Gordon, Thomas, one of the oldest inhabitants of Collinsville, was born in Todd County, Kentucky, May 8, 1848. He came with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. B.W. Gordon, to Missouri when Tom was 8 years old. They stayed in Missouri 10 years and moved to Arkansas in 1867. Tom was the second oldest child, having 2 brothers and 6 sisters. He had an older sister. In 1873, when Tom was 25 years of age, he left Arkansas and came to Texas. However, he had made a trip to Texas every year for the 6 preceding years for the purpose of hauling apples. Sometimes there would be as many as 13 or 14 wagons in the train, Mr. Gordon relates. They brought their apples to Dallas, Waco, Austin and once they went as far as San Antonio. It was their custom to sell their load of apples, sell the wagon and team and take a Texas pony on the trade and return home by horseback. Even in those days Texas appealed to Tom Gordon, and he tried for 6 years, ever since he had started making trips to Texas, to get his father to move there. It was a lawless country, but it was good farm land and farming has always been Tom Gordon's long suit. He finally came to Texas to settle in 1873 on the Tom Stevens place. His family moved to Texas some several months later. Mr. Gordon says he "moved to Texas and started farming and has been farming ever since up until the last few years." He married October 16, 1875, Loraney Phipps, a native of the Collinsville section. They had 10 children, 7 of whom are living. People of those days were more friendly than they are now, Mr. Gordon says, in talking over the customs of by-gone years. "There were a good many horse thieves in those days," he continued, "but we killed all of them. Of course we rode in wagons, horseback and in ox wagons, and a good horse was worth more than nearly anything else. Mr. and Mrs. Gordon moved to Burneyville in Indian Territory January 1, 1887 and it was in Burneyville that his wife died April 8, 1888, and after having spent 2 years at this place, he moved back to Collinsville. He married Mrs. Joseph Phipps, December 20, 1888, who also died. He was married for the third time, this time to Mrs. Mary Reed, in 1912. Mr. Gordon has been a Free Mason for 63 years and was a member of the Knights and Ladies of Honor, an organization which existed in 1878.