THE JEFFERS FAMILY STORY
This story of the Nathaniel Jeffers family had been hidden away in the trunk of the late Pauline Burkett Boyett Lacouture. None of the family knew she had kept a journal, nor a note book of obituaries which would be of great help in the research of the family genealogy. Never hesitate to investigate the contents of old trunks, desks or any other place where such things of historical value might be hidden away. One never knows what they might find.
In our case, her son Floyd found a treasure trove of information, including the journal, picture albums and other memorabilia and we will be forever grateful that Pauline had the forethought to leave such valuable information for her family. It has already proven helpful in solving problems for which there seemed to be no answer.
She had interviewed the last two remaining children of Nathaniel “Nat” Jeffers and Nancy Elizabeth “Betty” Zeigler Jeffers. Those were Minnie Jeffers Burnham and Nathaniel Cornelius Jeffers and they gave her information which would have been forever lost had she not recorded their memories of those long ago times.
I will endeavor to record her journal as she wrote it, with as few changes as possible.
Ruby Ray Boyett Burkett
Nathaniel “Nat” Jeffers was born February 26, 1858 to James Monroe “Jim” Jeffers and Caroline Barnes Jeffers. He was their only child. When he was quite young, Jim was called into service in the Civil War and the child never saw his father again. As Jim was making his way home from the war, he was stricken with yellow fever and died in Galveston, Texas. In later years, Nat was known to say, “ I suppose my Daddy’s remains were washed away in the Galveston Flood”.
As many Civil War widows did, Caroline later married a Mr. Bryant and we are yet to learn what his given name was. They were the parents of three children, Betty, Lucy and Hiram, half sisters and brother to “Nat”. Betty was married to a Mr. Bratton and they had six children, Barney, Bert, twins Bertie and Bertha, Sebron and David, a female. It seems that Betty must have died when David was quite young and Devillie Burkett tried to be a mother to David but was not successful and had to abandon the idea of being a foster mother to the child. Lucy was married to a Mr. Brown and little is known of her family other than that “Nat” did visit her once and that he cried when he saw her. How sad!
When “Nat was about fourteen or fifteen years of age, he left home and went to Round Rock, Texas in the Austin, Texas area to live with his Uncle Earl Jeffers (we have recently learned that he was Balos Earl Jeffers, half uncle of “Nat”). Balos Earl and his wife Nancy, had two daughters Rosie and Maggie and two sons Lewis and Monroe. Rosie was married to Osborn or Osburn Harris and Maggie was married to Will Berryman who lived in Weeks Chapel, Jasper Co. They were the parents of Floy, Berneice, Audrey, Kenneth and Beulah.
The Berryman family would experience a very tragic event when in 1924 or 1925, Will Berryman would kill Pete Ellis, the son of a Baptist minister. The two men became involved in a dispute over hogs which both men were letting run loose in the woods, which was the custom in those times. Pete had set up a tent, in which he was living while he found and penned his hogs. Will was also trying to locate his hogs and found some of them in Pete’s pen. He went to get Anson Gibbs, husband of Aunt Hattie Jeffers, who was a deputy sheriff. When they reached the place where the hogs were penned, an argument ensued and Pete attempted to strike Will. Uncle Anson had taken Pete’s gun from him but didn’t realize Will was carrying a derringer pistol with which he shot Pete as he attempted to strike him. Since Will was not prosecuted, it must have been ruled a case of self defense. Note: In a recent visit to the Weeks Chapel Cemetery, we noticed that both men were buried not too far from each other in that cemetery.
No one knows how long Granddad Nat lived with his Uncle Balos Earl and Aunt Nancy. A definite time frame has not been established. Incidents, which happened while he was there, were later related to his children and this is one of them. One day his uncle Earl told his son Monroe, if he would pick four hundred pounds of cotton in one day he would buy him a pair of red top boots, which he had wanted. Monroe met the quota and from that time on, his Dad expected him to do the same every day. Note: We doubt that he did.
Where Granddad Nat went when he left Round Rock is uncertain but Uncle Nat said he knew that he did live in Beaumont, Texas for a time and was employed by the Southern Pacific Railway System. Later, it seems, he did return to live with his uncle, who had moved to Jasper Co. and was living on the old Jake Zeigler homestead. The Zeigler place was located across Mill Creek from a location which would later become an important part of the Nathaniel “Nat” Jeffers and Nancy Elizabeth “Betty” Zeigler family. This is likely the place where Nat met, courted and was married to his beloved “Betty”.
Granddad Nat would tell the story of how he owned two dress suits and would wear one on a Sunday and the next Sunday he would wear the other one. Obviously, they were his courting suits. Nathaniel Jeffers and Nancy Elizabeth Zeigler were married December 29, 1879 in Jasper Co.,Texas.
Nancy Elizabeth’s mother was Francis Keack and her father was Burrel
Zeigler. The mother of Francis was a Sunto. Francis Keack and her sister, Lucinda Jane married Zeigler brothers. Lucinda Jane married John Robert Zeigler, and they had John Robert Jr. and Burl, thus creating close family ties. Francis and Burrel had two daughters, Martha Jane and Nancy Elizabeth. The Keacks and Zeiglers were of German descent. The Thaddius Warsaw (Jake) and Mary Lavina (Vinie) Letney Zeigler family consisted of two children, Bennie T.and Delphia Lou. Bennie’s wife was Virgie Lavine and they had nine children, Evie Arzalie, Ida Arzala, Vina Tabitha, Madie Viola, and Zada Pearl , Otis, Benetta, Horace Milton and James Ellison.
Burrel and Francis lived at the Eight Mile Branch, north of Jasper the cattle drives passed their place going to market and the men would spend the night in their home. On their return, after selling their cattle they would, again stop for the night and the foreman would let Mawmaw Francis keep the money they had received for the sale of their herd. This, she kept in her trunk which was never locked. Burrel probably died while they lived there and was buried in the “Old Zeigler Cemetery, the location being somewhere between Browndell and the “old place” where the Nat Jeffers family lived. Note: We now know there are people who still know where the cemetery is but it is not easily accessible. When Francis died, she was buried in the Brookeland Cemetery.
Martha Jane Zeigler was married to Alexander “Eleck” Hightower. They had one daughter, Elizabeth although there is a possibility they may have had other children who were stillborn.
Granddad Nat and Grandma Betty had a larger family. There were nine children,
Ostillie, Emily Aquillie, Martha Devillie, Minnie Mae, Hattie Minerva, Earl Benjamin, Cora Dellie, Nathaniel Cornelius and Edward Verdo.
Cousin Elizabeth was married to Elbert Powell and they were the parents of Leon, George, Lillie, Eugene, Leroy and Harry. Tragedy struck the family sometime before Harry was born, when on a hunting trip, Eugene accidentally shot his father. He stumbled as he was crossing a drain on a foot log and his gun discharged, hitting his father in the leg. He went for help but by the time he returned his father had bled to death.
Although we are still sadly lacking in a proper time line, the Jeffers family moved from Jasper Co. to the lower part of Angelina Co. on the Angelina River. At this location they were living near Uncle Eleck and Aunt Martha Hightower but had to cross Ayish Bayou to reach their home. Granddad was engaged in rafting logs down river to Beaumont and they had to go to Brookeland to get their mail.
Uncle Nat said that from their home on the Angelina River, they moved back to Jasper Co. to the “old place” beside Mill Creek about one and a half miles from Browndell. To get to Browndell, they had to cross Mill Creek two times. There were no bridges in those days. Note: Mill Creek was and still is a beautiful little creek, its water clear as crystal. Mill Creek is crossed again near Brookeland and heads in a hammock southeast of the “old place”
Granddad had a syrup mill on the banks of Mill Creek, near the “old place” and while he was busy with other endeavors, Grandma was left in charge of the syrup mill. Uncle Neal Burkett and his brother Monroe Burkett were boarding with Granddad and Grandma while they worked at the Lucas sawmill. They owned to Spanish ponies which they kept in Granddad’s pasture. My Daddy, Henry Burkett, suggested to Uncle Nat that they use the ponies to pull the squeezer to grind the cane. They took his advice and it was successful, making the process much easier for Grandma and the boys. Later, when the boys took the ponies to the creek for a drink, Grandma advised the boys not to try to ride
them because she thought they were wild. Uncle Nat got on one of them anyway. It, of course frightened Grandma and she asked Uncle Ebb to hold Uncle Nat while she whipped him. Her plan didn’t work, when Uncle Ebb tried to get him out of the crib where he had taken refuge, he began hitting Ebb on the head with ears of corn so he was unable to bring him out. She never tried to whip him again.
Wilson Branch ran to the right of the “old place”. When I was small, I remember there was a steep red clay bank near the curve in the road as you passed in front of the house. It was a pretty branch with clear water. There was a board across the branch and Charlton told me I couldn’t cross it with my eyes closed. Of course I tried to walk across but fell in. I was wearing a bonnet and I remember it falling off in the water.
There was another house on the other side of the branch from the “old place” and the first people to live there was the Hiram Bryant family. The Bryants were Granddad’s half brother and his wife and children.
When Granddad and Grandma moved from the Angelina Co. location, they already had older girls but as the boys and the younger sister, Dellie were born, there was a need to enlarge the house. I, Pauline Burkett, was also born in the original structure which had been a school house. Mama went there for my birth on July 25, 1913. As Granddad began to enlarge the house, he added a room on the right side of the existing large room. He also built a fireplace to each room, forming them with mud and rocks which were plentiful in that area. Then there were other additions to the back of the house.
Note by Ruby Burkett:
I observed, while driving those same country roads in August of 2001 that there are still many rocks, some of them large ones, lying along the roadside. It’s a wonderful story, this building of a home and family by Nat and Betty Jeffers, in a time when life was difficult for those who paved the way for those of us who would follow. We can only imagine what difficulties they encountered as they played out their part in forming the history of this great country of America and especially that of East Texas and Jasper County. The “old place” was a picturesque scene and we have pictures of our daughter, Juana with the “old place” in the background. A treasure and something we will always be thankful that we have.
One day, at the “old place”, Ossie, the eldest daughter, approached her father with a request for a rope swing but he was very busy and told her he would make her a swing when he had more time. She would not be put off so returned for a second and third time.
His patience having worn thin, he was ready to switch her but little girls know how to get to the heart of fathers----She said Papa, do you want to kiss me—at which time, his feathers fell and Ossie got her swing!
The road passing the “old place” was the main route from Browndell to Jasper so peddlers or drummers as they were called in those days, would stop for the night at the “old place”. Grandma would charge them one dollar for a nights lodging along with supper, breakfast and twenty ears of corn for their horse. (An old time bed and breakfast 1890s style).
Simon Henry boarded with the Jeffers family while he worked at the Lucas Sawmill. There, he met Mama (Devillie). I’m sure their courtship began there. While there the children became infested with head lice, which they had gotten from school mates. Uncle Nat said Mawmaw Francis combed sixty lice from his hair, using a fine tooth comb. Daddy also became infested but was unaware he had gotten them from the children. He didn’t want the family to know so he borrowed Grandma’s scissors and left on his horse. As he rode along, he met a black man who he knew. He asked the man to cut his hair for him but the man refused so Daddy pulled a pistol on him and forced him to cut his hair. That night at the supper table he kept his hat on but didn’t explain why. Later, he met Granddad outside and told him why he had not removed his hat. Granddad then told him
how he had gotten the lice.
Mama and Daddy were married on March 4, 1908, in Jasper Co., Texas. Their first child, Edna Elizabeth “ Little Essie” was born on January 25, 1909. After Essie, came Cecil Charlton on July 20, 1911, Hattie Pauline on July25, 1913, Panzy Berneice on March 11, 1917, Alricks Henry on August 29, 1919 and Dallas Thurston on August 1 1923
Uncle Ralph Gillispie, brother of Aunt Ossie’s husband, Uncle Jim, and his wife lived A short distance down the road from the “old place” and it was at their home where I fell in the well while playing with their children. Aunt Milam had spread a quilt over the well and had cross ties holding the sides of the quilt down. I was playing hide-and-seek with the five Gillispie boys when I decided to hide in the quilt. Of course the quilt slipped from under the cross ties and into the well I went. The boys screamed for their mother and she came running to see what had happened. They told her where I was and when she looked into the well, I said, hello. They told me I had mud on the top of my head as I stood there in neck deep water. One of the boys was sent down on the rope to bring me up. I don’t actually remember the incident but only know what I was told. While Granddad and Grandma lived at the “old place”, he bought a black horse with a white star on his forehead. He was purchased from Elbert Powell on September 8, 1908 and at the time of purchase he was four years old. His name was Dan. On the day he was purchased, the town of Browndell burned. After that, it burned two more times and after the third time it was never rebuilt. Granddad kept Dan for thirty years, taking him with them when they later moved to Brookeland. I think I remember riding him.
In 1890, Jack Howard and Granddad were involved in a feud over timber and although they were having trouble, he and Grandma decided to attend a dance at Jack’s house. This happened just prior to the birth of Aunt Hattie. During the dance, the two men became embroiled in another argument. Jack chased Granddad around the house with an ax and Granddad took out his knife and cut Jack’s throat. The story is that he seemed to be recovering but Granddad went to his house to apologize and Jack became agitated and began chasing him and fell and bled to death. There was no prosecution in this case---apparently another case of self defense. Granddad and Grandma moved from the “old place” to Remlig or Stumptown in 1918. Their house was adjacent to ours. When they moved , Uncle Anson and Aunt Hattie moved into the “old place”. At the time, Don was a baby. They took care of the goats while they were there. Uncle Anson distilled and sold whisky while there and in 1929 was able to purchase a new Chevrolet automobile.
When Uncle Anson and Aunt Hattie moved from the “old place”, Uncle Ebb and his family went there to live. ( You will read more about this later in the story). Ruby: It seems that at one time or another the, the “old place” was a haven for most of the Jeffers
offspring. This next story is one related by Uncle Nat. Both Ebb and Verdo were married and living at the “old place”. They donned riding pants, blue serge coats, high top boots and cowboy hats. They were drinking and all set to go to the Jasper Co. fair. They spent all their money but still wanted to see a side show so Uncle Verdo told Uncle Ebb he would get them in. They walked past the ticket man who said, “ticket, please”. Uncle Verdo just pulled his coat back a little and said “ I’m working inside then he asked Uncle Ebb and he said, “ I’m working with him”. They were in.
Later, Granddad and Grandma went to the same fair and a side show man conned him out of ten dollars. He asked Granddad to give him twenty dollars in bills for twenty silver dollars, he then asked for his silver dollars back, saying he might need the silver dollars. Granddad gave him the silver but he only gave Granddad ten dollars in bills. Later, while doing business at a wholesale place in Jasper, Granddad noticed what had happened. He told Beaver Bishop, the sheriff what had happened and he got the money back. Daddy said he’d like to see someone con him out of money and sure enough, he went to the same fair and was conned out of ten dollars but didn’t get it back.
Granddad and Grandma moved from Stumptown to Brookeland to the house where we had lived from about 1923 to the late 1920s when the Brookeland Bottling Works went out of business. That is where Grandma died in March of 1935. She died as a result of acute pneumonia.. All the children deeded the house in Brookeland to Uncle Anson and Aunt Hattie Gibbs to move there and take care of Granddad as long as he lived.
On July 1st. or second 1941, Uncle Anson was found dead in his field where he had been working. Aunt Hattie remained in Brookeland for years, continuing to take care of Granddad but while working in a drug store there, she met and married Mr. Claude
Tolle and she and Granddad moved to Vidor, Texas where Mr. Tolle had built a new home. Granddad died there in their home on April 3, 1948, at the ripe old age of 90 years.
Although some of the next stories will be out of context, I will try to transcribe as Pauline wrote them.
Once, while Granddad was visiting with Aunt Minnie at her home in Spurger, Texas, she had put a pillow and quilt on the porch swing so he could rest there and watch the traffic go by. A man was passing by and Granddad invited him to stop by and chat with him---he did love to talk. While the man was there, the horse got into the yard so Granddad had to leave and get him back into the barnyard. When he returned he missed his little pocket purse. He knew he had had it there but still couldn’t find it. The man asked Granddad if he thought he had it and of course he said he didn’t know. He asked Granddad if he wanted to search him and he said yes. He had the purse---the man then asked him not to tell ay one.
Back to the “old place’: After the Gibbs family moved from the “old place” and Uncle Ebb and his family were living there, Uncle Ebb became real sick as a result of drinking bad whiskey. A black man who drank with him died. A narrow escape! While he was disabled, Earl, Durward and James made the whiskey for him. The still was across the branch---they had a fifty gallon drum. Earl kept tasting the whisky until he became so drunk, he fell while trying to carry a five gallon jug to the house. Aunt Mae had to come and take the jug to the house then come back and carry Earl in.
Uncle Ebb also killed a man by cutting him with a knife. This incident happened on Christmas Eve as Uncle Ebb was on his way home with Christmas gifts for his children when a man came out to the road from a rowdy Christmas Eve Party. It is my understanding the man accosted Uncle Ebb and he cut him in the stomach. The man went to the hospital and was recovering but opened the wound when he turned over in bed. He died. Uncle Ebb was sent to Ramsey State Prison south of Houston. He was sentenced to five years but only stayed seventeen months. He was never locked up---he was a trustee and barber. He did some trapping for animal hides while there, it being located on the Brazos River but was discovered and had to stop.
While Uncle Ebb was in prison, his family moved to Spurger to be near Aunt Minnie and the prison let Uncle Ebb come home long enough to make a crop. While there, he slapped James for talking back to him. James told him to never do that again, if he needed to be whipped, to do it in the right place--- he apologized to James.
There would be another run-in between Uncle Ebb and James after the family moved to Vidor, Texas. When James was about fourteen or fifteen years of age, he was working in a dairy, milking cows for three dollars and fifty cents a week. Once again, Uncle Ebb came home drunk and asked Aunt Mae where James was. When she told him he was milking cows, he informed her that he was going to bring him home because they were not paying him enough. She asked him to leave James alone but he went anyway and told James to come home. He told his Dad he had to finish milking and refused to go with him so once more Uncle Ebb slapped him. This time James retaliated, shoved him down, got on top of him and told him to go home or he was going to hurt him. He went home and the next day when Aunt Mae told him what he had done, he vowed that he would never take another drink---and he never did.
More whiskey still stories: Sterling Garlington Sr. and his family lived near the “old place” and made whiskey in a hammock at the head of Mill Creek. Uncle Nat bought whiskey from him and sold it. Sterling and his wife had four daughters, Leona, Leola, Susie and Maude. They had five sons, Osco, Lincoln “Link”, Dolphus, Sterling Jr. and Bill. After Sterling Sr. died of a heart attack in the 1920s, Osco took over the whiskey business but in the 1930s he got religion and sold his two copper stills. He became a preacher. Uncle Nat and Granddad went to hear him preach in a church near Granddads and Grandmas house. When he saw Uncle Nat, he ran to him and hugged him, he was so glad to see him. He told them he had almost quit preaching because it seemed no one was getting saved. Uncle Nat told him he didn’t know who his preaching might save so he kept preaching. I will end the Garlington story with an unusual incident. On Christmas Day in the year 1952, Sterling Garlington Jr. shot and killed a man who was with a group of hunters. Some of their dogs got into the Garlington pasture and one of the Garlingtons killed one of the dogs---in the end, one of the hunters was shot and killed. It was supposed to have been the only murder on that day in the United States.
Addendum to family story:
Edna Elizabeth “Essie”, first child of Henry and Devillie Burkett was born near Browndell, in a rent house owned by granddad and grandma. When she became seriously ill in 1914, Mama and Daddy were living in the community of Peachtree. Mama took her to Granddads and Grandmas at “the old place”, where she died about a month later. It was decided that she had succumbed to acute diabetes. Mama never went back to where they were living in Peachtree---Daddy moved their things to Granddads and Grandmas and they remained there until Daddy could build a house, about a mile from the “old place”. Our neighbors were Uncle Frank and Aunt Dellie Lowery. I was about three or three and a half years old. I remember the turpentine camp where Uncle Frank worked.
Ralph and Milam Gillispie lived up on a hill from our house. That is where I fell in the well.
Note by Ruby: Alricks says it was in 1942 that Grandpa Jeffers decided to sell “the old place”. He first offered it to any of the children or grandchildren who might be interested
But either lack of funds or whatever reason, no one bought the place, thereby loosing a valuable piece of the Jeffers history.
Pauline’s story continues---Granddad sold “the old place” to Claude and Sybil Walker. The sale included the house and one hundred thirty seven acres of land. They also bought the old Zeigler place across the road. Claude died about 1973. He had returned home but before he was able to get inside, someone hit him on the head, shot him several times and then beat him on the head with the butt of their gun. They never knew who had done such a brutal thing.
At one time Claude and Sybil had left Brookeland but had returned and incorporated Browndell. He appointed himself Mayor and other people to offices. It appears that the murder was a political thing.. After Claudes death, Sybil became the Mayor and sole owner of the property. She also was proprietor of the Browndell Liquor Store in Brookeland.
I was visiting there with the McMahons who lived in a trailer on the property and were taking care of the place for Sybil. While I was there, the Jackson Crawford family from Jasper had also come for a visit. He was a bottle collector so we talked about old times. This happened about 1978. At the time, Sybil was asking one hundred thousand dollars for both properties.
Otis Zeigler was living on the old Jake Zeigler Place. Of course the old house had been replaced.
In 1983, we learned from Don Gibbs that “the old place” was being torn down. A piece of history that meant so much to the Jeffers descendants, would now be only a memory.
Gone But Not Forgotten
By Ruby Burkett
I came into the Jeffers family in January of 1942, too late to know Grandma Jeffers but in time to know and learn to love Grandpa. I wish I could have seen the two of them together but transcribing Pauline’s Journal has taught me much about the couple and their life together. Through the years Alricks and I have driven down that country road to view “the old place” and each time, there had been changes. Always, when the house came into view, it provoked a feeling of sadness and closeness to the family who had once lived there.
The last time was several years ago, the first time that “the old place” would no longer be there. When we drove around the bend in the road, there, in its place, stood a beautiful, two story brick home. No one seemed to be home but oh, how I wished I could tell the owners the story about the family who had lived there so many years ago.
I was overcome by such a feeling of nostalgia that it actually brought tears to my eyes. I was transported back in time and could visualize what life was like for that family in those long ago years. It was as if I could hear the laughter of that large family of children as they played along the banks of Mill Creek and as they swam there in the late evenings. Then I could see the whole family sitting on the long front porch as the shades of night
begin to fall. Perhaps they were discussing the events of the day or singing hymns or any of the things country families did. Certainly there was no television or radio! Then I can imagine their going inside to retire for the night and perhaps falling asleep to the rhythmic sound of the water in Mill Creek as it rushed over the rocks, as it made its way southward toward Jasper.
Soon they would awaken to a new day but they knew that all would be well because:
There is beauty all around,
When there’s love at home;
There is joy in every sound,
When there’s love at home.
Peace and plenty there abide,
Smiling sweet on every side,
Time doth softly, sweetly glide,
And I am confident of the fact---there was an abundance of love in that home. Grandpa Nat and Grandma Betty made sure of that.
Genealogy 1
Nathaniel Jeffers was born in Virginia in 1809. I know nothing concerning his parents nor of his early childhood, but I have found recorded in St. Clair County, Alabama where on May 30, 1829 the county clerk entered a marriage that had taken place between Nathaniel Jeffers and Rebecca Brown. This union was performed on May 20, 1829 by Justice of the Peace Benjamin Smith. Rebecca was the daughter of William Brown and Stacey Ellzey Grayson. William hailed from Washington County, North Carolina and died in 1828, before Rebecca’s marriage to Nathaniel. Stacey hailed from Louden County, Virginia.
In 1830 the estate of William Brown was settled and his son-in-law, Nathaniel Jeffers, was present at the sale and purchased items. The newlyweds were then enumerated in 1830 by the St. Clair County census taker. They are listed with one female child, between the ages of 0-5, living in the household. Since I do not find this child in later census records, I assume she died young.
By the 1840 census Nathaniel and Rebecca were found in Benton County, Alabama. Children included Minerva Jane, born October 30, 1831, James Monroe, born in 1834, and Balis Earl, born on October 12, 1839. Nathaniel and Rebecca then moved to Marshall County, Alabama. On October 6, 1846, Minerva Jane married Joshua Nathaniel Morton, who was born October 12, 1820 in Newberry District, North Carolina. Nathaniel and Rebecca were then listed on the 1850 census with two additional children. They were Sarah, born in 1842, who had whooping cough at three weeks of age and became blind, and Martha Ann, born in 1848 or 1849.
Nathaniel was a wagoner (teamster) by trade and felt the urge to head west. As many young family men did in the early to mid 19th century, he left his wife and young children in Alabama and headed to Louisiana in search of land and a new life for his family. On September 1, 1852, Nathaniel purchased a 39-acre tract that he liked in Monroe, Winn Parish, from the Public Lands Office. After building a home and out buildings he started back to Alabama for his family. I do not know how, but while in New Orleans, Nathaniel was killed and was buried there in an unknown location.
Minerva Jane (Nathaniel’s oldest child), her husband Joshua Morton and their children then moved to the home place her father had prepared in Louisiana. They took Minerva’s widowed mother Rebecca and the other children with them. By 1859 Rebecca had purchased two more 40-acre tracts in Winn Parish. All but James Monroe stayed in Louisiana until after the Civil War. James Monroe, who was called Jim, stayed with his mother and farmed her land until he married Caroline C. Barnes in 1857. Caroline was born in 1838 in Georgia. She was the daughter of Wesley B. Barnes, born 1821 in Georgia, and Mary Lucinda “Polly” Womack, born 1817 in Pulaski County, Georgia. Mary died in 1904 and was buried in the Coleman Cemetery, San Augustine County, Texas. I do not know when Wesley died or where he is buried. After the War for Southern Independence, Minerva Jane and her family moved to Texas.
James Monroe and Caroline Jeffers had a son they named Nathaniel, in memory of James’ father. They had two other children, Anna who died at age 5 and Rebecca who died in infancy. By the eve of the Civil War, this young family was living in Jasper County, Texas. James’ brother, Balis Earl, joined Co. K of the 28th Regiment, Gray’s Louisiana Infantry. James also answered the call and joined up with Co. D, 2nd Texas Infantry that was formed from Jasper County men.
Balis Earl was captured and became a prisoner of war. He survived the war and on December 7, 1876 married Nancy C. Curington. They had four children, Rosie, Margaret, Lewis and Monroe. From all indications they all lived a long and happy life. Balis Earl, Nancy and the two girls and their families are buried in the Week’s Chapel Cemetery, Newton County, Texas. James Monroe would not be so fortunate.
A hand-written Jeffers Family History that my mother, Hattie Pauline Burkett Boyett, left in her trunk, recounted the sad story of my great-great grandfather’s fate. James Monroe Jeffers made it through two and a half years of the war, had been captured, paroled, and by 1864 was stationed in Galveston, Texas. On January 1, 1863 Confederate Major General John B. Magruder took Galveston Island back from Union forces, and James Monroe Jeffers was later stationed there to serve out his last days guarding the Galveston coast. Autumn 1864 found Galveston in a yellow fever epidemic. It had been devastating the Island, but had just about run its course when James became ill in October of that year. My mother, a graduate of Jasper High School class of 1930, had written in her Jeffers memoirs that James died in Galveston of Yellow Fever and was buried there. I doubt if anyone in the family ever knew where James’ Galveston gravesite was, but if they did, it had been lost to the later family members.
On December 31, 2003 I was sitting on the floor of the Kountze City Library looking through the bottom shelf of the genealogy section. For about two years I had been searching for the burial sites of my ancestors and checking to see if they had proper tombstones. I had been told there were on records surviving that would give the burial site of James Monroe Jeffers. While looking through these bottom shelf books I picked up one titled “Record of Interments of the City of Galveston, 1859-1872.” Previous to this I had obtained James Monroe Jeffers military records and I know that he had died October 24, 1864. Nervously I turned to October 24, 1864 and there was my great-great grandfather’s name. To my surprise it also listed where he was buried on the Island. It was a cemetery owned by the city called “Soldiers Rest”. I learned later that “Soldiers Rest” was a small section of a cemetery named “Potters Field” adjacent to the 4200 block of Broadway Boulevard.
Next to James’ name in the interment record book was another soldier named John Lewis. He is listed as also being from Jasper County, born in Texas and 35 years of age. The first Texas census was taken from 1826 to 1836. The Bevil District portion of this census enumerates a William Lewis, wife Elizabeth Noland and a son John age 4. The Jasper County Census of 1850 enumerates a John Lewis age 20, laborer, born in Texas and living in the home of William Jourdan. I do not find this John Lewis enumerated in the 1860 Jasper County census nor does he show up in any later census records. The interment record shows that John had also died of yellow fever on October 24, 1864. James and John were both from Jasper County, served their country together, died together and were buried side by side on the same day.
I have now located the cemetery and the spot where James and John are buried. I ordered both men government-issued tombstones and on December 4, 2004 at 9:00 AM there will be a ceremony honoring James Monroe Jeffers and John Lewis. Family members of both men and anyone who would like to join us are invited to the dedication ceremony.
Jasper County residents should know Nathaniel Jeffers, son of James Monroe Jeffers and Caroline C. Barnes. Nathaniel built and operated the “Hoodlum Wagon”, the first school bus in the area. He is the bearded man in high-topped boots holding the horn in the picture you will find on the Jasper County Court House Square. I will tell you more about him the next time we visit.
Floyd Willis Boyett
Genealogy 2
Nathaniel Jeffers is known by many in the area as the man who built and operated the “Hoodlum Wagon”, the first school bus in these parts. As I told you the last time we visited, Nathaniel’s grandfather, the one he was named after, was Nathaniel Jeffers of Virginia. The elder Nathaniel was enumerated in the 1850 Alabama census as a wagoner. This means he drove wagons and hauled freight for a living. So Nathaniel, the younger, came by his desire to operate wagons and haul freight, school kids in this case, naturally. But Nathaniel was much more than just the man with the “Hoodlum Wagon” in Sabine, San Augustine and Jasper Counties. Let’s start at the beginning.
Nathaniel Jeffers and his wife, Nancy Elizabeth Zeagler (I’ll tell you more about her later), kept many old letters, cards, photographs (many of which are tin type) and other family mementoes in an old trunk. Before Nathaniel Jeffers died he had given about seventeen of these letters to interested family members. A first cousin of mine is the present keeper of the Jeffers trunk and she allowed me to copy what was left of the contents. Thanks to computers and email I have also been able to recover much information that was in many of the letters that had been removed from the trunk. What I have learned about the Jeffers family came from this trunk and the hand written Jeffers family memoirs that my mother, Hattie Pauline Burkett Boyett, left in her trunk. In the late 1970’s and early 80’s Mother had interviewed the last two living children of Nathaniel and Nancy Jeffers. I will now relate to you the information I have gathered from these sources as best I can.
Nat, as he was called, was born February 26, 1858. He was the only child of James Monroe Jeffers and Caroline C. Barnes to live to adulthood; the two other children dying in infancy. Nat was just a boy of four when his dad left home to serve his country in the War for Southern Independence, during which his dad died of yellow fever on October 24, 1864. He was buried where he died, in Galveston, Texas. Caroline, Nat’s mother, would later marry William Bryant and have four more children. Several of these half-siblings, as well as Caroline, are buried in the Coleman Cemetery in San Augustine County, Texas.
Nat may not have had a good relationship with his stepfather because at seven years of age he ran away from home. He was found traveling with his cousin, Billy Morton, and was taken back home. At ten he made another attempt, but again was found and returned home. Nat left home the third time at twelve. This time he made it to his Uncle Balis Earl Jeffers’ home just outside of Austin. Uncle Earl, as Balis was called, decided to take Nat back home but on the way he ran across Jesse Womack, Nat’s granduncle on his mother’s side. Jesse took Nat in and Nat live with the Womack family for two and a half months. After that, Uncle Earl took Nat back in and Nat lived with him and helped work his farm until he was seventeen years old.
Nat now felt like a man and took off on his own for San Augustine County to see his mother, Caroline. This visit lasted about a month and then Nat headed back toward Austin. He now stayed with his Uncle Earl until he was nineteen years old. During this time Nat learned to break horses, plow ground, as well as plant and harvest a crop. Not only had he earned his board and keep but he had earned enough money to buy a good horse and saddle of his own. Due to Nat’s childhood he did not have much time for a formal education. He did learn his 3 R’s but Nat, for the most part, was a self taught young man. He missed his mother and would return to see her every few months but did not come back to stay. Then one day, things changed.
On a visit to his Aunt Betty Parker’s home, in San Augustine County near Bear Creek, Nat met a young lady named Nancy Elizabeth Zeagler. Nancy’s father, Burrel B. Zeagler, was born in Louisiana in 1835. On February 28, 1862, Burrel answered the call to serve his country and he enrolled in Co. I, Young’s Regiment, Texas Infantry, CSA. Six months later he was discharged and sent home with pneumonia. He would not live long and at the young age of 27 he died, leaving Nancy Elizabeth, her younger sister Martha Jane and Nancy’s mother Frances Elizabeth Keack Zeagler to survive the best way they could. Burrel was buried in the old Zeagler Cemetery somewhere between Brookeland and Browndale. (From information I have found there were never any markers in this cemetery other than lighter pine boards. It is now lost in the woods and I have not been able to locate it.) Frances was a strong German woman that had seen tough times before. At the time Nat spotted Nancy she was spinning yarn to make cloth. Her mother had taught her to spin and weave and as a young lady she was an accomplished seamstress. Nat admired her pretty dress and beautiful long black hair. He even liked the way she walked and he knew this was the girl for him.
Nancy, Martha and their mother Frances spun, wove, did house chores and took care of the gardening on Mr. Bill Martin’s place in San Augustine County. They were allowed to live in a little one-room log cabin, located on Mr. Martin’s property, for their services. Nat went to visit Nancy at the Martin place and found her on the porch with her mother Frances and her Uncle John Keack, Frances’ brother. Nat told Betty (that’s what he had started calling Nancy) of his love for her. This was only two weeks after he first spotted her. They were both 20 years old when they were married in Jasper County at 11:00 AM on December12, 1878.
I ordered Burrel B. Zeagler a government-issued tombstone and I now have it in my possession. His wife, Frances Elizabeth Keack Zeagler is buried in the Brookeland Cemetery. I will determine as best I can where the Old Zeagler Cemetery is located, remove a small amount of dirt from that area and sprinkle it on the ground next to Frances. I will then place the tombstone and we will have a ceremony in great-great grandfather Burrel B. Zeagler’s honor. When the date for this ceremony is set I will let you know.
The next time we visit I will tell you some of the adventures of Nat and Betty Jeffers as they start their life together.