Chasing our Tales to The Fortune Bend of the Brazos River in Palo Pinto County
PART I
We went out for one of our Sunday drives and decided to see how far down Fortune Bend Road we could go. Fortune Bend can be accessed off of Highway 4 north of Palo Pinto, and before becoming completely private land, you can drive for a little over ten miles seeing some of this most beautiful land which has become known as the North Texas Hill Country.
About eight miles in to our drive we came upon the Fortune Bend Cemetery. It is a lovely, peaceful little plot nestled into the side of a hill, the ground purple with juniper berries. I have no idea how many graves were in this tiny cemetery, as many were only marked with a limestone head and foot marker with no names inscribed which could be read.
The oldest readable marker was that of J. T. "Jim" Snoddy. This marker had been crudely carved of a handmade orange cement, and it had recently been replaced with a new marble marker. The marker states that Jim Snoddy was born in January 1868 and died in November 1902. There was a second Snoddy grave which stated that A. R. Snoddy, born 28 February 1895 and died 19 May 1933 was the son of J. T. and Mollie Snoddy.
Other familes buried in the Fortune Bend Cemetery included Moore, McCoy, Lewis, Thomas, and Richardson.
Fortune Bend was named for John Fortune who came to the area as a pioneer in 1846 with many slaves. Mr. Fortune never moved his family from his Waco, Texas, home, and stayed, himself, only a few years before returning to Waco.
The next family to move into the Bend, which is bordered on three sides by the Brazos River, was the Williams family who arrived about 1872. Henry and Gipp Williams brought their families to Fortune Bend from Illinois. At that time, Mineral Wells had not been settled, as the Lynch family did not arrive until 1888, so the nearest town was Weatherford. The Williams family reported seeing many wild animails including bears.
After the arrival of the Williams' other families began to move to the Bend. They included Crabtree, Giddings, Weldon, a second Williams family, and Snoddy, and about this time a school was built in the area, and the families began farming cotton and corn and raising cattle.
By the turn of the century Bend family names included West, McCoy, Richardson, Gann, Simms, Pendergraft, Garland, Days or Daes,Height or Hight, Basham, McHare, Coker, Camel, Walker, Sellers, Upton, Adkins, and Blue.
In 1920 the school burned, and another school was built by 1922. Teachers of the Fortune Bend school included Dora Peach, Lena Ruth Watson, Clarence Giddings, Delia Watson, Bob McNeme, Myrtle McConnel, Lela Bell Harris, Nola Marshall Garland, Grace Webster, Homer Tate, George Slimp, Coon Garland, and Afton Walker.
There is a second Fortune Bend Cemetery very close to the first one. It is located about two hundred yards passed the first where you take a right turn and followed the road up the hill. Continue up this road until you reached an old house and barn. This is theWilliam's old family home. Behind the house, upon the hill, is found a small family cemetery containing the markers for the Weldon family.
Thomas Fielder Weldon and Elizabeth Craig Weldon were farmers and ranchers. They established a small ranch in Fortune Bend. They registered the XAV brand on 8 February 1881. Their homestead was started on a hill with a living spring at its base. A doorway was dug into the hillside and framed with cedar logs. On the threshold, at the mouth of the spring, is built with river rocks and the initials TFW-MEC are carved in the rock facing the entrance. When Elizabeth died in 1883 at the age of 42, she was buried on a hill some distance from the house. After Elizabethís death, Thomas went back to Arkansas for awhile, returning to the home place in Texas, where he died on arrival 1885.
This area was often plagued by Comanche Indians, who stole their livestock and killed or wounded the settlers. One interesting occurance can be read at http://www.forttours.com/pages/stcraw.htm and is entitled "Crawford Fight on Chick Bend Mountain". This Indian raid occured in 1874 and many of the early pioneers are listed in the article.
Another Fortune Bend family is the John Worth and Bonnie Marie Storm Gann family. John Worth Gann, the fourth child of Bayless and Laura Etta Hunt, was born 16 November 1894 in the Veal Creek community. He married Bonnie Marie Storm 23 September 23 1920 at Pickwick, Texas. She was born 27 April 1899 in the Pickwick area. Their children were twins, Veva (McCoy) and Vearon, born 18 July 1921 in Caddo, Texas, Vearon died 30 June 1985 and is buried in the Indian Creek Cemetery west of Mineral Wells, Texas; Vera Nell (Phillips), born 14 October 1923 in Pickwick; and Cecil, born 9 June 1938 in the Fortune Bend community.
John Worth Gann served in the Army in WWI. Vearon served in the Navy in WWII. The son-in-law, Euther Phillips, (ret. U.S. Army) served in WWII, the Korean conflict, and in Vietnam War.
John and Bonnie lived in Pickwick, Caddo, Fortune Bend, and Mineral Wells. John was a farmer and rancher and did custom hay baling. He moved to Mineral Wells in 1940 and set up an auto salvage business.
John died 24 July 1972 and is buried in the Indian Creek cemeteryand. Bonnie died April 1997 and is also buried in the Indian Creek Cemetery.
You can discover much about the Gann family on the internet at http://www.galen.gann.com/ .
Here is information on other Fortune Bend residents.
Henry Montgomery Goodin was born in Colgate, Oklahoma, in 1922, and attended school in Fortune Bend. He moved to Abilene from DeKalb in 1991. He had worked for Hall Construction Company for 12 years and for Mineral Wells Sand and Gravel for three years before he retired. He married Edith Franklin in Palo Pinto in 1968. She preceded him in death in 1990.
Jack McCoy was born 28 December 1929 at Fortune Bend and died 22 July 1977, Park Lake, Palo Pinto,Texas. He was married to Letha Lavell Storm, daughter of Leroy "Buddy" Storm and Thyrza L. Mitchell. Leory was the son of Allen and Jessie Nicholas Storm, and Allen is the son of George Storm and Emily Moore. Jack and Letha Storm's children were Sharon, Caron, Sue, Jackie, and Shawna. Information on this family can be found at http://midatlantic.rootsweb.com/database/d0044/g0000092.htm on the internet.
There is certainly a wealth of genealogical information about the Fortune Bend area, and I hope, as time goes by, to tell you more tales of the area.
PART II
Greetings Dear Readers. I have often wanted to begin a column like that! And this is one time when you Dear Readers have contributed much to the writing of this column by sharing your stories.
I, first, want to make a correction. In naming the family of John and Bonnie Gann, I misnamed one of their children. Instead of Vera Nell, her name should have read Vernell Gann Phillips. This was a serendipitous mistake, however, for Mrs. Phillips called and told me several wonderful stories about her family.
Mrs. Phillips says that once, when her twin brother and sister, Veva and Vearon, were very small, living there in Caddo, their mother heard a big cat screaming. Mr. Gann was out bailing hay, so Mrs. Gann put the twins in a closet to keep them safe from the lion. The cat howled so fiercely and long, the mule jumped the fence and ran off. When Mr. Gann came home, he asked his wife about the problem, and she explained that the panther had been yelling up the hill all day.
Vernell went on to tell me that when her family wanted supplies from town, they hitched up the wagon and rode as far as Indian Creek School the first day. On the second day they would drive on into Mineral Wells, do their shopping, and go back west as far as Indian Creek School where they would, once again, spend the night before proceeding back to Caddo.
Thanks, Vernell, for the wonderful stories!
I have discovered a wonderful web site for the Gann family. The url/internet address is http://www.galen.gann.com
The next story comes from Laura Hight Singleton of De Leon. Mrs. Hight writes that she appreciated the column about Fortune Bend and Pickwick. Her dad, Amos Hight, was born three on 4 May 1919 to Earnest and Maggie (Terry) Hight. They had eight girls and three boys while living in that area. Laura's dad was born at home as were most of "Granny" Hight's children. It was several months after the birth before the family made the trip to Palo Pinto to register Amos' birth, which Dr. Smith signed.
Laura goes on to say that her dad grew up and married Mary Elizabeth Rainwater. He served in World War II as Amos Hight, but when he applied for his social security at age 65, he got out his birth certificate which had recorded him as "No Name Hight".
Amos and his future wife Elizabeth grew up together, and they had many stores to tell on each other. They were close to the Gann family and were saddened when Vearon died in 1985. Then in 1986 Amos Hight died. They are greatly missed.
Laura remembers the McCoy fondly, saying they were special people who were extremely musically talented. Laura states that she still owns her family's home place at Brad, behind what was Snoddy's Cafe.
Laura included a partial Hight family tree. The married names are in parentheses:
Earnest Hight born 1 Jun 1888
Maggie Gertrude (Terry) Hight born 2 Sep 1892
Children of Earnest and Maggie:
Inez (Moore) born 9 Aug 1914
Sadie R. (McCoy) born 17 Nov 1917
Amos D. born 4 May 1919
Eva Lee born 9 Jan 1921
William A. (Billy) born 24 Jul 1924
Dorthy Ruth (Couch) born 21 Apr 1927
Cleo Dean (Mc Coy) born 11 Sep 1930
Marvin born 17 Mar 1933
Iris Virginia (Skiles) born 10 Jan 1936
Wanda Sue (Lewis) born 5 Feb 1939
Earnestine (Strawbridge) born 24 Feb 1941
Thank you, Laura!
I also discovered the following information regarding one of the McCoy family of Palo Pinto County. William Anderson Garrard was born on 8 Dec 1844 in Milford, Bracken County, Kentucky. He was living in 1880 in Palo Pinto County. He owned Garrard Homestead on 29 Aug 1887 in Stephens County, Texas. On 26 Aug 1887, G.W.Boring applied for a survey of the following land: one hundred and sixty (160) acres situated in Stephens County Texas, and three days later the land is transferred to W.A. Garrard. Garrard later transferred the land to Ellen Garrard on 2 Dec 1889 because of marital problems. W.A. Garrard died on 5 May 1894 in Washita, Oklahoma. He was killed by a mule, as he was a muleskinner by trade. W. A. Garrard's parents were John Mountjoy Garrard and Mildred (Amelia?) Kinney. He was married to Ellen Kirkney McCoy in 1883 in Palo Pinto County. The family story is that either
Ellen accused her husband William A. of fooling around with a neighbor woman, or he accused her of relations with a neighbor man. In either case, the story is she asked him to leave. They never divorced. Their children were John Mountjoy, Robert McCoy, Annie Maria, Timothy Paul
I have received some wonderful emails from Noel Garland of Mesquite, Texas. He states there is a Garland Bend, one bend northwest of Fortune Bend. Upon reading the Fortune Bend column, Mr. Garland contacted his friend Pete Weldon in San Angelo. Mr. Weldon tells us that Thomas Fielder Weldon was his grandfather. he goes on to say that his grandparents are buried in Pickwick Cemetery, not too far from Graford. He says he can can find it easily enough, but it is not really near any other land mark except the Possum Kingdom Lake.
Mr. Garland has further shared so many of his family memories, that I am planning a separate column on the Garland families of Parker and Palo Pinto County, and I am also hoping to get information from Mr. Weldon on his family.
One other tidbit of information about the Weldon family is that their family reunion is scheduled for the second weekend in July at the Gateway Inn in Graham.
You regular readers may remember the column dealing with the Savage family of Parker and Palo Pinto Counties. My teacher friend, Bonnie Bailey, who assisted me with the article, tells me that her husband's family, the Bailey family, were settlers in the Fortune Bend area.
Finally, I had a letter from Jack Schmitz Jr. of Denton, Texas. His ranch is on U. S. 180 and state highway16. As the ranch is on both sides of the highway, it is located on both the Big Ioni and Little Ioni Creeks.
Mr. Schmidt has asked for information on the Ioni Indians. I have not discovered much, thus far, but I hope to write separate pieces on the Indians of the area. Thus far I have discovered that the Tehuacana Creek Treaty between the Republic of Texas and the Comanche, Keechi, Waco, Caddo, Anadarko, Ioni, Delaware, Shawnee, Cherokee, Lipan and Tawakoni tribes was signed in 1844. In one source I found that the Ioni may have been part of the Waco tribe.
And to give an example of how one thing leads to another, I discovered that one Jesse Chisholm also signed the treaty of 1844. Chisholm was a half-breed Indian who later opened a cattle trail to Kansas. Although it appears that he is not related to John Chisum who founded the famous Chisholm Cattle Trail, the trail is named with the holm spelling rathe than the sum spelling. For loads of information, especially if you have a young person doing a report of the trail, go to internet address http://www.texhoma.net/~glencbr/ . But, as they say, that is another story!
Well, I guess that's all for the time being. It is exciting to hear from so many different people, and I hope you will keep the letters and emails coming! Sue Seibert, P. O. Box 61, Mineral Wells TX 76068-0061.