Robert & Mary Atchison

W.O. Ball, 82, remembers the fort.
It was located on his property five miles southwest of Sherman back in the 1920's after he moved to Grayson County from McAllen in 1921.
But the second story, which had been built of wood, had burned in 1920, and there was only the lower floor left. Measuring some 15' X 15', the fort had stood at the headwaters of Choctaw Creek since the early 1800's, when Robert Atchison first settled the land and quarried the massive stones himself.
It was during the days when Indians raided freely across Red River from the North, stabbing into the settlements, stealing horses, burning homes and kidnapping children.
Some of the Indians who raided the Atchison homestead are still there...buried in the Negro graveyard near the old site of the Rock Fort where Loyd Laughlin and his family live now. (*this was written in 1955). 

Fort Effectiveness
Those Indians who stayed are a symbol today of the effectiveness of the tiny fort, built from hand-cut stones, which were moved from the Atchison quarry a mile southwest.  Moved through dense woods, then stacked to form a bulwark against flaming arrows or lead musket shots.
"Folks came and wanted them stones." Ball said, "I wouldn't let them have them because that old fort was a landmark and should have stayed there.
And so, between 1921 when Ball first bought the land, to about 22 years ago, when he sold to Kay Kimble, the landmark stood, a white symbol of courage of the early settlers in Grayson County.
Ball lives in a comfortable white home situated on 15 acres of the Robert Atchison survey. The remainder of the 196 ace tracts went from Kay Kimball to Laughlin and in the interian(sic)  "folks came in and hauled away the stones". 

Foundation Evident
Today the foundation of the small family fort is still evident. Giant stones have tumbled down an embankment, lying for these many years unmolested. The outline of the original building is still there, and to the north a few paces are the stones which mark the final resting place of those who so often came and built a fence around the graveyard several years ago. 

Cattle Graze Graves
But the fence today is gone, a giant limb from a nearby tree has fallen across the stones and the cattle graze contentedly over the graves.
Atchison's wife is buried in the graveyard. The date of birth of Mary Atchison is listed as Aug. 9, 1808. She died July 17, 1880, a month before the Old Settlers Association met for its reunion in Sherman for the second time in history.
Robert Atchison was the organizations' first president and it's ironic to note that the group, in effect fathered by Atchison, was dedicated to the preservation of the memory of old settlers.
The headstone, marking the graves of Atchison and his wife, was supplied by the L.G. Gilmore of Sherman, whose name appears on the side. The stone has the appearance of marble and rises some 12 feet above the prairie. 

Footprints of Fame
Atchison, dedicated to the memory of the settlers, slipped in and out of Grayson history in a kind of obscure way, although leaving footprints of fame in the pages now and again.
He served as Sherman's second postmaster, taking the position from James Thompson who served from March 8, 1842 to June 10, 1841. Taking over on that day, Atchison continued as postmaster until April 25, 1854.
Rock Fort disappeared through the years. The school house was torn down and the church was moved to Sherman. The Atchison Quarry was abandoned some 50 years ago; but the black, fertile soil remains in constant use, free now from the Indian raids and trampling hooves of the buffalo herds which passed this way for the last time so many years ago.
Robert Atchison was 74 years of age when he was chosen president of the Old Settlers Association at the initial meeting August 28-29, 1879 at a grove on the J.C. McKinstry farm near Sherman. 

Early Texan
At that time, there is a mention in the pages of Grayson history that Atchison had been a Texan for some 40 years.
When the second meeting of the group was held on the J. Bledsoe property, Atchison's name was absent from the rolls. That was in August 1880.
The names of those present when Atchison was elected president reads like the list of original surveys of Grayson County. Old settlers every one.
One of the resolutions adopted at the 1879 meeting said, in part,  "That the names of the old pioneers who have passed away shall ever be held sacred in the memory of this association". 

Remember Robert Atchison?
W.O. Ball would like to.
"Seems a shame," He said. "They would tear down the old Atchison Fort, it was a landmark."
Ball, although moving from McAllen in the Rio Grande Valley, was no stranger to Grayson County and had heard the stories of the old timers while he was farming in Collin County as early as 1896.  

Moved to Grayson
He migrated into Collin County in that year from his birthplace in Tennessee. He traded his property there for a valley farm, but "Mrs. Ball didn't like it down there", so the couple moved back, settling in Grayson County. They have been here ever since.
The parents of three children , one having died, the Balls have a daughter living in Colorado and another in Denison.
"Old man Atchison had a lot of slaves," Ball said, "some of them are buried up there on the hill where the old Rock Fort Church used to stand. Lots o' Indians buried up there too. 

Atchison Quarry
"And back over there," Ball said, with a wave toward the southwest across the creek and to a heavily timbered hillside, "was where the Atchison quarry was."
On another stone, equaling the elder Achison's in height and standing nearby, is the inscription, "Laura B. Atchison, Born Grayson County, Texas, Jan 22, 1846, died July 2, 1862".
The hands which carved the words for the 16-year-old's stone added:
"Cold, Cold is thy grave.  For the storms of thy life are now o'er. Thy home is above place with the Blessed. For thou dwellest in sorry no more."

   

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