 In 1907 the Bates family moved from Hickman County, Tennessee to Grayson County, Texas and bought a farm approximately one and a half miles north, northeast of the Ethel store. The family consisted of John Richard Bates, his wife Alda Zena, his father John Bell, daughters Cora and Dora and his sons Otto, Jethro and Alba.
John Bell Bates died in 1911 at 80 and is buried in the Ethel Cemetery. Cora Bates Johnson was the mother of Richard Johnson. She died in 1915 and Richard was raised by his Grandfather John Richard Bates. Alda Zena died in 1934 and is buried in the Ethel Cemetery. Otto Bates died in 1954 and is buried in the Ethel Cemetery. Alba Bates died in 1959 and is buried in the Ethel Cemetery. He was one of the founding members of the Ethel Cumberland Presbyterian Church. John Richard Bates lived on the home place until about 1945, when the house burned down. Hen then lived with his son in Collinsville until he died in 1947 at the age of 90. He is buried in the Ethel Cemetery. About the time the Bates family moved to Texas, Jethro Bates married his sweetheart in Tennessee and brought her with him. She was Bessie Elizabeth Sparkman. They had three children - Finis, Paul and Miriam. Jethro and Bessie both died at the home of their daughter, He in 1947 and she in 1964. Both are buried in the Ethel Cemetery. Miriam taught school at Ethel and collinsville. She married Clifton Davidson in 1934, and they lived at the Davidson home place until she died in 1972. They had two children - Jon and Ronald. The Davidsons lived about one mile south, southwest of the Ethel store. They moved there in the 1920s. There was John Lovice Davidson, his wife, Magnolia; one daughter, Lillian; and sons, Cecil, Mead, Jim, Clifton, Olanda and Jack. The first four boys were the sons of John L.'s first wife, Eula Johnson Davidson. John L. died in 1933. After the rest of the family moved away, Clifton and Miriam stayed on the farm. Ethel History Susan Hawkins © 2024 If you find any of Grayson CountyTXGenWeb links inoperable, please send me a message. |