Grayson County TXGenWeb

West Hill Cemetery
Sherman, Texas

July 10, 1933

W.M. Blaylock Dies at McKinney
Pioneer Farmer and Officer: Until Recently Justice of Peace

W.M. (Uncle Buck) Blaylock, 83 years old, a pioneer North Texas farmer and peace officer, succumbed at the home of his daughter, Mrs. T.G. McBee at McKinney, at 4:30 a.m. Monday following a serious illness of two weeks. He had been in failing health for two years.
Funeral services will be held from the Travis Street Methodist church at 4 p.m. Tuesday with Dr. O.T. Cooper, pastor, officiating. Interment will follow in the West Hill cemetery with the I.O.O.F. lodge in charge of final rites. Odd Fellows are being asked to meet at their hall at 3:15 p.m.
The body will remain at the Talley Funeral home until time for the service.
Survivors include his widow, Mrs. Martha Blaylock; six daughters, Mrs. W.P. Thompson of Howe, Mrs. McBee of McKinney, Mrs. E.L. Wright of Sherman, Mrs. E.A. Bloomsmith of Damariscotta, Me., Mr. Donald McCray of Sherman; Mrs. M.D. Wright of Eugene, Okla.; one son, E. Blaylock of Noble, Okla.; one sister, Mrs. E. Hobbs of Norman, Okla.; 30 grandchildren and 16 great-grandchildren.
Mr. Blaylock was born Feb. 20, 1853 in Marshall county, Ala., the son of J.M. and Emma Blaylock. His father was a veteran of the Mexican and Civil wars.
With his parents he moved to Texas in 1873, and to Sherman in 1899. He first settled at Whitesboro where he took up farming as a vocation. On Nov. 9, 1876 he was married to Martha Sue Savage, and two years later they moved to Clay county near Henrietta.
In 1880 he started driving cattle across the open plains of the Panhandle region. It was in this venture that he was waylaid by Indians and twice narrowly escaped death by savages, who, stricken with hunger, sought to steal the herds being driving to railways for market transportation.
He became constable at Whitesboro in 1893. In 1899 he moved to Sherman where he became deputy sheriff under Lon Shrewberry. Later he joined the city police force, serving under Henry Despain. In 1916 he was named constable, an office he held until 1923 when he was elected justice of the peace. He held this office until January 1932, when ill health forced him to retire.