The Hixon Story by Bennie Hixon. Submitted by; Donald Patrick With permission of Bennie M. Hixon ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** WILLIAM HIXON and Descendants From South Carolina to Alabama to Richland Parish Louisiana The progenitor of the Hixons in Monroe County, Alabama, and later in Richland Parish, Louisiana, is our great, great grandfather, William Allen Hixon, a native of Kershaw County, South Carolina. Born during the early 1780's near the end of the American Revolution, William was the oldest son of John and Abigail Hixon. There were nine children in the family, three boys and six girlsJohn died in 1806, leaving his wife and children the farm, a house, horses, cattle and hogs, and four slaves. Abigail lived until 1829, having accumulated an estate of more than 500 acres and ten slaves. Sometime before 1810, while still in Kershaw County, William married and began his own family. It appears that he had two sons and two daughters before he left South Carolina for Alabama. Because of the different ages listed in the Census records of 1810 and 1830, it is probable that his first wife died and that he was married again, to Mary, whose last name we don't know yet. After General Andrew Jackson defeated the Creek Indians in 1814, leading to the creation of the Alabama Territory, William Hixon brought his family to Monroe County. Land records show that he began buying land in 1819. Much of the information about our ancestor and the other Hixons is missing because the Census of 1820 was never reported, perhaps not even taken, and because the Monroe County courthouse burned in 1833. We do know, however, that William and Mary had eight boys and three girls at home in 1830. Records indicate that two daughters were older and had already married and left home. William also had fifteen slaves and, by the time he died in 1836 or 1837, owned 650 acres. When William died, his family appears to have consisted of: his wife, Mary, his daughters, Elizabeth (Sigler), and Abigail, his sons Allen, John, Samuel (our great-grandfather), George, Robert, Richard, and Ezra. We do not know the names of any other children. The younger boys and girls were assigned guardians, Samuel going to Allen, who kept the family home at what became the community of "Hixon" in Monroe County. The widow, Mary, married Aaron Hendrix in 1839. Records indicate that most, if not all, of the Hixon off-spring stayed in Monroe County, Alabama, at least until after the Civil War. SAMUEL HIXON AND MARY NEWBERRY Monroe County, Alabama to Richland Parish, Louisiana Samuel Hixon was born in about 1822 on a farm just east of the Alabama River, in Monroe County in the young state of Alabama. It was only a few miles from a point on the river which became the bustling little town of Claiborne. His father, William, had just come from South Carolina three or four years before Sam was born and was gradually building his reputation as a successful farmer, while acquiring more and more land. When Sam was about fourteen, his father died, apparently very suddenly. Older brothers and sisters were made guardians of the younger children, and Sam was able to stay on the home place with Allen. His mother, Mary, later married Aaron Hendrix, and Allen, in 1840, was wed to Susan Newberry. Mary and Susan Newberry were daughters of James and Lucy Newberry, who had come to Monroe County from North Carolina before 1820. James was a farmer and was very active in the early years of Old Salem Church, a few miles east of Claiborne. The Newberrys did not become big land-owners with many slaves; they were well-known as honest, hard-working, and God-fearing people. One of the oldest daughters was Jane, who married James Thames, another Monroe County neighbor. By 1850, Mary and Samuel Hixon had one child, Burrell. The next ten years were good ones; the family grew, and the farm prospered. Records show that at the end of the decade there were five children: William Burrell born September 10, 1849 James Edward born (?) ,1852 Benjamin Newberry born December 16, 1854 Susan Lucy born July 10, 1857 Samuel Monroe born July 7, 1859 In addition to their own children, Samuel and Mary took in a little girl, Jane, who was about a year older than Burrell. Jane Hixon, daughter of Samuel's sister Abigail, was orphaned, and in 1853 Samuel was named her guardian. Tragedy struck the family in about 1862; Samuel, only forty years old, died suddenly. He is said to have died in Mobile, having gone there to join the Confederate Army. Confederate military records list him as a member of Company H, 17 Alabama Infantry, but no other information is given. Whatever the circumstances of his death, he left Mary with farm and home and a large, young family. It is a tribute to Mary Newberry Hixon that she was able to keep the family together, hold on to at least 400 acres of land, then move with all her children to Louisiana. According to most family accounts, Burrell came to Richland Parish first, in about 1870; with him were two first-cousins, one a Newberry and one a Thames. The rest of the family came a year or so later. More of the Newberrys, Thames, Talberts, Browns, and Averys, all Monroe County neighbors, also came. The Hixons traveled by train to Girard, then by wagon to the Mhoon place, between Clear Lake and Boeuf River, just north of the young and growing little village of Alto. There they lived and worked on the farm for a Mr. Lewis. From this point, they began their separate lives, spending them within a few miles of each other, except for Jane and Edward. James Edward Hixon stayed in Louisiana for awhile, then began to seek his fortune farther west. He married Sarah Avery in 1874, here in Richland Parish. By 1880, they had left. Sarah was a sister of Amanda, who had married Cornelius Thames in Alabama. She and Edward had one son, John Samuel, before Ed died. Sarah remarried and had several more children. John Samuel came back to Richland during the early 1890's and worked on the farm for one of his uncles, probably Burrell. Here he married Susie Justice, daughter of longtime Morehouse Parish Sheriff Ruff Justice, then returned to the Danville, Arkansas area where his father had settled. Not much is know about Jane Abigail Hixon. She came to Louisiana with her cousins and Aunt Mary, then married, in 1875, O.W. Linney in Richland Parish. Since then, we have lost contact with her. The oldest son of Samuel and Mary Newberry Hixon, William Burrell, settled a few miles west of present-day Mangham, where he married Clara Cornelia Prewitt in 1879. She was daughter of Rebecca Boughten and the late James N. Prewitt, and the widow of J.H. Underwood. The Underwoods had had one son, Newton. After the death of Clara Cornelia, Burrell married her sister, Rosa Jenny, the widow of Love Landers. She already had two sons, Henry and Fred; she and Burrell had three more children, James Franklin, Mary Lucy (Burgess), and Clara Cornelia (Landers. After Rosa Jenny died in 1893, Burrell married Jesse Woodall Jones, daughter of Sarah (Sally) Lane and Adrian Clifton Jones. Their children were: Audrey Belle (Etier), Benjamin Myloe, Samuel Coloner, William Sartor, Sallie Mae (Holdiness) Rosalie, and Willye Burrell (Weed). In the tradition of father and grandfather for centuries, Burrell was a farmer, spending his adult life on the Prewitt-Hixon place west of Mangham. The third Hixon child, Benjamin Newberry, became a partner with his younger brother, Samuel, and the two began farming just east of Burrell's farm. When the railroad came through in 1890, they went into business in the new town of Mangham. Ben and family moved to town, where he managed Mangham's first general mercantile business, Hixon Bros. The store and farm prospered, and the Hixon brothers were extending their business interests when Ben died in 1898. He had married his second cousin, Mary Elizabeth (Mollie) Brown, daughter of Randall and Sue Thames Brown, who were also natives of Monroe County, Alabama. Children of Ben and Molly Hixon were: Dora May (Boughton), Mary (who died while skating at the new Woodman Hall building in 1907), Pearl (Brooks), and Annie Newberry (McCormick). Several years after Ben's death, Molly married W.A. Boughton, son of Roger Sherman Boughton and his first wife, Henrietta Choat. Willie Boughton was a widower whose children included Louis (married Dora Hixon), Letitia (Cooper), and Fannie (Stark). He and Molly had three children of their own: Ruby (Bruce), Oliver Wendall, and Homer Randall. Shortly after the family moved to Richland Parish, Susan Lucy, the only daughter of Samuel and Mary Hixon, was married to another Monroe County native, Richard Lafayette Talbert. After farming for about twenty years very near the other Hixons, the Talberts moved to Mangham, building a new home there in 1896. They were especially active in starting the Mangham Baptist Church that year. When the town was incorporated in 1907, Dick Talbert became the first mayor. He and Sue Hixon were parents of the following children: Lorenzo Ferdinand, Mary Joan (Chambers), James Raleigh (married Epsy Hampton), Samuel Hixon (who died at eighteen), and Susan Katherine (who is remembered by hundreds of former students as " Miss Kate"). Samuel Monroe Hixon was the youngest of the family. Although primarily a farmer, he was also a partner with Ben in all their business activities. In 1888, Sam married Emma, the daughter of Roger Sherman and Elizabeth Jamar Boughton. They also moved to Mangham and build a new house in 1896. Like Ben and Molly and Sue and Dick, Sam and Emma were charter members of the Baptist Church. Sam was also very active in support of the school, roads, and all civic improvements. In 1905, he helped organize the Mangham State Bank, then served on the Board of Directors until he became bank president. Sam and Emma Boughton Hixon had five children: William Edward, Mary Elizabeth (Cochran), Lela Rebecca (Graves), Samuel Monroe, and Benjamin Newberry. After 1896, they lived in the big house under the trees, where the Margaret Ann Thames house now stands. Sam died in 1917, and Emma lived until 1928. The descendants of Mary Newberry and Samuel Hixon have now settled all over the United States, from the Pacific to the Atlantic, Montana to Florida, Texas to Kentucky, with many still living in Louisiana. The stories of the Hixons in the 20th century can best be told by interested members of different branches of the family. After Thoughts During the 1820's and "30's, when William Hixon was living a few miles east of the Alabama River near Claiborne, Alabama, Samuel Boughton had a store across the river several miles north in the next county. He had married Harriet P. Strother, a native of South Carolina; most, if not all, of their children, including Rebecca (Prewitt) and Roger Sherman, were born there at Lower Peach Tree. James and Lucy Newberry, the parents of Mary (Hixon), Susan (Hixon), and Jane (Thames), had a number of sons, one named James. James, likewise, had a son named James Henry, who was the father of Eugene, Mack, and Julia; Julia married Levi Gwin, and their daughter, Isabelle, married T.A. Judd. The children of Jane Newberry and James R. Thames were Cornelius ("Neal"), James Newberry ("Jim"), and Sue (Brown), all of whom came to Louisiana; like her sister Mary, Jane was a widow and came also. Neal Thames and his first wife, Amanda Avery, had a son named Russell whose daughter was Mae Thames (McIntyre), the mother of Barbara Boies. The only surviving grandchildren of James Edward Hixon are John Samuel's children, Edward Earl and Earnesteen Watts. I have talked to both by telephone, and have corresponded with Ed, who lives in Cheyenne, Oklahoma. His is the only "Hixon" left in that family.