HENDERSON CO. TX - BIOGRAPHY Sallie Chambers This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by: Bunny Shumate Freeman Fourls1223@aol.com ********************************************* Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm ********************************************* Athens Review Aug. 2, 1901 Aunt Sallie Chambers This is one of the early settlers of our county and well deserves to be mentioned in a paper that will be kept as a memorial by future generations. Aunt Sallie was born in Tenn. and is 82 years old this month. She lived in this county a little over forty years, moving to Abilene some ten years since with her adopted child, Jed Adams, where she now lives. Jed's mother died right here in Henderson county in 1851, and was the first white person buried in the cemetery at Fincastle. She left Jen an infant child and Aunt Sallie and Uncle Jim Chambers took him as their child. Jed Adams and or present Sam Adams were sons of Dr. P. P. Adams, whose first wife was a sister to uncle Jim Chambers. Sam's mother was a Suratt. Dr. P. P. Adams (old uncle Jimmy Adams) James Chambers, old uncle Pete Garland and his sons. Tom Button and Kit and others moved to Texasin 1850 arriving here in 1850. Aunt Sallie says the town then consisted of one or two little old log huts. She remembers well that when they drove their wagon into town some one said then that they were on the public square of the future great city of Athens. Everything looked gloomy and depicted anything but cheerfulness. Dr. Adams after surveying the situation remarked to uncle Jim Chambers "Jim haven't we played h--l. These families struck the state somewhere in Dallas county it being i December a cold blue norther struck them; they turned southward into Kaufman county, hearing that a new county seat had just been located at the infant town of Athens, they turned further south to Henderson county to get rid of the cold bleak winds of Dallas and Kaufman counties. They were of course disgusted with Athens and turned their faces towards what we then called Egypt, the Fincastle country even before Fincaslte was named. There they lived for many years before the war, through the war and until a few years after the war when Dr. Adams and Uncle Jim Chambers both died, but Aunt Sallie still lives. These families did more to build up the Fincastle country than any people that had lived there. They were right liberally educated and soon had schools running and teh boys sitting on split log benches swining their feet with their blue-back spellers in their clutches. Aunt Sallie used to be a very fine cook, and although she had to cook on the fireplace at that early day, I don't think any one could beat her cooking salt raised light bread, peach cobblers and potato pudding, and I don't mean to detract from her cooking generally by specially naming these three. She was a dine hand to cut and make men's clothing, an acquistion that only a few had in those days. The younger generation can't well understand that men did not then wear what we called store clothes, everthing was made at home. We had some of the prettiest jeans suits in the world. Aunt Sallie was also an adept at weaving that fine jeans. I guarantee today she has a number of fine coverlets woven by her own hand. She was a domestic woman and well understood her household duties. She was of course well surrounded with every means to carry on her home operations, Uncle Jim and she owning about eighty negro slaves all of whom she saw driven from her door and her hard earnings snatched from her in a twinkling. But she has murmured very little, being accustomed to work she went rigth ahead and has made a good living and is now enjoying her old age. W. L. F.