NAT Newsletter - October 2007 A publication of the Nat Cemetery Association, Nacogdoches Co., Texas

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Brent Stafford
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6) Nat Homecoming - SUNDAY, October 14, 2007 8:00 9:45 a.m......tbw House/ coffee & donuts 10:00 a.m......... Singing* - THE RANSOMS & James Thomas Kerss, Leader 12:00 noon.

1 NAT Newsletter - October 2007 A publication of the Nat Cemetery Association, Nacogdoches Co., Texas Brewer and Wade families - very early Nat area settlers. (See p. 6) Nat Homecoming - SUNDAY, October 14, :00 9:45 a.m......tbw House/ coffee & donuts 10:00 a.m Singing* - THE RANSOMS & James Thomas Kerss, Leader 12:00 noon lunch - dinnner on the ground 1:00 p.m nat Cemetery Association BUSINESS MEETING *Singing after lunch; Nat Baptist Church sanctuary again

2 Board of Directors, NAT CEMETERY ASSOCIATION Jerry Whitaker, President Julia Loy Robert Baker, Vice President Darrel Trawick Don K. Trawick, Sec.-Treas. Ouida Dean, Newsletter Ed. CEMETERY BOARD 2007 Update Jerry has taken responsibility for obtaining tents for the Nat Home- Coming celebration, held the second Sunday in October each year. He is overseeing the renovation of the covered sign near the FM 343 cemetery gate this year. Don reports that the financial affairs of the association are in regular order. Donations to the perpetural care fund are still being solicited. Don supervises the upkeep of the cemetery & the TBW House grounds; he manages the association s investments; he accepts the incoming monies; secures the annual audit; and he & Nelda assist with the mailing list for the organizations. Robert has the homecoming announcement banner, and displays it on the cemetery fence each year in a timely manner. Julia, a multi-tasker, is involved in everything from working with burials at the cemetery, along with Don; she serves as liaison with Nat Baptist Church on arrangements for Homecoming; she secures the gospel singers for Sunday. And she plays a mean game of 42 at the TBW House monthly 4 th Tuesday afternoon Games Day, to which she usually brings excellent chicken salad sandwiches. Darrell has begun work for a GPS survey to create a new mapping of the cemetery, a project which will be helpful also in designing and keeping tract of the new part of the cemetery. Ouida collects local and family history materials for the assocition s heritage project. She uses photos and other information in the NAT Newsletter and preserves items for the TBW House and for the new website. (See p Thanks, RG Dean.) TRAVIS B. WHITAKER HOUSE Council Update Loweda Hogue manages the council s financial affairs, including collecting donations during the Homecoming & at the TBW House. Thanks to Jim & Sandra Coats and to RG & Ouida Dean for donaing chairs to the BBW House; to Sandra and to Sharon Ramsey for research work on the proposed historical marker for the cemetery

http://www.nattexas.org The NAT CEMETERY ASSOCIATION, in conjunction with its TRAVIS B.

org The home page will feature the cemetery, and the contents on the site will memorialize and honor past and present members of the Nat community with photos, letters and other documents, family and

3 The NAT CEMETERY ASSOCIATION, in conjunction with its TRAVIS B. WHITAKER HOUSE affiliate each entity being eligible for 501 C3 tax deduction status in regard to contributor donations has now established the internet web site: The home page will feature the cemetery, and the contents on the site will memorialize and honor past and present members of the Nat community with photos, letters and other documents, family and church histories, and other heritage information such as education, farming, recreation, and of course, the history of the cemetery itself. On the home page, navigation buttons will let the reader move to the different sections and files within the web site. The main page will also contain external links to the URLs of related internet sites. NOTE: the web address is concise, just the name of the commuity +.org. That s nattexas with 2 t s; easy to remember; easy to share. The program should be in operation by the end of October, Kyle BATES 2005 SFA honoree; TBW House visitor, Games Day

FRIENDSHIP QUILTS, LONGTIME NAT TRADITION Depression Era quilt, ca.

19TH ; Jonell Baxter Age 9 April 3; R..C. Rawlinson age 10 Sept. 11.

Overall age 11 Sept [?]; Annie Laura Byrd Age 13 Nov 4, 1926.

4 FRIENDSHIP QUILTS, LONGTIME NAT TRADITION Depression Era quilt, ca. 1939, as displayed at the Travis B. Whitaker House L > R., ROW 1: Pauline Reed, April 10, Mar. 1; Anita Whitaker, Age 8 April 16; Twyla Sue Baxter Age 9 April 13; Adelle Furra age 10 Sept 30, ROW 2: Charlene Bradshaw Age 11 Nov 2, 1938; Virginia Lee Anderson Nov. 19TH ; Jonell Baxter Age 9 April 3; R..C. Rawlinson age 10 Sept. 11. ROW 3: Doris Lavender Age 10 April 26; BILLIE Louisa Gipson Age ; Gloria Overall age 11 Sept [?]; Annie Laura Byrd Age 13 Nov 4, ROW 4: Tony Byrd Age 10, May 3; H B McLain Age 11 Nov ; James Baucom Age 11 Feb 18, 1939; EDITH JARRLL [sic] Age 9 BORN MARCH ROW 5: John Reed Age 9, Aug. 3; Junior Bochman Age-11-Sep-10; BILLIE Jean Hartless 9 years Sept 26; Wynodean Parmley Age 10, Nov NAT NEWSLETTER, p. 4-5.

The BREWER CEMETERY is located in the northwestern part of Nacogdoches Co. in Deep East Texas just to the south of FM 343 between NAT and FRIENDSHIP cemeteries.

The marker reads as follows: BREWER CEMETERY/ DEDICATED 1816/ HENRY/ OCT. 24, 1776 JAN. 23/ SUSANNAH/ HIS WIFE/ APR.

5 The BREWER CEMETERY is located in the northwestern part of Nacogdoches Co. in Deep East Texas just to the south of FM 343 between NAT and FRIENDSHIP cemeteries. Highway signs today clearly mark the site. The state recognized the historic significance of the burial grounds during the 1936 Centenniel celebration of Texas Independence from Mexico. The marker reads as follows: BREWER CEMETERY/ DEDICATED 1816/ HENRY/ OCT. 24, 1776 JAN. 23/ SUSANNAH/ HIS WIFE/ APR.7, 1777 DIED 1853/ HENRY MITCHEL/ BORN IN GEORGIA/ June 3, 1807 DIED 1849/ JOHN/ / HENRY AND JOHN BREWER WERE IN THE BATTLE OF NACOGDOCHES [1832]... HENRY MITCHEL BREWER FOUGHT AT SAN JACINTO Brewers, pioneer Anglo settlers In Nacogdoches County According to Vol. 52, p. 365 of the R.B. Blake Collection, Henry and Sussanah Brewer came to Texas from Georgia in 1816 with their children and settled near the Nacono Indian Village in what is now Nacogdoches County. I believe this would have been near what many of us know as Flatwoods. Blake names these children in birth order as: James (1792); Nancy : Tempe, : George (1804); Clarissa: Henry Mitchel (1807); Sarah: William (1812): Mary (1814); Bethany, and John Brewer, born January 23, Continued on page 7.) Photo considered to be MELISSA Ann WADE, a BREWER descendant; 1 st wife of M.F. Matt Whitaker, and mother of the 1 ST 6 of his 18 children

6 (con t. from p. 6) Melissa Ann WADE was born 1847 in Mississippi to Henry and Nancy WADE BREWER. In recent years, a gravestone was finally placed in the heretofore remote Brewer Cemetery by her descendants Robert Bob and his son Robert Scott WHITAKER, whose line had been lost to them until Bob researched their family history. Scott has digitized the information, and refers to their work as Pegleg s Descendants in reference to the patriarch, Elder John Pegleg Whitaker, the great-grandfather of M.F. Matt Whitaker. Melissa WADE married Matt WHITAKER on January 21, To them were born: Ida E. (Dec. 1869); Henry Frank (Aug. 22, 1871); William Watson (Sept 30, 1873); Nannie E. (Feb. 22, 1876); and twins Melissa W. and Mat W. (Mar. 4, 1879). She died Mar. 4, 1879, leaving her six children motherless. Her daughter Melissa would marry Dave Vanlandingham. Among their descendanst is Loweda Hogue. On January 30, 1880, Hannah Isabella Jane SELF married M.F. Whitaker. Hannah had her first child, George Benjamin Whitaker (Dec. 12, 1880). Among his descendants is Jerry Frank Whitaker, current president of the Nat Cemetery Association. Just imagine: Hannah ended her first year of marriage with (7) seven children under the age of ten (10), two of whom were the infant twins and one of them, her own newborn. By the end of the century, she would deliver 11 additional children. Imagine raising 18 children in the late 1800 s-early 1900 s in rural East Texas. Indeed, families were much larger then! Mr. Roy Self has left an informative essay, along with copious family records of the SELF, WHITAKER, CLOSE and other allied families. In the Brewer cemetery, other surnames include GAGE, MAYO, PARKER, and PRINCE. Below, one of the many memorials along 2 sides of the cyclone fence, each of which is set in front of a healthy looking crape myrtle plant

7 HISTORIC AREA FRIENDSHIP QUILT Displayed at Nat in the 22 nd Century Century (ca 2002) - 8 -

Hix Family Cemetery - Hix, Georgia

Hix Family Cemetery - Hix, Georgia Location: 583 Neese-Commerce Rd. Commerce, GA 30530-4520 Buried in this cemetery are members of a family prominent in the early history of Madison County. Descendants