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 […]
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 […]
Mitchell Harvey and Connie Gertrude Brown were natives of Rockwall County. He was born November 8, 1893, seventh of ten children of Rev. Benjamin Franklin Brown and Lucinda McCorkle Brown shortly after they arrived from York, Alabama. She was second of three children of Charlie and Dona Lawhorn Spong born on May 20, 1893. They […]
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 […]
The Bankhead Service Station was the first service station in Rockwall. It was located at the corner of Alamo and Rusk streets and built by Woodie and Henson Lowe. Their father operated a brickyard at Rockwall. Additional information on the Bankhead Highway is available in other articles. Native Kentuckians, Rev. Granville L. Tucker, Methodist preacher, […]
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. […]
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 […]
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 […]
