The Descendants of Randall Bransford Ewing
Randall Bransford5 Ewing (James4, Alexander3, John2, Alexander1, RobertA)
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Go to Chapter 13 James Ewing father of Randall
1. Randall Bransford “Randy” Ewing {48} was born 3 Sep 1844 in Wilson County, Tennessee. He was the son of James Ewing {31} and Malinda Bellah {44}. Randall died Mar 1876 in Greenville, Hunt County, Texas, and was buried in East Mount Cemetery in Greenville, Hunt County, Texas. He married Eliza Frances Ford {1371} 2 Sep 1868. She was born 8 Aug 1853 in Liberty, DeKalb County, Tennessee. She was the daughter of Thomas Ford {2858} and Sarah Jane Hancock {2859}. Eliza died 1 Mar 1925 in Greenville, Hunt County, Texas, and was buried in Bethel Cemetery in Greenville, Hunt County, Texas. A second marriage date of 9 Sep 1868 was received from a descendant. Also, an old Bible record maintained by Helen G. Ford indicates that Randall died in 1875.
Known children of Randall are:
+ 2. i. Jennie Mae Ewing {1372}, born 14 Oct 1869, died 28 Jun 1949.
+ 3. ii. Thomas Weldon Ewing {1373}, born 7 May 1873.
4. iii. Elmer L. Ewing {4991}, born 7 May 1873 in Hunt County, Texas, died in childhood Jan 1876 in Hunt County, Texas. Name could be Alma L. A twin of Thomas Weldon.
5. iv. Charles D. Ewing {4992}. He died in infancy.
Eliza also married (2) Jacob Anson Willoughby {1374} 15 Sep 1877 in Neola, Hunt County, Texas. He was born 15 Sep 1832 in Woodsboro, North Carolina. Jacob died 19 Sep 1920 in Greenville, Hunt County, Texas, and was buried in Bethel Cemetery in Hunt County, Texas.
Known children of Eliza and Anson:
6. v. Florence Willoughby {1375}, born 9 Aug 1878 in Hunt County, Texas and died in childhood 26 Sep 1880 in Hunt County, Texas, and was buried in Bethel Cemetery Greenville, Hunt County, Texas.
7. vi. Mattie Willoughby {1376}, born 20 Dec 1880 in Hunt County, Texas. She married Louis Andrews {1440} 12 Sep 1900 in Greenville, Texas. Louis died, and was buried in East Mount Cemetery in Greenville, Texas. Mattie died Nov 1982 in Denton, Texas, and was buried in Bethel Cemetery in Greenville, Hunt County, Texas.:
8. vii. Hatteras Willoughby {1377}, born 6 May 1883 in Hunt County, Texas. She married Willis G. Owen {1441} 18 May 1907. Hatteras died 20 Aug 1911 in Alabama, and was buried Bethel Cemetery in Greenville, Hunt County, Texas.
+ 9. viii. James Anson Willoughby {1362}, born 22 Sep 1887, died 13 Sep 1977.
10. ix. Elizabeth “Lizzie” Willoughby {1379}, born 31 Dec 1889, died in infancy 9 Sep 1890, and was buried in Bethel Cemetery in Greenville, Hunt County, Texas.
By March 1867, according to the court records of Wilson County, Tennessee, the estate of James Ewing was about settled with some of the land being sold to three of his children, Tennessee Ann, Eldridge Lafayette, and Randall Bransford Ewing.
On 6 September 1867, Eldridge Lafayette and Randall Bransford Ewing purchased two tracts of land with each being identified as containing 68 acres. Purtle Creek passes through the eastern portion of these two tracts they had purchased. This land is located pretty close to the old farm of James Ewing. At this time, Randall was married and it was another eight years before Eldridge married. Does this purchase of land together indicate that Eldridge may have lived with Randall for a period of time and they farmed together the land they purchased? See the drawing of this land in the prior chapter.
On 18 January 1870, Randall sold his portion of the two tracts of land to his brother, Eldridge. This appears to indicate that Randall was getting ready to move to Hunt County, Texas. Some of his half-brothers were already living there.
The following description of this family was written by Camille Toro a descendant of Randall Bransford Ewing.
Eliza Frances Ford was born in Liberty, DeKalb County, Tennessee on August 8, 1853, the daughter of Thomas Ford (1825-1863) and Sarah Jane Hancock (1830-1854). Thomas and Sarah had married in Tennessee on December 28, 1850 and had moved to Georgia prior to the birth of their first daughter, Nancy, on October 4, 1851. After about two years in Georgia, Thomas Ford and family then moved back to Tennessee in time for their second daughter Eliza to be born there in August 1853. Death claimed Sarah Jane Hancock Ford on August 19, 1854 before being married four years, and Eliza and her older sister Nancy Ann were left motherless at the ages of one and three. Thomas, realizing his loneliness and the need for a mother to his two young daughters, married Miss Eliza Jane Ramsey, a cousin of his first wife, in 1855. There were no children to this marriage and Eliza Jane died on December 26, 1860.
Eliza Frances Ford was seven years old when the Civil War broke out April 12, 1861 as southern artillery shelled Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina. Thomas, once again a widower, left his farm and two daughters in the care of his brother Moses and entered the Confederate Army. Thomas never returned - he was killed July 23, 1863 in a skirmish with the Federals near Temperance Hall, in DeKalb County, Tennessee. His remains were laid to rest near Mount Zion Baptist Church on Smith’s Fork Creek in DeKalb County, Tennessee. This Moses Ford, the uncle of Nancy and Eliza, is most likely the same Moses Ford the father of Thomas J. Ford who married Helen G. Ewing a sister to Randall Bransford Ewing. Helen’s family is presented in the next chapter.
The war ended at Appomattox, Virginia on April 9, 1865, and Nancy Ann would grow to womanhood in the home of her grandfather Charles Hancock. Eliza grew up in the home of her other uncle James Ford of Round Top, Wilson County, Tennessee.
Eliza met Randall Bransford Ewing of neighboring Wilson County, Tennessee. Randy had served as a Private in Company “C”, Barteau’s Tennessee Cavalry (CSA) and served for a time under General Forrest’s command. They were married September 9, 1868 in Woodbury, Tennessee (she was 15; he was 24). To this union were born four children.
Sometime in 1870, Eliza’s sister Nancy Ann married John Young (b. Nov 26, 1850), son of Joseph Young of Wilson County, Tennessee. They first settled on the farm left to Eliza and Nancy by their father in Cannon County, and then later moved to his grandfather’s farm near Watertown. Three children were born to this marriage and all three died in the winter of 1878-79 due to diphtheria.
In 1870, Eliza and Randy decided to pack up and move to Texas; they were counted in the Texas 1870 Census taken on October 9, 1870. Randy’s father had died in 1866 and Tennessee was a state wrecked with the aftermath of war and Reconstruction. By this time Randy’s brothers, Alexander Bailey, Shadrack Newbern, Benjamin David, and sister, Martha Jane Kennedy, had already made their homes in the North Texas community of White Rock a few miles north of Greenville, Hunt County, Texas, later they lived near Lane, Texas. So Randy must have thought it a fairly good place to settle down. Most of the Indian trouble in Texas had settled down and Northeast Texas seemed a safe place to relocate - and the farming was good. As the story goes, Eliza and Randy came to Texas with a chest full of gold in their covered wagon. According to Tony Price, it was probably a small chest. By the time Camille recorded the story from Aubrey Hayter Merrick, it had grown to a “covered wagon full of gold”!
But Eliza longed for the sandy soil of her native Tennessee and not the “black gumbo” of the Lane area. Local folks told them to go south of Greenville and so Eliza persuaded Randy to move. Randy purchased on October 18, 1873, a heavily wooded farm, fifty acres for two hundred dollars on Caddo Fork of the Sabine River about five miles south of Greenville near Bethel. (Hunt County, Texas Deed Book P page 231.) In August 1873, the Thomas Ford farm, which he left to his two daughters, was sold and the proceeds divided between Eliza and Nancy.
On March 4, 1876, Randall B. Ewing died of pneumonia at the young age of 32 according to R.R. Hancock’s book. Poor Eliza - she had lost both parents, two babies and now her husband before she turned 23! It is said by relatives that Eliza and Randy had donated some land to the community of Bethel for a church and cemetery, but Eliza did not want her husband to be buried all alone in a new cemetery. Eliza saw to it that a plot with six graves was purchased at East Mount Cemetery in Greenville and there is where Randy was laid to rest, but the wooden marker that acknowledged his grave was soon lost in the heavy rains. Concern regarding the marking of R. B. Ewing’s grave has prompted his great great granddaughter, Camille Pickens Toro, to seek a Confederate marker to permanently mark his grave.
Ewing relatives back in the Leonard and Lane communities encouraged Eliza to come and live with them for awhile, so she moved to Leonard and lived in back of Ewing relatives and rented out her farm in Greenville. She became a private primary school teacher.
Mr. Jacob Anson “Jake” Willoughby of Woodsboro, North Carolina had served in Forrest’s Calvary during the Civil War and was in Texas, probably Dallas, by 1868. (From a letter of Jake’s from Mississippi dated in 1868.) He and Eliza married on September 15, 1877 in Neola, Hunt County, Texas (between what is now Bethel Baptist Church and Majors Field).
Eliza, who was only seven years old when the Civil War began, had married a second time this time to a man 21 years her senior and who had fought in the war! The two of them happily moved back to her farm at Neola south of Greenville. Jake petted Eliza a lot, but she was a strong, independent, aggressive woman. He referred to her as “old woman” and would say on occasion, “Old woman, let’s have chicken for dinner!” She would step outside, ring a chicken’s neck, and serve it for dinner along with some delicious corn-on-the-cob that they raised. Although they raised their own corn, they sent it out to be ground. She kept turkeys, chickens, guineas, and ducks to eat as well as a cow for milk. She loved making buttermilk and kept her milk down in a cistern to keep it sweet and fresh. She was always making biscuits for breakfast and dinner and kept tea cakes in a flour sack in the sideboard for company. For sausage, she would make patties, put them in hot lard and store them in fruit jars. When she wanted one, she would take it out, scrape off the lard, and warm it for eating. Jake enjoyed growing sweet potatoes in his large garden. They stored the potatoes in boxes that they put in the crawl space under the house. If you needed sweet potatoes with a meal, you had to climb under the house to get them, and that was the chore of any grandchild close by!
Mr. Willoughby was a tall, big man with a long white beard. He grew peanuts and always had parched peanuts or popcorn for the kids. Every summer, all the kids and grandkids would load up and go to Eliza’s to put up peaches. Eliza grew all sorts of wonderful peaches in her orchard, and they would make them into jams, jellies, and fruit pies. Eliza, being a very enterprising and somewhat prissy little lady, would harness the horse and buggy, put on her white gloves, and go into Greenville on Saturdays to sell milk from her cow, or peaches from her orchards, or eggs. One day she came to town and got lost and went right past Jennie’s house and didn’t even know where she was. Everyone had a big laugh over it, including Eliza.
Eliza, with bluish-green eyes and a rather Scotch-Irish disposition, was every bit as good-natured with grandkids as she was enterprising with her milk and peaches. “She was a GOOD grandma,” said Alma Willoughby Countess. She never would let Jennie spank her children, saying “they can put their foot in the butter for all I care.” Mr. Willoughby enjoyed putting the kids on his knee and telling them all about the Civil War.
Around 1910, Eliza and Jake moved back into town, Greenville, and lived in a home behind Jennie and J. O. Hayter.
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2. Jennie Mae Ewing {1372} was born 14 Oct 1869 in Liberty, DeKalb County, Tennessee. She was the daughter of Randall Bransford Ewing {48} and Eliza Frances Ford {1371}. Jennie died 28 Jun 1949 in Greenville, Hunt County, Texas, and was buried East Mount Cemetery in Greenville, Hunt County, Texas. She married James Oliver Hayter {1380} 9 Jan 1887 in Neola, Hunt County, Texas. He was born 22 May 1865 in Jacobia, Hunt County, Texas. He was the son of John LeRoy Hayter {2842} and Cynthia Catherine Patton {2843}. James died 5 Aug 1928 in Greenville, Hunt County, Texas, and was buried in East Mount Cemetery in Greenville,Texas. Return to parents
Known children of Jennie are:
11. i. Annie Maude Hayter {1385}, born 27 May 1888 in Greenville, Texas, died in infancy 28 Jun 1888 in Greenville, Texas, and was buried in East Mount Cemetery in Greenville, Texas.
+ 12. ii. John Oliver Hayter {1381}, born 25 Jul 1889, died 30 May 1938.
+ 13. iii. Kittie Jewell Hayter {1382}, born 19 Oct 1893, died 31 Aug 1975.
+ 14. iv. Velma Florence Hayter {1383}, born 11 Jan 1897, died 7 Jan 1976.
+ 15. v. Aubrey Jenny Hayter {1384}, born 2 Nov 1899, died 1 Dec 1990.
3. Thomas Weldon “Bud” Ewing {1373} was born 7 May 1873 in Greenville, Hunt County, Texas. He was the son of Randall Bransford Ewing {48} and Eliza Frances Ford {1371}. He married Nettie Blount {1434} 24 Aug 1896. Bud moved to Sulphur, Oklahoma and contact with Bud's family was lost. Return to parents
Known children of Thomas are:
16. i. Weldon Ewing {1435}. He lived in Austin, Texas.
17. ii. Winnie Ewing {1436}. She had died by 1971.
18. iii. Raymond Ewing {1437}. He had died by 1971.
19. iv. F. Q. Ewing {1438}. He had died by 1971.
9. James Anson Willoughby {1362} was born 22 Sep 1887 in Greenville, Hunt County, Texas. He was the son of Jacob Anson Willoughby {1374} and Eliza Frances Ford {1371}. James died 13 Sep 1977 in Curry County, New Mexico, and was buried in the Melrose Cemetery in Melrose, Curry County, New Mexico. He married Eula Fay Ewing {1330} 1 Jan 1911 in Greenville, Texas. She was born 19 May 1888 in Greenville, Hunt County, Texas. She was the daughter of Eldridge Lafayette Ewing {46} and Nancy Foster {1324}. Eula died 18 Dec 1967 in Clovis, Curry County, New Mexico, and was buried in the Melrose Cemetery in Melrose, New Mexico. (See number 7 in the prior chapter for names of their children.) Return to parents
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12. John Oliver Hayter {1381} was born 25 Jul 1889 in Greenville, Hunt County, Texas. He was the son of James Oliver Hayter {1380} and Jennie Mae Ewing {1372}. He went by the name of Oliver. Oliver died 30 May 1938 in Greenville, Hunt County, Texas, and was buried in East Mount Cemetery in Greenville, Texas. He married Minnie Richard Bass {1386} 18 Sep 1917 in Greenville, Texas. She was born 4 Oct 1898 in Greenville, Hunt County, Texas. She was the daughter of Robert Samuel Bass {5584} and Jane Jett {5585}. Minnie died 18 Oct 1980 in Greenville, Hunt County, Texas, and was buried in East Mount Cemetery Greenville, Texas.
Known children of Oliver are:
+ 23. i. John Oliver Hayter, Jr {1387}, born 6 Nov 1924.
+ 24. ii. Robert Bass Hayter {1388}, born 15 May 1927, died 26 Jul 1986.
+ 25. iii. Minnette Hayter {1389}, born 21 Jun 1929.
13. Kittie Jewell Hayter {1382} was born 19 Oct 1893 in Greenville, Hunt County, Texas. She was the daughter of James Oliver Hayter {1380} and Jennie Mae Ewing {1372}. Kittie died 31 Aug 1975 in Greenville, Hunt County, Texas, and was buried in Forest Park Cemetery in Greenville, Texas. She married Ulmont Harrison “Red” Ellis {1402} 7 Dec 1916 in Greenville, Texas. He was born 22 Nov 1890 in Kingston, Hunt County, Texas. He was the son of Jesse Walker Ellis {5176} and Mary Caroline England McNatt {5177}. Ulmont died 5 Dec 1963 in Greenville, Hunt County, Texas, and was buried in Forest Park Cemetery in Greenville, Texas. Return to parents
Known child of Kittie is:
+ 26. i. James Ulmont Ellis {1403}, born 24 Jan 1918, died 27 Aug 1968.
14. Velma Florence Hayter {1383} was born 11 Jan 1897 in Greenville, Hunt County, Texas. She was the daughter of James Oliver Hayter {1380} and Jennie Mae Ewing {1372}. Velma died 7 Jan 1976 in Dallas, Dallas County, Texas, and was buried in East Mount Cemetery in Greenville, Texas. She married Joseph Everett Price {1423} 9 Jan 1922 in Greenville, Texas. He was born 1898 in Ellis County, Texas. Return to parents
Known child of Velma is:
+ 27. i. Joseph Hayter Price {1424}, born 1 Sep 1927, died 13 Oct 1994.
15. Aubrey Jenny Hayter {1384} was born 2 Nov 1899 in Greenville, Hunt County, Texas. She was the daughter of James Oliver Hayter {1380} and Jennie Mae Ewing {1372}. Aubrey died 1 Dec 1990 in Richardson, Dallas County, Texas, and was buried in Memoryland Cemetery in Greenville, Texas. She married Charles Clark Merrick {1407} 10 Jun 1920 in Greenville, Texas. He was born 4 Aug 1899 in Hunt County, Texas. He was the son of William Pinckney Merrick {4909} and Martha Ellen Money {4910}. Charles died 1 Feb 1971 in Greenville, Hunt County, Texas, and was buried in Memoryland Cemetery in Greenville, Texas.
Known children of Aubrey are:
+ 28. i. Margery Mae Merrick {1408}, born 31 Mar 1921.
+ 29. ii. Martha Jo Merrick {1409}, born 15 Mar 1923.
+ 30. iii. Charles Clark Merrick, Jr {1410}, born 19 Sep 1931.
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23. John Oliver Hayter, Jr {1387} He was the son of John Oliver Hayter {1381} and Minnie Richard Bass {1386}. He married Ethel Marjorie McKinney {1390}. She was the daughter of Jerome McKinney {2844} and Ethel Touchton {2845}. Return to parents
Known children of John, Jr are:
+ 33. i. Mary Susan Hayter {1391}
+ 34. ii. John Oliver Hayter, III {1392}
24. Robert Bass Hayter {1388} was born 15 May 1927 in Greenville, Hunt County, Texas. He was the son of John Oliver Hayter {1381} and Minnie Richard Bass {1386}. Robert died 26 Jul 1986 in Paris, Lamar County, Texas, and was buried in Evergreen Cemetery in Paris, Texas. He married Dolores Ray Reeves {1393}. She was the daughter of William Otway Reeves {2846} and Priscilla Ray Minkert {2847}. Return to parents
Known children of Robert are:
+ 35. i. Robert Reeves Hayter {1394}
+ 36. ii. William Ott Hayter {1395}
+ 37. iii. Priscilla Ann Hayter {1396}
+ 38. iv. Charles Alan Hayter {1397}
39. v. Andrew James Hayter {1398}
25. Minnette Hayter {1389} She was the daughter of John Oliver Hayter {1381} and Minnie Richard Bass {1386}. She married John Hiram Goodman {1399}. He is the son of Elzie and Minnie Goodman. Return to parents
Known children of Minnette are:
+ 40. i. Robbie Jannette Goodman {1400}
+ 41. ii. Joni Elaine Goodman {1401}
26. James Ulmont Ellis {1403} was born 24 Jan 1918 in Greenville, Hunt County, Texas. He was the son of Ulmont Harrison Ellis {1402} and Kittie Jewell Hayter {1382}. James died 27 Aug 1968 in Greenville, Hunt County, Texas, and was buried in East Mount Cemetery in Greenville, Texas. He married Mary Lou McGaughey {1404}. She was the daughter of Henry Charlton McGaughey {5178} and Mary Emma Walsh {5179}. Return to parents
Known children of James are:
+ 42. i. James Charlton Ellis {1405}
43. ii. Emma Lou Ellis {1406} She married Gene Rhodes {4939}. He was the son of Henry Floyd Rhodes {5180} and Birdie Josephine Giger {5181}.
27. Joseph Hayter “Tony” Price {1424} was born 1 Sep 1927 in Greenville, Texas. He was the son of Joseph Everett Price {1423} and Velma Florence Hayter {1383}. Tony died 13 Oct 1994 in Dallas, Texas, and was buried in Restland Cemetery in Dallas, Texas. He married Paula Jean O'Neil {1425}. She was the daughter of Emmett O'Neil {2848} and Maurine Wheeler {2849}. Return to parents
Known children of Tony are:
44. i. James Glen Price {1426} He married Lise Zeid {1430}
+ 45. ii. Emily Jean Price {1427}
+ 46. iii. Jennifer Susan Price {1428}
+ 47. iv. Mary Ellen Price {1429}
28. Margery Mae Merrick {1408}. She was the daughter of Charles Clark Merrick {1407} and Aubrey Jenny Hayter {1384}. She married Murray Douglas Pickens {1415}. He was the son of Elmer LeRoy Pickens {2850} and Anita Low {2851}. Return to parents
Known children of Margery are:
+ 48. i. Camille Pickens {1416}
+ 49. ii. Gary Douglas Pickens {1417}
29. Martha Jo Merrick {1409} She was the daughter of Charles Clark Merrick {1407} and Aubrey Jenny Hayter {1384}. She married Charles Gililland {1419}. He was the son of John Valentine Gililland {2852} and Mary Alice Davis {2853}. Return to parents
Known children of Martha are:
+ 50. i. Gaye Gililland {1420}
+ 51. ii. John Charles Gililland {1421}
+ 52. iii. Judson Dewitt Gililland {1422}
30. Charles Clark Merrick, Jr {1410} He was the son of Charles Clark Merrick {1407} and Aubrey Jenny Hayter {1384}. He married Marilyn Gay Ponkey {1411}. She was the daughter of Charles Edwin Ponkey {2854} and Gabriella Buresh {2855}. Return to parents
Known children of Charles, Jr are:
+ 53. i. Melody Ellis Merrick {1412}
+ 54. ii. Melissa Marie Merrick {1413}
+ 55. iii. Charles Clark III Merrick {1414}