My name is Bryan Edwards and I live in Lubbock. I have just retired and am going to work on tracing and tracking family involvement in the Lamar County area. When I was a kid growing up in the 1940’s, a great oral family history was passed down to the kids by my dad (Jennings Bryan Edwards), his sister
(Jewell Edwards Akers) and his brother (Holland Edwards)
There were tons of stories about them growing up in early 1900-1920 period and living at various times in the Blossom, Reno, and Sylvan area. Their father, Holl Edwards, died at age of about 32 in about 1908 and left them fatherless. Their mother, Cora Lee Bills Edwards, was the daugther of Amos D. Bills and Nancy Elizabeth Bills. I think her maided name was Williams but not for sure. The family story is that Amos D. Bills lived on “Bills Hill” which is where the Cox airport is now located. There were four
Bills brothers that lived in the area, three of them served in DeMorse’s 29th Texas Cav.
Lots of cousins were mentioned in these stories,,,,,Williams, Skidmores, Dicksons, Rowland (Roland) and others. There is a oral story related to Sherrod Rowland coming to the Lamar County area as one of the first settlers maybe as early as 1818-1820. Ben Milam was a friend of the family and would often come to visit with various folks before he was killed in the attack on San Antonio in December of 1835.
Davy Crockett came to the area supposedly to visit with relatives when he came from Tennessee. The story is that he camped east of present Paris at a large spring and spent several days in the area visiting relatives, hunting, and resting up before resuming his trip that eventually led him to the Alamo. I think the Crockett connection may be through the Patton’s, his second wife. My dad told stories of “Granny
Crockett” coming to visit his family in the 1910-1915 time period, he remembered her as an old woman that sat on the porch in a rocking chair and smoked a white clay pipe. His brothers memory of Granny Crockett was that she stayed to long.
A lot of the stories centered around Sherrod Rowland (Roland) who supposedly was one of the early folks into the area. He settled originally on Blossom Prairie and built what was claimed to be the first Protestant Church in Texas. My dad told stories of their being a good sized Rowland family cemetery that one of the neighbors robbed all the headstones to use for a foundation on a new house and this left the cemetery unmarked.
The Edwards part of the family came to the area in 1885 from BeBee Ark area so they were late arrivals.
I have posted a lot of info with the hopes that it will rings some bells or set off some alarms with folks that may have some details, more stories to tell, books to recommend, or other things of interest. I would appreciate any ideas, comments, information. Comments would be appreciated….thanks
Bryan Edwards Lubbock, Texas .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
