In 1866, Elizabeth McFarland Ridenhour* (1834-1908) joined a wagon train of ex-Union soldiers and their families traveling from McDonald County, Missouri to Texas. Along with her in her wagon were her 4 young children, William**, Martin**, George, and Elizabeth. She was pregnant with Elias, and had left her ex-Union Army husband Samuel in Missouri.  Also on the wagon train were her brother-in-law Ninguel Ridenour and his family, wife Isafena, and their children Mary, Nancy, James, Sarah, and Rosan.  As they were passing through Grayson County, the wagons stopped so a baby could be born. The birth took 3 days, and most of the immigrants looked around and decided to settle in Grayson County because they liked the fertile farmland.

Being outnumbered, pro-Union loyalists suffered greatly during the Civil War in McDonald County. The people on this wagon train thought it best to leave and head for Texas. They had heard of the difficulties for Unionists in Cooke County, Texas during the War and stayed well east.

To make ends meet, Elizabeth cooked for the cattle drivers, who brought their beeves to the MKT Railroad for shipping north, at her farm on present-day FM 120 between Denison and Pottsboro. She rented her farm for overnight cattle stays and also took in her 2 little orphaned grandchildren, Lillie and Edward Stephens. They were the children of Edward Stephens and Elizabeth Ridenhour Stephens.

Her farm stayed in the family for over 100 years.  In the 1930s her headstone in the Holder Family Cemetery was destroyed by oilfield equipment operators.  A new tombstone was erected for her in Georgetown Cemetery. Many of her descendants still live in present-day Denison.

 

*The Ridenhour name is also spelled Ridenour.

**It is thought that William and Martin were her step-children.

 

Sources:

1860 US Federal Census, McDonald County, Missouri

1872-1877 Texas County Tax Rolls

1880 US Federal Census, Grayson County, Texas

1900 US Federal Census, Grayson County, Texas

1908 Death, Find A Grave online

Reitenauer Immigrants, the Early Years by Nona Harwell and Mona McCown

The Portal to Texas History:  The Portal to Texas History (unt.edu)

Verbal Conversations with Carl and William Whaley