Margaret Elvira Fullerton, the great,
great grandmother of this writer, was born October 18, 1829
in Pickens County,
Alabama,
a little west of Tuscaloosa
and on the western border of Alabama,
directly across from what later would become Noxubee
County, Mississippi. She became an orphan, and went to be raised
by her Uncle Daniel Hefflin, a well-to-do planter who owned a number of slaves
in Neshoba County,
Mississippi,
the next county over on the southwest from Noxubee. Neshoba
County
is situated northeast from the Jackson
area and Philadelphia
is the County Seat. A log school house existed
in that community, and Paul's parents sent him from Jackson
to live with the Hefflin family while attending summer school there.
Paul Collins Abney is steeped in
significant European history. His
earliest recorded ancestor is Haldane "the Old," whose title was the
Earl of the Uplands in Norway,
Viking heritage, who lived in the 700's A.D.
Those Vikings immigrated to the northern coast of France
in what became known as Normandy. That lineage continued and contained William,
the Duke of Normandy, who led his people across the English
Channel to conquer the English Crown from King
Harold at the Battle of Hastings in 1066.
William the Conqueror was crowned King of England on Christmas day,
1066. He is Paul's 6th cousin, 23 times
removed.
Later in the Abney line of descent
appears Sir Thomas Abney of Willesley, who served as Mayor of London circa
1690-1700, and was one of the founders of the Bank of London. Sir Thomas was Paul Collins Abney's 4th
cousin, 4 times removed, and 8 times removed to this writer. He was a leading layman at the St.
Thomas' Church at Willesley. In 1712, Sir Thomas took into his castle to
live for his last 33 years, the musician who wrote much of the hymnody sung in
that church. That hymn writer, many will
recognize, was Dr. Isaac Watts, author of many, many hymns appearing in church
hymnals yet today.
Around 1830, Mississippi
was very undeveloped.
The native Choctaw Indians were forced by Federal authorities to move
west after the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek was signed on September 27, 1830
on the banks of a creek in the southwest part of what later became Noxubee
County. A sign pointing south from State
Highway #14 marks the site.
This treaty ceded all lands from the Alabama
border to the Mississippi River
from the Choctaw Indians for settlement by United
States citizens moving
west. The Indians were relocated in a
new territory called "Oklahoma,"
an Indian term, meaning "land of the Red Man."
It is of interest to know that the
Choctaws are still there, concentrated mainly around the Oklahoma
towns of Canadian and Choctaw in the eastern county
of McIntosh,
about 80 miles south of Tulsa.
Paul married Margaret on December 29, 1845. They were married as sixteen-year-old
runaways in Neshoba
County. Paul's father, Joseph Duncan Abney, was a
prominent minister of the Missionary
Baptist
Church. He was an itinerant preacher. Along the way, he became financially secure,
owning a plantation, other outside lands, and almost 20 slaves. However, by the time Paul and Margaret
married, which occurred when Joseph was on an out of town preaching trip,
Joseph had, through a series of reverses, lost all of his financial security,
except his remaining homestead. After
the "child couple" confronted Joseph with their newly married status,
Joseph managed to accept it and permitted them to lodge in one of the cabins of
his former slaves.
The
Republic
of Texas
joined the United States
on their wedding day. This was the same
year that Congress mandated a uniform election day for presidential elections,
as opposed to states voting on their own schedules. Andrew Jackson, former President of the United
States, died in 1845 at age
78. James K. Polk was inaugurated
President of the United States,
a Democrat, destined to serve only one term.
His Vice President, George M. Dallas, is alleged by some historians to
have had Dallas,
Texas
named for the Vice President. Baylor
University
was established in Waco,
Texas. Many of Edgar Allan Poe’s best known poems
were published this year ... The Raven
... The Fall of the House of Usher .... The Murders in the Rue Morgue. And the New York Knickerbockers was
born, probably the first “organized” baseball team following a set of rules
drawn up by fireman Alexander J. Cartwright.
In 1849, this young couple moved to
Saint Helena Parish, Louisiana,
which is the parish (county) immediately adjacent on the northeast side of the
parish where Baton Rouge
is the State Capital. Next, they moved
to Angelina
County
in East Texas
in 1853, which was on the outer fringe of civilization. Texas
had been a state for only 8 years after 9 brief years as a republic.
Yellow fever took the lives of some
5,000 people in New Orleans
from 1853 to 1855. Vicksburg,
Mississippi
lost 16% of its population to the fever in 1853. Congress authorized a survey to determine the
best route to establish a transcontinental railroad. Mr. Franklin Pierce was inaugurated President
of the United States,
the 14th President .... a
Democrat ... who was not re-nominated by his party in 1856. The Gadsden Purchase was negotiated with
Mexico for the U.S. to acquire some 30,000 square miles of land mostly
representing New Mexico and Arizona today ... at a price of $15 million .... but re-negotiated later to $10 million. Louisiana
State
University
was chartered in Alexandria,
as the Louisiana State Seminary of Learning and Military
Academy. And Gail Borden applied for a patent for
making evaporated milk in a vacuum.
Paul and Margaret settled in Homer,
which then was the Angelina County Seat.
Homer is located southeast of Lufkin
about five miles out federal highway #69.
Though many of the early years provided deep periods of poverty,
especially during the Civil War, Paul later acquired large land holdings, and
his occupations were being a farmer and a surveyor. A subsequent home in Lufkin
was located where the Texas Foundries later stood.
Many of the twelve children borne by
Paul and Margaret had an impact on Lufkin
and Angelina
County. The children were:
James Addison Abney Hampton
Parton Abney
Nathaniel Searcy Abney John
Edgar Abney
William Albert Abney, Sr. Cary
Collins Abney
George Monroe Abney Sarah
Jane Abney
Franklin Pierce Abney Adaline
Juliette Abney
Perry
Collins Abney Emily
Aerphina Abney
It is William Albert Abney, Sr. who
is this writer's great grandfather.
Margaret desired her children to have exposure to the teachings of
Christ, and so she organized a Sunday School meeting
for her 12 children and others in the neighborhood to attend regularly. That effort eventually developed to become
the First Methodist Church of Lufkin in 1882.
Paul C. Abney died May 23, 1894,
and is buried at the Walker
Cemetery
in the Redland Community of Lufkin. Margaret E. Fullerton Abney died December 27, 1919,
and also is buried at Walker
Cemetery.
ABOUT
THE CHILDREN OF PAUL C. AND MARGARET F. ABNEY:
James Addison Abney was born November 6, 1846
in Neshoba County,
Mississippi. He was the eldest child, and the one about
which the most has been preserved in written form, therefore providing for a
more lengthily report at this point.
This was the year the first rotary
press was devised and produced by Richard M. Hoe. It was capable of 8,000 newspapers per hour,
and the first use was in the following year at the Philadelphia’s
Public Ledger. The Pennsylvania Railroad was chartered
in 1846. Anesthesia was given its first
public demonstration before doctors by William T. G. Morton, a Boston
dentist. And the first sewing machine in
the U.S.
with an eye-pointed needle was patented by Elias Howe, who is now called the
father of the modern sewing machine.
Though James Addison Abney was born
a mere ten months following the marriage of his parents, he was actually born
in the seventh month of pregnancy, weighing only three pounds. In a sort of miracle of that day, the baby
survived. He reached a maturity to be
6'2" and weighed as much as 275 pounds.
What would they have thought if they had known he would live to
celebrate his 100th birthday!
In the summer of 1861, at age 15, at
an old time Methodist Camp Meeting at the McEndree Camp Ground, James Addison
Abney followed his father into the Methodist
Church
under the influence of his devoted Christian mother and the inspired preaching
of the Rev. John M. Hamill. This
was Jim's first public profession of Jesus Christ.
He was so large, even in his early
manhood, that at the age of seventeen, he passed for substantial soldier
material and was inducted into the Confederate Army in the Spring
of 1864 by Captain H. G.
Lane, for Company E,
Borders Brigade, Anderson's
Regiment. Captain Lane promptly took
"Big Jim" to Camp
Ford,
near Tyler,
a stockade filled with Union prisoners.
Inexperienced soldiers, such as Jim, were used as guards here.
It was during this service when he
survived a life threatening accident while on guard duty that he rationalized
his total lack, and, sensing the work of the Holy Spirit on his heart, he
reaffirmed in more mature terms his younger commitment to be a follower of
Jesus Christ. Jim later wrote of the
stark poverty and despair which dominated during those war years when the
Confederate troops in his part of the war were held to very ineffective
progress and usually had very little food or supplies. After the war, he was sent home penniless and
barefooted.
Jim, at age 22, was married December 10, 1868
in the Court House square in Angelina County Seat, Homer, to Susan (Susanna)
Elizabeth Davis, a member of the family of Confederate President Jefferson
Davis. Susanna's father was a first
cousin of President Davis, making her a first cousin, once removed. The wedding license spelled her name
Susanah. She is this writer's great
great aunt. So, Jefferson Davis is the first cousin by marriage, five times
removed for this writer. Jefferson
Davis died in New Orleans,
December 6, 1889
(Dallas Morning News, 12/06/95, Page 2A)
Episcopal clergyman Phillips Brooks
wrote the hymn O Little Town of Bethlehem
in 1868. The House of Representatives
impeached President Andrew Johnson, basically over political differences of
view, but the U.S. Senate failed by 1 vote to get the required 2/3's to
convict. General Ulysses S. Grant was
elected President of the United
States. Thomas Alva Edison patented an electric
voting machine. Christopher L. Sholes, a
Pennsylvania
printer, patented the first practical typewriter. Congress passed laws limiting work hours of
federal employees to an eight-hour day.
And the earliest recorded bicycle race took place at the Parc de St.
Cloud in Paris,
France.
Jim was a physician, a professional
status he acquired by personal tutoring for a couple of years from Angelina
County's only doctor at that time, a Dr. Manning, followed by his registering
in the medical branch of the Soule University at Galveston in October,
1869. He received a diploma on March 2, 1871. He promptly established a practice at
Homer. Later, in 1891, he took a post
graduate course at Tulane
Medical
School
in New Orleans.
Dr. Jim, as his old "Big
Jim" nickname melted away in favor of his new profession, was half owner
one of the earliest drug stores in Lufkin
with his partner, J. M. Scurlock.
The store was known as Abney & Scurlock, Druggists, and was opened October 1, 1887,
having bought out Mr. A. C. Vinson.
They advertised prescriptions as a specialty, claimed to have
"fresh" drugs, patent medicines, paints, oils, varnishes, toilet
articles, fine soaps, cigars, etc., etc.
James Addison Abney's Lufkin
home was at the corner of North First and Bremond, where the Lufkin Telephone
Exchange later stood.
Susanna's brother, John W. Davis
(July 26, 1843 - May 1, 1912), was elected Angelina County Sheriff in
1874. Though short of stature, his
determination to do the job was large, and he was effective at arresting the
rowdy who disturbed the peace in the rapidly proliferating saloons. His successful enforcement was a
discouragement for the criminal element to remain active, an element which had
developed in the War years when the men of good citizenship were away, serving
their Confederate cause.
The saloons did represent an air of
moral decay, which the Christian community opposed. Dr. Jim, staunch in his Christian commitment
through the Methodist
Church,
often was a spokesman for the Church community at large concerning the presence
of the saloons.
When the Houston East and West
Narrow Gauge Railroad announced plans for its Houston
to Shreveport
line to come through Angelina
County,
much enthusiasm arose. Railroad
officials were invited to a reception at Homer in an effort to influence their
routing the line through Homer. Dr. Jim
was asked to give the welcoming speech in the town square for the officials,
but he declined upon learning that the primary promoters of the affair were the
saloon owners who would provide plenty of product for public consumption. The affair did turn into a drunken matter,
with Sheriff Davis arresting a number of drunks, including all
the railroad officials there as the town's guests.
The railroad officials ultimately
ran their line some six miles away from Homer, apparently a spiteful response
to Homer's bad experience for the railroad officials, and a station was
established in 1882, named Lufkin,
which was the name of the head of the railroad.
The first train arrived on September 12. The economic impact of the rail line was so
great in causing Angelina
County
people to relocate in the new Lufkin, that Homer decreased in significance, thus
forcing the ultimate relocation of the County Seat to Lufkin. Dr. Jim relocated to Lufkin
and built a fine home.
In 1882, Schuyler S. Wheeler, a New
York industrialist, invented the electric
fan. The first Labor Day celebration was
held in New York City,
by the United Brotherhood of Carpenters, the forerunner advocacy leading to the
establishment of the national holiday.
Floods along the Mississippi River
left some 85,000 homeless. The Edmunds
Act was adopted by Congress to suppress polygamy in the territories, especially
in Mormon Utah. Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) published the Prince and the Pauper. Irishman Phil Casey, one of Ireland's
finest handball players, established the first handball court in the U.S.
in Boston.
Many people in our country who
recognize the name of "Lufkin"
do so because of the Lufkin
brand of large trailer trucks manufactured in Lufkin. It is ironic that a truck brand, in an
industry, which competes so fiercely with the railroad industry, is named after
a city which is named after a railroad company president.
Susanna's failing health motivated
them to relocate in March of 1892 to Lampasses, hopefully to benefit from the
warm mineral springs there thought to have healing properties. She died October 15, 1892. She is buried in the Walker
Cemetery
of the Redland Community in Angelina
County
with a tombstone identified as Sue E. Abney.
Willie C. Abney is identified on Sue A. Abney's tombstone, indicating he
was born and died on the same date, October 4, 1869. This writer has not seen Willie's name on any
list of children borne by Jim and Susanna Abney. Willie could have been a premature infant
born some eleven months after their marriage.
He could have been a miscarriage, with really nothing to available to
bury in a cemetery. However, it is
unusual to have two names on a single (individual) tombstone dating some 23
years apart as to death date.
After Susanna died, and while still
living in Lampassas, Dr. Jim married the widow, Almonta Bartlett, daughter of
Grandma Heuling, the matriarchal voice at the local Methodist
Church. Both of them were age 47 at the
marriage. Almonta's estate included a
2,000-acre ranch at Blanket in Brown
County
further west and north.
James moved with his family to Brownwood
in 1895, to be near Almonta's ranch.
There he practiced medicine, and became a 10,400 acre ranch owner on
Brady Creek, near Eden, in Concho County, which Dr. Jim's brother, Frank
P. Abney, helped him to operate. During
the course of his ranch operation, he established the town of Winchell
in cooperation with the Frisco Railroad Company. Winchell was the railroad company president's
name. With his son, Fred, Dr. Jim
organized the Citizens National Bank, spending the remainder of his career in
the banking business. Almonta lived till
1923. He lived to a hearty old age of
100, had a great birthday party, and he died July 29, 1947.
James and Susanna bore two sons and
a daughter: Frederick Sherwood Abney, who married Clara Brian, was a banker and
lived in Brownwood;
DeWitt Fleetwood Abney, who married Margaret Lyle, and who was an automobile dealer
in Brownwood;
and Edna May Abney, who married Harvey F. Mayes. DeWitt and Margaret bore James, Frederick
Sherwood and Mark Lyle Abney. Fred is
the one who has provided such extensive research and gathering of research from
others to make tracing the Abney line so rich.
He is truly a shining light of Christian concern for preserving the
heritage of a family with such a rich Christian history.
Other
Children of Paul C. and Margaret F. Abney:
Nathaniel Searcy Abney was born February 14, 1851
and died October 9,
1855 at the age of 4 years. He is buried in the Walker
Cemetery
in the Redland Community of Angelina
County.
Hampton Parton (Hamp) Abney was born
February 3, 1869
in Lufkin. He was married May 9, 1894
to Jeanette (Nettie) Marshall
at Whitesboro in Grayson
County
(about 70 miles north of Dallas),
and they moved to Sherman (Grayson County Seat), the following year. The remainder of their lives was spent there,
where he practiced as an attorney. In
1895, he served as City Attorney and also served two terms as an Alderman. Another source claims this couple resided a
while in Rusk, but the time alleged conflicts with the City Attorney service
time above. Their offspring were Evelyn
Abney, Hamp Parton Abney, Jr. (born July 13, 1903), and Jeannette
Marshall Abney. By this time, it seems
that Hampton
was shortened to Hamp. Hamp, Jr. married
Dorothy Nell McKee of Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania,
October 5, 1927
in that city, and they settled in Dallas,
giving birth to Hamp Parton Abney, III on February 27, 1930.
Perry Collins Abney married Joe
Northington and resided in Dallas. Her name is also shown in another source as
Peery.
Franklin (Frank) Pierce Abney
married A. A. (Minnie) Arrington October 15, 1865
in Angelina
County,
and they lived in Mineola
in northeast Texas. Later, Frank helped his brother, Dr.
James Addison Abney, operate a large ranch in West
Texas, near Brownwood.
Adaline (Addie) Juliette Abney
married Albert Ross Moore January 31,
1884, and lived in Tyler. An alternate spelling is Juliet from another
source. The marriage record officially
carries her name as Addie Abney; another example of nicknames getting carried
over into official county records, etc.
Emily Aerphina Abney first married
T. Jeff Mosley December 10,
1885. The
marriage record officially carries her name as Emma Z. Abney. An alternate source claims her middle name is
Zepharina, rather than Aerphina. It
possibly means she had a four-part name.
Her second marriage was to Dr. Victor A. Godby.
Sarah Jane Abney married
Ephrem H. F. McMullen on November 29, 1865
in Angelina
County.
John Edgar Abney married Clara
Easter. They bore Montey Abney and Carey
Abney.
Cary Collins Abney is represented in
another spelling as Carry. This writer
has no further information on this person.
George Abney practiced medicine in Lufkin. He married Mattie Powell. George was associated with the Cox &
Glass Drug Store. George and Mattie bore
two children: Charles and George Raymond Abney.
George Raymond Abney, born 1887, was known as Raymond and he married Ina
Westmoreland, who was born 1888. They
bore a daughter, Margaret. Ina died in
1947, and Raymond died in 1951. They
both are buried in the Hillcrest Cemetery of Lufkin.
Their daughter, Margaret Abney,
married Colonel Walter C. Sanders, whose military career caused them to live in
many locations over the world. Margaret
and Walter bore a son and twin daughters: Raymond Abney Sanders; Nancy Sanders
(who married Charles Grob, a certified public accountant); and Sherry Sanders
(who married Alan Augustine, an architect).
The families of both daughters settled in Houston,
and each bore a son and a daughter.
Colonel Walter C. Sanders is buried in the Hillcrest Cemetery of
Lufkin.