HENRY FORREST MEARS
Henry Forrest Mears, b 1867 in Robeson County, North
Carolina, d January 9, 1904 at Durango, Falls County, Texas "of Black Jaundice
and Malaria" ‑ was the only child of Dwight H. Mears and his first wife, Martha
D. (Freeman) Mears. He was only one year old when his father remarried, and was
reared by his stepmother, Mary Amanda (Barnes) Mears, along with his nine
half‑brothers and sisters. Henry was brought to Texas with the family in 1871;
and in 1880, the family resided in Bastrop County, Texas.
On July 6, 1894 in Falls County, Texas, Henry Forrest
Mears was married to Mary Alice Markham, b 1878 in Cannon County, Tennessee, d
1956 in Harris County, Texas ‑ a daughter of John Micajah and Susan Mary (Talbot
or Talbert) Markham (sometimes spelled "Markum"). The bride was only sixteen
years old when they married, and her father had to give written permission for
the marriage. Reverend J. F. McLeod performed the ceremony.
Henry Forrest and Mary Alice (Markham) Mears had
three children before his untimely death:
Myrtle Mears, b 1895 in Falls County, Texas was
residing in Harris County, Texas when her mother died there.
Henry Dwight Mears, b 1899 in Falls County, Texas, d
1904 about the same time his father died.
Lucy Edna Mears, b November 25, 1902 in Falls County,
Texas near the Durango Community ‑ was residing in Waco, Texas when she met and
married there on November 26, 1921 to Philip Claud Thomas, b July 1897 in
Limestone County, Texas‑a son of Theodore and Elizabeth (Clabaugh) Thomas.
Philip Claud had moved to Waco as a young adult. He worked for many years as a
superintendent for the Clifton Manu
facturing Company, while Lucy Edna worked for a printing and book binding firm,
and they made their in Waco, where they had three children; June Edna
Thomas ‑ who married first to Freeman O. Tucker and had two children, Freeman
Thomas Tucker, and Janice Elaine Tucker ‑ and married second to Billy G.
Anderson and had Melissa Anderson; Philip Claud Thomas, Jr., is married and
resides in Austin, Texas, where he works for the Texas Department of Highways,
and has no children; and Dwight Layton Thomas ‑ who graduated from Waco High
School received his degree in Business from Baylor University, Waco and is now
Publisher of The Marlin Democrat, in Marlin, Texas. Dwight married Dorothy A.
Urban ‑ a daughter of John A. and Olga Urban, of Waco, Texas; and she graduated
from Waco High School, attended The University of Texas in Austin and Southern
Methodist University in Dallas. Dwight was reared in the Baptist faith, while
Dorothy was reared in the Catholic faith. She works in Waco for Chilton Credit
Reporting. Dwight and Dorothy are very active in social, club, civic, and
community affairs in Marlin, where they reside; and he is a member of Texas
Daily Newspaper Association, Texas Press Association, Marlin Chamber of
Commerce, and Rotary Club. They have no children.
After the death of her young husband and small son,
Mary Alice (Markham) Mears moved to the Lott Community with her two surviving
daughters, and on August 30, 1907 in Falls County, she married secondly to John
L. Dove. By 1910, the Dove family, with the two Mears daughters, were residing
in Runnels County, Texas, where he was renting a farm. By 1914, the family had
resettled in McLennan County, Texas, where the descendants were reared ‑ until
the grandson of Mary Alice (Markham) Mears Dove returned to make his family in Marlin, Falls County, Texas.
Copyright Permission
granted to Theresa Carhart and her volunteers for printing the biographies of
these Falls County Families to this web page. “Families of Falls County”,
compiled and Edited by the Falls County Historical Department, p. 304
