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Jesse Elvis Hendricks & Susan Matilda Dumas
Jesse Elvis Hendricks was born April 20, 1837 at Jackson, Cape Girardeau, Missouri, the son of John Hendrix/Henricks and Ruth Strader; his was a large family - five sisters and ten brothers, with Jesse being the tenth of the children.
The Jessie Elvis Hendricks log cabin was built ca1863 near his father's home, 4 miles northeast of Sherman. Hendricks came to Texas with his family in 1845 by ox wagon from Missouri. His father, John Hendricks, helped lay out the county bounds of Grayson County and the original town of Sherman. Following the birth of their four children, Hendricks and wife, Mathilda, built a two-story, six room addition to the log cabin. Only two of the downstairs rooms could be moved with the log cabin when it was given to Grayson County Frontier Village. Donors were Richard and Elsie Turner, granddaughter of Jessie Elvis and Mathilda Hendricks. It is said that when Hendricks went into town, he would put his wife, children and small animals in the loft of the log Cabin to protect them from the Indians. They would climb a ladder, pull it up after them through a trap door and close the trap door, thus concealing themselves. Other the Indians would come and raid the downstairs but never bother the family. The window on the east front of the log cabin has names and dates cared in the glass. The Denison Herald January 9, 1946 Stephens Nursery, Texas Statehood 100 Years Old by Jimmy Greenwood One hundred years ago, the portion of northeast Texas known as Grayson County was yet an unconquered wilderness and the Lone Star State was but a few days old as 28th member of the young and expanding United States. But one of the country's earliest pioneers was clearning land five miles south of the present site of Denison and laying the ground work for the first plant nursery in this area. He was "Uncle" John Hendricks, great-grandfather of Harry Stephens of Denison, and the founder of what is known today as Stephens Nursery. But for an accident, the name Hendricks might not have been so closely connected with Grayson County. The John Hendricks family was one of eight families traveling by wagon train from Jackson City, Missouri on December 29, 1845, when the guns of old Fort Washita on the Washita were heard proclaiming the annexation of Texas to the Union. Two days later the group was crossing the stream into the new-born state that had for 10 years existed as a Republic. As the wagons bounced over the terrain five miles south of Denison, an ox hitched to the Hendricks' wagon threw a shoe. Hendricks bade the others farewell, stopped and unloaded. The seven other pioneer families moved on to establish Kentuckytown, near Whitewright. On January 8, John Hendricks was planting peach seed the had brought from Missouri, and the first nursery in North Texas was beginning. When the Texas legislature met in its intial session February 16-19, 1846, John Hendricks, John Shannon and James Vaden were appointed as the commissioners to lay off Grayson County - then still known as the Fannin district - and the city of Sherman, which was to be the county seat. The site was six miles west of the present city. Courts were organized, and the first session of the county court was held under an old elm tree on the Hendricks farm. Some time later, because of a scarcity of water, the county seat was moved to the area that is known as Sherman today. (See - Old Sherman) John Hendricks also constructed the first jail in Grayson County. It was located where the Sherman Central fire station stands today. The bars were of poles that were placed a few inches apart. When Hendricks died, he was believed to be the oldest citizen of Grayson County. He was 93. His father served four years under George Washington in the Revolutionary War, and Mr. Stephens still has in his possession legal papers to a plot of ground in Kentucky that were drawn only a few years after the colonies declared their independence. When John Hendricks died, he left a large acreage of fruit trees and other plants to his son, Jackson Elvis Hendricks. C.E. Stephens married Miss Onia Ann Hendricks, daughter of Jackson Hendricks, shortly after he had settled in 1877 four miles south of Denison. He established the Iron Ore Nursery and when Jackson Henricks died, took possession of his nursery, linking the two pioneer names together. In a few years, Stephens moved west of Denison and established the Stephens Nursery of today at 1815 West Bond. Harry Stephens, his son, took management of the nursery upon his retirement. In 1860 at the age of 23, Jesse was living with his parents and siblings at Sherman, Grayson Co., Texas; his occupation was that of a farmer. On April 23, 1864 Jesse and Susan Matilda Dumas (1845 - 1935) are married; she was 19 years old and Jesse was 27 years old.  ca 1887 Jesse Elvis and Susan Hendricks Jackson Elvis Hendricks Onia Ann Hendricks Mollie J. Hendricks Helen D. Hendricks Hendricks Family Home    The Jesse Elvis Henricks' home is currently one of the homes located and preserved in Frontier Village, Denison, Texas. Collection of Grayson County Frontier Village On
June 14, 1900 Jesse and Susan owned their farm in Grayson County and lived
next door to son Jack and family; Jack was the manager of the family
farm. However, at the age of 63 on June 25, 1900, Jesse and Susan
were also listed in the Middle Verde Precinct, Yavapai County as
residing in Arizona Territory. Jesse's occupation was that of a
Civil Engineer. Probably Jack gave the information for his
parents for the 1900 Grayson County census because Jesse and Susan were
temporarily living in Arizona Territory. Until his death on the
last day of 1920, Jesse & Susan lived in Grayson County and were
residing on Dripping Springs Road according to the 1920 census. On the 25th of August 1931 Susan applied for Confederate pension as the widow of Jesse Elvis Hendricks, from California. She stated on the pension application that Jesse had served four year, 1861 - 1865, in Texas Calvary Co. B, 22nd Regiment of Col. R.H. Taylor's Regiment; because of soldier disabilities, Jesse was transferred to old Fort Warren in Fannin Co., Texas and was discharged holding the position of teamster.  Sherman
and Grayson History Is Recalled at 90th Birthday Party
Mrs. Hendricks was born in Alabama July 30, 1845, the oldest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Jackson DeBerry Dumas, who came to Texas in 1854 from Mississippi, bringing their slaves with them. Then only 9 years old, she walked beside the ox wagons most of the way. Her father was a brother of the late James Pinkney Dumas, member of a pioneer family of Mississippi and who established the Merchants and Planters National Bank in Sherman in 1872, she states, and served as its first president.
Mrs. Hendricks says that her
father was the first tax assessor and collector for Grayson County,
living
3 miles east of Sherman. She recalls that he would often have a
trunk half
full of gold and silver coins, and would put the gold in a large money
belt and
the silver in saddle pockets and personally take it on horseback to
Austin and
turn it over to the state. "The Grayson county
courthouse at that time was a rough clapboard building, with a stake
and rider
fence around it to keep the hogs and cattle out," Mrs. Hendricks
recalls. As Susan Matilda Dumas, she was married April 3, 1864, to the late Jessie Elvis Hendricks, settling at the family home near Woodlake. It was in the same old log house, part of which is yet standing, that Mrs. Hendricks' husband died 16 years ago.
2nd from left: Jesse Elvis Hendricks
Mr. and Mrs. Hendricks reared a
large family. The surviving children are Mrs. C.E. Stephens of
Denison, Mrs.
W.H. Decker of Fresno, California, Mrs. Burr Martin of Los Angeles, and
Jackson E.
Hendricks in whose house she at present resides. Known intimately to many Grayson
pioneers as "Uncle John" Hendricks, Mrs. Hendricks' father-in-law is
said to have been one of the commissioners who located the present city
of
Sherman, and the first white man to settle south of the Shannon
district. He
lived on his farm north of Sherman, now known as the "O'Hanlon farm",
until his
death. "Grayson County was really
organized on this farm in a large elm grove just east of his home,"
Mrs.
Hendricks has said, "and the court for the term, then the Fannin County
district court, was held in the grove and the jury would have to retire
to the
bushes to return a verdict." Mrs. Hendricks was surrounded by family and friends for her ninetieth birthday celebration, and in addition was receiving telegrams of greetings and congratulations from many points, as well as miscellaneous gifts and flowers. In addition to her children, there were present a niece, Mrs. Birdie Dumas Carlat of Denison; a grand-daughter, Mrs. Howard Hanna and her son of Tulsa, Oklahoma, who are spending the summer in California. Mrs. Hendricks was confined to her bed at her son's home for the past ten months, her condition varying, though recently she has shown greater improvement.  Thanksgiving, 1907 at the old home Susan Dumas Henricks died July 30, 1935 at San Bernadino, California and is buried at West Hill Cemetery, Sherman, Texas, alongside her husband.   Biography Index Susan Hawkins © 2024 If you find any of Grayson County TXGenWeb links inoperable, please send me a message. |
