Transcribed by
Cathryn Jex Millburn
WILLIAM RICHARDS ERSKINE
William Richards Erskine, b April 23, 1823 in Pendleton County, South Carolina,
d January 31, 1892 and buried in Tehuacana Cemetery, Limestone County, Texas -
was a son of Hugh Erskine, b 1792 in South Carolina, d after 1860 near Odds,
Texas and buried in the Erskine Cemetery (now on land facing Highway 147 a few
miles east of Marlin), and his wife, Jane (Richards) Erskine, b 1802 in South
Carolina, d after 1880 and buried by her husband. The Erskines and their related
families lived for a few years in McMinn County, Tennessee, and then returned to
South Carolina - subsequently moving to Texas in 1853 and settling on Blue Ridge
(Stranger) in Falls County with the McAllister, Todd, Steele, and Sowders
families.
On July 13, 1856, William married in Falls County, Texas to Mary Elizabeth
(Garrett) McDowell, b March 19, 1835 in Arkansas, d 1862 at Stranger - a
daughter of Thomas McKissick Garrett and his first wife, Margaret Minerva (Reed)
Garrett, natives of Giles County, Tennessee who settled in The Republic of Texas
in 1840. Mary Elizabeth was nine years old when her mother died in the part of
Houston County which became Anderson County in 1846, but lived with and came to
Falls County with her father, stepmother, brother, a half-sister, a
half-brother, and one step-sister and three step-brothers named Cornelison in
1850, after her father had come in 1849 to build a for the family.
William Richards and Mary Elizabeth (Garrett) Erskine sold the land her first
husband, John McDowell, had purchased; and William then bought additional land.
They had two sons before Mary Elizabeth's death:
James Franklin Erskine, b April 9, 1857, d February 19, 1918 and buried in
Stranger Cemetery - married December 19, 1877 in Falls County, Texas to Florence
Midora Cox, b January 17, 1860 in Kentucky, d October 20, 1941 and buried in
Stranger Cemetery - a daughter of William David and Mary Florence (Gassaway)
Cox. They had eleven children, but only nine survived to adulthood.
Thomas Jasper Erskine, b March 1860, d December 16, 1943 in New Mexico -married
November 25, 1891 at Stranger to Mary Lena Hayes, b March 21, 1874, d June 24,
1948 in New Mexico - a daughter of James Sanford and Sarah (Reed) Hayes, natives
of Giles County, Tennessee, who settled in the Stranger Community in about 1890.
They had four children rearing only two to adulthood.
William Richards Erskine had the management of 492 acres of land inherited by
his two sons from their grandfather, Thomas McKissick Garrett, as their guardian
- in addition to their one-ninth share of the remaining one-half of the land and
property.
On April 23, 1862, William Richards Erskine was mustered into the Confederate
States Army, in Company B, Waller's 13th Texas Calvary Battalion, which was
composed primarily of personnel recruited from Falls County. His brother, James
David Erskine, was mustered in with him. His wife, Mary Elizabeth (Garrett)
Erskine, died a few months later and was buried in the Garrett Cemetery on Bald
Knob, where her father was buried within ten days. The children lived with
relatives at Stranger, until their father returned from the Civil War; and in
1866, William Richards Erskine was married second to Mrs. Sarah Frances
(Garrett) Hearon - a first cousin to his first wife, Mary Elizabeth, who had two
stepchildren by her first marriage to Isaac M. Hearon on January 16, 1865, in
Falls County, Texas. Isaac evidently died soon after the marriage, and Sarah
Frances took the responsibility of his two children: Robert L. Hearon, and
Amanda Hearon; and when she died in 1869, William Richards Erskine continued to
care for the Hearon children. William Richards and Sarah Frances (Garrett)
Erskine had two daughters:
Sarah Elizabeth Erskine, b April 15, 1867, d June 21, 1958 - married Ruben S.
Springfield, b May 10, 1865, d October 17, 1945 - and both buried in Calvary
Cemetery in Marlin.
Mary Erskine, b 1869 when her mother died, was alive on the 1870 Census, which
was not recorded until March 1871; but she died as a young child.
William Richards Erskine married third on September 8, 1870 in Falls County to
Mrs. Angeline (Brooks) Granade - widow of John Granade, b March 3, 1839 in
Louisiana, d March 7, 1895 and buried in Tehuacana Cemetery in Limestone County,
Texas - a daughter of James Hampton and Anna (Bowie) Brooks. Angeline had four
daughters by her first husband: Mary E. Granade, Ann Martha Granade, Ursula
Granade, and Sarah Granade; and by the time the 1870 Census was recorded in
March 1871, William R. Erskine had nine children in his household, with his own
daughter, Sarah Elizabeth Erskine, living with his brother, James David Erskine,
in Limestone County, Texas.
William and Angelina (Brooks) Erskine had two sons:
Robert Wright Erskine, b May 20, 1874 at Stranger, d August 28, 1955 at
Tehuacana - married Mary Macy Cogdell in Limestone County, Texas.
William Richards Erskine, II, b October 22, 1876 - married Lillian Cogdell. They
had:
Starley June Erskine, b November 16, 1902 in Limestone County, Texas - married
Ruby Smith.
Stanley Maurice Erskine, b August 27, 1904 in Limestone County, Texas - was a
graduate of The University of Texas, and married in 1932 to Ruth Lake.
Before William Richards Erskine moved to Tehuacana, he operated a gin at
Stranger across the road from his near the Stranger Methodist-Presbyterian
Union Church, for which he deeded one and a half acres of land, in the names of
his sons, in 1868. After his third marriage, he deeded three additional acres to
the Baptist Church, where his third wife, Angelina, was a charter member.
William and his former brother-in-law, Robert Jasper Garrett, were co-owners of
some land before they separated their holdings.
The descendants of William Richards and Mary Elizabeth (Garrett) Erskine are
numerous in Falls County, Texas, and some of their land holdings have been in
the family for 135 years. The families of his other children moved away.
Copyright permission granted to
Theresa Carhart and her volunteers for printing the bios of these Falls County
Families to this web page.
"Families of Falls County", compiled and edited by
the Falls County Historical Commission, page 139, column 2, page 140, columns 1
& 2.
Member of the Falls County Historical Commission
