The DeShazo Family History
And their Route to Texas
In past centuries, within the French speaking areas of
Europe, there lived families who’s surname was de
Chazeaux.
These people originally lived in houses on pilings located
over water.
The Chazeaux name can be deciphered as house on water, or
water house as we’d more likely say in English.
When the migration of Europeans into the New World began,
some of these de Chazeaux families also moved to the United States where they
settled and married and became a part of this nation. These de Chazeauxs’
married into many families, including ours and their descendents are now
scattered over much of the United States.
Over time, the de Chazeaux’s prospered and spread to
several of the states. By the time of the
1860 census, families with names spelled DeShazo and
de Shazo were living in eight or ten states but more predominantly in the
southern states of Virginia, Alabama and Mississippi, with Virginia having the
most.
Since Virginia is a coastal state with a good port, it may
indicate this is where the original de Chazeauxs first entered the country. In
fact, I found through later discoveries this was true and discovered that the
our original DeShazo line entered the United States through the port of
Yorktown, Virginia in 1816.
From there, their descendents have spread to many
areas but staying mostly in the southern states and now having spread all the
way to California.
Surname spelling was evolving during this period and at
some point de Chazeaux became de Shazo, then later, DeShazo and other variants.
Ancestors of our family were among those who
anglicized the spelling of their name to DeShazo and it remains that way to this
day.
Dad always pronounced the name with a long “a” so that it
sounds like the “a” in hay.
At a later time, I located some of our DeShazo
descendents in Tennessee.
In that area, the “a” is pronounced as in “paw”.
Credit for the following is given to Major General Thomas E. DeShazo, U.S. Army,
Retired, Alexandria, Virginia, March 17, 1964, now deceased:
The lineage of our early DeShazo ancestors in this country
can be traced back to three forebears that are our direct ancestors.
(Names
typed in bold indicate that person is a direct forebear of
my DeShazo family line.
When a descendent has the same name as an ancestor,
a suffix of I or II is applied to differentiate between the two.
It does not imply that when the person
was alive, they used such a suffix. Comment by wh)
Jean de
Chazeaux (the oldest ancestor we can be certain of)
Richard
de Chazeaux… (His son)
Peter de
Shazo born. ca 1730 – died 1792-1793…(Richard’s son)
Peter
was a resident of King & Queen County, Virginia.
He married twice. First to Rebecca Pendleton (?) and
second to Dianna Bohannan (?)
These marriages produced eight children, all born in
King & Queen County. The children’s names were:
·
Louis I,
born ca 1755, died 1818 in Eatonton, Ga.; married
Nancy
King, born ca 1785.
·
Robert, born ca 1758, died (?); married Mary Sawyer of Edgefield, SC.
·
Richard, born ca 1760, died (?), martial status not known;
·
Martha “Patsy”, born ca 1765, died 1849 in Hardeman Co.
TN., married Capt. Whitaker Campbell , ca 1790 of King &
Queen Co, VA, born 1724, died 1814 in King & Queen
Co. VA.
·
Larkin Sr., born ca 1766, died in1824.
Nothing else known.
·
John Marion., born 1766-1770, died Nov. 5, 1834, married Catherine Nunn, June 4,
1802;
·
Sarah, nothing else known
·
Lucy, died 1823 King & Queen Co. VA.
The eldest of
these, Louis
I, and his wife Nancy produced
seven children.
They were:
·
Dr. William King, born 1796, Edgefield, S.C., married three times to Miss King,
Miss Overton and Miss Howard.
·
Nancy, born 1798, Edgefield, S.C., married twice to William Morris and William
King.
·
Wilkin, born 1800 Edgefield, S.C., married Mary rivers
·
Larkin,
born 1801 Edgefield, S.C., married
Lecy Lewis.
·
Louis II, born 1802, Edgefield, S.C., married Mary Littlejohn
·
Mary C., born 1806, nothing else known.
·
Louis, born 1808, Eatonton, GA. Married Mary Mahan.
When
Louis I died in
1818, his children were mostly grown or growing up.
The lure of new and productive land in the new
states of Alabama and Mississippi to the west was running strong. After Andrew
Jackson had defeated the Creek Indians at the battles of Talladega and Horseshoe
Bend and imposed the treaty of 1814, all the lands in Alabama west of the Coosa
River were opened to settlement by the white people.
Sometime about 1821, all the sons except the oldest, Dr.
William King DeShazo, who had taken over the management of his father’s estate
at Eatonton, migrated to the new land of Alabama.
They settled in the Indian capital of the Creeks at
Mardisville, adjacent to Talladega, where they were welcome to occupy and use
the land, but where they could not obtain title or deeds of ownership.
After a few years, they joined the throng and moved south and west across the
Coosa River to the vicinity of Montevallo (Wilsons Hill) where a land office had
been established and where they homesteaded land along Mahans Creek near
Brierfield and Wilton.
It was during these years that the oldest brother, Dr.
William King DeShazo, gradually bought from his brothers in Alabama, their
interest in their Father’s estate at Eatonton;
the last deeds made by
Larkin, Wilkin and Peter are
dated from Brierfield in 1828.
By 1830, Dr. DeShazo had sold out in Georgia and joined his
brothers in Alabama.
It was during these years that Wilkin married Mary
Rivers of Eatonton and brought her to Alabama.
Larkin
married Lecy Lewis from
Tennessee.
Louis married Mary Littlejohn of Talladega and Peter
married Mary Mahan of Brierfield.
Their sister, Nancy Luraney, remained in Georgia
where she first married William Morris.
After the death of Mr. Morris, she married William
king.
Brierfield was on the northern fringe of the large cotton
producing plantations of the Black Belt of Alabama.
Except for Peter, the brothers did not seem to
engage in slave ownership and cotton production.
Larkin,
Wilkin and Louis II are listed as craftsmen, carpenters, cabinetmakers and
millwrights (millwright:
a person who constructs a mill.
Comment by wh), as
was their father.
They jointly owned and operated a grist mill and
carpentry shop on Mahans Creek.
As this generation grew up and raised families, we again
see the pattern of migration and settlement on new lands.
Sometime after 1850, Wilkin and
Larkin moved to Mississippi
and settled around Kosciusko and Choctaw counties in the north central part of
the state.
Here they became professional contractors of cotton gins,
building gins in Alabama and Mississippi.
Some of their descendants are there today and
others, over the years, moved to Texas, Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma,
Memphis and points west.
It is interesting to note they came together again
with their distant cousins from southwest Virginia who had settled in Williamson
County, Tennessee.
Louis II, and Peter, remained around Brierfield and raised
their families.
At one time, Louis II and some of his sons visited
Larkin and Wilkin in Mississippi with the view of settling there but decided
against it and returned to Alabama.
Following is an anecdote concerning one of the sons of Louis II
:
The oldest son of Louis II and Mary, John Marion DeShazo,
was educated as a surveyor.
In 1852, he was employed on a government survey in
the Tennessee River Valley of North Alabama.
On his travel from Brierfield to the work, he
stopped the first night with his party at the home of Gaines Lee at Bridgeton
near the Bold Springs Church in Cahaba Valley.
Now Gaines Lee had a very pretty daughter named
Elizabeth who was of marriageable age.
It seems that the next morning when the party was
about to depart, John was taken with a “seizure” and was completely unable to
travel for a number of days.
Some months later, as the party was returning from the
survey work, they again stopped at the home of Gaines Lee and, as they were
about to depart, young Marion was again struck down by this mysterious malady.
However, after some days of recuperation, and when
Elizabeth had promised to marry him, he recovered, after which he applied for
and was accepted as the local school teacher.
After he had been teaching school for a couple of years, he
persuaded his parents (Louis II and Mary) to sell their holdings at Brierfield
and to purchase the grist and flour mill at Bridgeton.
Thus, the family made its last and lasting move.
Not only did Louis and his other sons come to the
community, but Peter and his family, together with Dr. William King DeShazo and
his family, sold out and joined their brothers around Bold Springs.
This ends
the DeShazo history as written by Major General Thomas E. DeShazo, deceased.
The two brothers Larkin and Wilkin settled with their
families in adjacent counties in Mississippi.
Larkin moved to Choctaw County (which later became
Webster County) and Wilkin settled in Kosciusko County, which is immediately to
the south of Choctaw.
General Thomas DeShazo has reported the spelling of Lecy’s
first name is in doubt, as records show it has been spelled in various ways such
as Lucy, Leece and Lecy.
Since one census enumerator spelled it as “Lucy”,
that may be the way it sounded and agrees with current spelling and
pronunciation.
Larkin and Lecy were our Great-great Grandparents.
They had seven children who’s births were spread
over a span of 19 years.
Their names, in order of birth, were:
Mary Dacus
1834-1915
John Walker
1835-1918
Erastus Wiley
1842-1884
Larkin Columbus
1845-1928
Marcus Evander*
4/26/1847 to 10/20/1932
Samuel Lewis*
1853-1909
Sarah Elizabeth*
1853-1946
*Marcus became our Great-grandfather.
Samuel and Sarah were twins.
Larkin and Lucy’s family had its origins in Alabama where
records show Mary, John and Erastus were born. Sometime in the early 1840s,
after the birth of Erastus, Larkin and Lucy moved their family to Mississippi,
and there, the remaining children were born.
The last two, Samuel and Sarah, were twins.
The birth dates given above for the seven children
are not always in full agreement with U.S. Census records.
The census records I have downloaded sometimes are a
year or two off from other records.
For example, the census of 1870 shows Marcus to be
born in 1849 but the tombstone of Marcus gives his year of birth as 1847.
Errors like this have been seen elsewhere so do not
be surprised if in doing your own research you find inconsistencies or something
different from what I’ve written.
The middle name given to Mary (Dacus) is a somewhat
peculiar choice as this is often used as a masculine name and it is also a
surname.
Perhaps Dacus was the name of a relative on the Mother’s
side or perhaps it was a close friend or relative as yet unknown.
In the U.S. Census records of 1860, it can be found that
John Walker is now 23 years old and has married.
His wife is Mary F. E. (Phelps) and she is 24.
They have two young daughters, Nancy, age four and
Mary, age two.
John is a mechanic by profession and Mary is a
housewife.
Their home is in the portion of Choctaw County, which in
the future will be part of the new county of Webster.
Webster County was formed in the early 1870’s and
took in much of Choctaw County plus some of the surrounding counties and is
named after the statesman, Daniel Webster. The John Walker DeShazo family lives
near the town of Greensboro, which was the county seat at the time but is not
shown on modern maps.
Their neighbors are all farmers which would indicate
the family does not live in town even though John is a mechanic by profession.
The prior generation of DeShazo’s were, as has been
noted, millwrights. It is likely John learned this trade and the mechanical work
he performed would have been on cotton gins and grist mills.
Next door to John and Elizabeth’s home, lives the Cooper
family.
This family is headed by Joseph and Elizabeth Cooper.
They have seven children and the next to youngest is
a daughter named
Martha Jane Florence Cooper.
She is age five.
Great-grandfather Marcus, brother of John, must have
met this family and come to know them through visits to his brother’s home.
Or, perhaps he lived close by and maybe even the
Cooper and DeShazo families went to the same church.
This little girl is important to our family history
because, in 1870, when she was still only 15, she and Marcus married and those
two became Great-grandparents to our family and the forebear’s of many others.
Also living on another farm next door to John and Elizabeth
Walker, are the Thomas Jefferson Lamb family.
We find from this 1860 census that Mary Dacus
(DeShazo) is now the wife of Thomas Jefferson Lamb and they have two children.
The children’s names are Luther, age 4 and Lucy, age
1.
Thomas makes his living as a farmer.
He and Mary are both 26 years of age and census
records show they use the Post Office at Greensboro.
It is nice to know the families were close and
stayed together. In those days, families were a great support to each other.
Census records of 1860 do not enumerate the rest of the
DeShazo family.
These records have large gaps and errors in spelling
and ages so the fact that the balance of our family does not show up in 1860 is
not too much of a surprise.
Also, there is a good possibility I have overlooked
them.
At this time, our Great-great-grandparents (Larkin and
Lece) have five children who likely still live at home.
They are: Erastus 18; Larkin Columbus 15;
our Great-grandfather Marcus, 13;
and the twins, Samuel Lewis and Sarah Elizabeth, 7.
The American Civil War broke out shortly after the 1860
census.
This must have caused a great disruption in the lives of
these people and all four of the DeShazo sons joined the Confederate Army.
By some rare luck, none were killed, although
Erastus was captured and held prisoner until war’s end. He ended the war in poor
health and was the first of these siblings to die.
Civil War records (provided by Dick DeShazo, Benson,
AZ.) show their enlistment’s to be:
·
John W. DeShazo:
Private, Company G, 33rd Mississippi
Infantry Regiment
·
Erastus W. DeShazo: Private, Company D, 15th
Mississippi Infantry Regiment;
Private, Company A, 8th
Mississippi Cavalry Regiment
·
Larkin C. DeShazo:
Private, Company H, 3rd Mississippi
Infantry Regiment;
Company A, 8th Mississippi Cavalry
Regiment;
Company D, 8th
Mississippi Cavalry Regiment
·
Marcus E. DeShazo:
Served in Featherstone’s Brigade (this
information came from a news article in the Fort Worth Star Telegram, 1923, wh.)
Cousin Dorothy Clements, granddaughter of Marcus DeShazo
and daughter of Homer and Viola DeShazo, recalls that when she was about 7 (that
would be 1928) Marcus came to her home in San Angelo for a visit.
While there, Viola took Marcus to the elementary
school to speak to the children.
Dorothy recalls from his story that Marcus was in
the Confederate Army at the close of the Civil War and that when he was
dismissed, he walked back to his home in Choctaw County, Mississippi.
He told the children, that during the walk, he
passed by a tree that whistled.
Hearing of something like this brings home the
realization of how different life was a century and a half ago.
Soldiers today, go home by airplane or some other
form of transportation. In those times not long ago, walking a hundred miles or
so was not uncommon.
Marcus did not even have the convenience of a horse.
The census of 1870 was a rare, thorough one, listing all of
Larkin and Lecy’s children and all still live in Choctaw County, Mississippi.
Shortly after this census, the county’s name was changed to Webster.
In
this census, Mary Dacus (DeShazo) and Thomas Jefferson Lamb are both still
living and their children are: Luther Franklin age 14; Lecy Florence, age 11;
Lucinda E. (who goes by Lizzie) age 6; John Larkin age 4; and Lenora, age one.
The Father supports the family by farming and Mary
is keeping house.
They still live near the town of Greensboro.
Notice that Mary has named one of her children after
her Mother “Lece.”
Also, you will see the Lenora name pop up with other
family members later.
This again shows the family had close contact and
great affection for each other.
Continuing to refer to the 1870 census, John Walker DeShazo, is no longer a
mechanic.
He is now a Minister of the Gospel.
John and Mary have six children:
Nancy,
14; Susan, 12, Martha, 4; Samuel, 5; Anna, 2; and Ruth, 1.
Living with the family is a domestic servant who has
one child.
They live near the town of Cumberland, which is also in
Choctaw County.
Having a servant shows the family is prosperous.
The 1870 census shows Erastus DeShazo, age 28, has also become a Minister of the
Gospel.
His wife is Mary (Head) and she is age 21, born in
Mississippi. They have a daughter, Florence, age two, and a second daughter,
Lenora, age one.
This family lives near the town of Bellefontaine,
which is located in what soon was to become central Webster County.
Next door to Erastus, lives his Mother, Lecy DeShazo.
Her name is recorded as Lucy in that year’s
census.
She is age 56, now a widow, and has no employment
listed.
Still living with her are the twins, Samuel Lewis and Sarah
Elizabeth.
Sarah uses the name Bettie, a diminutive form of Elizabeth,
and continues to use this name the rest of her life and is buried with that name
on her tombstone.
Samuel and Bettie are age 16 at the time of the
census.
It is nice to know that the Mother, Lecy, lives next door
to one of her children, Erastus.
It shows that the children cared for and loved their
Mother.
By
1870, Larkin Columbus has married Elizabeth Jane Lamb.
He and Elizabeth are both age 25 and Larkin Columbus
farms for a living.
They have two daughters:
Mary, age 3, and Luella, age 1.
Their home is also near Bellefontaine.
There were many families in Webster County with the surname Lamb.
Likely they were related.
In all, three persons with Lamb surnames married
DeShazo’s.
In the History of
Webster County, Albert Latham writes about some of these families and their
marriages to the DeShazo’s are mentioned.
The following is excerpted from his articles.
Green
Berry Lamb
Green Berry Lamb was the son of Nicholas and Temperance Lamb and was born in
Jasper County, Georgia, on August 27, 1812.
In 1841, he married Mary Ann Jacks, who was born
October 25, 1818.
He joined the Methodist Church in 1827.
He died December 15, 1891 (age 79) and she died July
7, 1880 (age 61).
Both are buried in North Union Cemetery, Webster
County, Mississippi.
Children were:
1.
Nicholas
Warren (1843-1888)
2.
Elizabeth Jane (1845-1884) who married Columbus DeShazo
3.
Temperance (1847-1927) married Green Morgan
4.
Albany
(1848-1938) married Jack Morgan
5.
John
(1850-1868)
6.
William
(1854-1910) married Matilda Lollar
7.
Elvira
(1855-?) married Ed Simon
8.
Mary A.
(Molly) (1860-?) married W. D. (Bud )Pollan
John
Wesley Lamb
John Wesley lamb, another son of Nicholas and Temperance, was born in 1802 in
Jasper County, Georgia.
On November 15, 1825, he was married to Lucinda
Digby, daughter of John Digby and Belinda (last name unknown) who was born in
1810 in Jasper County.
James Betts, Justice of the Peace, performed the
ceremony.
The family moved to Randolph County, Alabama, around 1835 and came to Choctaw
County, Mississippi, in 1848.
They settled on the place now owned by Roy Gatlin.
Being a devout Methodist Exhorter, he established the Lebanon Methodist Church
in 1850.
Both John Wesley and Lucinda died in 1874 and are buried in
the Lebanon United Methodist Church Cemetery.
John Wesley Lamb is known to have had slaves.
The Lebanon Methodist church has on display a color portrait of John Wesley and
Lucinda (Digby) Lamb, a gift of Reverend W. C. Lewis, a grandson.
John and Lucinda had ten children, one of which, Thomas Jefferson, married into
the DeShazo family.
Other than this child, I will omit naming the other
siblings as they are not part of the family history. wh
Thomas Jefferson Lamb, second son of John and Lucinda was born in Jasper County,
Georgia on April 7, 1833. He married Mary Dacus DeShazo.
Mary Dacus was born October 28, 1833.
Thomas died June 4, 1899 and Mary on June 16, 1915.
Both are buried in Ebenezer Presbyterian Cemetery in
Webster County.
Their children were:
1.
Luther Franklin, born July 6, 1856.
He married Augusta Nowlen on January 12, 1878.
Luther died October 15, 1915 and is buried in
Oaklawn Cemetery in Dallas.
2.
Lucy Florence was born January 2, 1859 and married William Martin Holland,
December 18, 1875.
She died June 15, 1930 and is buried in Maben
Cemetery.
3.
Lizzie was born September 23, 1863 and died July 8, 1896.
Lizzie married Reverend J. P. Moore, a Presbyterian
preacher.
4.
Larkin was born 1866 and died April 5, 1925.
He married first, Lee Hill on February 28, 1888; and
second, to Edna Bennett on March 28, 1900.
5.
Lenora was born June 7, 1869 and died November 11, 1940.
She married James Thomas Avent on January 28, 1891.
6.
W.W.
Tobe was born May 21, 1876 and died July 3, 1896.
7.
Annie was born May 10, 1876 and died June 4, 1925.
She married Henry P. Gunter on February 4, 1897.
With thanks to Albert Latham for the preceding.
Great-grandfather Marcus Evander DeShazo also shows up in this 1870 census.
By now he is married to the young girl mentioned
previously, Martha Jane Florence Cooper.
As said before, Martha is the daughter of Joseph and
Elizabeth Cooper.
The Cooper family was found living next door to John
Walker in the 1860 census.
By1870, Martha, at just 15 years of age, is married
to Marcus, who is 23.
His occupation is listed as farmer and Martha is
listed as “keeping house.”
They have no children and have found a place to live
near the town of Bellefontaine.
That would put them in close vicinity to Larkin and
their Mother, Lece, with her twin children Samuel and Sarah.
Martha’s parents also remain in Mississippi and continue to live near
Greensboro, the county seat of Choctaw County.
They farm for a living.
Following is an extract from a book titled
Webster County Mississippi History.
This is about the Cooper family and the article I’m
extracting from was written by Louise Hill.
The Coopers, who now live in Webster County, were descendants of Sir Peter
Cooper, an Equerry (an equerry is an officer of a royal household in charge of
the horses) in the royal household of King Charles and one of the eight Lord’s
Proprietors of the Carolinas.
Three of his great-grandsons moved to Williamston, located on the Roanoke River,
about 15 miles inland from Albemarle Sound, in what is now the state of North
Carolina.
Williamston is located in Martin County.
They moved to the Carolinas to seek freedom of
worship and adventure in the new land.
One of the three brothers, William Cooper, moved to
Tennessee where he later married a Miss Williams.
The other two brothers cannot be accounted for.
William and his wife had five children, four of which are known.
They were:
1.
Joseph
William Cooper (10/18/1822 to 6/5/1876)
2.
Henry
Gilbert Cooper (8/8/1825 to 10/4/1886)
3.
Martha
Cooper who’s married name was Ward
4.
Eliza
Cooper who’s married name was Moore.
Two of William’s sons, Joseph and Henry, became dissatisfied with Tennessee and
moved to Mississippi around 1835, where they settled in Choctaw County.
Later, they both married sisters with the family
name of Moore.
Joseph’s wife had the maiden name of Elizabeth Jane Moore (1825 – 1907) and the
two were married about 1842.
This family settled near Walthall on a farm near
Little Black Creek.
This marriage was blessed with eight children:
1.
James H.
2.
Mary
Katherine
3.
Sarah
Alice
4.
William
Casper
5.
Joseph
Leroy
6.
Martha
Jane Florence (who married Marcus Evander DeShazo)
7.
Louisinda Annie
8.
Riley L.
Byron
This source gives Martha’s birth-date as January 15, 1855.
However, her tombstone reads January 10, 1855. wh
The
preceding was extracted from an article written by Louise Hill.
WH
These census records of 1870 show that the DeShazo family has stayed near to
each other in what was then Choctaw County and Mary Dacus’ family also lives in
this county. In 1874, a new county, Webster, was formed in honor of the
statesman, John Webster. This county was created from parts of Choctaw and other
adjacent counties.
The DeShazo family members all lived in that part of
Choctaw County that became Webster County.
The towns they reported living near (Montevisto,
Bellefontaine, Greensboro and Cumberland) were included in this new county.
These place names still exist today, although the communities are quite small.
Maps show them all to be within a ten or fifteen
mile radius of each other.
Travel in those times was slow, since it would have
been on horseback or carriage, but still, these communities were close enough
together that the families could see each other, given an hour or two ride.
Of
course the family has aged.
The Mother, Lucy (or Lece), is now 57.
We have to presume the father, Larkin DeShazo, is
deceased since no mention is made of him in the census.
His age would have been 69 were he alive.
Erastus, Marcus, Larkin and their Mother, Lucy, all live near Bellefontaine.
Although there is no record to support it, this is
probably where the DeShazo family initially settled after moving from Alabama.
In
1884, Erastus Wiley DeShazo died.
He ended the Civil War in poor health and remained
that way and was the first of the children to die.
His widow, Mary (Head) DeShazo remained in
Mississippi.
By this time, it is likely that the DeShazo family Mother,
Lece, has also died as no further mention of her can be found in available
records.
Parents are often the glue that holds families together and
with their passing, children often go their own way and that is what begins to
happen to this family.
1884 was a sad year for the DeShazos for in that year, Elizabeth,
wife of Larkin Columbus died along with a son.
Wife and son are buried side-by-side with a double
headstone.
The headstone gives Larkin’s name as Reverend L.C. DeShazo.
Their son is unnamed.
Elizabeth died May 3, 1884.
Recall from the preceding that the last two children of Larkin and Lece were the
twins:
Samuel Lewis and Sarah Elizabeth.
According to records received from Dick DeShazo
(Benson, Arizona), who is the Great-grandson of Samuel, Samuel Lewis married
Sabelia Gertrude Hull when he was at the very young age of 16. His new wife,
Sabelia,
was born in March, 1855.
Depending on the exact date, which they married, she
would have been either 15 or 16 years old at the time.
It was Sabelia’s headstone that I found at Scott’s
Chapel Cemetery while looking for Martha.
According to Dick DeShazo, writing about his Great-grandparents, Samuel and
Sabelia, he stated
“They
were married in 1870 in or near Starkville, Mississippi. My grandfather, Robert
Neal DeShazo, was born in Starkville, MS. That is on his birth certificate.
Their first nine children were all born in Mississippi.”
Samuel’s sister, Sarah Elizabeth (Bettie) DeShazo, married a man by the name of
Daniel Webster Nowlin.
He went by Dan.
It was a short marriage and
Bettie became a widow
when Daniel died in 1876. This family was still living in Mississippi at the
time Daniel died and had two children. The children’s names were Annie Lenora,
called Nora and Edgar Ottis Nowlin, who went by Ottis.
Annie Lenora married Sim Lewis and they had several
children but only Eula, the eldest and Simmie Webster, the youngest lived to
adulthood. Simmie Webster Lewis was the father of Carolyn Sue (Lewis) Myers, who
provided much of the information that is in this paragraph.
Carolyn is married to Robert Lewis and they live in
Arlington, Texas.
The U.S. Census taken on August 6, 1870,
shows a family headed by David Nowlin living next
door to Larkin DeShazo and his family.
David Nowlin is a farmer, married with seven
children.
David’s wife is Martha.
She is 41 and David is 56.
The oldest child living with the family is named
Daniel W. Nowlin and he is a school teacher by profession.
With both geography, opportunity and name being
right, I believe this person is the same Daniel Nowlin that married Sarah
Elizabeth.
In 1887, Bettie, now a widow, joined with two of her
brothers in a move to Texas, taking Nora and Ottis with her.
At the time, Nora was said to be 14 and Ottis, 12.
That places their years of birth as 1873 and 1875,
respectively.
Since
Bettie was born in 1853, she would have been 20 years old at the birth of her
first child.
Via a telephone call, cousin Carolyn Sue (Lewis) Myers
(Arlington, TX), has provided the information that follows
about the twins Sarah Elizabeth and Samuel Lewis.
Carolyn Myers is the Great-granddaughter of Sarah,
who she always knew as Aunt Bettie. She is married to Robert (Bob) Myers.
Sarah Elizabeth DeShazo always went by the name of Bettie.
Bettie died in 1946 at the age of 92 and Susie has
memories of her.
She recalls that Bettie was a stickler for wearing
bonnets and always insisted the girls have one on before going outside.
Bettie’s first husband was Daniel Nowlin. By him,
she had two children—a girl by the name of Anna (or Annie) Elnora (called Nora)
and a boy named Edgar Ottis Nowlin.
Edgar preferred the name Ottis and that’s what he
always went by.
Daniel Nowlin died when the children were still young and
Bettie stayed single for a while.
Later, she, with her family, joined her twin brother
Samuel and his family and made a move to Texas.
At the time of the move, Nora was 14 and her brother
Ottis was 12.
The families came by train and disembarked around 1887 at
the towns of Petty and Honey Grove. At this time, Samuel and
Bettie were 34 years of age.
Bettie and her children lived in Petty while Samuel moved
to a farm near the next town west on this rail line, Honey Grove.
These towns are only three and one-half miles apart.
Honey Grove is in Fannin County, northeast of
Dallas, while Petty is in Lamar County, immediately to the east of Fannin
County.
Both counties are located along the Texas-Oklahoma border
and the county line is about half way between the two towns.
The rail line on which they traveled is still in
service today.
After living in Petty for about five years (this
would be 1892), Bettie met and married Mr. Isaac Richard Minshew.
This marriage produced no children. After marriage,
they moved to
Milam County and settled at North Elim School near Cameron, Texas.
Cameron is about 30 miles west of Bryan-College Station.
Following is some information about Honey Grove, taken
from The Handbook of Texas, Online.
HONEY GROVE, TEXAS:
Honey
Grove is on U.S. Highway 82 fifteen miles east of Bonham in east central Fannin
County. The first Anglo-Americans who settled in the area arrived from Tennessee
in 1842. Within a few years a community developed on a rise that provided
residents a view of the surrounding countryside, timber on one side and prairie
on the other. Near the site in a grove was an apiary from which the community
received its name. In 1846 a post office branch opened to serve the growing
community. A decade later the population of Honey Grove reached 300. Residents
voted to incorporate in 1873. By the mid-1880s the tracks of the Texas and
Pacific Railway had reached the community. The railroad established Honey Grove
as a retail center and shipping point for area farmers. In 1890 it had a
population of 3,000, 100 businesses, seven churches, two schools, two banks, and
two weekly newspapers. By the 1890s a prosperous stone quarry was operating just
outside the town.
(This ends
the description of Honey Grove from the Handbook of Texas, Online.
wh)
Shortly after, or perhaps at the same time that Bettie and
Samuel made their moves to Texas, Marcus DeShazo and his family followed.
According to my Father, Marcus’ move was made in
1888, the year Marcus would be 41.
But, the obituary of Georgia (DeShazo) Millsap,
daughter of Marcus and Martha, says the family moved to Texas in 1890 and that
is more likely to be the correct time.
Marcus also settled on a farm near Honey Grove in
the county of Fannin.
At the time of the move, there were seven children
in the family.
All were girls and all were born in Mississippi.
The names of their children at this time and their
years of birth were:
Mary Lou (Lou)
1870
Lona
1874
Willie
1877
Connie
1879
Tressie Lee
1881 (My Grandmother)
Flora
1883
Georgia
1886
Of
these children, Mary Lou, who has chosen to go by the name of Lou, has married
William (Will) K. Bailey.
Their marriage was in December of 1886, when Lou was
only 16.
Lou and Will do not choose to come to Texas with the rest
of the family and remain in Webster County.
Eventually, they hear enough about Texas from the
rest of the DeShazo’s and have a change of mind.
Around 1903, Will and Lou move to San Angelo.
I have no information as to why this city was chosen
but eventually it became the home of other DeShazos and their descendents,
numerous of which still reside in and around that area.
Lou’s life was cut short when she died from
influenza in 1919.
By then, she had four children, two sons and two
daughters.
Following is the obituary that was printed in the San
Angelo paper at time of her death.
Influenza, contracted on Christmas night, later developing
into pneumonia, caused the death Wednesday of Mrs. Lou Bailey of 912 Volney
Street, wife of W. K. Bailey, a local baker.
The funeral service was conducted at the residence
Thursday after noon at three o’clock by Rev. H.E. Draper, pastor of the First
Methodist church.
Burial followed in Fairmont Cemetery.
Mrs. Bailey was born and raised in Mississippi and came to
West Texas from that state more than fifteen years ago.
The family resided on a farm on Lipan Flat for four
or five years prior to moving to San Angelo.
The husband, two sons and two daughters survive.
Mrs. Luther Gurley and Mrs.
Merritt Perkins are the daughters.
George Bailey, one of the owners of the Ragsdale
Auto Supply Company, and Everritt Bailey, a younger brother, are the two sons.
Mrs. Will Stephenson and Mrs. W. B. Roberts, who
recently moved here, are sisters, While Dan and Walter DeShazo are cousins.
The deceased was forty-eight years old.
Mary Dacus Lamb, the oldest child of Larkin and Lece,
is reported in the 1900 census as living in Eupora,
one of the larger towns in Webster County.
Mary Dacus is the last of the Larkin and Lece
children still living in Mississippi.
All of her brothers, except Erastus, who has died,
and her one sister have moved to other places.
Mary Dacus lives in the home of her son-in-law, James Thomas Avent, and daughter
Elnora, who reports her name as Nora to the census taker.
Her husband James, gives the name Jim Tom Avent.
Mary’s husband, Thomas Jefferson Lamb, died June 4 in the year preceding this
census.
It is wonderful to know that Mary has loved ones to live
with and help take care of her.
Some of the descendents of Mary Dacus and Thomas Lamb still live in Mississippi.
At the time of the 1900 census, Mary is 66 years
old.
Mary’s son- in-law is shown to be a farmer, however, all
the family’s neighbors have occupations that townspeople would have including
telegraph operator, merchant, clergyman, dentist, physician and cook.
Mary died in 1915 at the age of 81.
This census of 1900 also shows that Larkin Columbus has moved from Mississippi
and is living in Carroll County, Tennessee. Larkin has been called to the
ministry and his profession is Minister of the Gospel in the Methodist church.
He and his wife Lula have four children.
John Walker, has also moved with his family to Tennessee.
He and his brother Larkin are full time ministers
and continue that occupation in Tennessee where they live for the remainder of
their lives.
The following is from DeAnne Sharp, a DeShazo relative:
Larkin
Columbus DeShazo. and his second wife, Lula Mae Burton, are buried at the
Elizabeth Methodist Church Cemetery in Friendship, Crockett County, Tennessee.
John Walker DeShazo and his Second wife, Fannie E. Cole, are also buried there.
On the Crockett County genweb site, John W. is mistakenly listed as John N.
John Walker's daughter, Lecy DeShazo Vaughn, is also
buried there. Lula Mae Burton's Mother,
Martha J. Burton is also buried there with the wrong
name of Mary J. Burton on her tombstone. Larkin C. died in 1928 not 1929.
In the 1800s, as the west was opening up, railroads
replaced the covered wagon for settlers making the move west.
To encourage business and development, railroads
advertised heavily to get people to move into these new states and territories.
New settlers brought them both passenger traffic and
freight business hauling agricultural goods produced in the new lands and
bringing in needed supplies for these communities.
Railroad advertisements were full of promises of
fertile lands and bountiful rainfall and whatever puffery was necessary to
persuade people to pull up their roots and make the move.
When the DeShazos moved west, this advertising likely gave
them lots of encouragement.
From stories left behind by Bettie, we know she and
Samuel came by rail and it is almost certain that Marcus and Martha did
likewise.
With two adults and six daughters to move, I doubt there
would have been any other possible way to do it!
The Texas and Pacific Railway line that runs through
Petty and Honey Grove is still in use today and would have been the most
practical and economical means to make the move from Mississippi.
The first surviving son that Marcus and Martha had was born
in Texas.
That son was Homer Crowder DeShazo, born January 1, 1891.
His obituary says he was born in Paris, Texas but
perhaps that refers to a hospital location rather than where the family lived.
Paris is the nearest large town east of Honey Grove.
I often wondered where Homer’s middle name came from.
In correspondence with Dorothy Lee Clements,
daughter of Homer, she tells me that the name Crowder came from the mother’s
side.
But, my research of the Cooper family did not turn up
anyone with the name Crowder.
Maybe it was just a friend.
At some point, both Marcus and Samuel decided Fannin County
was not the place they wanted to be and decided to move to farms near Aquilla,
Texas.
No reason is known for this move nor is the date available,
but it must have been after January 1, 1891 since Homer was born in Paris on
that date.
The town of Aquilla, near where both families settled, is
quite small today and offers little for the residents. It appears to be on it’s
way to a ghost town.
But, at one time it was a vibrant place. Aquilla is
located south and a little west of Hillsboro, in Hill County.
Hillsboro is south of Fort Worth, about an hour and-
a-half drive. The town’s historical marker reads as follows:
Aquilla Historical Marker
Named for Aquilla from the Spanish word for "Eagle" creek.
(Aquilla is a corrupted spelling of the Spanish word for Eagle. wh).
The town site was surveyed in 1879 when the Texas
Central Railroad was built through Hill County. As businessmen and citizens
moved here, Aquilla grew to be a main shipping point. At one time it had 13
retail stores, 3 hotels, a health spa, 4 churches, a school and other
businesses. One of the earliest chartered state banks in Texas opened here in
1905. At the towns peak (1910-1920) ranchers, farmers and drummers (traveling
salesmen) filled the streets. Presently a sound farming economy prevails.
The Marcus DeShazo family grew steadily and it was a large
family. He married Martha Cooper in 1870 when he was 23 and she was 15 and they
had their first child that same year.
In all, they had 12 children:
Daughter
Mary Lou
1870
Son
Walton
died at birth
Daughter
Lona
1874
Daughter
Willie
1877
Daughter
Connie
1879
Daughter
Tressie Lee
1881
Daughter
Florence (Flora)
1883
Daughter
Georgia (Georgie)
1886
Son
Homer Crowder
1891
Son
Marvin
1893
Son
Harry
1896
Son
Elvin
1899
The four sons, Homer, Marvin, Harry and Elvin, were born in Texas. All of the
older children were born in Mississippi.