Freestone County, Texas
Biographies




Biography of Robert Longbotham
    (28 Dec 1797 - 6 Aug 1883, buried in Robert Longbotham cemetery in Wortham)
    (m1 12 Mar 1820 in Bibb Co., AL to Lucy Haggard who dies 21 Aug 1873.)
    (m2 7 Sep 1879 in Limestone Co., TX to Lucinda C. Harnes)
    
Book - Memorial and Biographical History of Navarro, Henderson, Anderson, 
Limestone, Freestone and Leon Counties, Texas.  Lewis Publishing Company, 
Chicago, 1893.  p. 423-427.

"
   ...He [Thomas Longbotham] was born in Bibb county, Alabama, February 21, 1832, 
the youngest son and sixth child of a family of ten children born to Robert B. 
and Lucy (Haggard) Longbotham.
   The elder Longbotham was a native of Durham, England, where 
he was born December 28, 1797.  As Robert grew up he became convinced that his 
environments were not such as responded happily to his ambitious mind, nor did 
they meet the necessary conditiohns to a young man who had a desire to make his
own way in the world, and establish a home for himself. With this view of the 
conditions that surrounded him, he came to the conclusion that there was a better
place for him than England, and that place was America.  Accordingly he took 
leave of his parental roof and native soil, and embarked on board of a ship bound
for the land of freedom, doing service as a cabin-boy for his passage.  Arriving
in the United States, he located in South Carolina, and was apprenticed to the
carpenter's trade, serving three years.  After leaving his trade, he worked as
a journeyman for a time, when, having improved his finances, he started for the 
borders of civilization, then in Alabama.  There he was engaged at his trade and
in farming pursuits.  Here he met and married Lucy Haggard, who was the daughter
of Rev. Joel Haggard, of Tennessee, a minister of the Baptist church, who had 
moved to Alabama when Lucy was a young girl.
   Mr. Longbotham followed farming and building until he removed to Texas in 1833,
locating in Nacogdoches county, where he remained one year, when he removed to 
what is now Madison county, territory then under the jurisdiction of Montgomery
county.  Mr. Longbotham had obtained a land certificate for a league and labor
and made his location of the labor and settled down to farming. The political 
affairs of Texas were then in a very unsettled condition, and it was not long
before the people were in open rebeliion against the home government on account
of its oppression and the enforcement of unjust laws.  The people of Texas rose
in rebellion to throw off the yoke of tyranny, and Mr. Longbotham was among the 
first to jon the army to free Texas from the misrule of Mexico, and his first
service was assisting in the removal of families to the East for safety. Arriving
as far as Nacogdoches, they concluded they might as well stop there and take 
their chances, as there was but little difference between death by the sword or
death by famine.
   After Texas had secured her independence, Mr. Longbotham returned to his home
and resumed farming in connection with his trade.  At one time he went as far as
Houston to obtain work in order to secure a load of corn. He was hone six weeks,
his family being without bread in the meantime. In 1837 he located a part of his
league of land at the present site of Wortham, and the balance on Grindstone creek,
near the county seat, then embraced in the territory of Limestone county.
   The Mexican troubles had been settled, but other enemies now arose to harass
the people: these were the Indians.  Mr. Longbotham had built him what was then 
considered a comfortable log-cabin, and it was a little superior to the ordinary
cabin, for it had a floor not of earth but a real puncheon floor.  The logs of 
the cabin being up, the house was finished with timber split and hewed out. Holes
were left in the walls, which were closed at night or in cold weather, by solid
blinds. Glass panes were a luxury.  A fireplace built on the outside of the wall
mounted by a chimney, usually built of dirt and sticks, completed the structure.
The windows, or port-holes, as the early settlers were wont to call them, served
a double purpose, as they were a protection against arrows and bullets of the 
stealthy, wily savage.  For the better protection of the community against these
dreaded foes, Mr. Longbotham, Robert Rogers, Stephen Rogers, Thomas Lam[b], Sam
Brenbury and other settlers concluded to build a fort, or what they called a 
blockhouse, which was erected on Rogers' prairie, to which place the families
gathered and made their home during those troublous times.  There was one family,
by the name of Robinett, that did not go in; they regarded themselves too brave
to seek such shelter. The fort was not attacked by the Indians at that time, but
the settlers had several fights with them. They lived in the fort about twelve 
months, when the condition seemed more peaceful, and the settlers returned to their
respective homes. Mr. Longbotham opened up a part of his land for cultivation, and
began work at his trade, getting work at Houston and other small towns, leaving
his family in charge of his farm. The Indians, however, began to be very 
troublesome again, and he was obliged to return home to his family to protect 
them from the savage foe.  He and his wife would stnad guard by turns, one guarding
while the other slept. An incident occured here at this time among the settlers
worthy of a place in this work. The Robinett family, before mentioned, contained
among others, three sons, who stood six and half feet high. They refused to go 
into the fort, saying with a good deal of bravado that they could whip all the
Indians that would attack them. The Indians were about again, and an attack was
anticipated. One time these boys practiced all one day shooting at a mark, the 
result of which was that they concluded that they could hold their their hand with
the savages; but they had shot away all their ammunition and it was too far then
to go for more.  That night, about 12 o'clock, while Mr. Longbotham was looking
out from his porthole, he saw two persons approaching the house up the road. At
first he supposed they were Indians, but they called to him.  "Who is that?" he
called. "Robinetts," they cried; "twenty-five shots have been fired at us tonight;
Smithy has been shot in the breast, Jimmy in the arm, the old man and Enouch are
killed, and we crawled out under the floor, and have come to tell you of the sad
news."  This was all a mistake. They had tied their horses close to the house to
keep the Indians from stealing them. When they made the attack some of the Indians
kept up their firing at the door, while others cut the horses loose. During the
shooting a splinter struck one of the women on the breast and all the family fell
under the bed, each one thinking the other was killed except himself.
   The mills that the settlers used in those days to grind their corn were made
of steel, were run by hand, and nearly every family had one. A very sad event 
happened one day on Roger's prairie. Mr. Longbotham and a son of Mr. Rogers were
out a short distance from the house, and while young Rogers was in bathing the
Indians came suddenly upon them, cut off the latter's reteat and killed him before
he could reach the house, and directly in sight of his mother and sisters. This
sad affair cast a gloom over the entire community, as he was beloved by all who
knew him. In 1848, Mr. Longbotham, accompained by his sons, went to Limestone,
now Freestone county, and erected two log cabins on his league of land, one 16 x
16 and the other 14 x 16 feet, and the following year the family moved in, and
thus they began the formation of the settlement. When one would put up a log cabin
the neighbors would gather in and give their help. The lumber used for flooring, 
doors and window-shutters was gotten out with a whipsaw which was used in the 
community. The two cabins mentioned made a comfortable home for the whole family.
At this time there were eight families within a distance of eight miles, and the
nearest mill was five miles away, and the grinding was done by horse power, or
rather ox power. Mr. and Mrs. Longbotham were the parents of nine children: Susan,
now the widow of Mathew Yarbrough, residing at Wortham; Dorothy, the wife of J.S.
Bays, of Limestone county; John, who was murdered March 6, 1867, by a gang of 
out-laws; Mary, the wife of G. N. Green, of California; Jonathan, who died July
4, 1890, aged sixty-two years; Thomas; Hannah, who was married to D. F. Strickland,
now deceased; Lucy, who became the wife of C. P. Grizzard, of Limestone county;
Margaret, the wife of E. D. Crouch, same county.
   Mr. and Mrs. Longbotham were active and devout members of the Primitive Baptist
Church. The latter died at the age of eighty years. Mr. Longbotham was married 
the second time, to Louisa Harnes. He cultivated his farm until about the time of
his death, which took place August 6, 1883. He was a man of sterling worth, and 
much respected by all who knew him. To him and men of like metal Texas owes her
growth and present development.
   ...
"