Grayson County TXGenWeb
 
Groves Family


Claudius Groves

CLAUDIUS GROVES
Like many others in 1868, Claudius "Claude" Groves moved his family to Texas after the end of the Civil War.  Claude had left his native Charles County, Maryland home circa 1838 to settle in Alabama and then on to Louisiana gathering a wife, Martha Ann Baker - December 1845, and having 8 known children along the way. Martha Groves died and Claude married his second wife in Sherman, Texas June 1869.  Drusilla (Castleberry) Wise was Martha's widowed niece with one young son.
Claude settled his family
southeast of Denison, Texas north of Choctaw Creek in the Dripping Springs District. The Groves family worked a prosperous farm there for many years.  Claude and Silla increased the family count with 3 more known children. Drusilla died circa 1902/1903 and Claudius in December 1908.
Together Claude and Silla raised 12 children:

Claude and Martha:

John
Singleton Groves

Alcy Elizabeth "Elsie"
Nancy "Nan" Jane
William "Bill" Henry
Richard Franklin "Frank"
Mary Irene
Martha "Mattie" Evelyn
Thomas
Jefferson "Tom"

Claude and Silla:
Augustus "Gus"
Lula
Maud

Gideon Wise & Silla:
James Edwin "Ed" Wise

They were known to
have had at least 59 grandchildren.

C. A. Parsons
October 9, 2020



THE JOHN HULL FAMILY
Republic of Texas! Free Land! Those promises brought settlers to Texas in the early 1840s. So it was that John and Sarah (Sinclair) Hull of Macoupin County, Illinois (originally natives of Pennsylvania and Tennessee respectively) packed up their three sons - Isaac, 5; William, 2; and infant John, who was just a babe in arms, and made the trip to the Red River in i844 as members of the "Peter's Colony" group. John made his claim for 640 acres on the banks of the river in the Washita Bend area about due west of the original Preston settlement. (Grayson County had yet to be formed and Texas
was yet to become a state.)



The farm prospered and a fourth son, George, was born into the family in 1851. John Hull died in 1854 but Sarah and their sons persevered and earned a comfortable living there for many, many years. Sarah married a second time to John Early of Ray County, Missouri in August of 1874. For reasons unknown this marriage wasn't of long duration and they divorced
before 1880. Sarah then resided with William and his family until her death in 1882.

THE HULL SONS
Isaac Hull joined the Confederacy in February 1862, enlisting with Fitzhugh's 16th Texas Regiment, Co. C. Isaac was killed in action June 7, 1863 during the engagement at Milliken's Bend, Louisiana.

William Hull also joined Fitzhugh's 16th Texas Regiment, Co. C. He was taken prisoner by the Union forces at the Battle of Pleasant Hill, Louisiana on April 9,1864 but returned to Grayson County after the war. In January 1866 William Hull married Elizabeth Reeves. Three children were born to this marriage but all died in infancy.  Elizabeth died in 1870.
April of 1873 found William marrying for a second time to Miss Mary Jane "Mollie" Baird, a native of Tennessee. In 1883 they acquired 160 acres in the rural Georgetown/Pottsboro area where William would build a large (for the time) 2-story home for his growing family. Known simply as "Hull House" by many, William and Mollie raised their 14 children there: Nora
Samuel
Carrie
Nina
Belle
Della
Bessie
Elbert
twins Beulah and Edith
John - died 1902 (age 14)
Herbert
Mary - died I895 (age 3)
Raymond


William had begun to acquire a reputation for his farming and ranching skills by his management of the original family farm. By the late 1880's he was a prominent farmer/rancher in the area with over 1100 acres at his disposal and was considered to be one of the "well-to-do" of the community.  William died in 1910. Mollie lived with daughter Beulah until her own death in 1929.  

Sallie & John Hull, Jr.


John Hull, Jr. took on the management of the family farm upon his brothers' departure in 1862.  John married Miss Sarah "Sallie" Spence in Sherman, Texas in December 1865. Sallie was a native of Jasper County, Missouri. The couple built a home and settled down to farming and raising their family on 160 acres on the west side of Little Mineral Creek (near what is today FM 406?).  Nine children were bom to the couple:
Mary
Sophia
Millicent
Elizabeth
Belle
Mabel
Connie
Johrrrie (daughter)
Isaac

The Hull's only son, Isaac, died at age 4 in 1889. John then bought land northwest of Doan's Crossing in Wilbarger County and moved to that area. After the daughters were grown and married, John and Sallie retired to a home in the town of Vernon. John died there in 1908; Sallie in 1912.  

George Hull lived with his mother until 1874. Four months after Sarah Hull married John Early in August of that year; son George married John's daughter Julia A. Early in December. The couple didn't immediately settle down in Grayson County. They opted, instead, to try their hands at farming in Wise County, Texas where they stayed for several years. In the 1880's they retuned to the Pottsboro area and George tried his hand in the business sector owning and operating a small mercantile shop in the "downtown" area. However, financial difficulties arose which necessitated the liquidation of his property and the family then moved to Matagorda County for several years before once again retuming to Pottsboro.
Seven children were bom to George and Julia but only six are known:

Elina Rosa
Minnie
Edna
Johnny (died 1893 - 1 year)
Irene
Annie

Julia died in 1908. George died Labor Day 1929 when he tried unsuccessfully to prevent a little girl from being hit by a train but neither survived. He was 78 years old.

C. A. Parsons
October 9, 2020



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