Llano County, TX - Bios:  Draper Family

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Submitted by: floyd@sage.net  (Nancy Graff Kelsey)
August 14, 1999


Draper family

Temple Daily Telegram 4 February 1937

99 Year Old Llano County Woman Helped Make History

Mrs. Clarintha Draper, believed to be the oldest person and longest resident of this section,
passed her 99th birthday at the home of her son, M. L. Draper Sr., at Pontotoc, near here.
She has been closely associated with the history of this section for more then sixty-six years.
Mrs. Draper was born 6 January 1836 near Nashville, Tennessee, coming to Texas with her family
when three. The family first settled in what was later Fannin county.

She worked with her husband, George Washington Draper, several years at cattle raising.
Draper enlisted in the Confederate army, was captured by union forces and held prisoner until
the close of the war. Meanwhile his wife became stranded in Arkansas, and after union solders
burned her possessions, she set out on horseback for Texas, carrying her 4 year old son behind
her and a two year old daughter in front.

She endured great hardships before reaching Texas where her husband, whom she believed dead,
joined her about a year later. The couple settled in old Fort Burnet 1867, subsequently moving
to Pontotoc section of Llano county. Draper died in 1884.

In addition to household tasks essential to rearing ten children, Mrs. Draper after her
husband's death helped herd cattle, riding the open range alongside the men. She is in good
health and was active until recently.