R. B. LONG, SR., Smith County, TX

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Submitted by Mary Love Berryman - marylove@tyler.net 
11 Jun 2001
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Biographical Souvenir of the State of Texas
Containing Biographical Sketches of the Representive Public,
And Many Early Settled Families
Chicago:  F. A. Battey & Company, 1889, Vol II, p 531.

R. B. LONG, SR., postmaster of Tyler, Smith county, Texas, is a 
native of Bedford county, Tennessee, and was born four miles south 
of Fishing Ford, on Duck river, December 1, 1817.  His father, 
Benjamin Long, was born and reared in Franklin county, Kentucky,
but moved to Tennessee when a young man.  There he married and
settled in what was then Bedford, but afterward Marshall county.  
He served in the war with Great Britain in 1812, was at New Orleans 
and was there captured December 23, preceding the decisive battle 
of January 8.  He served with Captain Ephraim G. Dickson, his
brother-in-law.  Benjamin Long was fond of military life and 
prominent in local military circles.  When the old State militia was
an institution of the South and West he took an active interest in 
it and always bore a conspicuous part on "muster days."  On one 
occasion he was the commanding officer at a county drill, and under 
the excitement and heat of the day he overtaxed himself and died 
November 6, 1825, being then in his fortieth year.  His wife was
Mary, daughter of James Dickson, of North Carolina.  James Dickson
moved to Davidson county, Tennessee, at an early day, when Davidson
county embraced a large portion of middle Tennessee.  On the 
organization of Bedford county he became its first county judge and 
was serving as its presiding officer at the date of his death.  Mrs. 
Mary Long was born in North Carolina, reared in Davidson county,
Tennessee, and died in Tyler, Texas, in 1871, at an advanced age.
She was the mother of the following children--James D., Richard Brown,
the subject; Isabella, Sarah, William T. and Nancy Jane.  Only two 
of these are now living, Richard B. and William T.

Richard Brown Long came to Texas in 1850; settled in Smith county and 
began farming.  In 1854 he was elected sheriff of Smith county and
served till 1857 when he was appointed by Judge John H. Reagan, the
district judge and now United States senator, to the position of clerk 
of the district court of Smith county.  This office he held till 1862,
when, in the midst of the Civil War, he resigned his position and 
raised a company of volunteers, which was mustered into the 
Confederate service as Company B, Colonel O. M. Roberts' regiment, and
of this company he served as captain till 1864, when he was appointed 
quartermaster and was sent home.  He established headquarters at Tyler 
and gathered provisions and supplies for the army till the close of 
the war, when he engaged in mercantile business in Tyler and farming
in Smith county.  In March, 1886, he was appointed postmaster at 
Tyler, being indorsed by all of the good citizens of his own town and 
many public officials and prominent men of other localities.  He has 
made a very acceptable postmaster, and stands well with his people
officially, personally and otherwise.

January 30, 1840, Mr. Long married Nancy, daughter of L. W. Marbury, 
of Bedford county, Tennessee.  She died some years since, the mother 
of nine children, six of whom reached maturity and all of whom but
three are now living.  There were named--James B., now deceased; 
Richard B. Jr., Mary Belle, wife of Rev. T. P. Smith, presiding elder 
of the Marshall district; Medicus A., Sara Jane, wife of John W. 
Robbins, and John J.

Captain Long has been a Mason since 1842 and a member of the Methodist 
church many years.