Gone to Texas,

Joel and Paulena (Moore) Harris' Story

With true pioneer spirit Joel and Paulena boarded the train at West Point, Georgia in 1890. They left Sandy Creek in Chambers County, Alabama, to search for a new beginning in a remote north east corner of Texas known as the Piney Woods. Joel Harris was not the first in his family to accept the risks and rewards that faced the early westward pioneers. His grandparents, Thomas M. and Martha Almand Harris, some 50 years before had left Georgia for the unsettled Creek Indian territory of Chambers county Alabama. Joel and Paulena prospered in East Texas and Cass County Texas became the transplanted roots for most of my family's history.

Of course, Joel and Paulena were not alone in the rush to Texas, GTT became a common sight scratched on the door of many Alabama farms, letting all those left behind know they had Gone to Texas. Texas offered new farm land, the promise of opportunity opened by the fast expansion of the railroads crisscrossing its northeast corner, and the seemingly endless timber of the vast Piney Woods of East Texas. Other family members and cousins lured to Texas included the names: Hill, Daniel, Megginson, Robinson, Hodnett, Johnson and Hammock.

Ida Harrist & Alonzo Harris Wedding

Many others followed their cousins to Texas, after all it was Texas, but many that came found that Texas meadows were not always greener. One cousin, John William Megginson and Missouri (Sims) moved to Texas about 1883. He was the son of Hector Megginson and Mary 'Polly" Ann Harris. Misssouri was the daughter of Hiram Sims and Betty Walls of Shiloh, Chambers County, AL. They settled in Omaha, Morris County, Texas. Missouri's great niece, Gladys Phillips, recounted the very sad story of Missouri Sims waving goodbye to her family in Shiloh, for the last time. At the top of a hill about half way to Penton , Missouri had the driver stop the wagon, she stood and turned, with her face toward Shiloh, she said "goodbye Mother, goodbye Father and all my people, I will never see you again."

She sat down and they drove on to catch the train at West Point. She never saw her family again. She died in Omaha,Texas on 02 Apr 1891. Her son, John Hiram Megginson placed a large stone on her grave and marked it simply, Mama.

Others like Joel and Paulena Harris established lasting roots in the Northeast Texas corner of the Piney Woods. Joel Chandler Harris was the son of Isham David Harris and Julia Elizabeth Megginson of Chambers County, Alabama. Isham David Harris served in the 14th Alabama Infantry. He was with Wilcox's Brigade and went forward in Picketts Charge toward Cemetery Hill the afternoon of the July 3, 1863, the 3rd day of the Gettysburg Campaign. He was captured and imprisoned at Point Lookout, Maryland. He died in a Union hospital November 7, 1863. Isham's death left Julia with five children, and a 318 acre farm. Joel Harris was only 7 years old. Joel was born January 30, 1856. He farmed his father's land and married Paulena Elizabeth Moore August 26, 1877 in Chambers County, Alabama. Paulena was the daughter of John F. Moore and Elizabeth Hodnett. Paulena's sister, Minnie (Moore) and Benjamin Hammock Jr. also migrated to Texas shortly after they were married in 1891. They settled next door to Joel and Paulena in Bloomburg, Texas shortly after 1900.

Joel and Paulena's children were John Thomas born 13 Sep 1878; Alonzo David born 15 Feb 1880; Julia Elizabeth born 26 Nov 1881; Susie Ida born 28 Sep 1883; and Grover Cleveland born 10 Jul 1885. They were all born in Chambers County, AL except their youngest daughter, Arrie Myrtle born 23 Apr 1892, after they left Alabama. Vivian Weeks recalled that her father, Grover Cleveland, said, "they had come by train when he was about 5 years old from Georgia. The nearest train depot was in fact, West Point Georgia.

Joel prospered as a farmer in Texas, he owned two farms in the Bloomburg area and later 4 sections of land in Detroit, Red River County, TX. Joel picked up the nickname 'Wildcat' Harris and for a time worked in the oilfields of Caddo, Pine Island, and Rodessa in the very early days of the Oil Boom.

Joel's oldest son, John Thomas, remained for several years in Chambers County before following his father to Cass County in 1903, with his wife Sallie and baby daughter, Viola. He married Sallie Driskell on 14 Nov 1899 in Chambers County. Mora was born 23 Sep 1904 shortly after their arrival in Cass County. Sallie's story is an unhappy one much like that of Missouri Sims.

She lost her first child Viola, at the age of five years and her youngest Windell Orvelle at four months. Sallie's heart and spirit broken, she died of grief,17 January 1913. Sallie went home, she was buried in the Driskell Cemetery in McCullough, Alabama.

John Thomas 'Tom' married Nancy Barcum from Hunt County, Texas, and moved to Oklahoma, Nancy died in childbirth and their only son Odrey Odell died in 1921. Tom joined Jesse Taylor as a Timberman and around 1930 moved west to Madera, California. Mora Elizabeth was raised by her aunt, in South Carolina, and many years later reunited with her father.

Alonzo David married Ida Harrist in Cass County about 1903. They farmed one of his father's farms until about 1917. After an altercation with his father he left Cass County to work for Oil City Services in Louisiana . His family remained in Vivian, Louisiana in the Tri-States area. Their children were Lois, Lillian 'Bobbie', and Alonzo 'Lon' David.

Julia Elizabeth 'Aunt Lizzie' married Jesse Taylor about 1902, they continued to farm in Broken Bow, Oklahoma. They had two children, Mamie and Dewey.

Grover Cleveland married Mary Margot Swearengin in 1907 in Cass County. He continued to farm in Cass County until 1930 and later settled and farmed in Hosston, Louisiana. Grover was a member of the Woodmen of the World Fraternal Society. They had twelve children; Charles, Edna, R B, Joel Wesley, Woodie, Jewel, Ina, Avis, Connie, Vivian and Donald. Grover and Mary also lost several children in infancy, Charles, Edna, R B, and Joel Wesley. His youngest daughter, Vivian was our hostess to the Harris-Swearengin reunion each year.

Arrie Myrtle married first Harvey B. Broome, on 05 Oct 1908 in Kiblah, Arkansas. She married second to Joe W. Lewis, in 1914 and later to Harvey Evans. Arrie had four children, Clarence Broome, Joel C.(Broome)Lewis, Lena Jo Lewis and Paul Lewis. She was very close to her parents and described them in a letter to my grand Aunt Verna Parker Varnell. She wrote, "your grandmother was a wonderful woman, blond, and your father had dark hair like you and your mother (Susie Ida)". She best described her feelings for her mother, Paulena, in the monument inscription for Paulena in the Nashville, Arkansas Cemetery, "A precious one from us is gone, A voice we loved is stilled, A place is vacant in our home, which never can be filled".

Susie Ida married Luther Noah Parker on 01 Nov 1899. Noah's family migrated to Cass County from Southern Alabama. He was the grandson of Noah Parker, a prominent Baptist minister, who traveled several thousand miles a year on an evangilistic circuit, establishing many Baptist churches in Southern Alabama. Luther Noah migrated to Cass County with his father, Elisha Parker and brothers, John, George, and Charles. Susie and Noah's life together was short. Noah died in 1909, leaving Susie with five children; Alma, Eunice, Verna, Nora 'Willie Mae', and Morris Luther. Nora Mae Parker Forbes, (my grandmother) was only two years old when her father died. Susie would married James Edward Swearegin in 1910, brother of her sister-in-law Margot Swearengin. She had six more children, Ernest, Johnnie, Henry Estes, Castor Andrew "KO, "Marie Isabelle (died at birth), and James Junior.

According to my grandmother, Susie became so excited in praise at church meetings, they called 'little Susie with the happy feet'. She loved dahlias, and planted them where ever they lived. Susie and Edward followed work in the early days of the oilfields throughout the Tex-Ark-La area.

Nora 'Willie Mae' Parker Forbes never intended to become a family historian, but, she loved to visit and she did. She was called Willie Mae all of her life. The search for her birth certificate evolved in the documentation of many family stories and histories. She was 89 years old before we found her birth name recorded as Nora Mae. Her only comment was that she never understood why her mother had named her Willie in the first place. Her memories and stories of family history inspired our family newsletter, The Road to East Texas, Our family Reunion.

You are one of many family historians to visit this page

To the Editor........e-mail Debra Buster, or write us PO Box 683246, Houston, Texas 77268