1. Jacob SHOOK was born in 1771/1780 in North Carolina. He died before 7 Jan 1858 in Columbia County, Arkansas.

Jacob Shook was born in North Carolina sometime during the years 1771-1780. His parents were probably Johann Jacob and Isabella (Weitzell) Shook of Clyde in Haywood County. There is no direct proof of this link, but there is significant circumstantial evidence. Johann Jacob Shook had a son named Jacob who "moved west." Both men had children named Jacob, John, Daniel, and Elizabeth (and Jacob's son Daniel had a daughter named Isabella). And both men were fervent Methodists (as were four of Jacob's sons and several of his grandchildren). Interestingly, Johann Jacob's son Jacob, who long since had moved from North Carolina, was the only son named in his will to share equally in his estate. Perhaps he did so in acknowledgment of a Methodist activist father's pride in his successful Methodist missionary son.

Jacob was a pioneer in the part of the (then) recent Louisiana Purchase that would become the states of Missouri and Arkansas. In 1805, he was one of 539 men who signed one of 20 copies of a "Memorial To The President By Citizens Of The Territory" in support of Governor Wilkinson. The text of the memorial was:

"Understanding that reports unfavourable to Governor Wilkinson have been diligently cir[culated] throughout the United States, by which he is represented as unpopular and obnoxious to the People of this Territory, We the undersigned, perfectly satisfied with the administration of our Governor, and convinced that these Reports, so unfounded and injurious to him and ourselves, have taken their origin in a few discontented Spirits, unfortunately in Office in this Territory, in this public manner, evince our Confidence in the Governor, our Approbation of his Conduct and of his general Popularity."

The memorial was forwarded to President Jefferson on December 27, 1805. Governor Wilkinson remained in office for two more years. Unfortunately, the copy of the memorial that Jacob signed did not identify the district of the signers, as did some of the copies. ("Territorial Papers - Louisiana-Missouri Territory" 1803-1806, Volume XIII pages 329-345)

In late 1809 or early 1810, he was one of 360 petitioners who signed one of 7 copies of a petition to Congress requesting that the citizens of the Territory of Louisiana (the northern part of the Louisiana Purchase which included the territory that eventually became Missouri) be allowed to elect their own legislature. The text of the petition was:

"To the honourable Senate and House of Representatives of the United States, In Congress assembled.

The Petition of the undersigned inhabitants of the Territory of Louisiana,

Most Respectfully Sheweth.

That they have waited with anxious but silent expectation for the arrival of that period, when in pursuance of the treaty by which Louisiana was ceded to the United States, they are to be admitted "according to the principles of the federal constitution, to the enjoyment of all rights, advantages and immunities of Citizens of the United States." These rights they do humbly conceive cannot be enjoyed while the judicial and legislative powers are vested in the same persons. Where powers are combined which the constitution requires should be separate, and where the makers of laws, is also obliged to expound, and to decide upon them.

Your Petitioners are fully impressed with the idea that legislative powers are never better, not more satisfactorily exercised than when committed to those persons who are elected for that purpose by the people themselves, whose conduct must be regulated by those very laws thus made. The inhabitants of the territory of Orleans, have already obtained those rights which your petitioners now ask, and to which they deem themselves also entitled. The last returns of the militia of this territory will be found to exceed those of the Indiana and Mississippi territory, and the number is daily increased by rapid emigrations to this territory. Confiding therefore, in the justice and wisdom of your honorable bodies, they most respectfully ask, that a law may be passed for enabling the inhabitants of this territory to have and enjoy the rights and privileges consequent upon a second grade of territorial government, and that the same may be established in this Territory.

And your petitioners as in duty bound will ever pray."

The petition was referred to Congress on January 6, 1810 and on June 4, 1812 the Missouri Territory, with some privileges of self-government, was carved out of Louisiana Territory. There was no identification on the petition of which districts the signers represented. ("Territorial Papers - Louisiana-Missouri Territory" 1806-1814, Volume XIV, pages 357-362)

Jacob and his brother (or cousin) Alexander were pioneer Methodist missionaries in Hempstead County in the southwest corner of Arkansas, close to the Texas/Arkansas border. Their arrival and life-style is described in "The Old Town Speaks" by Charlean Moss Williams:

"In 1814, a company of emigrants came into Arkansas from southwest Missouri. In this company were John Henry, and Alexander and Jacob Shook, Methodist missionaries. When they reached the Arkansas River, at a point which is now Little Rock, they had to wait on the opposite bank until a ferryboat could be built before they could cross the stream. Much of the way, the party had to cut out a road as they trekked along, some in wagons, and some on horse back. On reaching their destination, Mound Prairie, they erected the first house of worship ever erected on Arkansas soil, and named it Henry Chapel, in honor of John Henry who preached the first Methodist sermon ever preached in Arkansas. The spot is marked by a stone slab with names and dates inscribed thereon..."

and

"These trail-blazers cut out roads, established ferries on the rivers and cleared up the farm lands. There were as yet no domestic animals here; the settlers lived on fruits, berries, fish and flesh of wild animals until their farms began to yield food. Bear meat took the place of bacon and pork, the opossum and coon were plentiful also. It was not unusual for the heads of families to get up before daybreak and go a few hundred yards from their homes and kill a deer or wild turkey, and the river bottoms were full of bear. Buffalo roamed the plains just across the Red River, and once or twice a year the settlers would band together and go by boat up that stream to where Clarksville, Texas, now is and bring back boat-loads of buffalo and divide it out among themselves..."

That he returned to Missouri after his initial trek to Hempstead is clear from the fact that his sons Jefferson and Jacob Wright were born there in 1820 and 1823. We know that Jacob lived in the area that was to become Madison County, Missouri from the minutes of the first county court meeting which was held on July 12, 1819 and for which he was a grand juror. (Goodspeed's History of Southeast Missouri.) In the "my, how times have changed" department, they returned indictments for assault and battery, larceny, cow-stealing, horse-stealing, and hog-stealing. In the "nothing has changed" department, the relatively minor assault and battery cases all resulted in convictions (and most in fines) whereas all of the alleged perpetrators of the crimes of larceny and rustling were set free. [Note - Madison County, Missouri was formed in 1818 from parts of Cape Girardeau and St. Genevieve Counties.]

Jacob permanently moved from Madison County in Missouri to Hempstead County in Arkansas in either 1827 or 1828. Records in Madison County Deed Book B show that he sold land to Job Westover and others on March 29 and April 6, 1822, to George Nifong on October 20, 1824 and February 21, 1825, and to John Vaughn on March 20, 1827 and November 10, 1828.

Federal land patent records show that he obtained 160 acres in Hempstead County in 1827. Hempstead County Court records show that he was a permanent resident by 1828. Jacob obtained 160 additional acres in Hempstead County in 1837 and 80 more acres (as an assignee of Daniel Tracy Witter) in 1843.

The approximate year of his birth can be determined from the 1840 Hempstead County census wherein he is listed as being between 60 and 69 years old. He had two 15-19 year old males and one 20-29 year old female in his household that year. They lived in the township of Ozan. The males were probably Jefferson and Jacob Wright. The female was probably Elizabeth. We conclude from this census that his wife was dead by 1840, and she is possibly lost to history. His last will and testament was written in 1853 and probated in Columbia County, Arkansas on January 7, 1858. In it he mentioned his children John, Mahala, Elizabeth, Jefferson, Jacob Wright, Daniel, Nathan, and Hiram Shook.

Jacob married (UNKNOWN). (UNKNOWN) died before 1840.

Her name was possibly Elizabeth.

Jacob and (UNKNOWN) had the following children:

+ 2 M i. John SHOOK was born about 1806 and died before 1860.

3 M ii. Hiram SHOOK was born about 1809 in Missouri Territory.

Hiram was identified by Jacob Shook in his will in which he stated "Item, I give devise and bequeath to my son Hiram Shook the sum of five [dollars] to his heirs in addition to what I have already heretofore given and advanced to him, to be paid by my executors out of my estate." It is possible that the transcribing clerk omitted [dollars to him and] instead of just [dollars], or, maybe Jacob meant to infer that Hiram was already dead when he wrote his will in 1853.

There was an A. H. Shook who came to Texas in November 1839. He received a third class headright grant of 320 acres in Galveston County. The land became conditionally his on December 7, 1839. Jacob's sons Daniel, Nathan, Jefferson, and Jacob Wright first came to east Texas about this time. This man may well have been Jacob's brother Alexander or his son Hiram. A. H. Shook is not listed in the 1850 Texas federal census.

There was a Hiram A. Shook who lived in Pike in Stoddard County, Missouri in 1850. He born in the Missouri Territory in about 1809 and we know that Jacob Shook was from nearby Madison County. This bit of evidence is quite circumstantial, but it certainly is possible that this Hiram was Jacob's son. If so, he apparently decided to stay in Missouri when Jacob finally moved his family to Arkansas. His household in 1850 consisted of his wife Sarah (28, born in Tennessee) and children (William (16), Perry (14), Henry (7), Mary (4), and Nancy (1). The children were all born in Missouri. Sarah was too young to have been William and Perry's mother if her age was actually 28 in 1850, so she may have been Hiram's second wife. Henry could have been Sarah's son. Mary and Nancy were probably Sarah's children. Hiram named his wife and living children in his will in 1859 thusly; "....I give to my beloved wife Sarah Shook all my personal property, money, and credits (My land and real Estate excepted) that she may have the means to support and educate our children....I give my land or real Estate to my children whose names are as follows (to wit) America A. Shook, William M. Shook, Henry W. Shook, Mary J. C. Shook, Cornelia A. Shook, and Permina A. Shook and that I declare the same to be my legal heirs and devise that they share and share alike in their aforementioned real Estate or in the proceeds of said Land when sold. And further more I give to my beloved wife Sarah Shook the control and use of the farm on which I now live during her natural life...."

+ 4 F iii. Mahala Emily SHOOK was born on 25 Dec 1810 and died on 21 Feb 1884.

+ 5 M iv. Daniel SHOOK CSA was born in 1812/1814 and died in 1884.

+ 6 M v. Nathan SHOOK was born in 1812/1820 and died in 1849.

+ 7 F vi. Elizabeth SHOOK was born in 1815/1820.

+ 8 M vii. Jefferson SHOOK was born in 1820 and died in 1872.

+ 9 M viii. Jacob Wright SHOOK was born on 29 Jan 1823 and died in Mar 1882.

Second Generation

2. John SHOOK (Jacob) was born about 1806 in Missouri Territory. He died before 1860 in Arkansas.

John Shook was named as a son in Jacob Shook's will and he was bequeathed 1/5th of Jacob's estate. John and his brother-in-law James Henry were named by Jacob as co-executors of his estate.

John was a signee of a petition by residents of Hempstead County in 1830 to block a land application of unknown villains in favor a Major W. Hickman. The petition gives some insight into the necessities of the time, and shows that dirty tricks are nothing new.

"Be it known to All Whom it may concern. That we the undersigned Citizens of the County of Hempstead and Territory of Arkansas. Do hereby Certify, that Major William Hickman of the County & Territory aforesaid. Bought the improved interest of a Certain Widow Fowler in and to a Saline or Salt Lick lying and being in Section Eleven, Township Ten and Range Twenty Nine West (Which he subsequently entered, together with Other parcels of land) in the Land Office at Little Rock and after Incredible expence [sic] and labor proceded [sic] to the Manufacture of Salt, for the use and Consumption of the People of this section of Country:

We have Great Pleasure bearing Testimony to the laudable and Conspicuous merit of Major Hickman for Supplying us abundantly with an article of so Considerable domestic utility as Salt, at a price One Hundred Per Cent less than it could be Obtained for from Others, when by taking advantage of our Necessities and the inoperative Management of Other Salt Makers, he might have Established and exacted the most extravagant prices from us - Major Hickman has realized by his own honest and persevering industry, a little property which has drawn down upon him, that malignant envy from which deserving men, are hardly ever exempt:

Applications have been made we understand for Leases of the Woodland adjoining and indeed Surrounding his entries for the avowed purpose of Cutting Off his fuel Supplies

We do however hope that the exaulted [sic] policy and Characteristic liberality of the General Government will treat those Applications with the Contempt which Such unworthy Motives usually inspire-

Dated at Washington Hempstead County A. T. the 20th day of January A D 1830."

The petition was signed by forty-one citizens of Hempstead County and accompanied by the statement "I have examined the Signatures affixed to the within cirtificate [sic] and freely State that they are respectable Citizens in the neighborhood of the Salt works, occupied by Mjr Hickman, and would confide in their representations - William Trimble."

It is not known if John was a Methodist preacher like his father and brothers, but it is known that he was a Justice of the Peace in Hempstead County. John was also a farmer. He received two federal land grants totaling 120 acres in Hempstead County in 1837. A third grant for 40 additional acres in 1843 was canceled.

His household in Ozan in Hempstead County in 1840 consisted of a male 30-39 years old (John), a female under 5, two females 5-9, a female 10-14, and a female 20-29 years old (Nancy). The female who was under 5 was surely Ellen. One or both of the females who were under 10 could have been his children by his short and ill-fated marriage to Susan Williams. The one female who was under 15 may have been a child by an unknown marriage of either John's or Susan's, a niece, an in-law, or even a neighbor's child. None of the later three appeared in his household in the 1850 Ouachita County, Arkansas census (in which he is listed as John Shuk). There was, however, a Susan Shock [sic] in the household of John W. Williams in Hempstead in 1850. John W. Williams was surely Susan William's father, and he was the minister for the wedding of John and Nancy Brimberry.

John disappears from the record in 1853 when he was named as co-executor of Jacob Shook's will. It is not known whether he or his brother-in-law James Henry was administrator of Jacob's estate in 1858. See the notes for Nancy Brimberry concerning a move of the family to Texas in about 1860.

John married (1) Susan WILLIAMS on 8 Sep 1831 in Hempstead County, Arkansas. Susan died on 11 Sep 1833 in Arkansas.

They had the following children:

10 F i. Susan SHOOK was born about 1834 in Hempstead County, Arkansas.

John also married (2) Nancy BRIMBERRY on 23 Nov 1837 in Hempstead County, Arkansas. Nancy was born on 15 Jul 1811 in (probably) Illinois. She died on 12 Jan 1880 in Bosque County, Texas and was buried in Brazos Point.

Nancy's birth date is given as July 15, 1811 on her head stone. She is believed to have been the daughter of John and Agness (Beethe) Brimberry of Illinois. The census record concerning her place of birth is confusing. It is listed as Kentucky in 1850, as Illinois in 1860, as Tennessee in 1870, and as Illinois (by her son William) in 1880. She is mis-identified as Nancy Brinberry in "Hempsted County, Arkansas Marriages 1817-1875."

Sometime shortly before the 1860 census was taken, Nancy temporarily left two of her minor children (John and Phineas) in the care of John Hood in Ouachita County and moved to Erath County in Texas with her three other minor children (William, Elizabeth, and Ira.) For some unknown reason she is listed in the 1860 Erath County census as Nancy Howard (there was also a four year old Missouri Howard in the household.) She applied to the court in Bosque County, Texas for guardianship of the five children in 1861. Guardianship was granted and a $400 bond was set, for which Albert Sowell and J. M. Locker stood security. A few years later Phineas married Paralee J. Sowell and Ira married Frances Melissa Locker.

She died on January 12, 1880 and is buried in Brazos Point Cemetery in Bosque County.

John and Nancy had the following children:

11 F ii. Ellen SHOOK was born about 1838 in Arkansas.

There is no known record of Ellen except the 1850 Ouachita County census. Hopefully, she married and lived happily ever after.

12 M iii. William H. SHOOK CSA was born about 1840 in Arkansas.

William's wife's name was Sarah. She was born in Alabama in about 1836. They had two sons, Benjamin W. Shook who was born in about 1861 and Thomas James (or James Thomas) Shook who was born in about 1863. On May 5, 1862 in Fairfield in Freestone County, William enlisted for three years as an infantry private in B Company, Waul's Texas Legion. He was captured at Vicksburg, Mississippi on July 4, 1863 and was paroled on July 9th after signing an oath that he would "not take up arms again against the United States." His unit was reorganized as A Company, Timmon's Regiment, Texas Infantry and sent to guard the Texas coast at Galveston. He had suffered thru starvation and defeat at Vicksburg, his brother lay dying or dead, and guarding the Texas coast must have seemed a worthless occupation to a young, married, farm boy from central Texas. William had had enough. He was reported as "absent without leave" on the Regiment Returns for November 1863 and as "deserted" on the Regiment Returns for April 1864. William had returned to his family in central Texas. He lived in Milan County when he collected his pension many years later.

A legion is a military unit composed of infantry, cavalry, and artillery components. Waul's Texas Legion, the only true legion of Texas troops in the Confederate States army, was raised in and around Brenham in [the] spring of 1862 by Thomas Neville Waul. It originally consisted of twelve companies of infantry, six companies of cavalry, and a six-gun battery of field artillery with a total complement of 2,000 men. The first infantry battalion was originally commanded by Lt. Col. Barnard Timmons and the second by Lt. Col. James Wrigley. The cavalry battalion was first led by Lt. Col. Leonodias Willis and the artillery battery by Capt. William Edgar. The legion was assigned first to Arkansas and Louisiana. There, owing to the difficulty associated with commanding mixed arms, it was stripped of its cavalry and artillery components. In October 1862 the infantry companies were transferred to Mississippi and reorganized into two battalions of six companies each. Attached to Gen. John C. Pemberton's Army of Vicksburg, the legion played a stalwart role in that city's defense. With the exception of a single company, then on detached duty, it was captured with the fall of Vicksburg on July 4, 1863. Paroled by mid-July, the members of the legion reorganized in Houston and were assigned to duty protecting the Texas coast in the region of Galveston. With Waul's promotion to brigadier general, Timmons was promoted to colonel and assumed command of the legion, serving in that capacity until the end of the war. [Handbook of Texas Online]

13 M iv. John B. SHOOK CSA was born about 1842 in Arkansas. He died before Mar 1864 in the Civil War.

John made the fateful decision of his life in Fairfield in Freestone County on May 5, 1862 when he enlisted for 3 years as an infantry private in B Company of Waul's Texas Legion. He was captured at Vicksburg, Mississippi on July 4, 1863 and was paroled on July 9th after signing an oath that he would "not take up arms again against the United States." His health was broken and he was reported as "left in hospital." He was subsequently reported as "absent sick" on the Regiment Returns for November and December 1863, and as "dead" on the Company Muster Roll for January-February 1864.

See the notes for William H. Shook for a brief history of Waul's Texas Legion.

14 M v. Phineas E. SHOOK was born about 1845 in Arkansas.

Phineas married Paralee Josephine Sowell in Bosque County on March 2, 1868. Josephine was born in about 1851.

15 F vi. Elizabeth Paralee SHOOK was born about 1849 in Arkansas.

+ 16 M vii. Ira Bynum SHOOK was born on 6 Jan 1853 and died on 28 Jan 1929.

4. Mahala Emily SHOOK (Jacob) was born on 25 Dec 1810 in Missouri Territory. She died on 21 Feb 1884 in Arkansas.

Mahala was named as a daughter (and identified as the wife of James Henry) by Jacob Shook in his will. She was bequeathed 1/5th of his estate.

Mahala married James HENRY. James was born on 14 Nov 1810 in Missouri Territory. He died on 26 Mar 1895 in Arkansas.

James is probably the son of the John Henry with whom Jacob and Alexander Shook came to Hempstead County, Arkansas in 1814. He was a successful farmer. The value of his real and personal property was $16,000 in 1860.

James and Mahala had the following children:

17 F i. Rebecca Hulse HENRY was born on 20 Mar 1835 in Arkansas. She died on 22 Feb 1906.

18 F ii. Lovie Emily HENRY was born on 20 Oct 1839 in Arkansas. She died on 23 Sep 1923 in Eastland, Texas.

19 F iii. Caroline HENRY was born about 1841 in Arkansas.

20 M iv. Hugh J. HENRY was born about 1844 in Arkansas.

21 F v. Lucinda? HENRY was born about 1848 in Arkansas.

22 M vi. H. Bascom HENRY was born on 6 Jun 1851 in Arkansas. He died on 18 May 1931.

23 F vii. Elizabeth HENRY was born about 1853 in Arkansas.

5. Daniel SHOOK CSA1 (Jacob) was born in 1812/1814 in Missouri Territory. He died in 1884 in Texas.

Daniel was identified by Jacob Shook in his will in which he stated "Item, I give devise and bequeath to my son Daniel Shook the sum of twenty five dollars to him and his heirs in addition to what I have already heretofore given and advanced to him, to be paid by my executors out of my estate."

Tracing Daniel thru the census record we find that he was born in the Missouri Territory and that he lived (with his father) in Hempstead County, Arkansas in 1830, in Sevier County, Arkansas in 1840, and in Paris in Lamar County, Texas in 1850 and 1860. We find his wife, Emily, as head of household in Bonham in Fannin County, Texas in 1870. Based on the years and states in which his children were born, we see that he moved from Arkansas to Texas in about 1845.

The following biographical information is from A History Of Fannin County: "A circuit rider was a pioneer preacher in Fannin County. Daniel Shook (1812-1884) held many Methodist meetings in Fannin county in the late 1840s. Daniel's brothers also settled in Texas. Nathan and Jefferson Shook were preachers in Clarksville, Dallas, Paris, and Bonham. Their father was Jacob Shook, a native of N. C. Daniel lived first in Hempstead County, Ar. with his father Jacob. Daniel, a native of Missouri, and wife Emily (1822-1901), a native of Tennessee, were parents of Martha, Jacob and Laurena, who married C. F. Wilson of Bonham; Edwin; Elzira; who married John Lawrence of Bonham; Edonia, William D. and Henry B."

The following biographical information is from The History and Genealogy of Some Pioneer Northern Alabama Families: "Dan was a Methodist minister and was the first "circuit rider" in Texas. He organized the first Methodist Society in the home of Isaac Webb on May 5, 1845 (the year that Texas became a state); the members were Isaac B. and Mary Webb, Mrs. W. M. Cochran, M. F. Fortner and Mrs. Fortner. This was where Dallas now stands."

Daniel was also a farmer. He received a second class headright of 640 acres in Red River County on January 3, 1839. (1840 Citizens of Texas, Vol. 1 Land Grants.) He was the original owner of land in Lamar County (abstract 872) and Fannin County (abstract 1011). In the 1860 census of Lamar and Fannin county males born between 1811 and 1847 (and thus eligible for military service in the Confederate States Army) it is stated that he was 46 years old, was born in 1814, was a farmer, lived in dwellings 30 and 31 in Precinct 5, and had real and personal property worth $6000.

On June 10, 1861 he enlisted as an Orderly Sergeant in Hill's Lamar Cavalry No. 2. This unit was organized that day by Captain James Hill at Persimmon Grove in Lamar County. On page 324 of Lamar County Deed Book L it is stated that the Company "is a volunteer Company and [is] attached to the Texas Militia Battalion organized under the act to incorporate volunteer companies approved February the 15th, 1858." Lamar and Hopkins counties were in the 9th Military District and the company was attached to the 9th Brigade of Texas Militia and Texas State Troops. These units were mustered for home guard duty and were not allowed to leave the state.

It is not known exactly when or where Daniel died. The biographical sketch in "A History Of Fannin County" gives 1884 as the year of his death, but he was not listed in either the 1870 or 1880 census.

Daniel married Emily (UNKNOWN) about 1840 in Arkansas. Emily was born on 3 Nov 1822 in Tennessee. She died on 24 Nov 1901 in Bonham, Fannin, Texas and was buried in Wind Willow Cemetery.

Emily was born in Tennessee, her father in Virginia, and her mother in South Carolina. She was head of household in Bonham in 1870. She was a boarder in the household of her son-in-law John Lawrence in Bonham in 1880. Her daughter Dona C. Shook lived with her in Bohnam in 1900.

In the 1900 census, Emily stated that she was a widow who had had four children, three of which were still living. Census records indicate that she had eight children.

Daniel and Emily had the following children:

24 F i. Martha E. SHOOK was born about 1841 in Arkansas.

Martha married Thomas A. Wilson. They were the parents of Ceilia J. Wilson who was born in 1872 in Denton County, Texas. Ceilia married a Mr. Cavender in Denton.

+ 25 M ii. Jacob A. SHOOK CSA was born about 1843.

+ 26 F iii. Lorraine Isabella SHOOK was born on 4 May 1846 and died on 21 Nov 1914.

27 M iv. Edwin J. SHOOK was born about 1848 in Lamar County, Texas.

28 F v. Mary E. SHOOK was born about 1851 in Lamar County, Texas.

She married John Lawrence who was born in Sweden in 1847. They were the parents of Lee Lawrence who was born in Bonham in 1879.

29 F vi. Edona C. SHOOK was born about 1855 in Lamar County, Texas.

In the 1900 Fannin County census, Dona stated that she was single and that she was born in March 1860. As Shakespeare said, "vanity, thy name is woman." She was a fire insurance agent in Bonham.

30 M vii. William D. SHOOK was born about 1857 in Lamar County, Texas.

William is not listed in the 1870 census. He probably died as a young boy.

31 M viii. Henry B. SHOOK was born in 1860 in Lamar County, Texas.

6. Nathan SHOOK (Jacob) was born in 1812/1820 in Missouri Territory. He died in 1849 in Texas.

Nathan was identified by Jacob Shook in his will in which he stated "Item, I give devise and bequeath to my son Nathan Shook the sum of twenty five dollars to him and his heirs in addition to what I have already heretofore given and advanced to him, to be paid by my executors out of my estate. The Bond or obligation which I had against my said son Nathan [in the sum of ] one hundred and fifty dollars is included in the property and heretofore advanced him and he is not to pay the amount of said bond or obligation to my executors or heirs." The will was written in 1853 and speaks of Nathan in the present tense, the importance of which will soon be revealed.

Nathan is mentioned as "...one of the early settlers of this vicinity" in the chapter dealing with Hempstead County in Goodspeed's "Southern Arkansas."

Nathan is also mentioned in the Shook biographical sketch in "A History Of Fannin County" as a son of Jacob and a brother of Daniel and Jefferson Shook, and is identified as preacher in Clarksville, Dallas, Paris, and Bonham.

The following biographical sketch for Nathan Shook appears in "Montgomery County Texas History." It was submitted by O'Veta Morris Blackburn:

"Methodist Circuit Preacher Nathan Shook (born 1812-20, Missouri) came to the Texas Methodist Conference in 1840 from Hempstead County, Arkansas, where he and at least three brothers were ordained to preach. Brothers Daniel, Jefferson, Jacob and Nathan Shook all served early Texas Methodism.

Nathan Shook married 25 May 1842, Montgomery Co. Lorena/Laurena Robinson, daughter of William and Elizabeth Robinson. [Montgomery County Texas Marriages 1838-1904, Book 1]

In 1841 Nathan Shook had twenty preaching stations on the Crockett Circuit; it took him four weeks to cover the three hundred miles of travel. His description of the Crockett Circuit was:

'6 tolerable good societys & some other places a few members. Some warm hearted Christians, some very cold ones the people to whom I have to preach is made up of a variety of stuff it is given up by all to be the worst place in the republick.'

When the East Texas Conference was created in 1845, Nathan Shook was given an appointment to Clarksville, Red River County, which he later gave up 'in order to take care of his family.' In 1847 he was a property owner in Lamar County, south of Howland and near the Sulphur River. Family tradition is that he went to California in the Gold Rush and died there. Lorena Shook was listed as a widow on the Walker County 1850 Census. In the 1860s she was a school teacher in Coryell County. She never remarried. Buried in Pearl Cemetery, Coryell County, her death date is 17 February 1907. Several of her children's tombstones are nearby."

Finally, Vivian W. Andrew wrote the following notes about Nathan in her biographical sketch of his son John Wesley Shook in "Vignettes Of Coryell County" by Claude and Mabel Bailry, 1976: "Nathan was a minister and surveyor, and when a party organized to go to California at the time of the Gold Rush, he went along as a surveyor and left Lorena with her father...."So far as my grandmother knew, not one of the party was ever heard from again. Many of the wagon trains were demolished by Indians," said Mary T. Andrew in July 1969."

Nathan actually came to the Republic of Texas on June 11, 1837. He received a 2nd class headright of 640 acres in Montgomery County which became unconditionally his on September 6, 1839. Nathan(iel) was on the 1840 San Augustine County tax roll. He paid taxes on one poll, a saddle horse, and a silver watch. (1840 Citizens of Texas, Vol. 1 Land Grants and Vol. 2 Tax Rolls). He is listed in the 1842 Montgomery County census, and is identified in their marriage books as an ordained M. E. preacher. He later owned land in Delta County (abstract 462).

Nathan may not have gone to California in 1849. The following story entitled "Nathan Shook - alleged gang member" was furnished by William N. Greer, whose second great-grandfather Nathaniel Hunt Greer was also alleged to have been involved in the gang.

Nathan Shook - alleged gang member

First, an extract of a confession by a gang member in August 1849 ...

"...Rev. Nathan Shook makes land certificates, has the seal and everything necessary for the same. I saw Parson Shook making out some land papers at Short's. He then went out on the Guadalupe, where Mr. McPeters stole a fine mare belonging to Mr. Estill, and swapped her to Parson S. for a likely gray mare, also stolen property. Short went to the Guadalupe with Shook, and they returned together; Shook slept until midnight, and left my brother's. Since [then] I have not seen him. He preaches a first-rate sermon, I hear: I know he makes a good land title. At or near Crockett are three Longs (no connection of Maj. Long, who sometimes sports the turf with Mr. Guy Stokes.) At or near the same place are two Pearsons: these men receive and trade on stolen horses, and assist in harboring and running off negroes..."

Second, an article in "The Northern Standard" of Clarksville, Texas (issue of September 1, 1849) ...

"Look out for Rascals.

A few weeks since, a desperado named Bostick, was killed in La Grange by General Mayfield in self defense. An examination of his letters and papers disclosed an organized gang of negro thieves, robbers, and murderers extending from Missouri to the Rio Grande. Several of these have been taken, and some summarily executed. Others remain in confinement awaiting trial. Thomas Short, one of the gang, was pursued and arrested at Natchez, Miss., where he had taken a stolen negro to sell. His confession showing the ramifications of the gang, their objects and the names of the active participants, we republish from the Texas Ranger of the 17th of August, in order to put the people of Northern Texas upon their guard. It seems that a personage who has officiated in this section as a clergyman is mentioned as an active operator, and a forger of land certificates. Short intimates that he suppresses the names of others holding respectable stations in [the] community because of their families. It should be brought to light however [that] a man should be spared against whom [no] evidence exists to corroborate the statements which this fellow may make. Sanctimonious hypocrisy should be exposed but expositions of men hitherto supposed respectable should not be made upon such testimony alone. We will give the other confessions, which are shorter, and in part the same substance as this, in our next issue."

[The 8 Sep 1849 issue is not on the microfilm, and apparently has not survived.]

Third, an article from the "Bonham Advertiser" that was rerun in the December 22, 1849, issue of the "Texas State Gazette", page 139 ...

"Parson Shook.

A gentlemen recently from Cherokee county informs us of a rumor current there, that Parson Nathan Shook had been hanged at Crockett, in Houston county. It will be recollected that Shook was named in the confession of Thomas Short as a party to sundry thefts, counterfeiting of coin, land certificates, &c. When apprised [sic] of these charges he surrendered himself and was committed to the jail in Lamar county. Nothing new appearing against him, the Sheriff was unwilling to detain him, and set him at liberty. According to our informant, Shook then went to Crockett, the very place where some of his alleged crimes were said to have been committed, and placed himself in custody, to await the preferment of charges. A mob soon gathered, took him from the Sheriff, and executed him forthwith. We give this account as we received it. We hope it is not true. If it be, the mob who have thus insulted a public officer, and trampled upon the law, should be hunted with blood hounds, if necessary, and brought to justice. Shook may, or may not, have been guilty. That is not the question; he was entitled to the investigation which he sought. If every suspected man is to be thus dealt with; God pity him who may incur the malice of a confessed scoundrel for the testimony of just such a scoundrel is all that has appeared against Shook. We would be glad to know if this report is erroneous; for we would not that the stigma of such a deed should rest upon any portion of our State."

On page 141 of the "Gazette" another announcement, reprinted from the "Texas Times," adds that the Lamar county jail was in the town of Paris, and that Nathan Shook was released, his accuser "not having appeared with the required proof of his guilt, within the time specified" but does not mention his lynching which would seem, from these accounts, to have occurred in early December.

None of the above confirms that the lynching actually took place. On the one hand we have Bebe Ulrich of the Houston County TXGenWeb site reminding us that "this particular time period as the heart of the rough and ready times - people just weren't very genteel, and took the law into their own hands fairly quickly" and on the other hand we have Jacob Shook using the present tense when he mentions Nathan in his will which he wrote in 1853, some four years after the rumored lynching. However, based on the fact that Nathan's wife was listed as a widow in the 1850 Walker County census, and the family tradition that Nathan went to California in the Gold Rush and died there, the mob lynching story may well be true. If it is, then, unfortunately, Nathan found Crockett to be truly the "worst place in the republick."

Nathaniel Hunt Greer and at least three other frontiersmen accused of being gang members by Thomas Short went to the newspapers to proclaim their innocence. Only Nathan placed his faith in the law. William Short was hung and his body was left to the wolves and buzzards. Thomas Short was acquitted. One of the convicted gang members became the first inmate at the Texas State Penitentiary in Huntsville and was pardoned within a year or so by the governor.

Nathan married Lorena ROBINSON, daughter of William ROBINSON (Texas Rev.) and Elizabeth HORN, on 21 May 1842 in Montgomery County, Texas. Lorena was born on 28 Sep 1819 in Arkansas. She died on 17 Feb 1907 in Coryell County, Texas and was buried in Pearl Cemetery.

"Lorena Shook was listed as a widow on the Walker County 1850 Census. In the 1860s she was a school teacher in Coryell County. She never remarried. Buried in Pearl Cemetery, Coryell County, her death date is 17 February 1907. Several of her children's tombstones are nearby." (Montgomery County Texas History)

William Robinson's interesting life is sketched by O'Veta Morris Blackburn in "Montgomery County History" and in "History Of Walker County Texas."

Nathan and Lorena had the following children:

32 M i. Joshua P. SHOOK CSA was born about 1843 in Texas.

J. P. Shook enlisted as a private in G Company of the 7th Texas Mounted Volunteer Cavalry Regiment from Walker County in 1861. He was 18. He was killed in the Civil War.

33 M ii. James Osgood Andrew SHOOK CSA was born about 1845 in Texas.

Osgood was a farmer and Methodist preacher.

He enlisted in I Company, McCord's Frontier Regiment, Texas Cavalry on August 1, 1863 at Camp Colorado. He furnished his own horse and equipment. The horse was valued at $175 and the equipment at $50. He was stationed at Fort Anderson in Grimes County. Osgood lived in Harris County when he applied for his pension. His wife, Mattie, lived in Harris County when she collected it after his death.

34 M iii. John Wesley SHOOK was born about 1847 in Texas.

The following biographical sketch of John Wesley Shook and Cynthia Jane Lewis and their family was written by their granddaughter Vivian W. Andrew for "Coryell County Families." The sketch is entitled SHOOK-LEWIS and includes a photograph of the family which was taken in 1897.

"The John Wesley Shook family of Pearl counted the Robinson, Lewis and Peden names in its background. First to come to Texas was the Robinson family, in 1829. Laureno Robinson married Nathan Shook, a Methodist preacher, in 1842, and John Wesley (1846-1921) was the youngest of their three sons. He grew up in the Robinson home, and was a boy of eight when they moved from Walker to Coryell County in 1854.

Cynthia Jane Lewis was born near Rome, Georgia, and came to Texas in 1849 at age six. The family lived in Cherokee, then Freestone, before coming to Coryell County. Jane was a teenager during the Civil War and lost a brother in a northern prison camp. One story handed down was how she carried her shoes until she got almost to church, then put them on. She and John Wesley were married in 1869 and lived happily together until her death in 1912.

In 1875 the family moved from Owl Creek to western Coryell County. The cove near Live Oak Gap stayed in the Shook family until 1952, and descendants still made sentimental trips there to see "our old tree."

John Shook had diversified talents: carpenter, farmer, rancher, and harvester. His account book lists many families for whom he cut grain. However, his real love was the ministry. He was a licensed local preacher, and did mostly supply work. Jane also had a strong Methodist background and the Pearl Methodist Church was organized in their home.

Seven children survived to adulthood. Joshua (1871-1927) married Sarah Cox; their children: Frankie, Frieda, Lucian, Lorraine, Leon, J. H., Clarence, and Jack. Clarence (1873-1951) and Ida Williamson were married in 1895 and had two children: Ouida, who married Dan Jones, and Gordon, who married Myra Merle Adams of Meridian. Carrie (1874-1962) married Wesley Cooper in 1879 [sic]. Their children were Gladys, Gladyne, Garland, and Graydon. Bessie (1876-1966) and Will (1880-1952) never married. Mary Ted (1882-1974) married Will Andrew and had seven offspring: Shook, Shannon, Dorothy, Vivian, W.G., Katherine, and Winifred. John Wesley Jr. "Dick" (1884-1962) married Etta Roberts. Roger and Shirley were their children.

Clarence, "C. J." Shook spent most of his life in the Pearl community. He ran a grocery store, bought cotton, hunted Indian artifacts, and led the singing at the Methodist Church. Will stayed on the farm until his death in 1952, exerting his quiet, steady influence in the community. From 1927 Ted and her orphans lived with him. Bessie began teaching in her teens, riding horseback across the "mountains" to her first school. Her long and distinguished career as an English teacher ended after World War II. The three other children also left the county. Josh is buried in Stephensville, Carrie in the Pearl Cemetery, and Dick in Bentonville, Arkansas, where he retired after long residence in Canyon, Texas.

The family is still represented in Pearl, in 1984, by Mrs. Myra Shook and Mrs. Dorothy Andrew Carroll."

The following biographical sketch of John Wesley Shook was also written by his granddaughter Vivian W. Andrew and was extracted from "Vignettes Of Coryell County" by Claude and Mabel Bailry, 1976. Those who reported incidents in the life of John Wesley were his daughters, Miss Bessie Shook and Mary T. Shook Andrew, and a granddaughter, Mrs. Quida Shook Jones.

"J. W. Shook (1846-1921) was the third son of Nathan and Lorena Robinson Shook. Nathan was a minister and surveyor, and when a party organized to go to California at the time of the Gold Rush, he went along as a surveyor and left Lorena with her father. Nathan married Lorena in 1842 and she bore him four children before he went away in 1849. John Wesley was one of the children. "So far as my grandmother knew, not one of the party was ever heard from again. any of the wagon trains were demolished by Indians," said Mary T. Andrew in July 1969.

In 1869 John Wesley married Cynthia Jane Lewis (1843-1912) a native of Georgia who was the daughter of Lotspeich and Elizabeth Jane Lewis of Oglesby....

When John Wesley and Jane moved to Pearl in 1875, Lorena went along and made her home with them. After reaching the frontier at Pearl, the Shooks offered their home for the organization of a Methodist Church. Among the charter members were Grandpa's sister, Mary and her husband W. G. Davenport....

In 1887 Grandpa was licensed to preach, and in 1892 at Waco he was ordained a local deacon. Except for part of one year, he did only local ministerial work, but he loved to preach, and as long as he was physically able to had appointments at needy places near home.

Quoting from Aunt Bess in Grandpa's obituary: "No man loved the great hymns of the church more than Father did. He loved to sing them, and he knew dozens of them. As a child, I used to go with him to the market twenty-five miles away, and he would frequently sing hymns all the way along the country road."

The ministers who served the early rural churches traveled from community to community on horseback, carrying a Bible, a tuning fork, and a hymn book. This writer has seen the hymn book that was carried by John Wesley Shook, and it was hand written. No group of people is entitled to more praise than the circuit rider. With a gun in one hand and a Bible in the other, he brought comfort and cheer to many lonely men and women. (Mears, Scrapbook of Coryell County.)

Although preaching was Grandpa's great love, there was a living to be earned for a growing family. He farmed, tried his hand at raising cattle, was a fair carpenter, and by 1886 owned a reaper for the use of which he had a respectable list of clients. Tradition has it that he erected the second barbed-wire fence in the county.

Religious training came naturally in the Shook family. Aunt Bess recalled that each morning the family rose, dressed and had morning prayer -- "to feed the spirit before the body." My mother added that sometimes Grandpa would get carried away by his own eloquence and Grandma would say, "Hurry it up, John Wesley, my biscuits will burn!"

Uncle Clarence (Quida's father) remembered when Grandpa came back in the house one late evening after he had checked on his stock at the barn, threw his gun on the table and said, "This is the last time I am going to carry a gun. I think we are peaceful enough that no gun-toting is necessary." And he kept his word.

Another story Quida remembers was when there were a number of "outlaws" around Evant who were causing trouble. Some of the Evant citizens and perhaps an officer of the law chased one man over Live Oak Gap and down, and caught him just south of Grandpa's house. They had a rope and were about to hang the man from one of the oak trees close to the house. Grandpa walked out and told them that he was a peace loving man and that there would be no violence on his property. He convinced them enough that they left. Quida did not know if they finally hanged the man or not.

But some events even his forceful personality could not affect. A postcard was found addressed to Clarence and bearing the following message:

Dallas, April 3, 1912

Dear Clarence,

We are here at Peacock Hotel, 1922 1/2 Elm St.; got here at 9:30 o'clock last night. Just got back from the Doctor. He thinks he will make a final cure this time.

J. W. Shook

But, his Jane died April 22, before he got her back home.

J.W. Shook was the grandfather of Gordon Shook of Pearl."

Finally, the following paragraph relating the history of the Pearl Methodist Church was extracted from "Historical Markers In Coryell County."

"A group of Methodist gathered in the home of the Rev. John Wesley Shook (1846-1921) in the winter 1875-76 to organize a congregation. Early worship services were held in the Hope Schoolhuse. In 1890 landowner Charley Karnes (1854-1933) gave the Methodist Church three acres of land on which to build a sanctuary. By 1892 a Sunday school was in operation, and in 1900 a Parsonage was built near the Church. The existing sanctuary was erected about 1919-20, and the Parsonage was sold in 1953. Serving the people of a large area, the size of the Church's membership varied over the years. As the population of surrounding communities began to grow, members of Pearl Methodist Church withdrew to help organize new congregations. In October 1975 the Church celebrated its centennial with a special program involving descendants of J. W. Shook and other early members. Four years later, in March 1979, the congregation voted to disband and the Church was officially discontinued by the Methodist Denomination. The Church property was given to the Pearl Cemetery Association in 1985. Pearl Methodist Church stands as a reminder of the area's early heritage."

35 F iv. Mary J. SHOOK was born about 1848 in Texas.

Her husband was William G. Davenport.

7. Elizabeth SHOOK (Jacob) was born in 1815/1820 in Missouri Territory.

Elizabeth Pearce was named a daughter and identified as "formerly Elizabeth Shook" by Jacob Shook in his will. She was bequeathed 1/5th of his estate. In 1850 she lived in Franklin Parish in Louisiana. Her husband died that year and she returned to Arkansas. In 1860 she was a farmer in Ouachita County with real and personal property valued at $3,390.

Elizabeth married (1) P. L. SMITH on 3 Jan 1836 in Hempstead County, Arkansas.

Elizabeth also married (2) John Harris PEARCE2, son of Benjamin Franklin PEARCE and Selah Celia) HARRIS, in 1842 in Union County, Arkansas. John was born on 18 Oct 1796 in Georgia. He died on 8 Dec 1850 in Franklin Parrish, Louisiana.

John Harris Pearce was married twice before his marriage to Elizabeth. His first marriage was to Mary Robertson Tooke, daughter of William Tooke and Mary Gatlin, on May 23, 1823 in Pulaski County, Georgia. They had five children; Edmund Jackson Pearce (1828), Sarah Gatlin Pearce (1829), Rebecca Ann Pearce (1832), William Tooke Pearce (1833), and Benjamin Franklin Pearce (1835). Edmund died after a duel with M. P. Dailey, his wife's sister's husband. Sarah helped raise her half-sister Paralee after the death of their father. His second marriage was to Millie Neals in Lowndes County, Alabama in 1837.

John and Elizabeth had the following children:

36 F i. Mary E. PEARCE was born about 1844 in Arkansas.

37 M ii. John W. PEARCE was born about 1846 in Arkansas.

John, his wife, and their 2-year old child lived with his mother in Lafayette in Ouachita County in 1870.

38 F iii. Paralee Josephine PEARCE was born in 1849 in Arkansas.

Paralee married Sam Walker. They had three daughters, Bessie, Katie, and Lottie, and a son whose name is unknown. The daughters lived near Alexandria. The son lived in Columbia and was the editor of the Caldwell paper.

8. Jefferson SHOOK (Jacob) was born in 1820 in Madison County, Missouri Territory. He died in 1872 in Cherokee County, Texas.

Jefferson Shook was named as a son in Jacob Shook's will and he was bequeathed 1/5th of Jacob's estate. He is mentioned in the biographical sketch of Daniel Shook in "A History Of Fannin County" as a son of Jacob, as a brother of Daniel and Nathan, and as a preacher in Clarksville, Dallas, Paris, and Bonham. He is mentioned in the biographical sketch of Nathan Shook in "Montgomery County Texas History" as a brother of Daniel, Nathan and Jacob, and as a Methodist preacher. It is stated in "Pastors of the DeKalb United Methodist Church" that he was a Pastor there in 1841/42 and again in 1843/44. He lived in Liberty County, Texas in 1850. The following article from the "Handbook of Texas Online" states that he settled in Cherokee County in the 1850's:

"Shook's Bluff was an early port on the east bank of the Neches River in southern Cherokee County. The community, on a small bluff overlooking the river, was named for Jefferson Shook, a native of Missouri who settled there in the 1850s and opened a mercantile establishment. Before the arrival of the railroad, Shook's Bluff was the northernmost port on the Neches and was a shipping point for area plantations. Steamboats made annual trips when the river was at flood stage, bringing supplies and carrying cotton and other produce to market. A post office opened at Shook's Bluff in 1858, and at its height just after the Civil War, the settlement had a store, a saloon, a school, a cotton gin, and a Masonic lodge. The community began to decline in the 1870s with the arrival of the railroads. The post office was closed in 1876, and by the 1880s most of the residents had moved away. A school continued to serve the community until the time of World War II, when it was consolidated with the Wells school. In the early 1990s only a few scattered houses remained in the area."

The following biographical information was extracted from the Jefferson Shook Family biographical sketch submitted to "Cherokee County History" by A. Ruth Fitts:

"Jefferson Shook (1820-1872) native of Missouri, came to the Republic of Texas Cherokee Nation (Cherokee County) just three years after the Cherokee Indians were defeated by the Republic of Texas Army and banished to a reservation in Oklahoma. Gen. Thomas J. Rusk, Col. Ed Burleson, and 300 Republic of Texas Army regular troops defeated the Cherokee Indians led by Chief Bowles [sic] in retaliation for the massacre of' the Killougli and related families at Larissa. The Rev. Jefferson Shook, a newly ordained circuit-riding minister of the Methodist Church, and his bride, the former Mary Smith, were the first of the family to arrive in what later became Cherokee County. In 1843 the minister became an appointee of the East Texas Methodist Annual Conference, forerunner of today's Texas Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church. In his ministry he served DeKalb, Maintain Mission, Clarksville, Paris, [New] Boston, Jefferson, Crockett, Liberty, Woodville, Melrose, and Rusk Methodist Churches and circuits, the latter in 1866. His letters to his wife share much of the trials and tribulations he experienced. The Rev. Mr. Shook operated a ferry at what is known as Shook's Bluff. He wrote interesting letters about his experiences there. It is recorded that at one time he owned The Texas Observer newspaper, known today as The Cherokeean, in Rusk. He studied law and became an attorney-at-law in Rusk, where he served also as a judge. His portrait hangs in the courthouse along with one of his son, Jefferson Early Shook, also an attorney and judge...."

Jefferson is perhaps the J. H. Shook who first came to Texas in December 1840 and received a third class headright of 320 acres of land in Wharton County. The land became unconditionally his on April 12, 1847. (1840 Citizens of Texas, Vol. 1 Land Grants.) He was the original owner of land in Cherokee County. This land is described in Abstract 819 on file at the county courthouse and at the Texas General land Office in Austin.

Jefferson married Mary A. SMITH. Mary was born in 1829/1830 in Tennessee.

They had the following children:

39 M i. Andrew S. SHOOK was born in 1847 in Texas.

40 F ii. Elizabeth M. SHOOK was born in 1848 in Texas.

Elizabeth married Jas L Bozeman in Cherokee County, Texas.

41 F iii. Lurena W. SHOOK was born in 1850 in Texas.

42 M iv. Jefferson Early SHOOK was born in Aug 1854 in Nacogdoches, Texas. He died on 8 Mar 1919 in Mount Pleasant, Texas.

Jefferson Early Shook married Martha Baldwin Stout on July 13, 1873 in Rusk, Cherokee, Texas. Martha was the daughter of Harrison Crawford Stout and Elizabeth Jane Munkres. She was born December 4, 1858 in Rusk and died April 15, 1923 in Wichita Falls, Texas.

The following biographical information was extracted from the Jefferson Shook Family biography submitted to "Cherokee County History" by A. Ruth Fitts:

"...His [Jefferson's] portrait hangs in the courthouse along with one of his son, Jefferson Early Shook, also an attorney and judge. His grandson, William Harrison Shook, was also an attorney.

Jefferson Early and Martha Baldwin Stout Shook had: (1) Blasingaine; (2) William Harrison; (3) Jefferson Early; (4) Winona; (5) May.

William Harrison served as an attorney many years in Cherokee County, then moved with his wife, Daisy Tittle Shook, to Dallas where he continued to practice law. Their children: (1) Harold; (2) John Lewis, associated with his father in law practice; (3) Virginia; (4) Samuel, in electrical contracting and appliance in business several years in Jacksonville after World War II until moving to Dallas and resuming work as an electrical engineer.

Jefferson Early [Jr.] and Sinia Morris Shook and children, Mary and Early, moved to Fort Worth, Tex., after living several years in Rusk. It is recorded that he was a newsdealer in Fort Worth. The son, Early, graduated from Texas A. & M. University as an electrical engineer.

Blasingame and Olive Montgomery Hardwick Shook moved to Oklahoma to work for the Hollis Post-Herald. Their children, Blasingame, Thomas Early, and Maynard, moved there with them.

Milton Harbison and Winona Shook Harbison and daughter, Katheryne, moved to Dumas, Tex.

May Shook m. Carter Hill Fitts of' Rusk and continued to live there the rest of her life."

A biographical sketch of the Carter Hill Fitts family with photographs of Carter, May, and three of their grandchildren is also included in the volume.

43 M v. Theophilus A. SHOOK was born in 1857 in Texas.

44 F vi. Mary J. SHOOK was born in 1859 in Texas.

45 F vii. Rebecca C. SHOOK was born about 1867 in Cherokee County, Texas.

Rebecca married M. J. Ronald Millburn on June 1, 1886 in Cherokee County, Texas.

9. Jacob Wright SHOOK (Jacob) was born on 29 Jan 1823 in Madison County, Missouri. He died in Mar 1882 in Florida.

Jacob Wright Shook was named as a son in Jacob Shook's will and he was bequeathed 1/5th of Jacob's estate. He is identified as a brother of Daniel, Jefferson and Nathan, and as a Methodist preacher, in the biographical sketch for Nathan found in "Montgomery County Texas History."

For some unknown reason, he decided to live and work primarily in northwest Arkansas. Traces of him are found in Benton, Marion, Madison, and Washington counties, as well as Saline County. An article in the November 23, 1849 issue of the Democrat newspaper told of the appointment of J. W. Shook to the Carrollton Circuit of the Arkansas M. E. Conference. He was performing marriages in Saline County in 1851. He lived in Benton County in 1860. He is identified in the census that year as a "Methodist Clergyman" who was born in Missouri. An article in "Marion County Churches" by Mrs. Bernice Johnson states: "Mr. T. J. Estes in Early Days and War Times in North Arkansas tells of Parson J. H. Wade coming to Yellville and holding a meeting in a brush arbor. (This was probably after the burning of the church building when he re-organized the Methodist work in this area.) There were around one hundred confessions. He was assisted in these meetings by Parsons Shinn and Shook, two more of the pioneer preachers." An article in the Goodspeed Publishing Company's 1889 "History of Benton, Washington, Carroll, Madison, Crawford, Franklin, and Sebastian Counties, Arkansas" states that the Huntsville territory of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South was reorganized immediately after the Civil War by Reverend Jacob Shook. He lived in Washington County in 1870. He is identified in the census that year as a farmer and his real estate and personal property was valued at $2300.

The following memorial was transcribed by Vivian W. Andrew from the notes of the November 15-20, 1882 Arkansas M.E. Conference held at Bentonville, Arkansas.

"Jacob W. Shook was born in Madison County, Missouri, January 29, 1823. At seven years of age his father and family moved to Hempstead County, Arkansas, where he grew up to manhood. He joined the M.E. Church as a seeker of religion at fourteen years of age, and in a few months afterward embraced and publicly professed religion. He was admitted on trial in the Arkansas Annual Conference, M.E. Church, in 1845, and remained effective until the conference of 1869, at Fayetteville, when he located and remained thus for three years. In 1872 he was readmitted, and five years afterward became supernumerary at the Fayetteville Conference of 1877, and was continued in this relation until the Conference of 1880, at Fort Smith, when he was appointed to the Illinois Circuit, and in August of 1881 was compelled by failing health to desist from active labor, having in April of that year undergone the deep sorrow of losing by death his devoted and estimable wife, whose maiden name was Sarah Hulsey, to whom he was married March 24, 1853.

In March of 1882 he went to Florida hoping to recuperate his health, but was attacked by pleurisy, and after a painful illness of several days, attended by one of his sons, he closed his ministry on earth, and was called, we doubt not, to a bright reward on high, leaving two sons, with their families, and the Church to mourn his loss. His ministry ran through a term of nearly thirty-seven years, during which time he was recognized by all who knew him as a humble, devoted man of God, true to the Church, and full of faith and the Holy Ghost. The absence of proper data forbids furnishing the various appointments he filled in the Conference. Suffice it to say he filled a number of important appointments - was chosen immediately after the war to come west, as presiding elder of the Fayetteville District, and reorganize as best he could our scattered flocks, many of whose homes had been laid desolate in ashes by the sad fortunes of war. A man of God has fallen from our ranks whose soul was fired with love to God and man, whose preaching was often in demonstration of the Spirit and in power. Let us gird up our loins, and press on to meet and greet him on the bright celestial shores."

Jacob married Sarah HULSEY, daughter of Hardin HULSEY and Nancy SMALLEY, on 24 Mar 1853 in Arkansas. Sarah was born on 24 Oct 1830 in Arkansas. She died in Apr 1881.

They had the following children:

46 M i. Charles A. SHOOK was born about 1854 in Arkansas.

47 M ii. Emory S. SHOOK was born about 1856 in Arkansas.

Third Generation

16. Ira Bynum SHOOK (John, Jacob) was born on 6 Jan 1853 in Arkansas. He died on 28 Jan 1929 in Somervell County, Texas and was buried in White Church Cemetery.

Ira married Frances Melissa LOCKER "Melissa" on 31 Aug 1870 in Texas. Melissa was born on 16 Nov 1851 in Arkansas. She died on 6 May 1926 in Somervell County, Texas and was buried in White Church Cemetery.

Ira and Melissa had two sons and five daughters, the eldest child being a son, Joseph Emerson Shook.

Ira and Melissa had the following children:

48 M i. Joseph Emerson SHOOK.

The following vital data and biographical sketch was provided by Virginia Shook Bills, granddaughter to Joseph Emerson and Minnie Florence Shook.

He was called Emerson or, more affectionately, "Big Child" by his friends and family.

Joseph Emerson Shook, b. June 18, 1871, Texas, d, March 30, 1949, Somervell County, Texas, m. August 14, 1889, Minnie Florence Bagby, b. July 24, 1872, Missouri, d. October 30, 1961, Somervell County, Texas, both are buried at White Church Cemetery, Somervell County, Texas. Emerson and Minnie had six sons and five daughters: Nora Delia Shook Garner, b. April 4, 1891, d. August 13, 1973; Grover E, Shook, b. February 3, 1893, d. July 11, 1968; Ada M. Shook, b. October 25, 1894, d. July 11, 1895?; Arthur Marion (Bill) Shook, b. March 3, 1896, d. October 13, 1967; Joseph Herman Shook, b. March 20, 1898, d. July 30, 1962; Artie Florence (Sally) Shook Sandlin, b. February 28, 1900, d. January 22, 1967; Bercha Shook Underwood, b. September 8, 1901, d. February 28, 1991; Bynum Taylor Shook, b. August 28, 1903, d. July 29, 1986; Baby Boy Shook, b. April 14, 1905, d. May 19, 1905; Clyde Lois Shook, b. September 14, 1908; Olen Dee Shook, b. June 18, 1912; Lola Dee Shook, b. June 18, 1912, d. June 19, 1912.

These children were reared on a farmer’s income mostly on rented farms. They lived on the Brazos River, at Rainbow, Nemo, Buck Creek, etc., then Seven Knobs, and moved to Lanham Mill community on the Paluxy River, back to Seven Knobs, and back to Lanham Mill community in 1934. It was there that Emerson and Minnie quit farming and in the fall of 1934, sold their household plunder and moved to the Plainview area in the panhandle of west Texas. There they lived with daughter Delia and her family and also with son Bill and his family.

Bill Shook was Sheriff of Hale County while Emerson and Minnie lived with him. During that time Minnie pieced lots of quilts, setting them together with "Bull Durham" tobacco sacks which the prisoners in the jail saved for her. After they returned to Somervell County from the plains, they moved in with their bachelor son, Herman, who owned a store and filling station at the intersection of the Rainbow road and Highway 67. This is where they lived when Emerson passed away.

The Shook family was a happy family, with everyone working hard and when they had time, they played hard. When the family lived on the Brazos River, Emerson and his boys did a lot of fishing. If at all possible they left the field at noon on Saturday and went to the river for the rest of the weekend. Emerson arose early, about 4:00 a.m. each morning and put in a full day in the field. He wanted to be in the field in time to see the sunrise and left the field just before sunset. It is said he later began getting to the field just after the sun rose, as one morning when beginning to pick cotton before full light, he almost picked up a rattler.

Emerson was a large man weighing around two hundred fifty pounds in his prime. When he spoke his voice rumbled, but he could be sweet and kind or gruff and stern as the situation called for. He and Minnie had extra boys living with them from time to time. They helped raise several of their nephews. She always said with as many boys as she had to feed, one more didn’t make any difference. The milk pitcher on her table at every meal was a two-gallon crock.

As the children married and left home, Sunday dinner at their house became a family occasion. It was always a huge meal, with lots of good food and lots of kinfolk. The men always ate first, after Emerson said grace, while the women waited on the table. After they were finished the women and children ate, sometimes the chicken was scarce by that time.

Minnie was always busy working in the fields and doing the everyday chores to raise a large family. In later years she had something wrong with her legs which confined her to a wheel chair. She always said they gave out and were just too weak to stand on. She was older when this happened and at first Emerson walked behind her partially supporting her weight in order for her to do her house work and chores. Later she had a wheel chair and used it for the last twenty or so years of her life.

25. Jacob A. SHOOK CSA (Daniel, Jacob) was born about 1843 in Arkansas. He died in Joplin, Jack, Texas.

Jacob enlisted as a private in Hill's Lamar Cavalry No. 2 on June 10, 1861. He then enlisted as a private in F Company, 11th Regiment, Texas Cavalry at Camp Reeves in Grayson County on October 2, 1861. This Regiment was also known as the 3rd and as Young's. His enlistment was for 12 months. He was 18 years old. His service record for October 2 to December 31, 1861 shows him present and contains a remark that he was sick. His record for August 31 to December 31, 1862 (which was dated January 14, 1863) reports that he was "missing in battle at Murfreesboro Dec the 31st AD, 1862." Jacob arrived at Camp Douglas in Chicago, Illinois on January 27, 1863, along with the other prisoners from the battle the Union called Stone River. His internment was reported to the Confederate General of Prisoners in February 1863, and he was one of 688 prisoners of war paroled for exchange at City Point, Virginia on April 6, 1863. His record for December 31, 1862 to April 30, 1863 shows him present. His record for July 1 to December 31, 1863 shows him absent and remarks that he had been "absent without leave since 12 Dec 1863." This was three months after the Battle at Chickamauga. His record for November 1, 1863 to February 29, 1864 has the remark "Deserted Dec 12, 1863 and dropped from rolls Feb 4, 1864 by order of Gen. Martin." Jacob's health was broken and he came home because of lingering effects of measles and chronic bronchitis contracted during the war. He stated in his Confederate Pension Application indicates that he had not deserted and that he served until the close of the war. The application was disapproved in September 1899 because his 76 year old mother did not "remember the Command of time of service." Ill treatment, indeed, for Pea Ridge and Murfreesboro and Chickamauga and a lifetime of pulmonary disability.

The following brief history of the Eleventh Texas Cavalry was adapted from "The Handbook Of Texas Online."

"The military history of the Eleventh Texas Cavalry resembles a summary of the major campaigns of the Civil War. This regiment was among the most frequently engaged of all Texas units, participating in over one hundred fifty various engagements, and in all three theaters of the war....The unit officially mustered into Confederate service on October 2, 1861, at Camp Reeves in Grayson County, as....the Eleventh Texas Cavalry Regiment under General Ben McCulloch's Army of Arkansas. The regiment received immediate orders to report to Fort Smith, Arkansas to suppress a large party of dissident Creek and Seminole Indians. Under the command of W. C. Young, the Eleventh Texas Cavalry regiment engaged in two battles in Indian Territory by the end of December at Chustenahlah and Hopo-eith-le-yo-ho-la. In both engagements the Regiment proved its military skill inflicting over 200 casualties on enemy forces while sustaining only one of its own. Following these successful engagements the regiment moved north toward Missouri to join Brigadier General Ben McCulloch's army. On March 6, the regiment dismounted and engaged Union forces at Bentonville, Arkansas. The following day the bloody fighting continued at Pea Ridge, where Union sharpshooters killed Ben McCulloch. The men of [the] Eleventh Texas distinguished themselves in both engagements serving as advance parties attacking the Union lines. Due to their outstanding performance, and the dire need for forces east of the Mississippi, the regiment was assigned to McCowan's Division, First Brigade on April 29, 1862 and ordered to Corinth, Mississippi. The regiment continued to serve as dismounted cavalry through several deadly battles until after the Battle at Chickamauga (September 1863) where they were incorporated into Major General Joseph Wheeler's cavalry corps and remounted. For the remainder of the war, the men of the Eleventh Texas cavalry were brigaded with the 8th Texas cavalry and served in virtually every major engagement of the Army of Tennessee. On April 26, 1865, General Joseph E. Johnston surrendered the regiment at Durham Station, North Carolina."

Jacob and his spouse had the following children:

49 F i. Caroline SHOOK was born about 1864 in Texas.

50 F ii. Frances SHOOK was born about 1870 in Missouri.

51 M iii. L. SHOOK was born about 1873 in Joplin, Jack, Texas.

52 F iv. Nellie SHOOK was born about 1879 in Joplin, Jack, Texas.

26. Lorraine Isabella SHOOK "Lou" (Daniel, Jacob) was born on 4 May 1846 in Lamar County, Texas. She died on 21 Nov 1914 in Buffalo Community, Coleman, Texas and was buried in Old Salem Cemetery, Brown County, Texas.

She was called Lorena and she called herself Lou. Her marriage license was issued to Miss L. G. Shook. It is noted on her head stone that she was a member of Eastern Star.

Following is the text of a letter she wrote the year before her death to her granddaughter, Willie (Wilson) Blevins:

"Santa Anna Tex Nov 4 1913

Mrs Willie Blevins

Lake Creek

Dear gran Daughter I will try to answer your most welcom letter glad you are all up hope this will find you all doing well I feel tolrable well I eat so much Dinner I dont feel good had Beef Supe your mama an the children come down & spent the day last Saturday the first time that she has walk here in 10 or 11 months she is looking better than for a long time the rest are all well well we sure do have lots of bad weather most all the time cloudy rain or cold Mrs Fox is still with me Ola Maud is sick I guess she will die well this is 5 letters I have wrote to day and one more to write yet I hope you and Lester are getting a long all right and made a good crop give him my Love and oh my that Boy kiss him for me I will close and write to him Love to you all write soon yours Lovingly gran ma Lou Wilson"

Ola Maud died, Lester and Willie made good crops, and "That Boy" was their son Alton who grew up to be a successful athlete, businessman, and wildcatter.

Her granddaughters Ida Fay (Wilson) Guthrie and Gertrude (Wilson) Farmer were taken to visit her grave some 67 years after she died and the smiles on their faces spoke volumes.

Lou married Cortez Franklin WILSON "Frank", son of Benjamin R. WILSON and Margaret Caroline BRITTAIN, on 23 Nov 1865 in Fannin County, Texas. Frank was born on 17 May 1838 in Village Springs, Alabama. He died on 15 Jun 1911 in Buffalo Community, Coleman, Texas and was buried in Old Salem Cemetery, Brown County, Texas.

Frank was born in north central Alabama in 1838. He lived in or near Village Springs on the Blount and Jefferson county line until his family moved to Ladonia in Fannin County in northeast Texas in 1852. He worked on his father's farm until 1860. In that year he lived in the household of Joseph Bryant in Clarksville, Red River County, Texas. Bryant was a saddler and had two other young men in his household. The three were also listed as saddlers and were probably apprentices. We know from his Civil War records that he was in Ladonia in May 1861, in Dallas in June 1861, and in much of the Oklahoma Indian Territory, Missouri, Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia with the Third Texas Cavalry until May 1865. He returned to northeast Texas after the war and married Lou. For some unknown reason, they moved to Neosho in Newton County, Missouri some time after Allie's birth in 1866 and before Henry's birth in 1869, and then returned to Texas sometime before the 1870 census was taken. The family lived in Timber Creek in Hunt County, Texas in 1870 and in Montague County, Texas in 1880. He and Lou finally settled in Buffalo Community in Coleman County, Texas. Their home there was called Kelly Place. A photograph exists of Kelly Place with Frank, Lou, and Allie standing in the garden in front of the house. He died in 1911 and is buried in Old Salem Cemetery in Brown County, Texas.

It is noted on his headstone that he was a Civil War veteran (4th Sgt 3 Regt Texas Cal CSA). His service record identifies him as 4th Sergeant, Company D, 3rd Texas Cavalry (South Kansas Texas Reg't. Mtd. Vols.). The record shows he volunteered for a 12 month enlistment in Ladonia on May 25, 1861, and was mustered into service in Dallas on June 13, 1861. He furnished his own horse and gear which were valued at $115 and $15 respectively. He was promoted to 4th Sgt. before November 1861. In the May/June 1862 record it was noted that he was sick and had been left in Corinth. In the March/April 1863 record it was noted that he was on detached duty in Columbia. His last record is dated May/June 1864.

The following history of the Third Texas Cavalry has been adapted from The Handbook of Texas Online:

Col. Elkanah B. Greer mustered the Third Texas Cavalry Regiment into Confederate service at Dallas on June 13, 1861. The original unit consisted of 1,094 officers and men recruited principally from a dozen counties of Northeast Texas: Cass, Cherokee, Harrison, Hunt, Kaufman, Marion, Rusk, San Augustine, Shelby, Smith, Upshur, and Wood. With Lt. Col. Walter P. Lane as second in command, George W. Chilton as major, and Capt. Mathew D. Ector as adjutant, Greer led the ten companies north across Indian Territory to join Brig. Gen. Benjamin McCulloch's forces near Springfield in July 1861. The unit was the first regiment of Texas volunteers to serve outside the state. Greer's troops participated in the Confederate victories at Wilson's Creek, Missouri, on August 10, 1861, and Chustenahlah, Indian Territory, December 26, 1861. They were present but not engaged on March 7-8, 1862, at Pea Ridge, Arkansas, where McCulloch lost his life. The unit, which had been consolidated with Sterling Price's command before Pea Ridge and absorbed into the army of Maj. Gen. Earl Van Dorn, was transferred to Corinth, Mississippi, in the spring of 1862. In the fever-ridden campgrounds around Corinth, forty-three troopers from the Third Texas died from the effects of epidemic disease. An additional 200 officers and men were discharged as disabled, over age, or under age in the course of the general reorganization of the Confederate Army on May 20, 1862. Nevertheless, the regiment played a significant role in Gen. Pierre G. T. Beauregard's successful evacuation of Corinth on the night of May 29-30, 1862.

The regiment, reorganized as part of Maj. Gen. Sterling Price's Army of the West, came briefly under the command of Col. Robert H. Cumby, who was succeeded by Col. Hinche P. Mabry on June 26, 1862. Mabry served as regimental commander until March 29, 1864, when he was replaced by Lt. Col. Jiles S. Boggess, who remained the unit's commander until the end of the conflict. The Third Texas sustained its most severe one-day loss on September 19, 1862, when twenty-two men were killed, seventy-four wounded, and forty-eight captured in the battle of Iuka, Mississippi. Shortly thereafter, on October 3-4, the regiment participated in Van Dorn's costly and unsuccessful attack on the Union fortifications at Corinth. Two months later the Third Texas formed part of Van Dorn's cavalry column, which staged the spectacularly successful Holly Springs raid, thereby delaying Union Major General Ulysses S. Grant's projected attack on Vicksburg by half a year. In February 1863 the troopers marched north into Tennessee to engage Union forces south of Nashville. There they participated in the Confederate victory at Thompson's Station on March 5. Later in the spring the regiment was ordered back to Mississippi, where it took part in the ultimately fruitless effort to defend Vicksburg and Jackson, Mississippi, against the Union advance.

After the fall of Vicksburg in July 1863 the East Texans bivouacked in Mississippi for ten months, during which time they were chiefly engaged in fending off Union raids into the interior of the state. On December 16, 1863, Col. Lawrence Sullivan Ross took over permanent command of a brigade formed from the Third, Sixth, Ninth, and Twenty-seventh Texas Cavalry regiments, and the men in these units thereafter fought together as Ross's Brigade until the end of the war. In May 1864 Ross's men hastened to north Georgia to serve as flankers in Gen. Joseph E. Johnston's defensive line against the advancing Union forces under the command of Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman. Under fire before Atlanta, the Third Texas engaged in almost continual skirmishes, as well as in the battles of Rome, New Hope Church, Lovejoy's Station, and Jonesboro, Georgia. After the fall of Atlanta on September 2, the regiment joined Gen. John B. Hood in his disastrous Tennessee campaign. Serving as part of the rear guard under Maj. Gen. Nathan B. Forrest, the Third Texas played a signal role in preventing the destruction of Hood's entire army during its precipitate retreat following the debacle at Nashville on December 15-16, 1864. Decimated and exhausted, the East Texas regiment remained bivouacked in Mississippi during the final months of the war. About half the men were granted furloughs; desertion took a further toll. When the Third Texas capitulated to Union Major General Edward R. S. Canby at Citronelle, Alabama, in May 1865, there were but 207 members of the unit left to surrender.

Frank and Lou had the following children:

53 F i. Allie Caroline WILSON was born in Nov 1866 in Wolfe City, Hunt, Texas. She died in Fort Worth, Tarrant, Texas.

Allie lived in Brown County, Texas in 1900 and is thought to have lived in Mineral Wells, Texas in the early 1900s.

Allie married Christopher Alonzo MCDANIEL on 26 Nov 1884 in Brown County, Texas. Christopher was born in Apr 1859 in Mississippi.

54 M ii. Henry Blacke WILSON was born on 8 Apr 1869 in Neosho, Newton, Missouri. He died before 5 Mar 1931 in Kerrville, Kerr, Texas and was buried in Coleman, Texas.

Henry was born in Newton County in southwest Missouri in 1869 and grew up in Fannin, Hunt, and Montague counties in northeast Texas. His early adult years were spent in Coleman and Brown counties in central Texas. He lived in the Oklahoma Indian Territory in 1903-1905. By 1908 he had moved to Tom Green County in west Texas. By 1912 he had moved to Hildago County in the Texas Rio Grande valley, and from there to Cameron County by 1920. He died in Kerr County in the Texas Hill Country in 1931. His will was probated in Coleman. He is listed in the 1900 Coleman County, 1910 Tom Green County, and 1920 Cameron County, Texas census. He was a Mason

Henry married Julia Catherine WALTON "Katie", daughter of Jacob Crieghton WALTON and Louisa Jane SHANNON, on 4 Aug 1895 in Brown County, Texas. Katie was born on 28 May 1876 in Salado, Texas. She died in Feb 1974 in New Mexico.

55 M iii. Albert Sidney WILSON was born on 29 Jan 1872 in Timber Creek, Hunt, Texas. He died on 28 Dec 1918 in Santa Anna, Coleman, Texas and was buried in Santa Anna Cemetery.

It is not known how or why ASW, as he liked to call himself, came to live in Santa Anna. His place of birth is given as Texas in the census record and as Neosho in Newton County, Missouri in "The History and Genealogy of Some Pioneer Northern Alabama Families." It could be either, but it is believed that he was born in Timber Creek in Hunt County in northeast Texas. He and Georgia took out their marriage license in Marlin in Falls County in 1889, but it was not returned, so it is not known where they were married. Unfortunately, the pivotal census of 1890 was lost. They lived (separately) in Santa Anna in 1900. Sometime between 1900 and 1908 they moved their family from Santa Anna to Miles in Runnels County in a covered wagon and they lived in a dugout while he was building their house. They returned to Santa Anna sometime between 1908 and 1910, and he and Georgia lived there for the rest of their lives.

He was a farmer and a builder. There is a photograph in Volume II of "A History of Coleman County and Its People" showing the partially completed First United Methodist Church in Santa Anna with Albert and his construction crew, which included his son Lawrence. The photograph was taken in 1913 and the church was dedicated on February 14, 1914. Albert liked to fish and to hunt deer, and panther, and birds of all sorts. Several photographs exist of him and his "trophies." His old 10 gauge double-barrelled, hammer-lock shotgun, unfortunately, disappeared after his daughter Willie died.

Following is the text from an undated, unstamped post card to Willie. The card shows the Hotel Galvez in Galveston, Texas:

"Willie Blevins Santa Anna Tex

My Dear girl I Hope you are Enjoying good Health and all of the folks How is Lester Hope He Has gotten by with it well no news for I cant write am awfull sore Love to all

ASW"

Albert married Georgia Allie WYRES, daughter of James W. WYRES and Brilla Ann GROSS, about 13 Jul 1889 in Texas. Georgia was born on 18 Apr 1875 in Marlin, Falls, Texas. She died on 5 Jun 1935 in Santa Anna, Coleman, Texas and was buried in Santa Anna Cemetery.

Georgia's grandfather, Robert Wyres, was a pioneer settler in the Mexican territory of Texas and fought, and was wounded, in the Battle of San Jacinto.

56 M iv. Lawrence Jacob WILSON "Jack" was born in 1874 in Timber Creek, Hunt, Texas. He died in 1948 in Coleman County, Texas.

He lived in Roswell, New Mexico in 1898, Midland, Texas in 1910 and Coleman, Texas in 1920.

Following is the text of a letter he wrote to his niece, Willie Mae Wilson. As you will see, Roswell, New Mexico had strange visitors 50 years before the little green men crash landed.

"Roswell. N.M.

Apr 4 - 1898:

Dear Little Neice [sic]

your kind letter to hand some time ago was glad to hear from you. I think you write such nice letters. You must go to school and be a smart girl and when I come to see you I will buy you some more candy. I would like to see your Papa Mama brother and little sister what is little sisters name How is grandma getting along. I seen a deer this morning it was awful pretty. There is some bear and panther here in town to. How would you like to see them. As I have no news to write will close write soon to me

Your UncleShookHistory.org - Administration

L. J. Wilson"

Jack married Jeanette CAREY "Nettie". Nettie was born about 1878 in Tennessee.