Wednesday, January 4, 2017

Gone To Texas: The Journey from Itawamba, MS to Kaufman County, Texas


“Gone To Texas” or GTT as it was commonly abbreviated, was the expression when someone up and left for Texas during the 1800s. In a post Civil War time, life was hard. The economy was all but gone and the reconstruction presented many new regulations and changes that drastically effected the southern states. Many husbands, fathers, brothers and sons had been lost in battle leaving wives and children to fend for themselves. For many citizens with little in their pockets and on the cusp of losing their farms, stories of a new start in Texas were appealing. For very little one could purchase thousands of acres of land for farming and ranching. The newly annexed Texas seemed to march to the beat of it’s own drum.

It was just one year after the end of the Civil War that my third great grandfather James Richard Stovall decided that Texas sounded like a great place for a new beginning. A handful of Stovall’s had previously moved to Texas or stayed after volunteering to fight in the Texas revolution. The Civil War had seen many lives lost and the Reconstruction put in place many regulations that made the life for southerners strained. In 1866, with a large group of his family, extended family and neighbors James led a convoy of 16 ox driven wagons on the hard journey from Mississippi to Kaufman County, Texas. Among their group were three main families; the Stovalls, the Mackeys and the Lindseys.

In Mississippi, these families all lived relatively close to each other and were acquainted through marriages and friendships. In Stovall Texas genealogy we see these surnames reoccur very frequently. During this time it wasn’t uncommon for distant cousins to marry. This family tree could be said the be very close knit. So when one family decided to make the journey, it only made sense for them all to go. They stuck together. Their group of many families included elderly, women with child, small children and infants, including my own second great grandfather George Thomas Stovall who was only a few months old at the time. Some families even had more than eleven children packed into one wagon.

I have not come across any first hand accounts of their journey or what the experience was like, but based on other similar documented experiences they most likely traveled through rough terrain and intense heat. They foraged and hunted along the way for food. They finally arrived in Kaufman County, Texas around the fall of 1866. According to the historical marker at the Rose Hill Cemetery in Terrell, TX the group arrived at the hillside which was covered in wild roses. They decided to name their community Rose Hill. This historical marker sits on land once owned by my third great-grandfather James Richard Stovall. The Stovall, Mackey and Lindsey families played a key role in founding the Kaufman County area including Terrell, Elmo, Heath and the city of Kaufman. According to census records, James Richard Stovall was a farmer all of his life. However, newspapers and his headstone mention he was a doctor and at some point even owned a grocery store (in what is now Elmo, TX) that was lost in a fire. Over the next few years, the majority of the Stovalls who has stayed behind in Mississippi came and made Texas their home, including James Richard Stovall’s father Thomas Pickney Stovall. Most of these families that arrived dedicated their energy to farming to survive, and with the generous amounts of fertile land granted at the time it was probably a fresh new start for them after the Civil War. Considering the majority of them stayed within a 30 mile radius of Kaufman county, I’d say life was good for them.

 Recently I came across a first hand account of this journey on the Zilphy's Children website  by Molly Beavers-Rice who married J.J. Rice just one hour before embarking on the journey to Texas. I'm fairly sure this was the same time that the Stovall group also went to Texas. If not, it's not unreasonable to assume the Stovall group would have taken a similar route. In her description she states that the trio was made by boat, train and wagon as follows:

"Started from Guntown to Qarrent about thirty miles to Memphis, Tenn. Got on Miss riverboat went down Miss r. to mouth of Red River Took another boat from red river to shrreveport, Lousiana and from there to Marshall, TX about 40 miles on railroad from Marshall to Kaufman went in two horse wagon Landed in Kaufman Jan 12, 1868."

Thank you for visiting. If you have information to add to this story feel free to comment below or send me a direct email: stovalljournaleditor(at)gmail(dot)com!

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