Rowan County, NC - Barclays, A Texas Family from Rowan Co NC, Part 2 ______________________________________________________________________ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Teddy Barclay Pope, Ed. D. TPope77497@aol.com ______________________________________________________________________ APPENDIX 12. Milton Barclay Milton Barclay was named for his uncle, Milton McQueen, his mother Elizabeth McQueen's brother. a Mc Queen brother and sister, Jane McQueen Bean, came with the Barclays to Texas). Milton was a child when the Barclay's came to Texas, not a whole lot older than the oldest children of brothers Robert and Anderson. Milton lived in a house with his parents on the property of brother James, after they moved to Tyler county from Town Bluff. After Walter died, Milton continued to live with Elizabeth Mc Queen Barclay until his own dead, early, when he was about thirty years of age. It is unknown what he died of, or much more than this about his life. APPENDIX 13. Republic of Texas Pension Application Abstracts (AOR). paper by W.C. Lindsey About Harmon Frazier connection with the Barclays - Indian agent to the Cherokee at the request of Sam Houston. Owned land Old Walter Barclay place was on. Harmon Frazier's wife died who was the mother of his six children. His second wife was the Widow Pool, mother of several children including Josh W Pool. He left after awhile, after some rough incidences with the Cherokee who attacked his farm. He signed his land over to Barclays. Deed to the old place showed the land to have been owned by Uncle Henry, when J. Walter (wife Laura Pool) brought it, around 1895. Harmon Frazier, Tyler County 28 Mar. 1874, approved. In May 1836 at Milam, Sabine Co.., he joined in company with Col. F. M Weathered and his sons William and Frank. They went to Victoria and were attached to Capt. Teal^Òs company (though Teal at that time was in prison at Matamoros). In June they went to Goliad and attached to Capt. James Cheshir^Òs company. He received a bounty warrant for 320 acres. Walter Barclay and W.D. Kincaid, Tyler Co. , aff. service. Frank M. Weatherred, Hill Co., service of applicant and said that he, the app., and his brother and father joined Capt. Teal (or Poe^Òs) company at Victoria. He said that he and his brother, Wm. C. Weatherred, were going to file their pension papers in Austin. James W. Scott, Hill Co., met applicant in 1829 in Tennessee and later met him again in Victoria. Frazier came to Texas in July 1835. He lived west of the Neches among Indians, but was forced to leave with his wife and six children in April 1836 across the river to General Gaines and returned to the Army. Anderson Barclay, Tyler Co., approved June 23, 1871. Age 63 in 1870. Served in Captain M. B. Lewis^Òs company and Col. B. R. Milam^Òs regiment which engaged in the battle of San Antonio in 1835. Received bounty warrant #3396 for 320 acres. Stephen Williams and Hanable Good, of Jasper Co. knew that Barclay served in AOR in 1835. James T. Priest and W.W. Whitehead certified A. Barclay, Sr. was living in 1873. Virginia Foster Barclay died on October 15, 1857. James Barclay died in December 1873. They are buried in the Hart Mill Cemetery in Tyler County , Texas. APPENDIX 14. DAR Information Accompanying the above paper by W. C. Lindsey was an article from an undated edition of Beaumont Enterprise which gives more details on the Barclays. According to this article, Robert Barclay, Sr. (father of Walter Barclay b. 1774) and a son were commemorated in later years for revolutionary service in North Carolina. There are two documents in this collection that verify the revolutionary service of Captain Robert Barkley and Lieutenant John Barkley in North Carolina. Therefore, any descendant of either Robert Barkley, Sr. or John Barkley should be eligible for admission to the National Society of the American Revolution. Or, if they are already members through the revolutionary service of another ancestry they should be eligible for a supplemental bar for their membership medallion. It appears from the article in the Beaumont Enterprise and other documents in this collection the spelling of the surname of Walter and his sons who migrated to Texas was changed then from Barkley to Barclay. APPENDIX 15. Your correspondence about Barclays APPENDIX 16. Your pictures APPENDIX 17. Your Maps APPENDIX 18. Barclay activities The Barclays Go to Texas Have an Early Texas Pageant. Have scenes like this. Write a narrative for a narrator to read. Have the actors wear costumes. Have at school. Charge one dollar a ticket. l. Sam Houston (b. 1790) and Davy Crockett telling James (b. 1816) and Robert (b. 1806) about Texas. Get land from Mexico, nearly free. Without taxes for seven years. Grow cotton and corn. Cherokee Indians were manageable. 2.. Father (Walter) and sons (Robert, James and Anderson) riding stick horses around, looking over the Texas wilderness. Conversation appropriate to the situation. Go back for families. 3. Wagon train coming from Alabama to Texas, gathered around campfire, reading from Elizabeth McQueen^Òs bible and praying for guidance. Father and mother, Walter and Elizabeth McQueen, children Jeremiah Todd and Milton. Robert and wife, Sara McKinsey, their sons, Lacy Milton and James Walter. Two black employees. Several Indians. Talk about Anderson and James coming from Tennessee and Kentucky to meet them in Texas. 4. Cross the river on a raft (ferry) at Town Bluff. 5. Build a log cabin. James (b. 1806), Indians, slaves. 6. James married Virginia Foster (b. 1827) at her home. Parents, neighbors, relatives gather. Dress in Sunday clothes. Have preacher. 7. Virginia Foster teaching the children. Use Bible, a few classic books. For example: Shakespeare, Greek mythology, dictionary, copy of U. S. Constitution, list of spelling words. Practice letters and arithmetic, drawing in dirt with stick. Sit at kitchen table or in yard. 8. Mealtime: pots hanging in the fireplace - dip food from pots onto wooden bowls. Beans, boiled pork, Irish potatoes baked in ashes from logs. 9. Chop down trees, plow ground, plant cotton seed in rows. (Walter and boys) 10. Alabama Indians warn Virginia Foster and Elizabeth McQueen and slaves of Cherokee activity when James is away. Slaves and Indians swim river carrying women and children to hide in cave. 11. James (1816) and Virginia Foster prospered and had twelve children (whose descendants are in the eighth generation today.) 12. Close with family at the reunion of 1910, line up for a photograph. Sisters seated in the front, brothers standing behind them. All about fifty to seventy years of age, 1910. "Box" camera on tripod, photographer under big black cloth. An Early Texas Theme Wedding (or Mock Wedding) Can be done as a program at school or church for a fund raiser. Charge one dollar a seat. 1. Select a location: historic church, home living room, front yard or park (or stage, if a mock wedding or fund raiser). 2. Collect artificial decorations, such as greenery from Christmas trees and wreaths, white gold decorations from Christmas such as balls, angels, birds, etc. Collect Texas items such as boots, hats, lanterns, etc. 3. Buy, borrow or make appropriate musical tapes. Either contemporary music, such as The Lord^Òs Prayer, Wind Beneath My Wings, etc. Special selection might be vocal solo without accompaniment. See hymnal. His Eye Is On the Sparrow or The First Morning (morning has broken, like the first morning, black bird has spoken, like the first bird). 4. Ask guests to bring lunch to spread, folding chairs, food items of staples for a "pounding" for the new couple, and signed family recipe cards. 5. Refreshments of assorted bakery cakes, nine-inch, sliced. Tea in the coolers. 6. Pictures: designated guests bring loaded cameras. Leave undeveloped film with mother of the bride. 7. Wedding attire: (1) Church clothes (2) Men in dark suits, women in ball dresses, assorted (3) Frontier or pioneer type. Invite guests to wear Texas-type attire. 8. Reception line: usual, plus some special guests with name tags. Walter and Elizabeth McQueen Barclay, James Barclay and Virginia Foster, Robert and Leah Barclay of Rowan County, North Carolina. 9. Have honeymoon at campsite at state park or beach. 10. Wedding day agenda: Mail invitations, including map, instructions of what to bring. If mock wedding, put up signs and begin ticket sales. 9:45 decorate and rehearsal, arrange chairs 10:45 early guests mingle, have refreshments of coffee and bread pudding, wedding party dresses for wedding 11:15 ceremony 12:00 reception and spread lunch 1:00 party, group singing*, dancing, games (London Bridge, Drop the Handkerchief, Washers) 2:30 guests depart 11. Flowers: artificial wild flowers or yard roses from Wal-Mart. 12. Thank-you notes, divide among bride, mother and sisters. All sign bride^Òs name. Mail the next week. * Songs like "Three Blind Mice", "Old Mac Barclay Had A Farm", "Old Mill Stream", "Amazing Grace", "The Old Rugged Cross", "Old Olive Tree", "Bringing In the Sheaves", "Blessed Be the Tie That Binds", "Should Auld Acquaintance Be Forgot", etc. APPENDIX 19. Notes 1. Reverend Elton Trueblood wrote a biography about Robert Barclay, the apologist, cohort of William Penn. Elton Trueblood was a professor at Eartham College in Richmond, Indiana. 2. Sisters, Cloteele Ford Smith Barclay and Virginia Ford Barclay Ashworth, were from Woodville, Texas. They married Barclay doctors. Virginia Ford married Bower Barclay b. before 1898. Children were Walter Barclay and Virginia Barclay. Cloteele Ford married Dr. George Willis Barclay, Jr., b. 1929 of Beaumont. 3. Dr. R. B. Barclay (dentist) of Woodville and Hattie Bob Barclay Mann were sister and brother. Hattie Barclay Mann^Òs son is David Mann (furniture store). His wife is Jane Mann. (Sixth generation) 4. Hopewell, N. J. township has the "Old School Baptist Church that was established in 1715. The Baptists that went to Jersey Church and Jersey Land in North Carolina came from that church. It is about fifteen miles from Princeton, N. J. The only Barclay listed in the telephone book was Albert Barclay. Mrs. Barclay had no knowledge of any connection with the Barclays of North Carolina. She knows of no other Barclays in the area. There are Barclays, children of Robert and Leah Barclay of Rowan County, North Carolina, in the minutes of Jersey Church, North Carolina in 1784. There are no Barclays living in the area now. There are some in Lexington, seventeen miles away. 5. Teddy Barclay Pope plans to contribute profits from the sell of discs about the Barclays toward a marker for Robert (b. 1774) and Leah Barclay in the North Carolina cemetery and a roof for Mt. Zion Church. 6. Some Chester area Barclays are as follows: Robert Barclay and Edna Stuart Barclay had thirteen children (Fourth generation). The children and their spouses were Dick (Vadna Flowers), Beavis (Edit Stuce), Howell (Edna King), Sam (Mayanna), Blundy (H. Seaman), Sally (John Seaman), Lucy (J. T. King), Fie, May (Naacy Platt), Essie (Wesley Knight), Elton (Aline Barclay). Dick and Vadna^Òs descendants were Reese, Paul, Johnnie Mae (Maxine Seaman), Dorothy (Flowers), Paul (Best), "Slick". Elton and Aline^Òs descendants were Milton, Wayne and Margie (Moss). Howell and Edna^Òs descendants were Ida, Gladys (Powell) and Flora. Beavis and Edit^Òs descendants were Gladys and Neil. Sally and John^Òs descendants were Talmade, (Bryant) Loftin, Ivandell (Snow). May and Noey^Òs descendants were Novell, Lloyd and Conner. Essie and Wesley^Òs descendants were Opa and Arline. 7. A Chester Barclay family: Anderson Barclay Jr. (d.1890) married Mary Seamans. Children were Fremon, Tom, Dexter, Clarance, Lee, Alvin and Stella. Alvin married Annie Boyett. Children were Verna, Aline (Elton Barclay), Ruby (Albert Jordan), Louise (Joe Chitwood), Clayton (Nata Fuller). Verna^Òs children were Evelyn (Dodson), Connie (Bennett), and Jerry (Kathy Cook). Aline^Òs children were Milton, Wayne and Margie (Moss). Others were Ruby, (Albert Jordan), Louise (Joe Chitwood), and Clayton (Nata Fuller). 8. Joe Thomas (b. 1917) married Pearl Rees. Their children were Steven Douglas, Beth Ann (Kankin), Robert and Darrell, David Thomas (Julie) and Andrew, Charles, Jennifer and Brad. 9. R. E. Allison^Òs grandmother was America Virginia Barclay. 10. Jo Ada Allums was the daughter of W. W. Anderson and Sara Stella Cruse. W. W. Anderson was James Barclay^Òs grandson. Jo Ada Allums was the mother of Dr. Allums of Beaumont. 11. Napoleon Bonaparte (b. 1854), son of James and Virginia Foster, married Martha Boyd. Their children were Bronson, Eva, William Thomas (b. 1887). Married Devilla Elvira Courtney (Charlie, Buddy, Pamela, Charlene and Paul), Richard D. and Viola. Ana Marie (b. 1918) married Richard Marshall (Gwendolyn, Richard Donnell). 12. Another Barclay Family: Warren Area. James Barclay and Virginia Foster^Òs son, William F. (b. 1861), married Ida Phillips. Their children were John, Nell (Redmond), Harvey (Slim), Jack and Humpy. Harvey (Slim, b. 1898) married Daphne Vernon Barclay. Their children were Lemerel Harvey (Sonny) Barclay, Jr. (married Frances Bradshaw) and William (Cooter) Barclay (b. 1937) married Edith Honeycutt. Their children were Kelli Jane and Lori Kay. Jack, son of William F., had a daughter, Arpa Jack. 13. Other kin: Judge William B. Oakley (b. around 1860) had a Barclay mother. So did W. W. Anderson, David Mann, R. E. Allison, Barclay Dismuke Some pictures that you might like copies of at the genealogical library at Heritage Village in Woodville, Texas are: James and Virginia Foster^Òs children in 1910.; picture of the James and Virginia descendants (1910); picture of Walter (b. 1871) and Laura Pool Barclay family, 1908; article from Beaumont Enterprise with twelve (12) significant Barclay men pictured; Howell, Dr. R. L., L. H., Mrs. Hansbrough, James Walter, Lee B., Napoleon Barclay, Dr. Watt, Bishop, John Henry Kirby and Judge William B. Oakley. 14. Mail other family information to: Barclay One Name Study, Clan Barclay International, 2509 Placid Place, Virginia 23456-3743. Include all known information. 15. There were several marriages between Barclays and Cruse, English, Seaman, Pool and McQueens. 16. The spouses of James Barclay and Virginia Foster^Òs children were: Elizabeth (Charles Bullock), Avarella (Landon Risinger), Mary Louise (Thomas Beaty), Sara Anderson (James D. Lindsay), Phoebe (Thomas Bevil), Napoleon Bonaparte (Martha Boyd), Charles (Donna Dunam), Tennessee Ann (W. B. Anderson), James Walter (Katherine Kincade), Elizabeth (died young). 17. Robert Barclay (b. 1806) was the oldest son of Walter (b. 1774) and Elizabeth McQueen. He came to Texas after the others. He died before age forty, around 1840. He left a will, an estate of six thousand dollars worth of land and several children, including Lacy Milton and Walter (b. 1831). Robert^Òs widow, Sara, then married Milton McQueen. Robert and Sara's children were: Lacy Milton, Elizabeth, Walter (James Walter, b. 1871, who married Mary Powell and Mary Huffey) Robert, James F, Henry Anson and Sara. Lacy Milton disappeared. Wife, Nancy McQueen, died. James Walter, b. 1831, was thought to have raised Lacy Milton's and Nancy's eight children along with his own eight. 17b. James "Jim" Barclay (married to Alice Delila Riley Pool Bourn Barclay), was Lacy Milton^Òs son.Walter Barclay, b. 1774, and Elizabeth McQueen, b. 1790, raised ten children. They are as follows: Robert, Anderson, John, James, David, Jeramiah Todd, Milton, William, Nancy and Mary (Polly). James Barclay (son of Walter, b. 1774) and Virginia Foster raised eleven children. They are as follows: Phoebe Arizona (Bevil), Sara Anderson (Lindsey), Avarella Barclay (Risinger), Elizabeth (Bullock), Elizabeth America (died early), Charles Bullock, Napoleon Bonnaparte, William F., John, Tennessee Ann and James Walter (b. 1849, d. 1907, married Katherine Kincaid). 18. Frank Barclay married Bennie__. Their daughter was Mary Barclay Dismuke. Mary^Òs son was Barclay Dismuke of Woodville. 19. Alvin Barclay^Òs siblings and spouses were: Frenson Barclay (m. Cora Lewis), Waynard (Arthur Lee) and Weldon. Tom Barclay married Mary Maggie Seasack. Their children were Joe Thomas, Leo (Peters), and Sara Frances. Dexter Barclay, Inez Mildred, Thornton Smith, Clarence Barclay Hershell married Joyce Sturrock and Winfred married Janice. Lee Barclay married __ Massey (Helen Lee). Their children were Erlene, Ofie, Lea, Claude, Jr., James Edwin and Kenneth. 20. Hal Barclay and Sheriff Bishop "Bish" Barclay were brothers. 21. Colmesneil area relatives are: Thomas Walter Barclay, Joe Thomas Barclay and Pearl Reeves, Steven Douglas Barclay, Beth Ann Barclay (Robert Kankin), Darrell Kankin Barclay, David Thomas Barclay (Julie), Andrew, Charles, Jennifer and Brad. 22. John Barclay and David Barclay of the second generation need additional research. David died in Mexico in 1845. They are mentioned in several county records including Masonic lodge min. at Mt. Hope. 23. Anderson Edward Barclay was born in 1807/8 in Franklin County, Tennessee to Walter Barclay of Rowan County, North Carolina, and Elizabeth McQueen of Richmond, Madison County, Kentucky. He was the second son. He served in the Battle of Bexar in December of 1835. He received six hundred and forty acres for his service. He joined Sam Houston^Òs Army and received twelve hundred and eighty acres in Hutchinson County, Texas for his service. He had three hundred and twenty acres in Newton County, Texas in 1838. In the 1840 census, he had 3,353 acres, one slave and one horse, valued at $4,400. Anderson Edward was born in 1807, married in 1829 and died after 1870. His children were: W. W. (William Walter), who served in the Confederate Army and married Elizabeth Futch, b. 5/22/1832, married 3/24/1853 and died 11/04/1908; John; Elizabeth; Mahaley F.; Anderson, Jr. (b. 8/9/1845), who married Mary J. Seaman 12/13/1871 (d. 11/26/1898); Jerry, G_____? daughter, Andrew and Artelia. 24. Note: See #7 for descendants of Anderson Jr., (b. 1845) 25. Six things Barclay children should be taught.The Barclays came from Scotland. Barclays were Quakers in Scotland and Baptist in America. Robert and Leah Barclay were settled in Rowan Co. N. C. before 1755 (now Davidson Co.).Walter was Robert and Leah^Òs son. He married Elizabeth McQueen. Walter and his sons came to Tyler County before 1830. James Barclay was the first white man to step foot in Tyler County. 26. In recent conversation with Carolyn and Bo Barkley of One Name Study, Carolyn thinks that Robert Barclay of Rowan Co., North Carolina and Robert Barkley of Rowan Co., N. C. were one in the same. The earlier report that the other Robert, named Robert Barkley would not have been our Robert because he was a Presbyterian, does not prevent him from being our Robert Barclay ancestor. The Presbyterians had also had some property for an early church in the area where Jersey church was, and Robert^Òs name may have appeared on some paper work. Also, the spelling of the name seemed interchangeably. Sometimes it was spelled one way, and sometimes the other. Others who wrote the name down might have written it as they were accustomed to writing it. She also said that she doubted that Robert Barclay was the son of John Barclay in Dublin. She thinks he still is likely the grandson of Robert Barclay, the Quaker apologist, but through another decent. A further interesting factor she commented on was that Margaret Kerr Barkley of New Jersey remarried after Mr Barkley (first name not known) died. Margaret^Òs daughter and six children and son migrated to Rowan Co N. C. The son^Òs name was Samuel. Our Robert Barclay^Òs first son was named Samuel. Samuel is a very unusual Barclay name. There are several coincidences here that might point to Robert being related to these N. J. Barkleys, rather than an isolated Barclay in the geographic area. If that is the case, Our strain of Barclays were likely in the United States one or two generations earlier than if Robert Barclay had been the first one in America. That was not bad news. That was good news. APPENDIX 20 Other A Man Called James ^Å^Å^Å^Å. the James Walter Barclay Story Introduction James Walter Barclay b. 1816 in TN, d. was the son of Walter Barclay b.1774 Rowan County, North Carolina d. Tyler County Texas and Elizabeth McQueen Barclay b.Feb 11, 1790 Madison County, Kentucky d. Tyler County Texas. His brothers and sisters and their spouses were Robert b. 1805 d. who married Sarah McKinsey, Anderson who married Sarah Prathar, John b. 1814 Tn who marriedLouisa Jane Priutt b. 1829 Tn d. 1881, David, Jerimiah -Todd, Milton, Mary b.1818 Ala who married James Beven b.1816 Ky and Louisa J. b.1828 Ala who married Humley Jennings b. 1828 Md. Barclay and his wife, Virginia America Foster, made their home in the Harmony area of Tyler County, near Woodville, Texas. Their home stands today, having had continuous occupancy by descendants. His children and their spouses were; Jane Elizabeth b. 1841 who married Charles W Bullock, whose first wife was Isabella Scott, Arvarilla b. 1893 d. 1932 who married Landon Risinger (casulty of the Civil War), and, Mary Lewis b. 1845 d. 1933 who married Thomas Boston Beaty, Sara Anderson b. 1847 d.1936 who married James Lindsay, James Walter Jr. b. 1850 d.1907 who married Katherine Kincaid, Tennessee Ann b. 1851 da. 1935 who married William Allison, John M. b. 1851 da. 1905, Napolean Benapart b. 1856 d. 1936 who married Marta Estell , America b. 1858 d. 1884 married , Phoebe Arizona b. 1859 d. 194 thomas Beaty Bevel, William F b. 1861 d. 1904 married Ida Phillips, Charles B. b. 1866 d. married Durham. James W Barclay is conceded to be the first white man to step foot in Tyler County. He was the agent to the Alabama, Chautaha, and Muskagee Indians, and considered by them to be their white father. He supported his family with the earnings from his farm. He was a pioneer settler in Tyler County and a founding father of Woodville, Texas. His attainments in public service included; tax assessor and collector, sheriff, county judge and congressman. He introduced the legislation that established the reservation for the Alabama Indians on the property that they called the Jim Barclay village in Polk County near Wood Creek and Bear Creek, half way between the east Texas cities of Woodville in Tyler County and Livingston in Polk County. Barclay served in congress during the session when the vote came for sessession, which led to the war between the states, called the Civil War. He and only a handful of others voted against sessission, because it would be a war against the united states which texas could not win, and it would cost Texas lives. He would not sign the oath to the confederacy and resigned his office.that day. Later he was re-elected by his constiuency. James Barclay and the Alabama Indians from The Sunday Enterprise, Beaumont December 15, 1935 ( edited by TLBPope 1/1/1999) Dr. W.W. Anderson of Kountze told the story of the Alabama Indians as his grandfather James Barclay told it. The story is told by Dr.W.W. Anderson of Kountze as told by his grandfather, James Barclay, who was among the first few white men in what is now Tyler County. James Barclay, veteran of San Jacinto and Indian agent for the Alabamas, and appointed by the Republic and Texas gave details to J.R. Bevil of Kountze before his death in the seventies. It sheds light on the Alabamas when they were seeking a permanent home. They settled in Polk County, were granted ownership by Texas. Today they number about 250. One of the first white men to see the Alabamas in Texas was James Barclay. A young man, he came from Hoover^Òs Gap, Tennessee to seek a new home and got in the scrap with Mexico. He and his father were warm friends and distant kin of Sam Houston in Tennessee. Barclay first found the Indians at Peach Tree Village. They became friends. Barclay followed the cause of the Texas Republic in 1836. Fascinating is the picture of James Barclay stumbling across the Alabamas at Peach Tree village in the early days of 1835. Few white men had penetrated east Texas. He was accompanied on his lonesome westward trek by Josiah and John Wheat, prominent figures in pioneer Tyler county. At Peach tree village the trio met a Mr. Hanks, who settled near Emilee on the Neches below Rockland. By 1837, the floodgates of immigration opened from the United States, and covered wagons poured in from Louisiana, for every part of Texas, but mostly along the Sabine, Neches, the Angelina and the Trinity. In 1837 the Alabamas moved from Peach Tree village. White men made it uncomfortable for them and they moved south and east to the forks of Big and Little Cypress Creeks in what became Tyler County. That location was home of the earliest Texas Indians on record, and camping place of the Cherokees. Barclay himself had to do with the selection of the camp site, because the government of Texas appointed him Indian agent to the Alabamas. Barclay, who returned to Tennessee for his family, moved to the Cypress Creek forks with the Indians.He was regarded by the red men as their foremost white friend. While building his log cabin on the creek bank he lived with them. Dr. Anderson did not know his famous grandfather. He was friends with so many men who knew him well that it seems as if he got the story from Barclay. The Kountze physician lived for a time in the log house which James Barclay built in 1847 above the Cypress forks. The house remains today in one of the most beautiful natural settings in all of east Texas..... the sturdy dwelling , one of the finest remaining relics, in the east Texas pines, is where some of Texas^Ò most famous figures visited. One day while working at home, several braves approached Barclay. They were running, and excited. He picked up his rifle and followed while they told their story. A severe fever beset the tribe. Dr. Anderson believes it was malaria, which attacked the white man and Indian alike in the history of east Texas. Indians were dying. Malaria alone did not kill them as fast as their own methods of cures, however. "Often", my grandfather told it, said Dr. Anderson, "the Alabamas, hot with fever, would submerge their entire bodies in the nearest stream, leaving only their noses out of water. They would leave the stream, and chill. Often pneumonia would follow". Charley Thompson, the chief who died in the tribal village on ^ÑBear Creek" was probably the last man who could have given some of the original Alabama words. The Indians were highly excited, " he said. " In those days they wore feathers and put war paint on their faces." They were in full war regalia that day the group of bucks visited my grandfather. There was almost a state of civil war at the Indian village The divisions became hostile with each other. They went for Barclay. The Indians had not lived in teepees for years but in wooden huts. Superstition cost human life. The Alabamas did not occupy the Cypress Creek land more than five or six years. In 1852, they moved. Barclay had much to do with this. They marched into one of the densest parts of the piney woods, on the edge of the Big thicket. They became peaceful, and were not heard from again for five years. In 1859, when Texas had been a state about 14 years, the American government began its greatest push to remove Indians to the Indian territory. The tale is well known. They were promised the state to become Oklahoma. The Alabamas^Ò chief was Antone - one of the most stalwart figures in the Alabama story. Antone was against immigrating. Texas ordered Barclay to take representative members of the tribe to the territory to select a new home. In an overland march, James Barclay and Charles Bullock, later distinguished in the war between the states, Dave Lindsey, Tyler county^Òs first school teacher, Ben Ross and others went with Chief Antone and one or two men from each of the principal Alabama families. They set out horseback and were gone several weeks. The party returned. For sure the Alabamas would not go to Indian territory of their own volition. Dr. Anderson thinks the peaceful Alabamas were frightened of the Apaches, Comanches, Sioux and other warlike tribes there. They told Barclay and his friends, "No want to live here". Back they came. Dr. Anderson gave account of how the Alabamas come into legal possession of their tribal lands. Houston had long been Barclay^Òs friend from Tennessee, before Houston was governor there. After his arrival in Texas, Houston visited Barclay. Through visits which followed, Houston, always a friend of the Indian, came to know the Alabamas. Through Houston^Òs influence, the state gave the Indians their land. The bill was introduced in the Texas legislature, in either 1858 or 1859 by James Barclay. He had been elected to the legislature, but retained his Indian agency--as the white father of the Alabamas. "It was passed by a substantial majority" and the Alabamas remained in east Texas. Their name means "^ÑHere We Rest." A startling statement of Dr. Anderson's was the Alabamas may have been among the Indians first seen by Christopher Columbus in the West Indies in 1492. James Barclay, as he told and retold it, said Chief Antone told him how the Indians came to the United State from "Somewhere in the West Indies". It is a version of their migration probably not before brought to light, but Barclay believed it, and accepted it as fact. They fought with Jackson, Chief Antone said, in the Seminole wars. The tribe was split in half near New Orleans. Its wanderings are left to meager notes, and the story as told. It is certain they lived in Alabama. Some of them from Mississippi, driven westward, settled in Louisiana, known as the Coushattas--a remnant which has not retained its Indian bloodlines. The Alabamas are virtually pure. Chief Antone died in Texas followed by Chief John Scott, whose grave is in the cemetery of the Alabamas on Bear creek. Chief Antone lived to be 108, and John Scott was104 when he died. Two Indians ruled the Alabamas for almost two centuries. The story of James Barclay grows in the folklore tale of east Texas. He fathered the Alabamas, and it is difficult to imagine what they would have done without his generous and friendly aid. Barclay was laid to rest in 1873 and. Enoch Rowe was appointed the Alabama agent, and then James Dendy, serving until the eighties. After that no one in particular watched over the Alabamas. They became servants of the settler, were mistreated and their livestock stolen. When the Rev and Mr. C. W. Chambers/ Charmers, Presbyterian missionaries, came in 1900, these practices ceased. As a boy Dr. Anderson recalls them well. The old Alabama story is a mystery. Even the names and how they got them-MCConnico, Battise, Thompson, Pancho, Scott. East Texas should give thanks that the Alabamas are part of its story - they fit into many chapters of the rich east Texas lore. They fought under Captain Bullock of "Band Luck Creek^Ò fame, in the War Between the States. They were half wild, however, and General Churchill sent them home from Arkansas Post on the Arkansas river. Numerous men and women still living saw the Alabamas in Woodville trading. They camped at Village Mills at Holland after Barclay^Òs death. They were first to discover petroleum at Saratoga. Fletcher Cotton, who said the Alabamas brought tar to the Holland camp, back tracked them one day and found where they got it. The Saratoga Oil field was not developed for sixty more years, nor was the Spindletop Oil field in Beaumont. Taken from the Texas History Online Project, a joint endeavor by the University of Texas Library and the Texas Historical Association BARCLAY, JAMES (1816-1871). James Barclay, legislator, county official, and Indian agent, was born in Tennessee on February 11, 1816, the son of Walter and Elizabeth (McQueen) Barclay. In 1826 he came to Texas with his father and brother, but they all returned to Tennessee the same year. In February 1836 the family settled permanently in Texas. On April 16, 1841, Barclay married Virginia Ann Foster; they eventually had twelve children. Barclay was one of the earliest settlers in what is now Tyler County. In 1852 he bought land in the John Wheat survey that included a village of the Alabama Indians. These Indians had begun moving southward about 1840 from their Fenced-In Villageqv in northwestern Tyler County to a location on Cypress Creek. The Alabamas referred to this village as Jim Barclay Villageqv and continued to live there after 1852 with Barclay's permission. After the organization of Tyler County in 1846, Barclay served in many of the county's elective positions. He was elected the first tax assessor-collector; in 1850 he was elected sheriff; and he was the county's chief justice during terms that began in 1856 and 1858. On February 3, 1854, Barclay and Samuel Rowe were appointed commissioners to purchase a tract of land for an Alabama Indian reservation in Polk County. This land is now a part of the Alabama-Coushatta Indian Reservation. On May 12, 1858, Governor H. R. Runnelsqv appointed Barclay agent for the Alabama, Coushatta, and Pakana Muskogee Indians. From November 7, 1859, to February 13, 1860, he served as the Tyler County representative in the Texas legislature. He returned to the legislature in December 1863 to represent Tyler and Hardin counties and served on several legislative committees, including Indian Affairs. During the administration of Governor Pendleton Murrah,qv Barclay served a second term as agent for the Polk County Indians, from November 9, 1864, until he was replaced on August 29, 1865, by A. J. Harrison, an appointee of provisional governor A. J. Hamilton.qv Barclay continued to operate his large plantation and to participate in civic affairs until his death at his Tyler County home on November 14, 1871. He was buried in the Hart Cemetery, three miles south of Woodville. BIBLIOGRAPHY: Members of the Legislature of the State of Texas from 1846 to 1939 (Austin: Texas Legislature, 1939). J. E. and Josiah Wheat, "The Early Days of Tyler County," Tyler County Dogwood Festival Program, 1963. James E. and Josiah Wheat, "Tyler County and the Texas Republic," Tyler County Dogwood Festival Program, 1967. Dorman H. Winfrey and James M. Day, eds., Texas Indian Papers (4 vols., Austin: Texas State Library, 1959-61; rpt., 5 vols., Austin: Pemberton Press, 1966). Howard N. Martin Seven Generations Have Resided in 'Old Home Place' Tyler County Lifestyle, 1999 p. 13 By Deanna Tubb In 1842, Tyler County was a much different place than it is now. For one thing it was called Menard District and was a part of the Republic of Texas. Town Bluff was really the only town nearby. The Alabama-Coushatta Indians split their time between Peach Tree Village in Chester and a place they called Fenced In Village on Big Cypress Creek. The winters were spent camping in Peach Tree Village, while Fenced in Village was the summer camp. It was on the spot that overlooks Fenced In Village that Indian agent James Barclay built his home. This site has one of the most picturesque views in all of Tyler County. Barclay had come to Texas from Tennessee in a covered wagon with the rest of his family. He arrived in Woodville in 1826 with his parents and settled first at Wolf Creek. Before being appointed Indian agent by Sam Houston, Barclay served as the sheriff of Menard District. Later in his life he held the offices of tax assessor, tax collector, county judge, state representative, and commissioner. To say he was a leader in Tyler County would be an understatement. When Barclay had picked the spot for his home place, he hired Isaac Gant from the nearby Gant Community to build it. Gant, along with a crew of Indians, harvested may large yellow pine trees with which to build the house. The logs were then hand hewn to 18 inches and split, then dovetailed, so that they would fit together perfectly. Gant must have been an excellent craftsman, because the Barclay home is still standing. It is the oldest house in Tyler County that has been continually occupied by the same family. The present resident, Mrs. Herman Risinger, Sr., is the widow of James Barclay's great grandson. Other Barclay descendants, beginning with James' daughter Averilla, have occupied the home for seven generations. The house is a masterpiece of primitive architecture. The original structure consisted of four rooms with a dog trot hall. Additions have been made, but all have been done without disrupting the look or the spirit of the home. It was perched upon the hill at just the right angle to catch Eastern breezes. One side of the dog trot hall served as living quarters for Barclay and his wife Virginia Foster Barclay. The other side housed Barclay's office. As an Indian agent, Barclay had many responsibilities. Indian agents were civil officers who were responsible for executing Indian laws and treaties as well as keeping the peace between the Indians and their white neighbors. These agents served as a sort of liaison between the government and the Indians. Indian agents had to be somewhat special. Since their control over the Indians was theoretical as best, they relied on their personalities and powers of persuasion to do their jobs. Most good Indian agents were loved and respected by the Indians, and Barclay was no exception. During the life of James Barclay, Sam Houston and other statesmen were guests at the dog trot house. Many Indian children played on the porch, probably with the Barclay children. A wooden bench still one the porch today is carved with a game board. The children would play a game called fox and geese with kernels of corn and the design carved into the bench, while their parents talked business with Barclay. The porch itself is somewhat of a marvel. It too, is made entirely of hand hewn logs. One log stretches the entire length the 30 foot porch, serving as a cross beam for the top of the porch. The house is located on what used to be called the Alabama-Coushata Trail or the Spanish Trail. This was a very important thoroughfare for those traveling to Hardin County. Not too far from the Barclay home lies the site of the Indian ball park. The Indian ballpark was a large clearing where the tribe would gather and play a game involving a long stick and a ball made of leather or other skins, similar to lacrosse. Sadly, vandals have wrecked the ball park in recent years. After Barclay's death, his daughter Averilla, Mrs. Landon Risinger occupied the house. Barclay is buried in Tyler county in the hart Mill Cemetery, off First Tower road. The house has come to be known as the Barclay-Risinger home. When Mrs. Herman Risinger, Sr. moved into the old home place, she had big ideas. The new bride was a city girl, but quickly became accustomed to the realities of country living. For eight years, the couple lived in the house with no electricity, drawing water from the well. They were instrumental in bringing electric power to the outlying areas of Tyler County. Over the years the home has been featured in may newspaper and magazine articles, and television news specials. There are two plaques affixed to the front of the home. The first is from the Texas Historical Commission, designating the house as an historical landmark. The second was placed by the John champion Chapter of the National Society of Colonial Dames, 17th Century of Bellaire, Texas. One of James Barclay's great-great granddaughters is a member of the society. The members of the organization researched the history of the home and put a short version of it on the plaque. This honor was bestowed upon the dwelling in 1996 in a ceremony that was attended by may area dignitaries, including county Judge Jerome Owens and Chief Oscala Clayton Clestine. Many descendants of James Barclay call Tyler County home. They live and work here and have a great love for their community. Roots run deep in Tyler county. A plaque recently placed on the old home place reads the James Barclay Place, 1842. hand-hewn Pine. Oldest home in county. Built by area's first Indian agent, an appointee of President Sam Houston. Conclusion: James Barclay and his wife Virginia Ann Foster, his brothers and their wives and sisters and their husbands were members of the Walter Barclay and Elizabeth McQueen Barclay family, one of the earliest families in east Texas and the Menard district that became Tyler County. His legacy lives in his many descendants, his home that stands today and the presence of the Alabama Indians who reside near his home in Harmony county to this day. Some of the co harts of James Barclay were Harmon Frazier, Dave Linsay, Charles Bullock, Josiah Wheat and his brothers, Anderson Barclay and Robert Barclay. Latest Update 2/1/99 By : Teddy L. Barclay Pope, signed Latest Update 2/6/1999 By Teddy Barclay Pope, signed AN INTERVIEW WITH MY PARENTS MR. AND MRS. GEORGE W. BARCLAY ON SEPTEMBER 7, 1991 BY GEORGE W. BARCLAY, JR. An Interview, was written by Dr. George W. Barclay, Jr.,(b. 1929), based on a personal interview in 1991 with his father and mother, GWB SR and Ruby E. Vinson Barclay. George Willis Barclay, Sr (b. 1904), was the last county school superintendent. He held office 1975 to 1979. It contains various topics about Tyler County, such as cotton, timber, hunting and community living, as well as information about the nineteen years he spent in several different rural schools of east Texas as teacher, coach, principal and superintendent About the writer: George Willis Barclay, Jr. was educated in the public schools of Batson and Beaumont, Texas. He was a chemical engineer before serving in the army. He practiced medicine in Snyder, Texas, before returning to Beaumont, where he practiced as a cardiologist for more than twenty-five years. In retirement, he has enjoyed hobby writing, fishing and developing his properties in Tyler county. Table of Content and Index GWB SR. lineage. Original Mt. Zion Church Building. The Boll weevil and Johnson grass. Location of a piece of John Henry Kirby place used for tenant farms. Difference between tenant farming and share cropping. Children started school at age 7. The one room school The two room school Logging, the timber business, Mr. Carter. Normal schools are made into teacher colleges. Pre-college described Teacher certification An elopement described. Length of school term Shiloh and Caney Wages for cotton picker, price of cotton, logger, teacher Gulf Oil, pump station Prosperous times, prices, 1929 Birth of GWB JR. College activities Stock market crash Prohibition Depression Prices Concord Little farm in Chester and house described Description of a larger school, modern BS degree conferred WW II Compare farming town and oil town. Beaumont Retirement in Woodville Masonic Lodge Bullocks, Georges, Peters, Vinsons Pools, other Barclays Location of the old Henry Barclay Place Gulf Oil The last deer The last yellow pine Wild Life Services of a young man owed a father until age 21. W.W.I, WW II Crops Electricity Literacy Travel time T Ford, roads Cost of land Raising chickens Football Cost of giving birth Prices Wages for cotton picker, price of cotton, logger, teacher. Two room school house Batson, roads Hull, Saratoga, Sour Lake, Moss Hill Beaumont Schools Batson, WW II Politics Lumber business Size of timber Cotton fields Prices Wages AN INTERVIEW WITH MY PARENTS, MR AND MRS GEORGE W BARCLAY AND RUBY VINSON BARCLAY ON SEPTEMBER 7, 1991 By Geroge W Barclay Jr. George W. Barclay, Sr., was born at Chester on 2-22-1904. He was the eighth child who lived to adulthood. (others were Myrtie, Mary, Eula, Clyde, Buck, Josh, Robert, Ora, Louise, Feagin). His father was James Walter Barclay Jr. (Uncle Walter), who was born March 4, 1871 and died in 1944. His mother was Laura Pool Barclay, who was born January 12, 1873 and died in 1924. They lived on a blackland farm, approximately 10 miles northwest of Woodville and approximately 5 miles southeast of Chester, Texas, between Mt. Zion church and Bob Belt Road. The Pools, Barclays, Peters and Vinsons all lived in farming settlements close to Mt. Zion Baptist Church, which now sits on Highway 287, approximately 5 miles south of Chester. The Mt. Zion church is the oldest standing church in Tyler County. It was built in 1845 near Mt. Hope, and was moved to its present location in 1870. The cemetery, on the hill behind the Mt. Zion Baptist church, dates back to 1870, or before. Most of the people buried there are related by direct kin or marriage. My father, George, was 1 year old in 1905, when his father, James Walter Jr. shut down the old farm place because of Johnson grass. It was 1905, and the boll weevil had swept across the south, killing off the cotton. Uncle Walter, as he was known to most of the people in Tyler County, switched to a cotton strain that was resistant to the boll weevil, but the Johnson grass overran his cotton. He moved his family to land owned by John Henry Kirby, one mile northeast of Chester. It was a black bottom land farm, and he stayed there with his family and equipment, and tenant farmed that piece of land until 1912. Now, it is divided into 4 parts and owned by George and Ruby^Òs children and Doyle Barclay. Returning to the old farm, my dad attended Mt. Zion school second grade. In 1905 when my granddad moved to the John Henry Kirby place above Chester , he share cropped at what you call a third and a quarter. He gave twenty-five percent of the corn and thirty three percent of the cotton to his landlord. This type of farming was different from a regular share cropped, with no investment, who usually gave 50% of the crop to the landlord. According to my dad, my grandfather^Òs theory was to leave the land untold, and turn the cows loose, and let them eat up all the Johnson grass. When they returned to the old farm some 6 years later, the cows had eaten all the Johnson grass except for that growing around the stumps and threes, which they had to chop down. He said that when he told his friends that he was moving back to the old farm, they teased him and told him and told him that he was going to the "sticks". To the people living in Chester, living out in the country was considered living in the sticks. My dad (George Sr.), attended school at Chester in the first grade at the age of 7. That spring, his father moved the family back to the old farm. He resumed cultivating the old farm continuously, until he retired when all of his help left him, around 1938. Returning to the old farm, my dad attended Mount Zion school, starting in 1912, in the second grade. It was a one teacher school located on the old dirt road running from Mount Zion church to the Barclay farm, where the house still stands. It was located about 1 mile southeast of Mount Zion church. As were all rural schools in those days, it was a one room, one teacher school, and went up to the 7th grade. Around 1916, it was converted to a 2 teacher school, and reclassified as a first class public school, and offering grades 5 through 9. My dad worked for his father on the farm, and attended Mount Zion school through the 9th grade , finishing in 1921. My grandfather, Walter, took my dad, George, to see Mr. Carter, who ran a large sawmill at Camden, Texas, and got my dad a job in the logging business. because he was educated, George was assigned the job of scaler. After the cutters had cut the trees, he would measure the diameter of the tree and the length of the logs, and mark the trees where they were to be sawed. He was paid the standard wage in that day for a logging man, which was $1.50 per day. After one and a half years in the logging business, and helping his dad bring in a crop, my dad joined his friends and his cousin DC Peters. They caught a train to North Texas State Teachers College in Denton. NTSTC had previously been designated a normal school for preparing teachers, but with an act of the legislature, it was made a four year college. My dad was 19 when he finished the equivalence of the 11th grade of high school at NTSTC. After taking the state teachers certification exam 3 times, he passed it and received his elementary school teachers certificate in 1924 at the age of 20. My dad taught his first year at Shiloh, a small rural community west of Woodville, in the fall of 1924. He was 20 years old at the time. After he received his first monthly pay check, he married my mother, Ruby Vinson, his childhood sweetheart, in November 1924. Ruby was the daughter of James and Ada Vinson. She was the oldest of 5 children, Ruby, Zelda, Jimmy, Mona and Aldridge. My mother had celebrated her 17th birthday on October 24, 1924, and had finished the 10th grade at Mount Zion. In October, she had her 17th birthday and in November, she married my father. The state law at that time was that a man had to be 21 and a woman had to be 18 years old to get a marriage license. My dad was 20, and my mother had just turned 17. He wanted to ask permission from my grandfather Vinson to marry mother, but she would have nothing of it, and they decided to elope. He wrote a note and signed it for his father. He got permission from his father with the note, and rode a horse to Woodville and bought a marriage license for $3.00. He presented the note from his father which he had written, and told the clerk that my mother was 18 years old. After securing their marriage license, he went back to Chester, picked up my mother at Mount Zion. She got on the back of the pickup and they rode to Chester looking for the preacher. Her parents apparently did not know that she had gone. When they got to Chester, they found out that the minister was visiting in Huntington and was not planning to be back. My dad talked a friend into taking his car and going to Huntington to pick up the minister and bring him back to Chester to perform the wedding. Interestingly enough, the preacher who came back to perform the wedding for my and dad had performed a similar wedding for my grandfather Vinson years before. He was a friend to both families. ` In December, or early January after Christmas, my mother journeyed to Nacogdoches and entered Stephen F. Austin State Teachers College, where , in the spring of 1925 and summer of l915 she got her high school diploma and certificate to teach elementary school. She was 17 years old at the time. In the fall of 1925, my mother returned and taught school at Shiloh with my dad. Shiloh was by then a two teacher school. The church at Shiloh, where they had their school, still stands. It is used by some members of that community. In 1927, they both taught at Caney, a rural community in Polk county about 5 miles east of Chester. They rented a room. In understanding this, one must realize that the school year was only about 7 months. The average rural school year in the state of Teas at that time was seven months. This was determined by the habits of the farmers. The months, generally, that the students went to school were October through March. School would get started in some places in early October and in April the students were turned out to plow the fields and put in the crops. The start of school was delayed in the fall in order to pick the cotton, which they picked up until October. In 1928 my dad taught at Shiloh, and apparently my mother did not teach that year. They were living back home. They lived some of the time with the Vinsons, and some of the time with the Barclays. Times were good. Cotton was 40 cents a pound. A cotton picker could make $5,00a day. In 1907, Gulf Oil had run a pipeline through Tyler County, and put a pump station at the George Vinson place, about 1 mile from the Mt Zion church. Working on the pipeline, or at the pump station, paid about $5.00 a day. In comparison, as logger made $1.50 per day working very hard, from sun up to sun down in the woods. In 1929, both my mother and father taught at Cherokee community, which is about 5 0r 6 miles northeast of Woodville, close to Billums creek at the site of the old Cherokee Indian village. It was a two teacher school, composed of my mother and father. Many members of the Woodville community still living were their students at that time. You must remember that, in those days, with the exception of a few merchants and professional people living tin the towns, that most people lived in the country and made their living by farming. These small schools were placed with in walking distance of these farming communities. In 1924, at Mt Zion, my dad made $150.00 per month, and in 1929, at Cherokee, my dad was paid $l150.00 a month and my mother was paid $85.00 a month. 1929 was a very prosperous year in southeast Teas. Jobs were available. My dad^Òs four older brothers had gone off to work in the east Texas oilfields. The Gulf pipeline had been laid, and Gulf was hiring locally for the pump station and pipeline. cotton was 40 cents a pound, and framers prospered. The lumber business had not yet declined, and provided an additional opportunity for employment. My dad, who was 25 years of age in 1929, vowed that he would never teach school for $150.00 a month again. Since he and mother were both working and everybody seemed to the prosperous, he bought a new 1929 Ford T model roadster with a rumba seat. It cost him $418.00, which is the same as he paid for a 1926 Ford touring car, which he traded in on the roadster. That spring, after buying the new car, my dad bought 20 acres of land 1 mile from the Chester pump station gate, and built a house on that land. it is of interest that he paid $20.00 an acre, or $400.00, for the land. The lumber for the house that he bought at the Camden Carter sawmill, cost $100.00. He paid a carpenter $250.00 to build the house. The house had an adjacent garage, and a pitcher pump on the back porch. In the summer of 1929, my mother discovered that she was pregnant with me. My dad made application for a full-time job with the Gulf Oil Corporation, and, that fall, when they had not acted on his application, he borrowed some money from my granddad Vinson and he and mother went to school at Stephen F. Austin State Teacher College at Nacogadoches. On October 1, l929, I was born at 2:00 a.m. in the morning, and delivered by Dr. Stephen Tucker and his wife, who was a registered nurse. My dad and mother were renting from a Mr. Palmerly, who was a barber in Nacogdoches. I later performed a physical examination on Mr. Palmerely in 1964 at Snyder, Texas, and he gave me a very detailed description at the whole birthing process. He has been standing out on the front porch with me day, and his wife had been helping Dr. Rucker^Òs wife with my mother when I was born. Incidentally, Dr. Tucker^Òs fee was $25.00. That was probably the only year he went a full two semester year to a four year college. Not only did he make the football team at Stephen F. Austin that year, but he also was on the Dean^Òs list for good grades. Even though the stock market crashed in New York City on October 29, it^Òs significance was not apparent to the people in Texas yet. One other thing I might add of interest was that prohibition was repealed in 1929, but that didn^Òt have much affect on the law abiding citizens of southeast Texas, since Tyler County was dry, and I suspect that Nacogdoches county was dry, too. It probably didn^Òt have an affect on the bootleggers who were making corn whiskey down in the river bottom around Spurger and Fred, and various places in Angelina and Nacogdoches county, because they went right on making and selling their white lightening. After finishing a full year of college in 1929 and 1920, my dad returned to Chester and helped his dad put in a crop. Then he spent the entire year in politics, and ran for the Tyler County School Superintendent job. He ran against Bronson Owen and lost. He went back home, and again helped his dad put in a crop and pick cotton. At that time, the depression became apparent to all over the United States. There were no jobs available. On October 1, l929, I was born at 2:00 a.m. in the morning, and delivered by Dr. Stephen Tucker and his wife, who was a registered nurse. My dad and mother were renting from a Mr. Palmerly, who was a barber in Nacogdoches. I later performed a physical examination on Mr. Palmerely in 1964 at Snyder, Texas, and he gave me a very detailed description at the whole birthing process. He has been standing out on the front porch with me day, and his wife had been helping Dr. Rucker^Òs wife with my mother when I was born. Incidentally, Dr. Tucker^Òs fee was $25.00. That was probably the only year he went a full two semester year to a four year college. Not only did he make the football team at Stephen F. Austin that year, but he also was on the Dean^Òs list for good grades. Even though the stock market crashed in New York City on October 29, it^Òs significance was not apparent to the people in Texas yet. One other thing I might add of interest was that prohibition was repealed in 1929, but that didn^Òt have much affect on the law abiding citizens of southeast Texas, since Tyler County was dry, and I suspect that Nacogdoches county was dry, too. It probably didn^Òt have an affect on the bootleggers who were making corn whiskey down in the river bottom around Spurger and Fred, and various places in Angelina and Nacogdoches county, because they went right on making and selling their white lightening. After finishing a full year of college in 1929 and 1920, my dad returned to Chester and helped his dad put in a crop. Then he spent the entire year in politics, and ran for the Tyler County School Superintendent job. He ran against Bronson Owen and lost. He went back home, and again helped his dad put in a crop and pick cotton. At that time, the depression became apparent to all over the United States. There were no jobs available. Gulf Oil stopped hiring. Oil went down to 5 and 10 cents a barrel, cotton went from 40 cents a pound to 25 cents, and eventually down to 5 cents a pound. The farmers could not sell their livestock. My dad had previously vowed in 1929 hat he would never teach for less than $50.00 a month again, but in 1930, Brandon Owen sent word to him that if he would come back to Cherokee and teach, they would use him as a second teacher, and they would pay him $60.00 a month. My dad took the job and taught the school year at Cherokee in 1930 and 1931. Apparently, my mother did not teacher that year. She became pregnant with my sister Ruby Nell, and, on April 8, l931, gave birth to Ruby Nell at their little farm at Chester. Dr. Caddie was present at the birth of my sister. His fee was $25.00 in cash. My dad offered him a heifer, but Dr. Caddie would not take the heifer, because he would have to feed it. So, my dad paid him the precious $25.00 in cash. In the fall of 1931, my dad accepted the position of Superintendent of the Concord School in Angelina county. Concord was a small rural school with 5 teachers and 3 school buses. It was located in the Angelina river bottom, east of Zavalla. My dad was superintendent at that school for two years. He was 27 years of age when he started there, and had the only automobile in the community. This was at the height of the depression, and many people were unemployed, broke, and many of them were hungry and malnourished. Even adults went without shoes. My dad felt like, economically, his decision to be superintendent at Concord had been a mistake. The people were impoverished, and on a lower socio-economic level than any he had grown up with in Tyler County. This occurred at the worst part of the depression. However, my dad said it was not as bad as the dust bowl depicted in the movie The Grapes of Wrath. In addition to being superintendent, he provided automobile transportation for the sick people, and ran other errands of similar nature for the community it In addition to being superintendent, he taught classes . When he left Concord, he was 29 years old, and I was three. My sister was one year old. My mother had fun in Concord, since the people treated her so well. She shed tears when they left. My mother pointed out to me that the people in the Angelina river bottom lived mostly by putting hogs in the woods and growing some corn. They would hunt and fish for game, and make cone syrup. People at the table ate cornbread, fried bacon, and syrup with some milk or coffee. Some grew vegetables. In Tyler County, most of the farmers had their milk cows which m provided milk for their families. One man she know grew only peanuts, so all he ate was peanuts. Such vices as co-habitation was unheard of in the strict Baptist communities of Tyler County, in the vicinity of Chester and Woodville, where my parents grew up. Again, I would like to point out that there were at least a quarter of a million people in Texas at that time unemployed, and that starvation was common across the entire south, if not across the entire nation, in the big cities. My dad resigned as superintendent at Concord, after two years, even thought they made him a promise to bring in an additional teacher, and make other improvements. My dad went back to his little farm in Chester, and put in a garden that summer. I was nearly 4 years old and can remember those days fairly well myself. It was a nice farm, my dad had chickens, we had a bee three, he had a nice garden, and we had a mule. Some of our distant cousins, the McQueens, lived right across the row. They had a young daughter named Dagma, who was bout 12 years old that I became close friends with. You will remember that the Barclays are relatives of the McQueens. (note Walter Barclay b. 1774 married Elizabeth McQueens Madison County Kentucky in 1804.) In the late summer of 1933, my dad journeyed to many places, looking for a teaching job. There were none in Tyler County, and only one opening in west Hardin county. He went to Batson in Hardin County. In the summer of 1933, and as was the custom in those days, went to see each member of the school board individually. He accepted a job with the Batson school district in 1933, and stayed there until 1942. We moved to an old farm house approximately three-fourths of a mile west of the school, where my dad had a large garden, a milk cow and a bunch of chickens. We never did raise hogs, with one exception, I raised a hog when I was about 11 years old as a pet. My dad was principal of the high school, coach of athletics and drove the early morning school bus. The afternoon school bus was driven by Mr. Boud, the school custodian. Batson had a modern school with eleven grades. It had a large auditorium, a chemistry lab, biology and home economics lab, a library, a large gymnasium, which was unusual in those days, and tennis courts. After a couple of years, my dad put in a football field and track with all the other additional facilities for track and field events. In 1936, my dad got his Bachelor of Science degree from Stephen F. Austin State teachers college in Nacogdoches. During my entire childhood, my dad went to school every summer, except the summer of 1935. That summer he worked for the Gulf pipeline at the pump station in Sour Lake for $5.00 a day, which to us seemed like a high salary. His salary at Batson was $90.00 a month teaching school. My mother did not work, since my sister and I were both small. In 1936, we moved from our farm house to a house my dad purchased in the old town of Batson, located adjacent to the Yust family and the Rogers family. Our immediate next door neighbors were the Gaskeys. My dad paid $450.00 for that house. I started out in the first grade at Batson and went through the seventh grade, when we moved there in 1942. Prior to his leaving in 1942, the school board elected my dad Superintendent after H.A. Hefner, who had been the Superintendent, resigned to take a similar job in Graham, TX a town near Breckenridge. After my dad got his Bachelors degree at Stephen F. Austin, he switched to Sam Houston State teachers college in Huntsville, which was closer to Batson than Nacogdoches. He went t o school every summer, except the summer of 1942, when he worked in the shipyard in Beaumont. He eventually got his Masters degree in Administration at Sam Houston State teachers college, in 1945. The Batson years was a happy time for our family, even though we were in a depression. Batson was a oil field town, and there was electricity in the house. In the town proper, where we lived, there was relative prosperity. If you have to choose between living in an oil town and a farming town, choose the oil town every time because the people have more money. Also, the tax base is richer and the schools have more facilities. I will get back to Batson later on. In 1941, on December 7th, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, and the United States was at war. My dad finished out the school year, and in the summer of 1942, we moved to Beaumont, in Jefferson County. My dad worked at the shipyard that summer, and went to work in the Beaumont Independent School District in the fall of 1942 as a full-time coach and physical education teacher. In those days, the coaches taught physical education every period, and then coached football, basketball, track and various other sports after school hours. My dad eventually became the principal of David Croquet high school, and subsequently, after an administration change, spent his last 16 years in the Beaumont system as a teacher at Beaumont High School. he taught American History, Social Studies, and Civics. My mother never taught again. When the kids grew up, she went to work for Montgomery Ward and worked for them about 11 years as a clerk until Wards closed and left Beaumont in 1965. We were all members of Calgary Baptist Church, on the corner of Niches and Corley, our entire stay in Beaumont from 1942, on. Our only residence was 1635 Cartwright Street. My dad retired from the Beaumont school system at the age of 62, in 1965, and moved to Woodville, Texas, where he built a retirement home on Johnson Street. He became active in retirement by becoming precinct chairman of the democratic party, member of the Tyler County Historical society, and went fishing, put in a garden, played dominoes on the courthouse square. Our house on Johnson Street was located only 3 blocks from the courthouse, where in 1845, his great uncle was the first judge. The Woodville Baptist church , where my dad and mother are members, was 2 blocks from the house and the Masonic lodge was only a block and a half or 2 blocks. Edward^Òs Funeral Home was only 2 blocks from our house, and my dad went down and took out a pre-burial plan with Joe Edward^Òs, assuming that Mr. Edwards would out-live him. It turned out that Mr. Edwards died, and at the time of this dictation, my dad is 87 and still alive. In my dad^Òs retirement, my mother continued keeping house and developed an extensive yard of popular year-round blooming flowers and trees. When dad could no longer put in a garden in his later years, my mother did. She was presented the Wheat Award at the Dogwood Festival around 1983. She believes it was likely because of her many years of making flowers for decorations at festival. Becoming active in politics, in Woodville, he ran for the Tyler County School Superintendent job in 1974, at the age of 70, and won. He came out of retirement, and was he full-time superintendent of county schools of Tyler County from 1974 to 1979. At the time he finished this term in 1979, the title and position of County School Superintendent was abolished by the legislature of the state of Texas. That office no longer exists in our state. it should be noted that my dad really wanted the job in 190, and shook hands with just about every voter in Tyler County but lost. He won it finally 44 years later at age 70. When my dad became 91, in 1995, he was given a party and awarded his 70 year Masonic service pin. It is his opinion that he is the youngest man ever to receive that award. He joined the Masons on the first meeting night after his 21st in March of 1925. Back in hose days, the Masons of the Mount Hope lodge at Chester met on the first Saturday after the first full moon of each month. The reason for that, was so that they could ride their horses home from lodge meeting by moonlight. I would like to say a few words about the Mount Zion church and cemetery, since it is where all of my near kin on my dad and mother^Òs side are buried. Mount Zion church is about 3 0r 4 miles south of Chester, located on an unimproved dirt road which runs west to Russell creed and down Russell creek where the Vinson settlement was. Old George Vinson, my great grandfather on my other^Òs side, lived there and his four sons had their farms along that road. My granddad Jim Vinson grew up on the farm there and went to work for the pump station, while he continued to farm. Then he worked for Gulf Oil for about 30 years when they finally put him on full time. They lived in a company house for a number of years and then moved up on the hill about a mile from the pump station gate and about a quarter of a mile from my dad^Òs little farm he built in 1929. Around 1942, my granddad, Jim, moved to Chester. He built a house across from the Carnes and next to his daughter, Zelda Seamans and her husband, Clarence and their son Ralph. It was approximately one city block from the Chester High School. My granddad Vinson was on the Chester school board many years. In fact, he was on the Chester school board when my dad moved to Batson in 1933. My granddad, James Alfred Vinson (b. 1887- d 1952) was married to my grandmother Ada George Vinson (b. 1887 - 1960). They are buried side by side Mount Zion cemetery, next to their you g son Aldridge, who died at the age of 8 of appendicitis. Jim Vinson, as he was known, was the son of George Vinson, who was married to Mary Peters. I, nor my mother, knows where the Vinsons cam from. They were not listed in the Tyler County census of 1860, nor were they listed as slave owners in Tyler County. Consequently, it is my opinion that the Vinsons came from somewhere in the south, and settled on Russell creek 5 miles below Chester sometime right after the Civil war. They attended the Mount Zion Baptist church, and have kin folks buried in that cemetery back to 1870. My grandmother, Ada George Vinson, was the daughter of a George, who wed a Miss Bullock, my mother^Òs grandmother, and who my mother was named after. My mother, Ruby Emily Vinson, was named after Emily Bullock. Whether Emily Bullock was a daughter of Charles Bullock, is not known for sure by my mother. She was always told that she had a great grandfather that was a captain in the Civil was. The George^Òs lived out on what is now known as the Woodville to Livingston highway, and so did the Bullocks, and so did some of the Barclays, as far as that goes. The Gulf pump station has to have played a great part in the economy of the area of Mount Zion church and to my family. Spindletop Oil field was brought in 1901, Batson, Saratoga, and Sour Lake Oil fields were brought in 1904. Humble field, 1905. Kilgore, Henderson and the East Texas field in 1930. Conroe was brought in 1933. At the time the Conroe field was brought in 1933, oil was 10 cents a barrel. The Gulf Oil corporation evolved from the Guffey oil company, that was formed at Spindleton. They eventually built a huge refinery at Port Arthur, and they put in a pipeline system across the state of Texas. Fortunately, the pipeline went trough Tyler County, and Gulf put a large pump station approximately one mile from Mount Zion church. They bought the land from George Vinson and his heirs for the pump station. Incidentally, when they closed the pump station down, they sold the land back to the Vinsons at about $500.00 an acre, at a time when most unimproved land in that area was selling for $2000.00 an acre. When they bought it in 1907, I suspect they paid $20.00 an acre. After the Civil War, and before the railroads came in, most of Tyler County was covered with yellow pine and was not fit for farming. The best farming was in the creek bottoms, river bottoms and blackland farming. Farmers sold their forest lands to the timber companies for as little as one or two dollars an acre. They had no way of cutting the large trees, and after they cut them, they certainly had no use for them. James Walter Barclay Jr., my grandfather, married Laura Pool Barclay. Laura had a twin sister Clara Pool that married Henry Barclay, my grandfathers brother. henry was the oldest son of my great grandfather James Walter Barclay and inherited most of his land, which was on the west side of 287, and extended from Woodville below Kirkland Springs and almost to Russell Creek on the west side of 287. The old Barclay place, that belonged to my great-grandfather, is directly across the road that runs to my grandfathers house, about 1 to 2 miles back in the woods. There is still a little dirt road that runs in there to the old place. An incident that my dad has told over and over again, over the years that I have known him, is that his father, my grandfather Walter, shot the last deer in Tyler County in 1932. He did it because they needed the meat. At that time, he almost cried when he felt like he killed the last deer, because he said that none of his children would ever get to shoot a deer. Around 1940, they closed the hunting season in Tyler County for 5 years. White tail deer were imported from South Texas and West Texas, and now the deer herd has been replenished in Tyler County. My grandfather had no idea this would happen. It is an observation, my dad said, that they cut the last of the yellow pine tree down in Tyler County in 1930, and my grandfather shot the last deer in 1932. When the settlers came to Tyler County across the Neches River in 1832, the entire county was filled with tall pine trees 5 foot in diameter and 150 feet high. The deer herd was so thick they would walk up to people without shying away. Turkey, bear and all other game of that sort were in abundance when those settlers came. By 1932, they had shot all the deer and most of the squirrels and you probably couldn^Òt find a bear within a thousand miles of the Neches river unless it was in a zoo. Another thing of interest, is that when my dad went to work at the age of 17 for Carter lumber company as a logging man, he was paid $1.50 a day. In those days, your dad was entitled to your services until you were 21 years old. Out of the $1.50 Mr. Carter paid my dad, he in turn paid his dad $ .50 a day to hire a man to work in his place on the farm. I asked my dad about World War 1 and what he could remember. At the beginning of WW1, my dad was 13 and my mother was 9. They both seem to remember the same things. They bought a little red button for 10 cents and wore it on their lapel. Sugar and flour were rationed and almost non-existent. You couldn^Òt buy meat in the store and farmers were selling all they could raise, and consequently, meat was scarce. The predominant crops in Tyler County have always been corn and cotton. They also had plenty if sugar cane for syrup. They ran hogs in the woods and kept cows for milk. They raised vegetables in their family gardens. During WW1, there was a national drive towards self-sufficiency, and each family was encouraged to have a "victory garden". This was also true of WWII. My mother pointed out that we always had plenty of milk. Most of the people in Tyler County in the early 1930^Òs put their milk in the well. They had open air wells and would let it down on a rope. The ones I saw were in glass jugs inside a flour sack. My mother said they put theirs in a tin syrup bucket, their milk put the lids on and then put it in a sugar sack with a knot. They tied the rope around the knot, and let it down in the well. This was so that if the bail came off, the bucket wouldn^Òt spill and sour the well water. Most of the wells were open and about 25 feet deep. My dad had a pitcher pump at our house in Concord. We had pitcher pumps in Batson. The first house that I lived in that had electricity, was in Batson in 1933, we were, however, fairly close to town. People that lived on the farm did not get electricity until after WW2, around 1946. My dad was pretty young during WW1 , but I asked him what he remembered. No immediate member of our family served in the armed forces or was killed. there were very few people that they knew of in Chester or Woodville that served or were killed. My dad had four older brothers. Clyde was not drafted. Buck was in the state guard at Woodville, wore a uniform and drilled with a stick. Josh was inducted into the draft the day the Armistice was signed. Robert was too young and Feagin was a baby. My dad was 13. When I asked my dad why he didn^Òt go to Woodville high school, he said that at the time he went off to Denton, Woodvill did have 11 grades, but they would not have given him a teachers certificate. The expense would be the same for room and board. When he taught school at Shiloh, it was about 6 or 7 miles through the woods from his father^Òs place. He rode horseback. It took him 1 hour to get there and 1 hour to get home through the woods. My mother substituted from him several times. For comparison, in 1920 seventy-five of the school age children in Texas were attending public school. The illiteracy rate in Texas dropped to 8% over all. It was the lowest in the south. But, Texas was rated number 39 in all the states in quality of education. It is interesting that in 1926, my dad bought a T-model Ford touring car for $418. The roads were bad and after the first week the back wheel came off. There were no paved roads. All were dirt trails, no upkeep and little or no roads. In 1929, he traded his 1926 T-model for a 1929 T-model roadster with a rumple seat. In those days, they borrowed the money from the bank, paid cash for the car, and paid off the bank in installments. Barclay military service * TYLER COUNTY SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENTS AND THEIR ADMINISTRATIONS 1912 - 1979 by George W. Barclay, Sr. (b.1904) Acknowledgments Following are listed the sources from which I gathered the information for the accounts set forth of the ten Tyler County School Superintendents and their administration. Tyler County School Board Meeting Minutes Texas Almanac Texas School Law Bulletin Information of file in the office of County School Superintendent Preface Down through the annals of time, the preservation of significant happenings have been recorded for posterity. It is with the deepest sincerity that this complete listing of Tyler County School Superintendents and their administrations - ten in all - has been written to some day be an integral part of our past history. Beginning with Sam Mann prior to 1912 as the first County School Superintendent and continuing through December 31, 1978 when the final curtain descended on one of the finest administrative offices in the school system-that of the County School Superintendents everywhere.