DEACON JESSE H. GOUGH was
born in Butler county, Ohio, Feb. 24th, 1808. Ohio was then a frontier with
little or no literary advantages. About the age of twenty-one, he, with his
father's family, located in Green county, Illinois. Here, at the age of
twenty-two, he married Miss Sarah Tomkins, who was born in Hardin county,
Ky., in 1812. This union existed over 40 years. About 1832, they were
converted at a meeting conducted by Eider Moses Lemen, and were baptized by
him. He was ordained to the deaconship in early life and always sought to
fulfill the duties of that office with fidelity to Christ and true loyalty
to his obligations. He immigrated to Texas in 1845, and lived for two years
in Beckner's Prairie, Red River county. Here, they were without church
privileges, and seldom heard the gospel. In October, 1847, they located in
Collin county, on the head waters of Rowlett's Creek, one mile from the
present Rowlett's Creek Baptist meeting-house. Here, they lived for a number
of years and reared a family to maturity. In 1848, father and mother became
constituent members of the Wilson's Creek Baptist church, the name of which
was soon changed to Rowlett's Creek. In those days the monthly meetings of
the churches were held at private houses, and for years the Rowlett's Creek
church met at my father's house more than half the time. Those meetings were
looked forward to with an interest greater than we now attach to an
approaching State anniversary; and the people turned out en masse, and the
average congregation was as large and often larger than now. During those
years the Rowlett's Creek, the newer Wilson's Creek, Union, Lonesome Dove,
Bethel, Friendship, Liberty, and other adjacent churches, held what was
known as union meetings; that is, they united in holding in conjunction
revival meetings. At these revival seasons, persons came from great
distances, and it was not unfrequently the case that these meetings became
great feeders to distant churches and communities where there were no
churches. Those were my father's happiest days. Though comparatively poor
and struggling hard to rear respectable a rising family, he found time to
attend these meetings, to aid them in the service of song, to lead their
prayer-meetings, to carefully instruct inquirers and to assist in every way
that appealed to his sense of duty. He was a good singer. His clear
bell-like voice readily obtained leadership in that department of worship;
and where-ever he went this position was accorded him. He could readily
carry either of three parts of music to the grand old hymns of that day.
Thus his life was given to his God, his church and his family, till the
shadows of 1861 and the civil war gathered over the land. The tidings of
sickness and slaughter that came from camp and field, involving three of his
own sons in the carnage of death, sank deep into his thoughtful and
sensitive nature; and the wounded spirit bled in silence till the end of his
life. In 1871, his youngest daughter, the mother of a young family, died,
and in a few months his own companion, loved and honored by all, followed to
the old churchyard. After these sad events he lived in the past and future;
the present did not interest him. About his seventy-fifth year, his body, in
sympathy with his mind, under the wear and tear of time and trouble, began
rapidly to yield, and on Jan.12th, 1884, his true and noble spirit entered
upon the rest that remains for the people of God. We buried his remains in
the old Rowlett cemetery, near the graves of his wife and children; close by
the resting places of Portman, Stanton and others, with whom he had
worshiped in other years, to sleep on till the curse is canceled and
suffering and death are abolished. W.M.G.
Surname Index
Recommended Citation:
"Deacon Jesse H. Gough,
EARLY SETTLERS OF COLLIN COUNTY." Collin County, Texas History
and Genealogy Webpage by Genealogy Friends of Plano Libraries, Inc., <http://www.geocities/genfriendsghl>
[Accessed Fri February 13, 2004 ].
