ROWLETT
(northwest of Allen, around SH 121 and Custer
Road today)
ON THE WING
Weekly Democrat Gazette, August 22, 1912
M. Hand claims that
he first saw the light in Collin county but a little investigation might
disclose the fact that he was born west of the Mississippi river and due south
of Missouri. Fifteen years ago Hunk was married to Miss Georgia Herndon and only
six little hands bob up for the first honors at the table. His black land farm
of eight-tow acres grows enough to keep all hands from the poor farm and enough
cash left to pay for the best and biggest of Collin's weekly papers, the
Democrat-Gazette.
W. B. Combee is
another booster for the Democrat-Gazette of whom we are proud. His cotton is
extra good while corn will come up to the average for this year. Glad to have
such friends as Mr. Combee.
W. H. Knight has a
crop of one hundred and fifty acres, eighty of which are in cotton. The theory
of diversification is amplified, cotton corn, oats, milo maize, Kaffir corn,
sorghum, millet and peas. In a field of nearly thirty acres of white wonder corn
we found it well and evenly matured and he expects a large yield of this
favorite variety of corn and it will all be offered to the farmers of Collin
county for seed next year and at a reasonable price. He is such a strong
diversificationist that he even carries his diversification theories still
further. In his pasture here are horses, mules and Shropshire sheep and from the
latter a good revenue is derived for their fleece- averages about five pounds
per head and their feed is practically nothing for they subsist on weeds and
twigs and besides keeping the farm clean, enrich the soil, for it is a known
fact that they are the greatest distributers of fertilizers on the farm. Hogs
and that's where Bud shines. His present herd of forty, is registered stock;
nothing under a full blood allowed to enter his premises. There are a limited
number of open and bred guilts and young males to place on the market in a few
weeks and a big ad. in the Democrat-Gazette will soon make its appearance. Three
of his choice brood sows were sired by Texas Meddler, Worlds Fair winner, and
now owned by W. M. Kerr, proprietor of Elmwood stock farm, six miles northwest
from McKinney and head by his Poland-Chinas. Mr. Knight offers his hogs with the
understanding that if they do not come up to requirements of thoroughbred
Poland-Chinas for breeding purposes the purchaser has the choice of having his
money refunded or the selection of another hog. Mr. Knight is now preparing to
enter the Fort Worth Fat Stock show next March. He reads the Democrat-Gazette
and caught the idea and how to progress by reading its columns.
Chas. Carter lives
on his mother's farm and who, by the way, persuaded Miss Nola Adams to change
her name and take him for worse which she did nine years ago, and she had five
children to care for. His crops of grain and cotton are both good. With a
pocketbook bulging with cash from the proceeds of his wheat, we couldn't help
getting busy and force him to come across for enough to pay the freight on one
year's subscription to the oldest, biggest, brightest and best county paper, the
Democrat-Gazette.
D. R. Malone was a
mighty busy man hidden behind tall weeds and high corn but we poured into his
ears a mighty tale of woe and gave him to understand that we were not looking
for health, that our scalping knife was "rareing to go" and thirsting for blood.
The Daily Courier-Gazette is the balm we are sending home for his wounded head
while another scalp hangs in the wigwam of our chief.
Walter Hand was not
at home but his fourteen year-old daughter, Miss Bessie, said the
Democrat-Gazette was their favorite family paper.
Mrs. J. B. Hickey,
daughter of J. A. Crutcher has served us long and faithfully as correspondent at
Foote, and in point of service is perhaps the oldest one. In December, 1893 she
and Mr. Hickey were united in marriage and three charming and lovely daughters
are justly the pride of their parents. Their ages, 17, 14, and 11 must not be
mentioned for a girl would rather lose a beau than tell her age. Mr. Hickey is
the merchant at Foote, and his stock always fresh and full. We are glad to
number Mr. and Mrs. Hickey as our friends and the keep posted on the happenings
of McKinney and Collin county by reading the Daily Courier-Gazette.
contd
ON
THE WING
Daily Courier Gazette, September 13,
1913
C. E. Standefer born
in Virginia so long ago that he refuses to tell in the belief that it would
"cloud" his chances for a second marriage in the event of Mrs. Standerfer's
death. Some years ago Emmette was the proprietor of the Cross Roads store at
Foncine but measuring tape for the young ladies of his community and wrapping
bottles of castoria and paregoric for crying youngsters was not to his liking
and he longed for the freedom of the farm where he could see the gobbler strut
and hear the roosters crow. The cry of "back to the farm" was a slogan that fell
on willing ears and his big crop of one hundred and fifty acres consisting of
cotton, 70; corn, 30; and 50 acres of small grain bear mute testimony to his
good judgment. He was helpless when we told him the object of our call-he
remembered mighty well ten years ago when this scribe with the muzzle of a gun
pointing directly in his face and crying for blood made him cough up a big
dollar for immediate circulation, and on this occasion it was dead easy to
intimidate him to the extent of giving us a dollar to lay aside for the Dallas
fair. We'll send him fifty-two copies of a big and popular newspaper, the
Democrat-Gazette, to keep him posted on matterpolitical and otherwise.
contd
ROWLETT ITEMS.
Sept.20 - Mr. and
Mrs. J. Wesley Young and children, of Allen, spent Sunday with J. T. Young.
Mrs. B. M. Rasor was
in McKinney Monday.
Miss Almeta Bishop
entertained a number of her young friends at lunch Sunday.
Mr. Chester Waters
has gone to Ft. Worth to enter school at T. C. U.
Messrs. Fred Cothes
and Clint Kennedy have recently purchased motorcycles.
Mrs. J. H. Rasor and
Son, Dow, have returned from a month's visit to points in Iowa and Kansas.
Last Tuesday evening
the writer in company with Mr. and Mrs. J. T. Young visited three of the oldest
cemeteries in the county. Mr. Young is one of the oldest citizens of our
community and knew many of the old settlers whose graves we visited. First we
visited beautiful Rowlett Creek. This is one of the largest and most beautiful,
as well as best cared for cemeteries in the country. The yard has recently been
mowed and is in as good, if not better condition, than we ever saw it. A great
many of the first settlers of this community are buried here. The first grave
was made in 1862 when Mr. Alfred Harrington was buried. Mr. Harrington was the
father of Messrs. S. and J. H. Harrington of Plano. Two other graves were made
in 1862. Revs. Stanton and Morgan who were one time pastors of the Rowlett
church are buried here. From here we went about one and one-half miles North of
the church to the old Elkin farm, now owned by S. P. Bush. Away out in the field
in a little grove is the Elkin burying ground, and here hid away under the
shadow of the trees we fund a number of graves. The date on the markers showed
Mr. John Haggard, Sr., who died in 1859 to be the first buried here. Mr. Haggard
was the father of Mr. C. S. Haggard of Plano. In 1861 Mrs. Dorinda Bush, wife of
Oliver Bush and mother of Mrs. Jim Herndon and Henry Bush was buried. In 1862
Mrs. W. F. Elkin was buried. Then in 1872 Mr. W. F. Bikin was buried. They were
the father and mother of Mr. Frank Elkin who for a long time was a citizen of
this community. Next we went about one-half mile west of the church to the Young
cemetery. Nature has made it beautiful with trees and a variety of wild flowers.
This is the oldest of the three cemeteries, the first grave having been made in
1847 and is that of Mrs. Patience Young, first wife of Mr. S. Young. She was
born in 1814. In 1854 her son was buried. In 1858 the wife of Chadrick Jackson
was buried. On March 28, 1891 Mr. S. Young, father of J. T. Young, died and in
Feb.1906 his mother died and are both buried here. We also visited the oldest
house still standing in this settlement. It was the old Sam Young home and was
built in 1844. Mr. Young tells us that it was built on the same plan that all
the houses were then. It sits down in a little valley surrounded by magnificent
trees. Some as old and older than the house itself. Here we saw a number of old
relics, one of which was an old home-made bedstead. Mr. Young brought it to
Texas with him in 1844 and it had been in use in his home in Illinois. Mr. Jno.
Young lives just across the road from where his father lived and died, and
cultivates the same fields where, in youth, he played. And may he and all who
live around him end their life as our forefathers did in the quiet of the
country, out of the mad race for money, place and power. Surrounded by pleasant
fields, faithful friends and those we love we hope to pass away as serenely as
the autumn dies and then sleep near them under the shade of the trees or in the
shadow of the old church.
OVER
COLLIN CO. ON THE WING
Daily
Courier Gazette, July 28, 1952
by
Capt. Roy F. Hall
Godfrey Baccus was
born in 1812 and died in 1907. Ben Baccus cast the lone vote for Sloan's Grove
in the election for a county seat in 1847. Did it for "devilment" he said, as 11
votes had already been cast for the present site of McKinney, and the polling
place at old Buckner was preparing to close. Godfrey died at 95.
And Moses Moore.
Moore came down from Arkansas during the Civil War, bringing 110 slaves and 85
mules keep the Union forces from capturing them. Many of his neighbors in
Arkansas, as he was leaving, also placed their slaves in his keeping. After the
war the people of Collin County prevailed upon him to take the slaves back to
Arkansas before liberating them.
H. O. Hedgcoxe lies
here. Hedgcoxe was the agent for the old Peters' Colony, which embraced all of
Collin and some of the surrounding counties. His land office for the colony was
just south of Rowlett. He was born in 1823, and died in 1872. George Herndon and
his wife, Cynthia are both interred in the cemetery. Herndon was born in
Kentucky, but came to Collin -the second time-in 1847. Coming through Arkansas
in 1843, he married Cynthia, the daughter of John (Jack) McGarrah, who owned the
trading post of old Buckner, three miles west of present McKinney. Herndon
brought the McGarrah family to Texas with him in 1847. Jack was already here.
Herndon was in the Texas Rangers, and headrighted land northwest of McKinney,
which later became the Willis Dowell place. George Herndon was born in Kentucky
in 1818 and died in 1902. His wife, Cynthia, was born in 1827 and died in 1913.
The old settlement
of Rowlett sat, for a hundred years, eight miles southwest of McKinney on the
headwaters of Rowlett Creek, completely off the traveled roads leading north and
south and east and west across the county. A little over a year ago, though, the
new highway, 121, McKinney to Fort Worth, was finished, and Rowlett suddenly
found itself right on one of the finest roads in northern Texas. Where the
highway crosses Rowlett Creek it passes almost under the eaves of Rowlett Creek
Baptist Church. It's the only church out that way on the road; standing out in
unobstructed view as one drops into Rowlett Creek valley.
The Rowlett Creek
Baptist Church was organized February 12, 1848, at the home of Jonathan Phillips
over on Wilson Creek, and was called "The Wilson Creek Church of United
Baptists." It started off with eleven members; Jesse H. Gough, Sarah Gough,
Shadrick Jackson, Prudence Jackson, W. M. Butler, Jacob and James Butler, D. M.
Myers, Jonathan Phillips, Joab Phillips, Rebecca Phillips and Sarah Harris. D.
M. Myers acted as its pastor, J. H. Gough was deacon and Joab Butler clerk.
In 1852 the name of
the new church was changed to "Rowlett Creek Church," as most of its members
lived in that vicinity. Meetings were held more or less regularly in the home of
members, as there was no church building, but in 1860 George White donated six
acres of land on the south bank of Rowlett Creek, and plans were launched to
build a place of worship on it. The Civil War, however, interfered, and no
building was constructed till 1865, and early 1866, when lumber was hauled from
east Texas and the church constructed. By this time the church had a membership
of about 50, several of whom had been Negro slaves.
Like all church
organizations, Rowlett has day its ups and downs, but has never ceased to exist.
It is one of the oldest churches in the county, and one of the strongest. From
it sprang most of the other Baptist churches of this part of Texas. The church
building, remodeled in 1950, sits in the northwest corner of the old Rowlett
cemetery, which was established in 1860. Sleeping in this old graveyard are some
of the illustrious men and women of early Collin County. The ten to fifteen
acres of the cemetery are kept spotlessly clean and, with the pretty church
building of concrete and brick, presents a fine picture on the hill south of
Rowlett Creek.
Many early settlers
of the community and of Collin County, are interred here. Among them are George
R. Yantis, who was born in 1820 and died in 1907. George Yantis came to Collin
in 1852 with his family and a dozen or so other settlers and their families. He
bought 125 acres of land on the old Dallas road and made his home there. He and
his wife who died in 1862, have seven children. Went through the Civil War as
quartermaster in J. B. Wilmeth's regiment. He lost seven slaves at the end of
the war. Walter he was appointed deputy tax collector and, 1865 and 1868, was
elected tax collector of the county. Re-elected in 1878. He was a Master Mason.
And there too, is
Jacob and Godfrey and Benjamin Baccus, who came to Collin in 1845, and settled
west of Rowlett. Ben had eleven children. he was a surveyor, and helped make the
first survey of Collin and near by counties. He died in 1905. Jacob Baccus was
the elder. He was born in 1792 and died in 1860-one of the first buried in the
cemetery.
Dr. Bereman S.
Shelburne lies in the Rowlett cemetery. Dr. Shelburne was born in Kentucky in
1817, and came to Lebanon in 1857, where he practiced. In the Civil War he was
brigade surgeon under Gen. Albert Pike. In 1869 he was in the Texas Legislature
from Collin County, and served till 1872. His first wife, Elizabeth Page of
Ohio, died in 1862, and the next year he married Mrs. Susan Yager. He had five
children, and retired from practice in 1885. Dr. Shelburne died in 1895.
Other old pioneers
noted: Daniel L. (Dave) Melton who was born in 1813 in Illinois, and came to
Collin in 1849, and married Catharine Findleye. Melton was the forefather of
almost all the Meltons in the county. He died in 1886. Silas Harrington, who
came to Spring Creek near Plano with his brother, Alfred, from Kentucky in 1848.
Ancestor of the Plano Harringtons. Hogan Witt, the old pioneer, and his wife,
Louisa, who came to this county in 1844 with Hogue Coffman, who settled near
present Anna. 1848 he married Louisa, the daughter of Tam Rattan, another
pioneer. Mrs. Witt died in 1880, when Major Penn was holding a big revival at
Rowlett. Hogan Witt was in the Mexican War of 1848, and in the Civil War in
Throckmorton's company. Mr. Witt died on the land he had headrighted in 1846, in
1906.
There are many other
old pioneers resting in Rowlett Creek cemetery, on whom this writer has a lot of
history. Space forbids reciting it here, but a few of their names follow: James
A. Huey, born 1812, and died 1892; A. E. Quesenberry, born 1813 and died 1907;
William Beason, who was born in 1823 and died in 1877; Levi Gillespie, born 1814
and died 1871; Felix G. Goodwin, born 1818, died 1872; Thomas M. Boone, born
1837 and died 1905; Hiram Granberry, born 1810, died 1867; Enoch Yantis, born
1794 and died 1879. Near him is his wife, Eleanor, who was born in 1799 and died
in 1871; John Huffman, born 1794 and died in 1880; John McKinney, who was born
in 1832 and died in 1909. And Colonel G. L. Douthitt, born 1816 and died in
1882.
Near the church
stands a marble column honoring the memory of George White, the location's
founder. George White was born in Massachusetts in 1820, and came to Collin in
1847. Served in the Mexican War of 1848, and in the Civil War. Farmed and
surveyed; he being the surveyor who located present McKinney, and, in 1854,
helped to lay out the school land of the county. He married Margaret, the
daughter of Samuel G. and Sarah (Hay) Ferguson of Collin County in 1882. He also
served as tax assessor and collector at times. White deeded to McKinney the
ground where the high school is now, and he also plotted the Pecan Grove
cemetery. He died in 1886. The marker was put up by the church association in
1917.
Rowlett Creek Baptist Church
Rowlett Creek Cemetery
Communities Index
- Recommended
citation:
-
"Rowlett -
Collin County Communities," Collin County, Texas History and Genealogy
Webpage by Genealogy Friends of Plano Libraries, Inc., <http://www.geocities/genfriendsghl>
[Accessed Fri February 13 13:37:28 US/Central 2004 ].
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