3-31 Friday- Finding the AJ Womack Family Homestead in Apple Springs

Martha and I going over the family history on the ranch

Today was a day genealogists dream of! We drove to the Womack Ranch and met with the ranch manager, who opened the gates to let us in to see the home site where our g-g grandparents, Abraham James Womack and Rebecca Jane Franklin originally settled in 1852. The cabin they built is where our great grandfather James Cornelius Womack would have grown up. He and his brother George had ranches on adjoining land, and that is where my grandmother would have been raised.

Womack homestead

The Womack Ranch was sold out of the family for the first time since 1852 when JC Womack (grandson of James Cornelius) died in 2012. It stretches for nearly 1,000 acres in the piney woods east of Apple Springs. There are large open meadows for the herds of cattle. The Womacks were all cattlemen.

A bull standing guard

To access the log cabin, we had to walk across the field where several huge bulls were grazing. Martha has had cattle on her ranch and assured us they were no problem.....

Another bull checking us out

The original 1852 cabin

We made it!

Original logs but new chinking!

Door inside the cabin- it had been modernized so no neat pictures inside.

Doug, the ranch manager, was feeding the cattle that morning, so when he blew the horn of his pickup they all came running!

I thought this one was cute- she was obviously from the brahman bull we had seen yesterday!

Lunch at the Mar Teres Tea Room

Martha had a friend of a friend who owned a tea room just outside of Lufkin so we stopped by there for lunch. There was a convention of Pentecostal women in town and all of the hotels were fully booked- as was the tea room. However- when the owner met Martha, she set us up a lovely little table on the porch. We think it was the best seat in the house! The food was delicious, too!

Martha and the owner of the tea room

3-30 Sarah Norris Womack's grave and Sam Gandy's grave at Mount Zion Cemetery, Trinity County

Mount Zion Cemetery

Sarah Norris Womack was the matriarch of the David Womack family, who came to Texas after her husband died in Mississippi. With her came a group of her children. (According to family stories, Sarah was not happy about going to Texas, and walked most of the way. She died only a year or two after completing the journey- December 1858.

Children of David Womack and Sarah Norris Womack buried at Mount Zion:

William "Buck" Womack 1816- 1888 and Alcy Franklin 1818-1889
Abram B. Womack 1818-1902 and Lucy Campbell 1828-1903
David Womack III 1820-1883 married 1- Jane Franklin
Henry Young Womack 1822- 1902 married 1- Sarah Jane Gibson (daughter of Arthur Gibson and Caroline Campbell-niece of Lucy Campbell)

Mary Caroline Womack Gibson- 1849-1940- daughter of David Womack and Jane Franklin and mother of Mattie Gibson Womack- who married Edgar Womack

Sisters of Rebecca Franklin (wife of AJ Womack) buried at Mount Zion:

Jemima Franklin 1814-1880 married William McClendon 1813-1861 (buried Homer Cemetery, Angelina County)
Frances "Fannie" Franklin 1829-1870's and husband John Chapman 1824-1870's

My grandmother, Mattie Womack Garrison, would have visited this cemetery many times in her youth. Her fiance, Sam Gandy, who died while in medical school, is also buried here.
Samuel Gandy born 1875 died April 1903.

Samuel Gandy- grandma's fiance



Womack Ranch Research- After no luck at the county clerk's office, we were sent to the appraiser's office and....We found a lead! The appraiser knew who had bought the ranch and she knew the ranch manager. She gave us a number and we gave him a call. The ranch manager will give us a tour tomorrow!

3-29- Groveton, Texas

My father was born in Groveton, Texas. This is the county seat of Trinity County Texas, and the square is dominated by a large courthouse. This was once a rough and ready Texas town where we were told even schoolboys carried six shooters. From reconstruction days to prohibition and bootlegging days, Groveton was known for lawlessness. The Texas Rangers were called in to establish order, and pretty much gave up. Most people took the law into their own hands.

The Trinity County Courthouse

The Jail

Our camper on Main Street

One story revolved around my father's uncle, R.O. Kenley, who was a local lawyer. Uncle Oscar shot the Trinity County sheriff from the window of his law office and killed the man who was with him, right on Main Street! We read numerous news articles about this from the time. The trial was moved to Houston, and Uncle Oscar was acquitted.

Uncle Oscar

Another uncle, Uncle Edgar, was murdered in Trinity County in 1933 when he came across a man stealing his livestock. That man was hung, but not before the case went to the supreme court.

Uncle Edgar

My grandmother and Edgar's wife at his grave

We visited Uncle Edgar's grave, and met a gentleman at the cemetery who had known Edgar's wife, Mattie, and had worked for his son, James Womack, on the family ranch in Apple Springs. He also knew who had bought the ranch after James died. We were then able to go to the probate office and assessors office to find out more about the ranch. We got the name of the owner but more importantly the assessor knew the ranch manager- so we called him to set up a visit to the family ranch!

We have spent a few days in this town and the surrounding countryside where his family had their ranches.



There is a nice little historical museum in the town and there we met Suzanne, who was the head of the local historical society. She shared her archives with us and we had lots of time to discuss local families and stories.

The County Seat Cafe was our go-to place in town; the only restaurant and the only wi-fi!

3-28 Tuesday- Calvary Cemetery and the Groveton HIstorical Museum

                                         Calvary  Cemetery- Nogalus Prairie

This is the resting place of many of my ancestors:

 g-g grandfather-AJ Womack who died in 1867 (no recognizable gravestone) and his son- James Cornelius Womack- my great grandfather.

James Cornelius Womack

Gravestone of my great grandparents- James Cornelius Womack d 1895 and his wife Nancy Frances Taylor d 1943.

James Cornelius and Nancy Frances Womack

Nancy Frances Taylor Obit from the Houston Chronicle

g-g-g grandparents-Levin Ainsworth d 1861 and his wife Mary "Polly" Garrett d 1870
g-g grandparents- Robert Ransford Taylor d 1874 and his wife Jennie Ainsworth Taylor d 1906

New marker for Jennie Ainsworth Taylor- mother of Nancy Francis Taylor Womack

The original graves of RR Taylor and Jennie Ainsworth are now falling into ruin

My great-grandmother (Nancy Francis Taylor Womack) has brothers and a sister buried here; Lee Murl Taylor d 1891, Jim Taylor d 1888, William Taylor d 1929, John Taylor d 1876, and Matilda Taylor West d 1906. Matilda's husband was killed in the civil war.

My grandmother's sister Emma Womack Garrison is buried here as well with her husband and children. This is the mother of Lester and Pearl who were good friends of my parents when they lived in Houston.

Emma Garrison front left with my grandmother Mattie Garrison and great grandmother Nancy Frances Taylor Womack- with other the Womack sisters standing

                                     Groveton Historical Museum
We spent a few hours with Susanne, the president of the historical society. She was trying to catch up on the history of the Womack's so we had a lot to share.

                                                   Womack Ranch

We turned down Womack Road and found the Womack Ranch. We could see the old log cabin from the road- also a huge brahman bull among the cattle in the field.

                                 
                   Holly Bluff on the Neches River- near the Womack Ranch

3-27 Monday- Town Bluff and Woodville- a blast from the past!

After a beautiful sunrise on the lake we left our campsite this morning to continue westward. The Neches River was dammed up to form this lake. On the far side, the bluffs were once the place of Town Bluff- a bustling community that once held hopes of becoming the "Natchez of the Neches." AJ Womack and Rebecca Franklin stopped here on their way west to visit with their uncle, James B. Franklin, who was residing here with his family in 1850.

We stopped by a historical village in nearby Woodville Texas to see buildings and exhibits of life at that time.

The general store had an interesting coffin with a window for the face of the deceased!

We drove on to Lufkin and stopped at the library which has a wonderful genealogy section. Then we drove on to Davy Crockett National Forest where we found our campsite at Ratcliff Lake Campground. 

3-26 Camping on the Neches River

Drove to Texas! Stayed at Sandy Creek Campground on the banks of the Neches River.

3-25- Saturday- Day 2 on the Trace

We found a beautiful campground last night- Rocky Springs Campground right on the Natchez Trace. We parked in a lovely spot. Best of all- this is a free campground!

Rocky Springs Campground on the Natchez Trace

We had a heavy thunderstorm last night and our site was pretty wet this morning. We were really glad that we weren't in a tent! It only took a few minutes to organized the camper and we were on our way!

A soggy morning- but we were dry inside!

We stopped by the Sunken Trace, where the footsteps of so many travelers had worn down the trail.

A section of the sunken trace- worn down by thousands of travelers

Next we drove to Port Gibson and wound our way down some back roads to find the Windsor Ruins. This plantation survived the Civil War, only to burn in 1894. These were some of the most impressive ruins I have ever seen in North America.

Our little camper was dwarfed by these magnificent columns

By then we had worked up an appetite. We drove to The Country Store in Lorman, Mississippi- made famous by Alton Brown claiming they had the "best fried chicken I ever ate!" A huge buffet greeted us with fried chicken, fried pork chops, smothered chicken and pork chops, and every side dish you could wish for. We were greeted by "Mr. D," the owner, who reminds me of the southern version of Chip Chase. Besides greeting everyone personally, he walked around singing songs about his grandma's cooking. Dinner with a show!

Me and Mr. D

From there we drove to Washington, once the territorial capital. We visited Jefferson College, established in 1803 to educate the young men of the territory.

Jefferson College, Washington, Mississippi

It was just a short drive from there to Natchez. We took the bridge over to Vidalia, Louisiana, where we have a campsite right on the Mississippi River overlooking Natchez. We had a nice walk along the river and spent the evening watching the tugboats push their cargo up and down the river.

The view from our camper last night shows the bridge to Natchez lit up for the evening.