. Hartman came to Texas as a Confederate veteran. However, his war record, on several occasions, was a source of embarrassment to his family. During the Civil War, he had served the Confederacy as a spy. Schoolmasters having been in short supply, he had moved behind enemy lines, […]
My paternal grandfather, Green C. Rochell, a poor farm boy from the red hills of northern Alabama, listened to stories from former neighbors, who had hung signs on the gatepost saying, “Gone to Texas.” The Dawsons, Petries and others sent word back from what was then north Kaufman County, telling of the fertile, black soil. […]
Sometime around 1962, a family member happen to bring in a farm and ranch magazine and laid it on the kitchen table at my grandmother’s, Eula Ross Forster (Foster), house. She glanced over at the magazine and said, “That’s my daddy. That’s Sam Ross.” The article pertained to an unknown drover on the Chisholm Trail. […]
Newman L. Lofland was born July 18, 1884, in Yell County, Arkansas, and was the son of William Isaac and Amanda Edwards Lofland. He carried on the family tradition of acquiring land and had extensive land holdings. He was a successful farmer and rancher. Newman was instrumental in the drilling of two oil wells in […]
Ralph Hall, one of three children of Hugh Olin Hall, Sr. and Maude Ball, was born at Fate, Texas on May 3, 1923. After graduating from Rockwall High School, he attended the University of Texas and received his L. L. B. from Southern Methodist University in 1951. He joined the U. S. Navy on […]
The family of William and Martha Lawhorn came to Texas from Scott County, Mississippi. They traveled by covered wagon and crossed the Mississippi River on a barge. Thomas L. Lawhorn was five months old when they made the journey. After a short stay near Duck Creek in Dallas County, the William Lawhorn family moved to […]
The late Elvis Presley recorded the country western hit, “Ghetto,” almost a century after the words applied to another Illinois family — the Ernest Sparks family. The words of the song, “On a cold and gray December morn, a poor little baby boy was born — in the Ghetto,” referred to poverty stricken families who […]
The horses seemed to watch with interest as the ribbon was cut for a 16.6 mile section of present-day Interstate 30 Highway from Buckner Boulevard in Dallas to Rockwall, Texas on July 26, 1951. Holding the scissors, which were labeled “Big D” and “Big R.”, are Texas Highway Chairman E. H. Thornton, Jr.(left) and Rockwall […]
Florence (Parker) Way was the daughter of Matt and Clara (Withers) Parker. They were ranchers in Palo Pinto County, Texas. At the age of twenty-three Florence came to Rockwall. She was the bride of Jack Way, son of Jim and Amanda (Willess) Way. Jack was a farmer and mule trader in the area. Jack Way […]
