Freestone County, Texas
Births



The Fairfield Recorder
Thursday, February 17, 1977 - Page 2

104 Year Old California Man Was Born And Reared in County Near Stewards Mill

Editor's Note:  We are appreciative to Mrs. Frank (Dorothy) Bragg for 
furnishing us with the following article about an elderly California man who was
born in Freestone County, near Stewards Mill.  He has been a longtime friend of
the Watson and other families there having worked at an early ago for Mrs. 
Frank Bragg's father.  This is reprinted from the Oct 2 issue of The Sun-
Telegram, San Bernadino, Calif.

by Leonard Metz
Sun-Telegram Staff Writer

SAN BERNADINO - Houston Walker was born just 10 years after the Emancipation
Proclamation freed his mother and father.

He lived nearly all of his life in the small Texas county where he was born. 
He swam the swollen Trinity River to rescue someone else's calves.  He share-
cropped on someone else's ranch.  He carried freight by ox cart between Houston
and Dallas for someone else.

But his mother gave him a legacy - his birthdate.  Friday, Walker celebrated his
104th birthday at the home of his youngest daughter, Mrs. Lauadonia Perkins, 171
S. Allen, San Bernadino.

When Walker was small, he recalled his mother told him to keep an eye on the 
peach tree in the back yard.

"I was born the first of October," Walker said.  "Mother told me I would always
know it was my birthday because they had a tree that always got ripe on Oct. 1"

Walker's birthplace is Fairfield, Texas, which has a population of less than 
2,000.  It is the county seat of Freestone County, a farming and raching area.

The county may have been named for the freestone peach, or, as Mrs. Perkins 
suggests, for the solft drinking water, "the softest water you ever tasted."

As a young man, Walker was energetic.  He held many jobs, and liked to fish and
hunt.  "He used to catch a lot of fish and a lot of wild varmints like coon and
squirrels," said Mrs. Perkins.

He had 12 children, and eight of them are still alive, all living in the San
Bernadino area.  In addition to Mrs. Perkins, they are: