175th Anniversary
Texas Legacy
of
John Wingate & Elizabeth Jennings Robinson Truitt
The 2015 Annual Truitt Cousins’ Reunion Celebrates the
175thAnniversary of Settling in Texas and Building of the
J.W. Truitt Log Cabin
Historical research, compilation and editing by John Gongwer and Bert
Hervey. Research and preparation of the Truitt Cabin's nomination
application for the National Register of Historic Places by Phillip Sozansky.
Primary genealogical research and historical family documentation
collection provided by Reva and Jim Truitt and Dale Truitt, and with the
assistance of numerous family contributors who have our heartfelt gratitude.
175th Anniversary 2015 J.W. & E.J.R. Truitt Texas Legacy 2 / 105
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction 175th Anniversary
Chapter 1 Early Truitts
Chapter 2 J.W. Truitt and the family's Texas roots
Chapter 3 J.W. & Elizabeth’s Children 1st Generation Texans
Family 1 William (Bill) Edward Truitt
Family 2 Elijah (Lijah) Thomas Truitt
Family 3 Sarah Ann Truitt
Family 4 Edward Robinson Truitt
Family 5 Matilda Ann (Matt) Truitt
Family 6 James Leonard (Jimmie) Truitt
Family 7 Nancy Elizabeth Truitt
Family 8 Wingate Henry Truitt
Chapter 4 Historical J.W. and Elizabeth Truitt Cabin
Annexes Notes and family stories
Family Timeline J.W. and Elizabeth Truitt Family
Retrospective from the Truitt Cousins Association (20082011)
Update from Truitt Cousins Association – 2008
Update from Truitt Cousins Association – 2009
Update from Truitt Cousins Association – 2010
Update from Truitt Cousins Association – 2011
Reva Truitt Reflections "How I became involved in the Family History Project"
Registration National Register of Historic Places
175th Anniversary 2015 J.W. & E.J.R. Truitt Texas Legacy 3 / 105
175th Anniversary 2015 J.W. & E.J.R. Truitt Texas Legacy 4 / 105
Introduction 175th Anniversary
John Wingate and Elizabeth Jennings Robinson Truitt came to the Texas in 1839 while
Texas was still a republic. They received a landgrant for land located in what is now the
Jenkins community in Morris County. For seventyfive years, descendants of John and Betsy
Truitt’s eight children have been celebrating Texas, Truitt, and family history and genealogy
with annual family reunions. Those who now attend these first Saturday in June reunions are
now fifth, sixth and seventh generation descendants of John and Betsy, which makes them
firstthroughfifth cousins.
In the late 1940’s the reunion met for three years at the new Daingerfield State Park
which our cousin and Daingerfield physician Crawford Sylvanus Truitt was instrumental in
securing. For the past two dozen years, the reunion has used the Daingerfield West
Elementary, the Morris County Courthouse Annex and now the Jenkins South Union Baptist
Church Fellowship Hall for the annual family gathering. Attendance at these spirited events
175th Anniversary 2015 J.W. & E.J.R. Truitt Texas Legacy 5 / 105
ranges between 80 to 120 or more from states as far away as California and Maryland. Many
of these events have enjoyed family singing groups, piano performances, Civil War
monument dedications by Confederate enactors from surrounding Sons of the Confederacy
Camps, and many genealogy stories from the past along with the sharing of a huge collection
of pictures.
These reunions have also benefitted greatly from the documented research (genealogies,
stories, and photographs) of various family members over the years. Twenty years ago,
cousins Jim and Reva Truitt expanded an earlier 45page publication from the early 1970s that
contained cousin Virgie Mae Barnwell Berry’s genealogy research on the descendants of the
eight J.W. Truitt children. Jim and Reva updated it into a book of over 600 pages containing
more than 2,500 relatives. Reva has continued to update this book of descendants for a dozen
years now.
Ten years ago, this reunion body elected to purchase back the deteriorating 1840 John
Wingate Truitt log cabin home and to restore it as both an important piece of Texas history
and as a valuable
symbol of the Truitt
family heritage. The
cabin was partially
preserved in later years
by being used as the
interior portion of a
barn with a larger
overhanging roof.
Today, the cabin is
175th Anniversary 2015 J.W. & E.J.R. Truitt Texas Legacy 6 / 105
nearing complete restoration, with only the need to reconstruct the two chimneys remaining.
The Truitt homestead has now been designated as a Texas historic landmark. Over the
past halfdozen years, Truitt family descendants and guests have toured both the historic log
home place and the nearby Clark
Cemetery where John and Betsy are
buried along with their sons Edward
Robinson and James Leonard and
many grandchildren and great
grandchildren.
For details about the cabin, please
reference the Annexes in the back to
see the Registration Form National
Register of Historic Places.
For updates and more on the John
Wingate Truitt family, reunions, and
log cabin home visit our website at
www.etruitt.com.
In the future we hope that cousins
will continue attending Truitt
Cousins Reunions the first Saturday
of June each year and making contributions for the upkeep of our Historical Truitt Log Home.
Dale Truitt, June 2015
175th Anniversary 2015 J.W. & E.J.R. Truitt Texas Legacy 7 / 105
Chapter 1 Early Truitts
Piecing together various family histories, it appears that the John Wingate and Elizabeth
Robinson Truitt family can trace its ancestry back to a Truitt family that lived in England in
the 1600s. Over the years there have been many variations of the spelling of the name Truitt.
"The spelling Trewhitt may be the true origin of the name, which means a place of 'dry
resinous wood', and a specific location associated with this name is that of High and Low
Trewhitt, a Township in the Parish of Rothbury, County of Northumberland, England. High
Trewhitt still can be found on a map of England. It is located northwest of
NewcastleuponTyne on the northeast coast of England. From family tradition it is believed
that originally the Truitts were inhabitants of France and some of them were soldiers in the
army of William the Conqueror when he came to England about 1066 AD."1
The first Truitt family member to emigrate from England and arrive in the American
colony of Virginia was George Truitt [I] (16171670), who, according to the research of some
Truitt cousins, was born around 1617 in Northumberland, England. His father, George
Tyrwhitt, was born in 1580 in Northumberland, England, the son of Robert Tyrwhitt (1550
1591) and Elisabeth Freshville (1539 1600).
Some family records indicate that George was married in 1642 and that a couple of years
later he emigrated to the American colony of Virginia around 1645. George is listed in
Virginia Immigrants, Volume 5, State Land Office 20, in 1652 (his surname then spelled
"Truhett"). Around this time Virginia's population was approximately 8,000 people, while
Maryland's population was roughly 1,000. Of these 9,000 people, it is estimated that more
than threequarters were imported servants.2 George was granted a patent for 200 acres of land
(tract N30) in an area known today as Old Plantation Neck, the Western Part, on the bayside
north of Fleet island. This tract was originally patented to a Captain Thomas Graves in 1628,
but in 1651 a patent for this land was granted to George Truitt, who is believed to have
married Graves’ daughter Francis Graves in or around 1642. Francis was born about 1625 in
England, the daughter of Katherine and Captain Thomas Graves. It is believed that Francis'
father died in Accomack County, Virginia, and that Henry Pennington (Pedenden,
1 “The Truitt Family History.” The Truitt Family History. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 May 2015. 8 / 105
<http://freepages.history.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~wegroves/truittfamilyhistory.htm>
2 ibid.
175th Anniversary 2015 J.W. & E.J.R. Truitt Texas Legacy
Peddington) became her legal guardian. As a result, her name is sometimes listed as Francis
Graves Pennington or just Francis Pennington.3
George Sr. and his wife later moved with his family to Accomack County. George and
Francis had two sons, Henry (1643) and George Jr. (abt 1647). The family joined the recently
formed Society of Friends (Quaker) movement in Virginia and remained in Virginia the rest
of their lives. The Quaker movement emerged from the period during and after the English
Civil War (1642–1651). According to a Truitt family historian, Dr. William E. Groves, Ph.D.
(Truitt Family History: 1066 to 19954), the family founder, George Truitt Sr., was one of
earliest converts of the Quaker
movement in the area. George Sr. and
Francis' children were born in
Accomack and were raised as
Quakers. While the boys were still
young, their mother Francis died in
Accomack sometime around 1650.
After Francis died, George Sr.
remarried about 1651/1652, this time
to Alice Watson (about 1621 about
1650), the daughter of John Watson
and Elizabeth. Alice had been born in
England in the 1620s and had
immigrated to Virginia. In addition to
his two sons from his marriage with
Francis, George had seven more
children with Alice. Alice died after
1663 in Accomack. George died 16
October 1670 in Muddy Creek
Plantation, Accomack.
According to Dr. Groves, George's
family were persecuted for their
religious beliefs. About the time of
George's death in 1670, to escape persecution they and other family members moved north
across the Maryland state line to an area of Somerset County near Snow Hill (the area later
3 Ibid. 9 / 105
4 ibid.
175th Anniversary 2015 J.W. & E.J.R. Truitt Texas Legacy
became Worcester County and still later Wicomico County), while other Quaker families
moved into southern Delaware.
George and Francis' son Henry Truitt was born about 1643 in Franktown, Northampton,
Virginia. About 1670, Henry married Elizabeth Newton, the daughter of Anne Sherwood &
Joseph Newton. She was born between 164849 in Accomack. Henry and Elizabeth had two
sons, Henry Jr. and George (b. about 1674). Henry Sr. died before December 19, 1676 in
Accomack and is buried at Muddy Creek, Accomack. Elizabeth died in 1719.
The family was active in the the Eastern Shore Quaker movement. In 1679 Henry Sr.'s
brother George Truitt (spelled Trewet) is listed as one of the trustees who purchased an acre of
land that became the historic site of the Guilford Quaker Meetinghouse. The Quakers had first
assembled in a small building in Northampton, but by 1683 built a small meetinghouse near
Guilford Creek.5
In 1698, at about the age of 24 (born about 1674), Henry and Elizabeth's son George
(often referred to George "Accomack") married Patience Barnes (born about 1673 to John
Barnes and Sarah Wilson in Accomack). The Barnes family were also members of the Society
of Friends (Quakers) who had also moved to Maryland from Virginia. George "Accomack"
and Patience had seven children: George (c. 1702 died May 1756), Henry (c. 1705 after 10
May 1763), Comfort (c. 1708 after 11 Mar 1755), Rachel (c. 1710 after 11 Mar 1755), Ann
(c. 1712 after 11 Mar 1755), William (born 1717), and John (born c. 1718). Patience died in
Worcester. George 'Accomack' died before 4 July 1755.
George "Accomack" and Patience Barnes Truitt's first child, George Truitt Jr., was born
near Snow Hill in Worcester County, in 1716. The family lived near Snow Hill and, as
Quakers, it is likely they regularly attended weekly or monthly meetings.
In 1737 or so George Jr. married Martha Dale (born about 1719), with whom he had
seven children. Their names and approximate birth dates are as follows: Leah (c.1742– after
11 Mar 1755), William (c. 1740 – 24 May 1790), George (c.1745), Martha (c.1746), John
(c.1740 about 1 Aug 1826), Patience (c.1750), Molly (c. 1752). George Jr. died in 1756 and
his wife Martha died around May 1770, both in Worcester.
Family resources suggest that George and Martha Dale Truitt's first son William was born
about 1740 in Worcester, and got married around 1759 to 16year old (?) Mary Wingate (born
about 1743), the daughter of John Wingate and Sarah. Some sources suggest William was
born in 1744, although this seems unlikely, since it would have had him marrying at 15 and
fathering a child at 16. If family records are correct, William and Mary Wingate Truitt had
5 ibid. 10 / 105
175th Anniversary 2015 J.W. & E.J.R. Truitt Texas Legacy
two children, the first was a son William Wingate (about 1760) and a daughter Rebecca (born
about 1760). William's wife Mary appears to have died in 1761 after a few years of marriage.
William apparently remarried a year after Mary's death, this time to 16year old Martha
Reynolds (born about 1745) on or about 11 June 1762. William and Martha had two other
children together: George and Lydia. William died about 24 May 1790 in Mispillion Hundred,
Kent, Delaware. Martha died a month later on 25 Jun 1790.
William and Mary's son William Wingate was born about 1760 in Worcester, Maryland.
William Wingate grew up in Worcester and there married Tabitha Whaley (born c. 1775),
daughter of Josiah Whaley. William Wingate and Tabitha had four children: John Wingate
(born 19 Dec 1801)6, Elijah Henry (16 Apr 1808 16 Oct 1849), Nancy (about 1810), and
Margaret (7 Dec 181327 Dec 1882).Tabitha Truitt passed away about 1843 in DeKalb
County, Tennessee. William Wingate passed away in 1850 at Liberty, Smith County,
Tennessee.
William Wingate and Tabitha Whaley Truitt's oldest child, John Wingate, was born 19
Dec 1801 in Worcester. He married 20year old Elizabeth Robinson (daughter of James
Robinson and Elizabeth Fite) 19 Dec 1825 in Tennessee. Elizabeth was born 23 Dec 1805 in
Tennessee and died 7 Oct 1880 in Jenkins, Morris, Texas. John Wingate died 31 Dec 1876 in
Jenkins.
6"John Wingate Truitt (1801 1876) 22 Jul. 2014 <http://www.findagrave.com/cgibin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=6143722> 11 / 105
175th Anniversary 2015 J.W. & E.J.R. Truitt Texas Legacy
Chapter 2 J.W. Truitt and the family's Texas
roots
John Wingate Truitt (18011876)
It was from John Wingate Truitt and his wife Elizabeth that
the Texas cousins tend to trace their Truitt lineage, since they
were the first of our Truitt family to come to Texas. Their
cabin in Jenkins has become a
historical landmark and is one
of the few true historical dogtrot
cabins still in existence. Dale
Truitt and Bert Hervey, together
with the help of other relatives
and friends, have repurchased
and are restoring the cabin and the property as a historical
heritage site. Within sight of the property is the Clark Cemetery,
where a number of the family ancestors are buried. The cabin
and the property represents both family heritage and an
important time period of Texas history and its founding.
John Wingate Truitt was born December 19, 1801 near the
town of Snow Hill in Worcester County, Maryland.7 In 1804,
when he was three years old, his family joined the second westward migration of families and
friends from Worcester to the southern part of Smith County, Tennessee. They homesteaded
in the vicinity of Liberty or nearby Roundtop in what would later become DeKalb County.
There John Wingate's siblings Elijah Henry (b. Apr 16, 1808), Nancy (b. 1810), and Margaret
(b. Dec 07, 1812) were all born, and the four children grew up in the house their parents built.
On December 19, 1825, when John Wingate was twentyfour years old, he married
Elizabeth Jennings 'Betsy' Robinson (Dec 23, 1805Oct 07, 1880)8, daughter of James B.
Robinson9 and Elizabeth Fite, and the granddaughter of Stephen Robinson and Leonard Fite,
7"John Wingate Truitt (1801 1876)" 22 Jul. 2014 <http://www.findagrave.com/cgibin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=6143722>
8"Elizabeth Jennings Robinson Truitt" 22 Jul. 2014 <http://www.findagrave.com/cgibin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=6143734>
9"James B Robinson (1760 1853) 22 Jul. 2014 <http://www.findagrave.com/cgibin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=115113812>
175th Anniversary 2015 J.W. & E.J.R. Truitt Texas Legacy 12 / 105
two early settlers to that area of Smith County. John Wingate and Betsy resided in the 'Fork of
the Pikes' area of Smith/DeKalb County.
John Wingate Truitt (18011876)
13 / 105
175th Anniversary 2015 J.W. & E.J.R. Truitt Texas Legacy
Elizabeth Jennings 'Betsy' Robinson Truitt (Dec 23, 1805Oct 07, 1880)
14 / 105
175th Anniversary 2015 J.W. & E.J.R. Truitt Texas Legacy
John Wingate and Elizabeth had eight children, the first four of whom were born in
Smith/DeKalb County. William (Bill) Edward was born June 10, 1828 (died December 19,
1899)10, Elijah (Lijah) Thomas was born December 10, 1829 (died February 10, 1908)11,
Sarah Ann was born February 28, 1832 (died December 25, 1876)12, and Edward Robinson
was born August 25, 1834 (died December 2, 1869)13.
The family then moved to Etowah County, Alabama where their fifth and sixth children
were born, Matilda Ann (Mat) on June 12, 183714 and James Leonard (Jimmie) on May 15,
184015.
News quickly reached the Truitts in Tennessee that the Republic of Texas, which had
been formed in 1836, was providing land grants to individuals who wanted to move to the
new Republic and settle designated areas of undeveloped land. To encourage immigration,
between 1836 and 1842 the new Republic of Texas issued "headright grants" of land
allotments to individuals and families (nonAfrican Americans or Native Americans) who
settled in Texas. The amount of acreage issued was based on the date an immigrant arrived in
Texas.16
10"William Truitt (1828 1899)" 22 Jul. 2014 <http://www.findagrave.com/cgibin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=6333070>
11"Elijah Thomas Truitt (1829 1908)" 22 Jul. 2014 <http://www.findagrave.com/cgibin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=6333082>
12"Sarah Ann Truitt Richey (1832 1878)." 22 Jul. 2014 <http://www.findagrave.com/cgibin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=64188823>
13"Edward Robinson Truitt (1834 1869)" 22 Jul. 2014 <http://www.findagrave.com/cgibin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=76129273>
14"Matilda A "Mat" Truitt Dean (1837 1908)" 22 Jul. 2014 <http://www.findagrave.com/cgibin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=76129823>
15"James Leonard Truitt (1840 1916)" 22 Jul. 2014 <http://www.findagrave.com/cgibin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=6143739>
16These grants were organized in four classes: The first class were Spanish or Mexican grants issued to settlers whose arrival was before
2 March 1836. The secondclass grants were given to those who arrived after 2 March 1836 and before 1 October 1837. Required to
maintain residency for three years, they received 1,280 acres per family, or half that for unmarried men. Thirdclass headright grants
were for those immigrants who settled from 2 October 1837 to 1 January 1840 and under which the grantees had the same residency
requirements as secondclass grants, but were issued half the acreage allotments. In other words, for those applicants who
immigrated to Texas after October 1, 1837, and before January 1, 1842, heads of families under this class were entitled to 640 acres
of land and single men to 320 acres. Fourthclass headrights were issued to those who arrived between January 1, 1840 and January
1, 1842, and the amounts and requirements were the same as those of the thirdclass headrights, with the added requirement that the
grantee cultivate ten acres of land.# [ 2010. History of Texas Public Lands Texas General Land Office.
[http://www.glo.texas.gov/whatwedo/historyandarchives/_documents/historyoftexaspubliclands.pdf.]
175th Anniversary 2015 J.W. & E.J.R. Truitt Texas Legacy 15 / 105
BradfordTexas1839
Wanting to take advantage of this
opportunity for his family, John Wingate
temporarily left his pregnant wife and
five children prior to November 1839
and, six months or more before his son
'Jimmie' was born, made the long and
slow roughly600 mile trip from Etowah
County, Alabama, across Mississippi and
Louisiana, to Shelby County in
northeastern Texas. There in Shelby
County he joined the thousands of other
wouldbe land grantee applicants.
Land was issued in the following
manner: a board of land commissioners
was appointed for each county by the
combined houses of Congress. Headright
claimants appeared before this board,
and, if they produced satisfactory
evidence of their eligibility, they were
given certificates calling for the amount
of land they were eligible to receive.
Applicants engaged a surveyor who was
authorized to locate and survey the land
out of the unappropriated public domain.
The surveyor usually received onethird
of the land for his services and some of
the early land barons amassed a fortune
in this manner.
The surveyor's field notes were then
approved by the county or district
surveyor and certified to the
Commissioner of the General Land
Office,who issued patents. Land
certificates for military service were
granted through the Secretary of War
instead of by a county commission, with
the same necessary surveys and filings. The Board of Land Commissioners met at the
courthouse every other Thursday, and it was deluged with applicants. The county
175th Anniversary 2015 J.W. & E.J.R. Truitt Texas Legacy 16 / 105
commissioners bore the brunt of the burden because they had to pass upon the validity
of all land claims. ... Many of the claims were fraudulent. In an effort to prevent fraud,
Congress passed a law imposing a punishment of thirtynine lashes on the bare back
and a jail sentence of several months upon all persons convicted of fraudulent schemes
to obtain land. So many fraudulent headright certificates were issued that it was said
that all of Santa Anna's soldiers had crossed the Rio Grande and obtained headrights as
veterans of the Battle of San Jacinto.17
It was in Shelby County in East Texas, not the frontier, where "land squabbles reached the
proportions of a small war".
Immigrants from the notorious Neutral Ground poured into East Texas and, operating
with their usual efficiency, soon had control of the county governments. Judges and
sheriffs as well as local land commissioners paid homage to these ruffians and the
land thieves found them receptive to offers of collusion. The cooperation between the
land pirates and local officialdom was so effective that the security of titles in several
East Texas counties became very questionable. By 1839 the county was embroiled in
a bloody feud. In August 1844, President Houston proclaimed martial law and sent six
hundred militiamen into Shelby County to restore law and order. Both factions yielded
quickly to the militia and a peaceful settlement was worked out at Shelbyville.
Illfeeling cropped up again and again over the vagueness of land titles in that county.
Approximately thirtyeight thousand land claimants, asking for over fifty million
acres of the public domain, petitioned the county commissioners in a span of two
years. The land law was inadequate and perhaps its worst fault was that no residence
requirements were attached to certificates issued to old settlers and to soldiers.
Speculators and men who made a business of locating lands went into the Indian
country, far ahead of the settlements and surveyed and secured lands along the
streams. The choicest tracts had passed into private ownership from ten to thirty years
before the country was actually settled.18
During its short life following its creation in 1836, the Republic of Texas handed out a
total of some thirty million acres to claimants, legitimate and otherwise.19 One of those
beneficiaries was J. W. Truitt.
He applied on November 13, 1839, and later received, a conditional thirdclass headright
certificate from the Red River County Board of Land Commissioners. This document entitled
him to a total of 320 acres of land altogether.20
172013. Full text of "Lots of land". c. 1949 Material compiled under the direction of the Commissioner of the General Land Office of
Texas. [https://archive.org/stream/lotsofland00bishrich/lotsofland00bishrich_djvu.txt.]
182013. Full text of "Lots of land".
19 ibid.
20 John Wingate Truitt, Patent #68, Red3200, Original Land Grant Collection, Patents, Archives, and Records, Texas
General Land Office, Austin.
175th Anniversary 2015 J.W. & E.J.R. Truitt Texas Legacy 17 / 105
Evenly divided into two parcels of 160 acres each, Truitt’s land was surveyed by William
J. Hamilton in late November 1839. On November 26, 1839, a survey was conducted of the
first 160 acres, with the second survey of an additional 160 acres conducted two days later.21
After the survey, John Wingate waited until his application was approved.
While John Wingate was still in Texas taking care of the details of the new land grant, his
son Jimmy was born in his absence in Alabama on May 15, 1840.22 Sometime thereafter J. W.
21 Surveys, November 26, 1839 and November 28, 1839, John Wingate Truitt, Patent #68, Red3200, Original
Land Grant Collection, Patents, Archives, and Records, Texas General Land Office, Austin.
22"James Leonard Truitt (1840 1916)" 22 Jul. 2014 <http://www.findagrave.com/cgibin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=6143739>
175th Anniversary 2015 J.W. & E.J.R. Truitt Texas Legacy 18 / 105
made the long trip back to Alabama to rejoin his family. With the Republic's requirement that
the newly granted land be occupied and improved by the grantees, the Truitts packed up their
belongings and began the long trip to what would be their new residence in Texas.
They entered Texas through the river port city of Jefferson and settled in an area four
miles south of Daingerfield, a small settlement in the new Red River County that in the late
1830's was but a few wooden buildings but still exists today as the fourth oldest existing
settlement in Texas. The area where they settled was sparsely populated and wouldn't become
the community of Jenkins until around the year 1875.
The political and administration designation of the area remained in a state of convoluted
flux for the next several decades.
In 1820 the area was organized as Miller County, Arkansas. In 1826, the area was
included within large grant of land that was issued to Benjamin R. Milam and General Arthur
G. Wavell from the Mexican Government through the State of Coahuila and Texas. Under the
agreement of the contract Milam could settle 300 families and Wavell could settle 400
families on an area south of Red River that covered all of what is now Northeast Texas.23
Because Governor Pope of Arkansas claimed nearly most of this territory for the United
States, no settlers, including those already there, were issued titles. It wasn't until the Texas
Revolution in 1936 that settlers received legal title to their land.
23"Empresario Contracts in Colonization of Texas." 2011. 5 Aug. 2014 <http://www.tamu.edu/faculty/ccbn/dewitt/empresarios.htm>
175th Anniversary 2015 J.W. & E.J.R. Truitt Texas Legacy 19 / 105
At the first meeting of the new Texas Republic legislature in 1836 the surrounding area
was declared part of the loosely defined Red River District region that included most of
thirtynine presentday Texas counties. In December of 1837, some two years before John
Wingate arrived, the Red River District by an act of Texas Republic President Sam Houston
was officially defined and divided into two separate counties, Fannin and Red River. The
newly delineated Red River County included most of what is now Morris, Titus, Franklin,
Lamar, Delta, Hopkins, Delta, Cass, Bowie, and Marion counties.24 The J.W. Truitt property
resided within the boundaries of the initial Red River County boundaries and Truitt's name
was listed as a resident of Red River County in the 1840 Federal Census.25
24"RED RIVER COUNTY | The Handbook of Texas Online ..." 2010. 1 Aug. 2014
<http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hcr05>
25 White, Gifford (Gifford Elmore). 1840 citizens of Texas. (Austin, Texas: G. White, 19831988), p. 253, 4 Nov 1839.
Wingate Truitt, Type 3, 320 acres Red River County, Certificate No 112
175th Anniversary 2015 J.W. & E.J.R. Truitt Texas Legacy 20 / 105
Tx Counties in 1839 Tx Counties in 1840
Tx Counties in 1846 21 / 105
175th Anniversary 2015 J.W. & E.J.R. Truitt Texas Legacy
That same year the boundaries and designations changed again and what is now Morris
County became part of Bowie County. Less than a year later, on January 28, 1841, the
Republic of Texas joined demarcated parts of Red River, Bowie and Lamar counties together
(which encompassed the area of future Hopkins, Franklin, Titus, Morris, and Cass counties
and most of future Marion County) to create the judicial entity of Paschal County. The
settlement of Daingerfield was named as Paschal's county seat. The entity of Paschal County
was shortlived and was abolished in 1842 when the Texas Supreme Court (Stockton v.
Montgomery) ruled that judicial counties were unconstitutional because these entities did not
provide the counties with representation in the legislature. As a result, Daingerfield lost its
special designation and importance. Daingerfield and the area around it became part of Bowie
County once again, and the rest of the former Paschal became part of Red River County.26
In 1846 the new Texas Legislature reapportioned existing political boundaries, including
those of Bowie County, and carved from Red River County area a number of new counties.
One of these new counties was Titus County, the boundaries of which encompassed the part
of the former Bowie County that contained the Truitt homestead and nearby Daingerfield.
These boundaries remained in effect until March 13, 1875, when two areas of Titus were
carved out to create the new Morris and Franklin Counties. Daingerfield and the fledgling
'Jenkins community' fell within the new Morris County lines. The W. Truitt properties can be
seen on 1857 and 1858 Titus County plat maps, and with Jenkins appearing on Morris County
maps after 1875.2728
Today the Jenkins community is located along the shores of Ellison Creek Reservoir on
U.S. Highway 259 in southern Morris County. Initially a small lumbering site in 1875,
Jenkins gained a post office between 1892 and 1907, and grew from one business in the 1930s
to three businesses and a population of eighty in the 1940s.29
Just four miles north of the Jenkins community where J.W. Truitt settled with his family
was the small settlement of Daingerfield. According to the Texas State Historical Association,
historical records indicate that the area where Daingerfield is located was first visited by
Europeans in 1740. A spring known locally as Daingerfield Spring, now located just north of
the Daingerfield town courthouse, was once a popular camp used by Choctaw, Caddo and
other Native American tribes. According to local legends (there do not appear to be any
26 "PASCHAL COUNTY (JUDICIAL) | The Handbook of Texas ..." 2010. 5 Aug. 2014 22 / 105
<http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hcp52>
27 "[Titus County] : The Portal to Texas History." 1 Aug. 2014 <http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth88299/>
28 "[Titus County] : The Portal to Texas History." 1 Aug. 2014
<http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth89201/?q=Titus%20County>
29 Cecil Harper, Jr., "JENKINS, TX," Handbook of Texas Online
175th Anniversary 2015 J.W. & E.J.R. Truitt Texas Legacy
reliably documented historical sources about the pre1835 period), around the year 1830 the
spring was the location of a battle between 100 armed white men led by a Captain London
Daingerfield (a native of Nova Scotia30) and Indian tribes in the area. Some reports claim that
Captain Daingerfield and his men apparently attacked an Indian village at the spring and
drove the Indians away after a bloody fight and that Daingerfield himself was killed in the
battle.31 Another source claims that Captain Daingerfield and his men drove off the Indians,
that afterwards Daingerfield settled his family around the spring, and that he and his family
were subsequently killed by the Indians in retaliation for what had happened to their village.
In any case, by the late 1830s a few immigrants began settling near that natural spring
and the small settlement apparently began referring to itself as Daingerfield in honor of the
man who defeated and drove away the Indians.32 In 1841 the square of the town was laid off,
and the Congress of the Republic of Texas ordered that a new 'town' of Daingerfield be
auctioned at the block on the settlement's public square, with the purchasers given the rights
of the town and access to the Daingerfield Spring.33 At the same time the town of Daingerfield
was designated as the seat of justice for the newly formed (and shortlived) judicial county of
Paschal. Although Paschal was abolished a year later in 1842, courts continued to be held in
Daingerfield.
In 1840, when John Wingate and his family arrived in the area four miles south of
Daingerfield, the settlement consisted only of a few cabins. The town gained a post office
around 1846, and in the 1850s the town began to develop, with more rapid development
occurring after the Civil War.34 The town square, around which the original town was
centered, lay just north of the big ravine and the 'Daingerfield Spring' near the old cemetery.
According to what little documentation is available, by the time that John Wingate Truitt
and his family arrived it appears that the surrounding area where he and other immigrants
were settling was largely uninhabited and undeveloped by other immigrant Anglos or Tejanos
(Mexican Texans). The area had been included in some of the large empresario land grants
awarded by the Mexican government, but it wasn't until the new Republic of Texas began
actively promoting immigrant settlements that the area recorded any significant influx of
outsiders. Whereas in other areas of Texas immigrants often faced resistance and hostility
30 "History of Daingerfield County Information Resources Agency." 2013. 31 Jul. 2014 23 / 105
<http://tools.cira.state.tx.us/users/0110/docs/UsefulLinks/History_of_Daingerfield_J_McKellar.pdf>
31 "DAINGERFIELD, TX | The Handbook of Texas Online| Texas ..." 2010. 30 Jul. 2014
<http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hgd01>
32 "History of Daingerfield
33 ibid.
34 Cecil Harper, Jr., "MORRIS COUNTY," Handbook of Texas Online
175th Anniversary 2015 J.W. & E.J.R. Truitt Texas Legacy
from Native American tribes who lived in the area, there does not appear to be any record of a
significant indigenous presence in the Jenkins area when the first Truitts arrived.
It is not clear exactly when and under what circumstances the native tribes left that area.
That region of East Texas was occupied by the Caddo Indians for centuries prior to the arrival
of Europeans, but the Caddo had largely left the area by the end of the eighteenth century,
their departure brought about by threats from other tribes and by disease. For the next several
decades the region was inhabited by various other tribes, such as groups of Shawnee,
Delaware, and Kickapoo. These groups were joined by some bands of Cherokee, who had
been driven from their ancestral lands in the area of Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina, and
Alabama and began arriving in Texas in 1806, with greater numbers arriving between 1812
and 1819 after the Spanish authorities granted the Cherokee permission to settle.35
Despite attempts by President Sam Houston at the beginning of the Republic to reach an
accommodation with the indigenous tribes, Indians bands that remained in Texas by 1839
largely faced hostility from the Texan Republic's government under Houston's successor,
Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar. Lamar, a former slave trader in Velasco, Mexico, and outspoken
racist, immediately began conducting an aggressive ethnic cleansing campaign to eliminate
Indians from Texas and to appropriate and repopulate the seized land with emigrants from
outside the Republic.36 Lamar had gained popularity when he returned from Mexico to Texas
to fight with Houston's troops against Santa Anna at San Jacinto. He succeeded Houston as
President of the new Republic on December 1, 1838. Lamar pursued an aggressive antiIndian
policy, stating that it was necessary to make the land available to the whites through 'total
extinction' of the Indian tribes.37
At the beginning of the Texas Republic in 1836 the Cherokee had been promised by the
new government and by Houston that they could keep and have title to their lands if they
remained neutral in Texas' fight with Mexico and against the Comanches. However, with
some settlers claiming land that was currently inhabited by and legally deeded to the
Cherokee and with land speculators and wouldbe settlers clamoring for pieces of this 'new'
land, on Dec. 29, 1836, the Texas Senate tabled Houston's treaty and previous agreement with
the Indians and nullified it a year later on Dec.16, 1837.38
35 "Cherokee removal Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia." 2009. 31 Jul. 2014 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherokee_removal>
36 "The Indian Policy of the Republic of Texas, III Internet Archive." 2013. 21 Jul. 2014 <https://archive.org/details/jstor30234855>
37 Anderson, Gary C. The Conquest of Texas: Ethnic Cleansing in the Promised Land 18201875, 2005, pg. 174, ISBN
0806136987
38 2014. Category:Texas Cherokees Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Texas_Cherokees.
175th Anniversary 2015 J.W. & E.J.R. Truitt Texas Legacy 24 / 105
When Lamar became President at the end of 1838, he ordered attacks against the Indian
tribes, including those that were peaceful or that had allied themselves with the Texans. The
same year John Wingate Truitt arrived, Texan troops under Lamar's direction drove the
Cherokee tribes from the state in 1839 and and launched a similar campaign against the
Comanche tribes that inhabited a large part of the state and were fighting to keep what they
felt was theirs from being taken by force and deceit and sold or given to land grabbers and
immigrant settlers.
Titus Co_1857Truitts
To secure the new Republic, the government aggressively began to encourage
immigration through the issuance of headright grants to settlers. It was in this context that the
John Wingate Truitt family arrived to build a new home in Texas.
Titus Co_1857Truitts (3 plots demarcated 'W Truitt')
The family arrived and soon began constructing a small log structure 'dogtrot' cabin at a
location now known as Jenkins Community.39 The cabin, described later, sits 250 feet north of
39 Lat/Long coordinates: 33°1′51″N 94°43′28″W (33.030721, 94.7244511) 25 / 105
175th Anniversary 2015 J.W. & E.J.R. Truitt Texas Legacy
what appears to be an old road bed and is situated on a scenic knoll overlooking what today is
County Road 144.
Whether this old roadbed was related or connected to the old Jefferson Wagon Road that
went through Daingerfield is unclear, as the family has not yet identified any reliable and
documented evidence. Also known as the Dallas and Jefferson road, the Jefferson Wagon
Road stretched 200 miles west from Jefferson, Texas, near the Louisiana border, through
Daingerfield and other settlements along the way to the Trinity River near what today is
Dallas, Texas.40 In any case, many settlers in the area arrived via the Old Jefferson Road.
According to family stories, the site of the cabin was largely influenced by its proximity
to a natural spring, reputedly discovered by the family's slave girl, Mandy. The spring remains
named in her honor. It is thought that the family owned the one slave, although we are not
aware of whether Mandy was brought with the family from Alabama or was purchased once
the family arrived in Texas.
John Wingate was a farmer, as were most of his contemporary immigrant neighbors,
since the land grants stipulated that the land be improved. During the beginning of the 1800s,
when East Texas was beginning to be settled, cattle became the principal marketable
commodity, but by the late 1830's and 1940's many farmers in the region focused on
producing cotton, which had become the principal cash crop, although many settlers also
raised and sold cattle.41
40 "Jefferson_Road Saltillo, Texas." 2008. 21 Jul. 2014 <http://saltillotexas.homestead.com/jefferson_road.html>
41 Cecil Harper, Jr., "RED RIVER COUNTY," Handbook of Texas Online
175th Anniversary 2015 J.W. & E.J.R. Truitt Texas Legacy 26 / 105
To provide the labor in developing these farms, most settlers during this period either
brought slaves with them or purchased them once they arrived in the Red River region.42 By
1860, 3,044 (36 percent) of the county's 8,535 residents were black, nearly all of whom were
slaves. The distribution of slave ownership
was uneven, with only about a quarter of
white families owning slaves.43
Slavery was an important part of Texas'
economic development from the time of
Austin's colony, and Austin allowed for the
original 300 families he brought to Texas to
receive eighty acres for each slave that was
brought to Texas.44 Of those families and
their slaves, which totaled 1,800 in 1825, 443
were slaves. The issue of slaves also played a
part in the Texan's rebellion against Mexico,
as both the federal government in Mexico and
the state government of Coahuila and Texas
were trying to outlaw or restrict black slavery.
The Texas Revolution secured the slaves and
the institution of slavery for slave owners and
traders. According to the Constitution of the
Republic of Texas (1836) slaves belonged as property of their owners, and the Texas
Congress could not prohibit slaveholding immigrants from importing their own slave, and that
slaves could be imported from the United States. According to the law, slaves in Texas
essentially had the legal status of personal property that could be sold, bought, rented or
mortgaged. They themselves had no property rights, legal rights of marriage and family, and
no legal means of gaining freedom.45
As more and more immigrants like the Truitts moved to Texas, the slave population
increased dramatically, most of whom came with their owners from other slave states, but also
large numbers of whom were acquired through the domestic slave trade.46 Slavery's rate of
growth expanded rapidly during the 1840s and 1850s.47 In 1845, when Texas joined the
42 ibid. 27 / 105
43 ibid.
44 ibid.
45Randolph B. Campbell, "SLAVERY," Handbook of Texas Online
46 ibid.
47 ibid.
175th Anniversary 2015 J.W. & E.J.R. Truitt Texas Legacy
United States and five years after the arrival of John Wingate Truitt to Texas, there were at
least 30,000 slaves in Texas, and by 1860 and the Civil War the slave population was growing
faster than the general population.48
It was probably with the help of his two
oldest boys – Elijah, who at the time would
have been eleven, and William ('Bill'), who
was twelve – that John Wingate, who was
thirtyeight at the time, built the family
cabin.
The cabin was built in what is referred to as
a 'dogtrot' style, architecturally similar to
ones John Wingate had seen and
experienced in Tennessee, namely two
main rooms connected but separated by an
open area with common floor and roof,
fireplaces constructed of local iron ore
rocks in each room at the opposite ends of
the cabin, and the exterior of the cabin built
of 18 foot pine logs and handhewn timber,
dovetailed selflocking corners, and full
length porches on both long sides of the
cabin.
This style of house, also referred to as a
dogrun, possumtrot or breezeway house,
was common throughout the Southeastern
United States during the 19th and early
20th centuries. It isn't clear where the style
originated, although some scholars think it
originated in the southern Appalachian
Mountains or developed in postRevolution
areas of Kentucky and Tennessee. In any
case, it was a common style used by
immigrants in the time of the Texas
48 ibid. 28 / 105
175th Anniversary 2015 J.W. & E.J.R. Truitt Texas Legacy
Republic when John Wingate and his family moved to Jenkins.49 It was so popular that the
very same year, 1840, the Republic's first president Sam Houston and his third wife built a
dogtrot house in Huntsville where four of their eight children were born and where the family
lived until 1859. Today, this house, known as the Woodland House, is displayed at the Sam
Houston Memorial Museum in Huntsville, Texas.50
After the completion of the cabin, John Wingate dug a 60foot deep water well 120 feet
or so northeast of the rear porch of the cabin. From what we've been able to reconstruct, the
property also had an outhouse and smoke house to the rear of the cabin, and quite probably a
barn that lay further away from the cabin to the north.
It was in the family's Jenkins cabin that the last two of the eight Truitt children were born,
Nancy Elizabeth, born in February 184451, and Wingate Henry, born on November 7, 184752.
The family lived on this property for the rest of their lives.
The area in which John Wingate and his family settled was in the East Texas timberlands,
the northern part of the region consisting of gently curved landscapes and the southern part
hillier, and everywhere heavily forested with an abundance of both softwood and hardwood
trees, including oak, pine and cypress. The land was rich with minerals, but, with the soil
sandytoloamy in texture and somewhat acidic, only a quarter or so of the land was
considered decent for farming. As a result, the soil and climate lent themselves to raising
certain types of crops or livestock that thrived in that environment, and the forests and other
natural resources provided other raw materials for the new settlers and their enterprises.53
John Wingate's family was able to operate a reasonably productive farm, particularly for
an individual without extensive slave property:54
With four sons old enough to perform productive work alongside him in the fields,
Truitt succeeded in doubling his improved land from forty acres in 1850 to eighty in
1860.55 Apparently interested in expansion as well, Truitt steadily augmented his
original headright during the twenty year period following his arrival in Texas,
amassing some 1,120 additional acres of land.56 Thus, by 1860, at the height of his
49"DOGRUN HOUSES | The Handbook of Texas Online ..." 2012. 21 Jul. 2014
<https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/cfd01>
50 "Celebrating The Father Of Texas Independence: Sam Houston." 2014. 21 Jul. 2014
<http://countylifeonline.com/2014/04/08/celebratingthefatheroftexasindependencesamhouston/>
51 "Nancy Elizabeth Truitt Moore (1843 1904) 22 Jul. 2014 <http://www.findagrave.com/cgibin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=76135312>
52 "Wingate Henry Truitt (1847 1936) 22 Jul. 2014 <http://www.findagrave.com/cgibin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=44200670>
53 Cecil Harper, Jr., "MORRIS COUNTY," Handbook of Texas Online
54 Truitt Cabin's nomination application for the National Register of Historic Places (see Annex)
55 Seventh Census, 1850, Schedule IV; Seventh Census, 1860, Schedule IV.
56 Real and Personal Property Tax Rolls , Titus County, 1846 1860.
175th Anniversary 2015 J.W. & E.J.R. Truitt Texas Legacy 29 / 105
wealth and productivity, Truitt possessed $14,460 worth of real and personal
property—a significant value by any measure of the time.
The family's fortunes, however, were substantially diminished by circumstances
associated with the Civil War’s progress and outcome, including the family's significant
reduction in workforce resulting from the military enlistment of three of the sons. Fairly
typical of plain folk farmers across Texas during the period, the family's "farming operation
progressively slumped from its antebellum apex of middleclass security to a condition just
shy of subsistence agriculture within five years of the Civil War’s end."57
Both John Wingate, who died December 31, 1876, and his wife Betsy, who died in
September 7, 1880, were buried in a family cemetery 150 feet northeast of the cabin. Two of
their children are buried beside them. Today there is a Republic of Texas medallion on the
headstone of the parents that indicate that they were citizens when Mirabeau B. Lamar, Sam
Houston and Dr. Anson Jones were Presidents of the Republic of Texas.
This land was later owned by the Clark family, for which the cemetery is named today,
but the place known as the Truitt burial ground was conveyed to Elizabeth Truitt and her heirs
by S. W. Clark in 1875. The Clark Cemetery still exists today and contains the graves of not
only members of the original Truitt family, but also of various descendants, including those of
Edward Robinson Truitt and his wife Sarah Ann 'Sallie' Logan Truitt, and those of James
Leonard Truitt and his wife Mary Louisa 'Ludie' Lilley Truitt. Other family members and
cousins are buried in the Concord, Coffeeville or Daingerfield cemeteries that are all located
within ten or so miles from Jenkins.
57 Truitt Cabin's nomination application for the National Register of Historic Places (see Annex) 30 / 105
175th Anniversary 2015 J.W. & E.J.R. Truitt Texas Legacy
Chapter 3 J.W. & Elizabeth’s Children - 1st
Generation Texans
175th Anniversary 2015 J.W. & E.J.R. Truitt Texas Legacy 31 / 105
Family 1 William (Bill) Edward Truitt
Bill Truitt (18281899)
The oldest of the eight children was William
Edward (Bill) Truitt, who was born in Smith
County, Tennessee, January 10, 1828, died
December 19, 1899,58 and is now buried in the
Concord Cemetery, Upshur County, Texas.
While he grew up at the family home in
Jenkins, around 1852, when he was
approximately twentyfour years old, Bill
married and moved to the Concord
Community area of Upshur County, where he
remained the rest of his life as a farmer and a
member of the Baptist Church and where he
raised his family.59
This community was approximately 20 miles
southwest of the Truitt homestead in Jenkins and about 9 miles north of Gilmer. Nearly
identical to the region around Jenkins, the area around Concord was largely rural, sparsely
settled and primarily agricultural, and with most residents living on farms. By the mid 1800s
the principal crops in East Texas were corn and cotton. Most farmers also raised livestock,
although the country was not considered especially well suited for that.60
Bill Edward was married three times. His first marriage took place the same year he
arrived in Concord when he married his first wife, a widow by the name of Elizabeth Jane
(Jane) Ellis Filshot (b. a 1830). Jane had previously been married to a man named John
Filshot. They had married around the year 1850 and had a son the following year in 1851, but
Jane was widowed the same year when her husband died. In 1852 she then married Bill Truitt
and the two of them, together with the infant son from Jane's previous marriage, lived together
58"William Truitt (1828 1899) 22 Jul. 2014 <http://www.findagrave.com/cgibin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=6333070> 32 / 105
5921 Sep 1993 According to the book, "Alive & Good to Know" by Gerald Post.
60Cecil Harper, Jr., "MORRIS COUNTY," Handbook of Texas Online
175th Anniversary 2015 J.W. & E.J.R. Truitt Texas Legacy
in the Concord Community, approximately 20 miles southwest of the Truitt homestead in
Jenkins and about 9 miles north of Gilmer.
Upshur Co 1840, showing Concord and Bette
In 1853, within a year following their wedding, the marriage ended in tragedy. When
Jane's first husband John Filshot died, Jane inherited 300 acres of land. It was believed that
her former inlaws did not want their grandson to receive that inheritance and have the
property pass to Jane's new family. According to family records, Jane's former fatherinlaw
came to their house while Bill was plowing in the fields. He shot Jane, who was pregnant at
the time, and the infant boy and burned the house down to cover the evidence. He then went
looking for Bill in the field, but Bill apparently wasn't there at the time as he had left to repair
his plow. After not finding Bill, the former fatherinlaw turned the gun on himself and
committed suicide.
According to Bill Truitt's granddaughter Virgie Mae Barnwell Berry, the story of what
happened was told to her by her grandfather and confirmed by her Uncle Jim.
One morning while Grandpa was plowing in the field, he broke his plowpoint and
being as near or nearer the blacksmith shop, he took the plow to the shop. While he
was away, his wife's former fatherinlaw came looking for Grandpa. His footprints
were found in the fresh plowed ground. Not finding Grandpa he went to their home,
shot and killed Grandpa's wife and set the house on fire. By the time the people
reached the house it was almost in ashes. His wife's body was found (she was
pregnant). The tracks were found and search was made for her fatherinlaw. When he
was found, he was dead, having killed himself. After our mother died Grandpa took us
(sister, brother and me) to see what was left of the house (parts of the old chimney and
some of the foundation) and he told us the story.61
61Source: Mae Berry (Virgie May Barnwell Berry) 33 / 105
175th Anniversary 2015 J.W. & E.J.R. Truitt Texas Legacy
No mention is made of the
infant son who was also
apparently shot.
One historical source
indicates that, for a time
immediately following the
death of Jane, Bill Truitt
moved to the Pine Forest
(Hopkins County) area, where
he remained two or three
years and during which time
Bill' sister Sarah Ann came
over from Jenkins to join him.
It was at this time that Sarah
Ann met her future husband
Andrew Jackson Richey. Both
Bill and Andrew were
deacons in a newly organized
Methodist Episcopal Church
at Pine Forest in 1855.
After the death of Jane, "...
Bill went to Jefferson to
purchase an oxcart load of
cypress lumber which he
hauled back to Concord
Community to build a new six
room boxframe homestead with a porch and a dog run. He built this home about 5 miles NE
of Gilmer on the land he inherited from his deceased wife. According to some family
members, the site of this home was still visible in the 1990s with some flowers as well as the
old well site."
Approximately two years after the death of Jane, Bill Edward married his second wife,
Elizabeth M. (Liza) Hefner (18341878)62 in 1855 in Gilmer, approximately nine miles south
of the Concord Community where he had previously lived with his first wife, Jane. Liza was
born in North Carolina on January 10, 1834, the daughter of Alfred Hefner, a farmer and
62"Elizabeth M. Hefner Truitt (1834 1878) 22 Jul. 2014 <http://www.findagrave.com/cgibin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=6328832>
175th Anniversary 2015 J.W. & E.J.R. Truitt Texas Legacy 34 / 105
clergyman in the Primitive Baptist Church. She was also a sister of Bill's brotherinlaw
Crawford Sylvanus Hefner63 who married Bill's sister Matilda Ann Truitt.64 Thus one pair of
Hefner siblings married another pair
of Truitt siblings, with these
marriages between families
producing double cousins. Bill and
Liza together had eight children.
Bill Truitt (18281899) and Eliza Hefner Truitt
(18341878)
Their children, in order of birth,
were: Eliza Jane (Sept 2, 1856May
24, 1880)65, Emma (or Emily) (Mar
12, 1859Mar 31, 1948), Mattie and
Mollie (twins) were born Mar 30, 1862 (Mattie died as a young child, Mollie died July 25,
1896)66, William Albert (Oct 17, 1864Jun 28, 1885)67,
James 'Jim' Leonard (Dec 22, 1866Oct 29, 1959)68,
Wingate Henry (Apr 20, 1869Aug 18, 1954)69, and
Joseph Seth (Dec 10, 1871Mar 17, 1928)70.
_______________
Bill and Liza's first child, Eliza Jane, was born 22
Sep 1856 on the family farm in Concord Community.
When Eliza Jane was 16 she married Rev. Robert Cecil
Pender on 12 Oct 1872 in Upshur County. R.C. was
born on 02 Nov 1851 in Summerfield, Coffee County,
Tennessee, the son of Joseph William Pender and
Tralucia Robertson Durham. According to his Abilene
obituary, R.C. was orphaned at the young age of 7 in
Corinth, Miss.
Robert Cecil Pender
63"Crawford Sylvanus Hefner (1830 1905) 22 Jul. 2014 <http://www.findagrave.com/cgibin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=76130045>
64"Matilda A "Mat" Truitt Dean (1837 1908) 22 Jul. 2014 <http://www.findagrave.com/cgibin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=76129823>
65"Eliza J. Pender (1836 1880) 22 Jul. 2014 <http://www.findagrave.com/cgibin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=6332314>
66"Mollie Tabitha Truitt Barnwell (1862 1895) 22 Jul. 2014 <http://www.findagrave.com/cgibin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=64318473>
67"William Albert Truitt (1864 1885) 22 Jul. 2014 <http://www.findagrave.com/cgibin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=6333069>
68"James Leonard Truitt (1866 1958) 22 Jul. 2014 <http://www.findagrave.com/cgibin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=79231049>
69"Wingate H Truitt (1869 1954) 22 Jul. 2014 <http://www.findagrave.com/cgibin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=51919525>
70"J. Seth Truitt (1871 1928) 22 Jul. 2014 <http://www.findagrave.com/cgibin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=110271748>
175th Anniversary 2015 J.W. & E.J.R. Truitt Texas Legacy 35 / 105
Eliza Jane and Robert Cecil had four children: Beulah
May Pender (December 12, 1873); Joseph Pender (October
15, 1875); Perry Paul Pender (December, 1877); and Eliza
Jane Pender (February 22, 1880).
Eliza Jane died on 24 May 1880 at the age of 23 and was
buried in Concord Cemetery. Her husband lived another 51
years. The year after Eliza Jane died, R.C. was ordained at the
Old Concord Church in 1881. He became a noted Baptist
minister, and later served for 21 years as field secretary of the
Buckner Orphans Home.
According to available records, it appears that he
remarried twice after the death of Eliza Jane. A year after
Eliza Jane’s death, Robert married Rebecca Althea Cope (5
Jan 1860 1887) in 1881 in Upshur County. They had two
children (Annie 1882May 6, 1976 and Robert B., b. about
1883). Rebecca died 3 June 1887 and is buried in Rose Hill
Cemetery in Pittsburg, Camp County, Texas.71 A year after
Rebecca’s death, R.C. married his third wife Mattie Copelin
(b. about 1854) on 4 Dec 1888 in Camp County. According to
one source, the couple had a son, Herman A. ( b. 1889).
R. C. died on 05 Dec 1931 in Abilene, Taylor County.72
71 ''Rebecca A Pender (1860 1887) Rebecca A Pender (1860 1887) Find A Grave Memorial. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 May 2015.
<http://www.findagrave.com/cgibin/fg.cgi?page=gr&grid=52354850>
72 Dr Robert Cecil Pender (1851 1931) Find A Grave Memorial. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 May 2015.
<http://www.findagrave.com/cgibin/fg.cgi?page=gr&grid=61852061>
175th Anniversary 2015 J.W. & E.J.R. Truitt Texas Legacy 36 / 105
Two sons and grandson of R.C. and Eliza Jane (Truitt) Pender: Perry Paul Pender, Joe Jr. Pender, and
Joseph William Sr. ''Dad” Pender.
_______________
Bill and Liza's second child, Emily Frances 'Emma' Truitt, was born on 12 Mar 1859 at
the family farm in Concord. When she was 17 she married William Anderson Simms Jenkins
on 18 Jan 1877 in Upshur County. He was born on 07 Nov 1854 in Paulding County, Georgia.
Emma and William had six children, all of whom were born in Daingerfield: Louisa Lula
Elizabeth Jenkins (March 17, 1878); Lena May Jenkins (October , 1879); Ada Frances Jenkins
(August 17, 1882); Donnie Ola Jenkins (October 20, 1884); William Robert Bill Jenkins
(June, 1887); and James Hoyt Jenkins (February 22, 1890).
'Emma' Truitt Jenkins’ husband William died on 25 Oct 1922 and is buried in
Daingerfield Cemetery. Emma lived another 26 years, died on 31 Mar 1948 at the age of 89,
and is also buried in Daingerfield Cemetery.
_______________
Bill and Liza's third and fourth and children were two twin girls, Mattie Tabitha Truitt
and Mollie Tabitha Truitt, born 30 March 1862 at the family farm in Concord Community.
Mattie only lived for four years and died in 1866. She is buried in an unmarked grave at the
Old City Cemetery in Gilmer. Her twin, Mollie, got married on 16 Dec 1880 at the age of
175th Anniversary 2015 J.W. & E.J.R. Truitt Texas Legacy 37 / 105
eighteen to E. L. Barnwell, son of Robert C. Barnwell and Mary C. Barnwell, in Upshur
County. He was born on 11 Aug 1850 in Alabama. Mollie died on 25 Jul 189673 at the age of
34 and is buried in Gilmer City Cemetery. Her husband, E. L. Barnwell, died on 29 Dec 1919
and is also buried in Gilmer City Cemetery.
_______________
The couple's fifth child and first son was William Albert Truitt, born on 17 Oct 1864 in
Concord Community. He died on 28 Jun 1885 at the age of 20 years, 8 months and 11 days
and is buried near other family member in Concord Cemetery.74
_______________
Bill and Liza's sixth child was their second son James 'Jim' Leonard, born 22 Dec 1866.75
Jim was raised on the family farm in Concord. After finishing high school he went to
Dallas where he attended Southern Methodist University (SMU), during which time he
worked for Joseph William Pender in his insurance office.76 According to one of the relatives,
Jim was known as 'Whitehead Jim' because of his very blonde and almost white hair.77
In 1894, when Jim Truitt was twentyeight, he married Ella 'Lizzie' Johnson (18741957)
in a double wedding with his youngest brother Seth. His bride, Ella, was a twentyyear old
who had been born June 6, 1874, in Bette, Upshur County, the daughter of Gerald Johnson
and Caroline Greer. Originally the plan was for all three of the youngest boys of Bill and Liza
(Jim, Wingate and Seth Truitt) to have a triple wedding in the Concord Missionary Baptist
Church (Concord Community) on December 26, 1894. However, the sister of Ida Belle
Garrett, Wingate's fiancé, became ill and died, preventing them from participating. Seth and
Jim and their fiancés then went ahead with their own double wedding at the church on the
planned date. Approximately two months later, Wingate and Ida married on Valentine's Day,
1895.
A couple of years after his father died, Jim (then 36 years old), his pregnant wife Ella and
their first two children moved from Concord to Daingerfield, where they bought a home near
the center of town. Frances Truitt Lawhon, Jim and Ella's eighth child, wrote down some of
her reflections of her parents and their Daingerfield home in a piece entitled 'This Ole Home':
In 1902, my father, James Leonard Truitt, with his bride, Ella Johnson Truitt,
moved to Daingerfield, Texas. My father bought a one story house only a
block from the business section of town from Jack Phillips, a local banker. The
73"Mollie Tabitha Truitt Barnwell (1862 1895) 22 Jul. 2014 <http://www.findagrave.com/cgibin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=64318473>
74"William Albert Truitt (1864 1885) 22 Jul. 2014 <http://www.findagrave.com/cgibin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=6333069>
75"James Leonard Truitt (1866 1958) 22 Jul. 2014 <http://www.findagrave.com/cgibin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=79231049>
76Per Virgie May Barnwell Berry 1964.
77Per Virgie May Barnwell Berry 1964.
175th Anniversary 2015 J.W. & E.J.R. Truitt Texas Legacy 38 / 105
lot on which the house was built was purchased for $1000. This lot was 1/3 of
the block. One third was bought by Lewis Thigpen: the other third was given
to the First Baptist Church with the stipulation that if or when this property
was no longer used by the church the land would revert back to the Jack
Phillips heirs. My father, with the help of a local carpenter by the name of Mac
McCall, remodeled and made the house into a two—story colonial house with
eleven rooms.
Jim and Ella's children were born as follows: Robert Cecil (Cecil) (Oct 06, 1895), Zelma
Ruth (Jan 21,1899), Ruby Evelyn (Nov 15, 1902), Lenox Maurice (November 29, 1904),
Eloise (Mar 18, 1907), Marguerite Elizabeth (June 15, 1910), James Dees Truitt (Sep 18,
1912), Frances Marion (Jun 09, 1914), and Carolyn Musick (Oct 02, 1917). Of these, only one
died as an infant – James Dees. That year there was a polio epidemic and James, along with
several babies in Daingerfield, died August 13, 1913, less than a year old. According to
Frances, Ella never got over James' death.
The house where they lived was only one block from the town and a halfblock from the
church, right in the middle of everything. More recollections of Francis of the family home in
Daingerfield:
This ole house had the first electricity in town. The pump also accommodated
the Thigpen home and the First Baptist Church.
The first bathtub in Daingerfield (9 foot long) was installed in our home. My
father bought one of the first automobiles in Morris County—a black
Overland.
There were many social, civic and religious meetings held in our home. It was
the center for community activities for the young and old.
As you enter the front door, you would walk down the hall to a large
screenedin porch. The old water well cooled milk, butter and perishable
foods. In the old swing, often my mother & father would swing rhythmically in
the breeze. A table for '42' or dominoes was set up for an impromptu game—
(never cards, as father was a deacon) .
In the dining room was a large round oak table. At 7:00, 12:00 and 6:00 the
family assembled and family conferences were held. There was never a meal
without one or more guest. Sunday was a special day—fried chicken, hot rolls,
cake and often homemade ice cream covered the table. This was the
preacher's day. My mother was considered one of the best cooks in town.
175th Anniversary 2015 J.W. & E.J.R. Truitt Texas Legacy 39 / 105
At the time that Jim and Ella's children were growing up, Dangerfield was a quiet little
town in East Texas, its politics largely controlled by several of the early town families. By the
time the grandfather raised his family in Daingerfield, economic and political decisions in the
town were still very much influenced by these older families, and over the years more
progressive thinkers like Jim sometimes found it difficult to convince these families to adopt
new changes, technologies and industries that would promote economic growth and
opportunities for the town. This would later begin to change with the development of the steel
industry in the area.
When Jim Truitt was a young businessman in Daingerfield in the early 1900s, only eight
small towns or villages had been established since 1836 in what today is Morris County, and
only four were viable entities: Cason (pop. 500, late 1920s), Daingerfield, Harris Springs (by
then defunct), Lone Star (which developed with the steel industry in the late 1930s), Naples
(pop. 887, 192578), Omaha (est pop. 500 early 1900s79), Snowhill (by then largely defunct)
and Wheatville (by then defunct). Daingerfield has already been discussed. Wheatville
emerged in the 1840s, but then died with the growth of Naples. Omaha (previously called
78"NAPLES, TX | The Handbook of Texas Online| Texas State ..." 2010. 5 Aug. 2014
<http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hjn01>
79"OMAHA, TX Texas State Historical Association." 2010. 5 Aug. 2014 <http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hlo16>
175th Anniversary 2015 J.W. & E.J.R. Truitt Texas Legacy 40 / 105
Morristown, than Gavett, and finally Omaha in 1886) developed around David Elliott's saw
mill around 1859. Snowhill quickly grew and then faded when the new railroad bypassed it
and most people moved to the new town of Cason where the railroad came through four or so
miles away. Naples, formerly known as Belden Station, began to develop in the late 1870s
and by 1910 became the largest town in the country, largely due to its location on the rail line
that came through the county in 1878. Harris Springs had quickly developed before the Civil
War as a health resort in the the southwest corner of Morris County, but faded away.80
Jim Truitt (affectionately known as 'Uncle Jim' to the townspeople of Daingerfield) was
one of the town's visionaries who did what he could to promote the economic viability and
growth of the town. According to Frances Truitt Lawhon, her father was very popular in town
and known for his generosity. If anyone needed something, they'd go to 'Uncle Jim'. He was
farsighted and saw potential in people and ventures even if he didn't have previous
experience or knowledge.
One example of his willingness and aptitude for not being bound by convention was his
experience with the invention of the telephone. Jim had never talked on a telephone before,
but he had heard about the new telephone invention and saw its potential. He decided to build
the first telephone exchange in Daingerfield, and the result was the Daingerfield Telephone
Exchange, initially located on the second story of their house and with cables and wires going
out to a pole beside the house.
Customers paid $1.50 per month for the telephone services, but there were some years
that customers, especially the farmers, could not pay their bills, so Jim Truitt took payment in
other ways, such as with truckloads of watermelons. The telephone exchange in Daingerfield
was so successful that Jim also built exchanges in Cason, Hughes Springs and Avinger and
got the franchise to have long distance lines to Naples, Hughes Springs, Avinger and Cason.
At one point he even owned the exchange in Como, Texas.
In 1915, he built a small exchange for his 'colored friends' that they operated, although
apparently this exchange was not in operation for very long.
Jim later sold the exchange in Daingerfield to General Telephone Company in 1927 for
$27,00081 and used some of what he made from the sale to help his family move to a college
town so that his children could get an education. According to Frances, Jim's nephew, 'Dad'
Pender, was head of the government department at North Texas State Teachers College (as it
was called in those days) in Denton, Texas, and he persuaded Jim that Denton is where the
family should move. Marguerite was nearly eighteen at the time and graduating from high
80"Cass County Title Company Sister Company." 2012. 5 Aug. 2014 <http://www.casscountytitle.com/page9.php> 41 / 105
81Lawhon, Francis Truitt. "This Ole House"
175th Anniversary 2015 J.W. & E.J.R. Truitt Texas Legacy
school. In 1928 the family moved to Denton. There the family rented a beautiful house on
Oak Street that had belonged to the Caruth estate, became members of the local First Baptist
Church, enrolled the children in local schools, and settled into life in Denton.82
In Denton, Jim initially used some of the money he made from selling the telephone
exchange to help out Perry Pender, 'Dad' Pender's brother who was then without a job, by
buying Dyke's drugstore on the corner across from the campus. According to Frances, it ended
up being called Pender's drugstore, a fact that Jim apparently didn't like, so he sold the store
back to Dyke.83
Jim then went into the furniture business by starting a new and used furniture store. It was
located on Oak Street, one block off the town square. The business thrived at first, but the
good times suddenly ended during the 'Crash' of 1929 when the banks were closed overnight
without warning. No one could access their funds in the banks, and even Jim never recovered
all the money he had deposited. Former customers could not pay their bills and few had the
resources to buy furniture, since income earners needed what little money they had to provide
food for their families. Frances recounts how her father would often forgive debts of men who
came to pay on their accounts since he knew how hard up they were.84
Frances, who was the second youngest child (Carolyn was three years younger than her),
was in Junior High when the family moved there in 1928. The family then moved from the
rented house on Oak Street to a smaller house on Sycamore Street.85
Jim and Ella then moved the family to Fry Street to a threestory house belonging to the
Penders (Grandpa's relatives). The family made some extra income (and helped pay for
tuition) by renting rooms to college students and preparing meals for some.
After Frances and Carolyn had graduated and left home, in the mid1930s Jim and Ella
decided to move back to Dangerfield and the comfortable and good life they had left there.
They had not sold the house they had owned there, but had rented it out while they were in
Denton. Apparently the house wasn't in too good of shape when they got back, but they fixed
it up and quickly got back into the swing of their old lives. Many of their friends still lived
there, and soon the house was full of friends and family visitors, and many games of
dominoes (a favorite pastime) were played. Jim resumed his position as deacon at their church
and began teaching the Men's Bible Class he has started many years earlier.
82Frances Marion Truitt Lawhon Reflections (age 83) Lance Kevin Lawhon, 25 December 1997. 42 / 105
83 Ibid.
84 Ibid.
85 Ibid.
175th Anniversary 2015 J.W. & E.J.R. Truitt Texas Legacy
Lone Star, Morris County, Texas.
Life in Daingerfield took another
turn with the advent of World War
II, and the changing economy also
had an impact on Jim and Ella’s
family. One significant development
was the exploitation of local iron
ore. Starting in 1943, the U.S.
Government invested more than $30
million in building a new iron
smelting plant at Lone Star.86 With
more money circulating in the local
economy and with the growing
demand for housing generated by the quickly growing plant operations, the family made extra
money by renting rooms.
Settlers to the area had discovered deposits of iron ore from the 1820s or earlier. These
resources, however, were largely untapped until WWII when the U.S. Government had its
United States Defense Plant Corporation begin mining these ore deposits and building a blast
furnace in the Lone Star area for the war effort. In seven years the number employed went
from dozens to more than 500. After the war, the government leased the plant to the Lone Star
Steel Company in 1947 and sold it to the company in July 1948.87
Lone Star Steel
86"MORRIS COUNTY | The Handbook of Texas Online| Texas ..." 2010. 5 Aug. 2014 43 / 105
<http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hcm19>
87"MORRIS COUNTY | The Handbook of Texas Online| Texas ..." 2010. 5 Aug. 2014
<http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hcm19>
175th Anniversary 2015 J.W. & E.J.R. Truitt Texas Legacy
The growth of the large Lone Star Steel plant and industry just south of Daingerfield had
a tremendous effect on the town's economy by providing jobs, income, investment and
business development, but there remained the tension between people who wanted the town to
thrive and grow, and those who have resisted change. Today the town's population has fallen
to around 2,500 (from a high of some 3,200 in the 1960s) and continues to decrease as people
leave for opportunities elsewhere. This tiny town is actually the seat of a whole county, the
population of which in 2010 was less than 13,000.
While some of Jim and Ella’s children moved away, the family stayed in close contact
and would get together for reunions at the Truitt home in Daingerfield that usually occurred a
day or two after Christmas.
Truitt Family Christmas, Daingerfield, 1955: (Front row LR: Francis, Martha, Nancy; Middle row LR: Marguerite,
Ruby, Jim, Ella, Zelma, Claudia; Back row LR: Albert Sr., Rodger, Barney, Bert, Charles, Scotty, James Roy, Roy, Lenox)
The rest of Jim and Ella’s years in Daingerfield were comfortable. As Frances recounts:
Every Spring, my father always had a beautiful garden. Each morning he
would go out to gather his vegetables and give to his friends and neighbors.
175th Anniversary 2015 J.W. & E.J.R. Truitt Texas Legacy 44 / 105
From this garden beans, corn, peas and tomatoes were canned by my mother
for later use.
Each Christmas, all the children with their spouses and children returned to our
parents' home. In the living room a tall Christmas tree reached the eleven foot
ceiling. Presents were stacked knee—high with gifts for the adults and Santa
for the children. The Christmas story was read, the Bible and a prayer was
said. Friends and relatives often joined in the festivities.
In this ole house, my parents celebrated their 50th and then their 60th
anniversaries. They were married 62 years.
In the event of my parents death, this old house was to become a permanent
part of the First Baptist Church—a church they loved. In 1960, this wish was
fulfilled.
For their 60th anniversary (26 Dec 1954) many friends and family members came by to
celebrate, even though the sky that day opened up and poured rain.88 Ruby and Frances made
arrangements, Marguerite brought her silver service that she had made in Mexico, and she and
Zelma brought desserts. Jim gave Ella a new wedding ring.
Jim and Ella Truitt, Dec 25, 1955
They were married for almost another three years when Ella died in Daingerfield
December 24, 1957, just two days short of their 63rd wedding anniversary. She was buried in
88Frances Marion Truitt Lawhon Reflections (age 83) Lance Kevin Lawhon, 25 December 1997. 45 / 105
175th Anniversary 2015 J.W. & E.J.R. Truitt Texas Legacy
Daingerfield Cemetery.89 Jim Truitt died less than a year later in Dallas on October 30, 1958,
at the age of 91, and is buried next to Ella.90
_______________
Jim’s younger brother and seventh child of Bill and Liza
Truitt was their third son, Wingate Henry Truitt, born on 20
Apr 1869 in Concord.91
Like the other children, Wingate was raised on the family
farm in Concord. When he was older, he followed his older
brother Jim's example and left the farm, moving to nearby
Athens, where, like Jim, Seth established a telephone
exchange. Later he went into the dry goods business in
Pittsburg.
At the age of 25
he married
21year old Ida Belle Garrett on 14 Feb 1895 in
Jefferson, the same place where she was born on
25 Dec 1873. When Wingate Henry was 30 years
old, his father died. His father left his three married
sons equal shares of the family's 300 acre farm.
Wingate, who had already left the farm, sold his
100acre inheritance to his youngest brother Seth
who had remained on the farm.
The couple had four children: Charles Cecil
(b. Jan 20, 18971981),William Leonard (b Nov
10, 1902), Della Lucille (twin b. Oct 13, 1907), and
Wingate Henry Truitt (twin, born and died Oct 13,
1907).
Image: LR: Wingate Henry, Wm. Leonard, Charles Cecil, Della Lucille, Ida Belle
Garrett
Ida Belle died on 21 Jun 1946 at the age of 72 and is buried in Rose Hill Cemetery,
Pittsburg, Camp County. Wingate Henry died at the age of 85 on 18 Aug 1954, eight years
89"Ella L Johnson Truitt (1874 1957) 31 Jul. 2014 <http://www.findagrave.com/cgibin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=79231080>
90"James Leonard Truitt (1866 1958) 31 Jul. 2014 <http://www.findagrave.com/cgibin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=79231049>
91"Wingate H Truitt (1869 1954) 22 Jul. 2014 <http://www.findagrave.com/cgibin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=51919525>
175th Anniversary 2015 J.W. & E.J.R. Truitt Texas Legacy 46 / 105
after the death of his wife. He is buried in the same
Rose Hill Cemetery.
_______________
The eighth and youngest child of Bill and 'Liza'
Truitt was their fourth son, Joseph Seth ('Seth')
Truitt, born on 10 Dec 1871 in Concord.92 At the
age of 23, Seth married 18year old Margaret Leona
'Maggie' Collier, daughter of John Thomas Collier
Jr and Nancy Ellen Walker, in a double wedding
with his brother Jim on 26 Dec 1894 in Concord.
She was born on 29 Sep 1876 in Independent
Springs Community, Upshur County.
When Seth was 28, his father died. His father's
property was divided among the boys and Seth
inherited the homestead along with his 100 acres.
By that time Seth’s older brothers had moved away, Jim to Daingerfield where he operated a
telephone exchange and Wingate to Athens and later to Pittsburg where he went into the dry
goods business. Seth bought out his brothers and he and his wife 'Maggie'93 continued to live
in the home place and farm the 300 acres.
Seth and Maggie had seven children, all born in the home place, five of whom lived to
adulthood. These children and their dates of birth were as follows: Roy Clarence (November,
1895); Leona Fay (October 10, 1899); Doris Cecil (April 23, 1901); William Alton (January
23, 1906); Andy (August 19, 1909); L.D. (October , 1911); and Fayrine Glenn Truitt (August
29, 1917).
Seth was a deacon, song leader, prayer leader and served as treasurer for the Concord
Missionary Baptist Church. The Seth Truitt family rode to church in a wagon and seldom
missed a service. Seth and Maggie were also active in the Woodmen Circle that met on the
second floor of the Concord Church one Saturday afternoon a month. Seth Truitt was also a
trustee for the eighth grade Concord oneroom school. Miss Euna Webb, the Concord teacher
for a year or so, lived with the Truitts. She got wet walking to school one day, then caught
pneumonia, and within ten days died in their home. Their farm was located about
threequarters of a mile southeast of the school and church and across the creek. Thus, Seth’s
92"J. Seth Truitt (1871 1928) 22 Jul. 2014 <http://www.findagrave.com/cgibin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=110271748>
93"Maggie Leona Collier Truitt (1876 1965) 22 Jul. 2014 <http://www.findagrave.com/cgibin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=110271773>
175th Anniversary 2015 J.W. & E.J.R. Truitt Texas Legacy 47 / 105
five children walked regardless of the weather about a mile to and from school each day. They
carried their lunches in syrup buckets. At school in the winter. the boys were responsible for
building and keeping a fire in the potbellied stove.
Seth built and operated a gristmill on the northwest corner of the crossroads intersection
in the Concord Community. On their farm, he also built a syrup press for processing sugar
cane into syrup, and stocked syrup buckets to can the syrup. Maggie helped Seth with the
plowing and milking when she finished her housework and cooking duties.
Around 1920 Seth bought into his brother Wingate Truitt’s dry goods business in
Pittsburg. He moved his family off his Concord farmland into Pittsburg where his children,
Alton, L.D and Fayrine, could finish the remaining eleven grades and graduate with high
school diplomas.
A few years later, on March 18, 1928, Seth died in Baylor Hospital of Dallas from a
ruptured appendix. The Pittsburg physicians had been treating him with quinine and castor oil,
not realizing he had appendicitis.
Seth and Maggie Truitt’s oldest son, Roy, married Lula Burrows who had taught at
Concord and other nearby rural schools. At the time of their marriage, the Truitt family was
living in Pittsburg and Roy was working for a Pittsburg bank. They married on October , 1923
in Concord. They had one son, Roy Clarence Truitt, who was born February 2, 1933, in
Athens, Texas. Between 1929 and 1960, Roy became coowner and manager of a chain of
five Piggly Wiggly stores and a grocery warehouse. He passed away in 1986.
Seth and Maggie’s second child was a daughter, Leona Fay, who died of consumption on
October 14, 1905, at the age of five.
Seth and Maggie’s third child, daughter Doris Cecil, married Harvey Leon Hudgins of
Union Ridge on December 14, 1919, in Ewell in Upshur County. They had a son, Royce Leon
Hudgins, born November 19, 1920, in Gilmer. Leon and Doris Hudgins bought a general
merchandising store in 1926 that was located on the southwest corner of the square of Gilmer.
A year later, they changed the name to Hudgins and continued selling dry goods, price goods,
shoes and clothing for men, women and children. When they last remodeled in the 1960s, they
continued selling only shoes and clothing for men and women.
175th Anniversary 2015 J.W. & E.J.R. Truitt Texas Legacy 48 / 105
The words you are searching are inside this book. To get more targeted content, please make full-text search by clicking here.
Truitt_2015.06.09_1720_w_RNHP-cover
Discover the best professional documents and content resources in AnyFlip Document Base.
Search