William G. was married to Kate Hufferd and Lizzie Sappington.

By C.M. Raulston, Jr., written in 1973. C.M. passed away in October 2003 and is buried in New Haven.

William G. (Billy)... In the middle 1800's through the early 1900's the people of the rural areas of Northeast Texas had a custom which I have not heard of anywhere else. They built shelters over the graves of their loved ones. The majority of the people did not follow this custom, but about one grave out of ten had a shelter over it. The shelters were in the form of gable roofed sheds with wood shingles on the roof and benches built into the structure parallel to the grave on both sides about 3 feet away. The family took fresh flowers, usually on a Sunday afternoon, and after decorating the grave sat on the benches in silent meditation for a bit then... then a male member of the family read from the Bible and offered an entreaty that they would all live in a way which would assure their happy reunion with the departed. There followed a few more minutes of meditation and upon a signal from the alpha male they returned to their home. It was part of their grief therapy.

In about 1875, John and William G. were returning home on foot from a party in Negley on a dreary drizzly night. It was near midnight and they were trudging up the muddy redclay hill alongside the New Haven Cemetery. John had dropped some distance behind when Billy turned and shouted, "Come on John, we have to cut wood tomorrow, we need to get to bed." There came this strange booming voice from the cemetery, "WAIT'LL I PUT MY SHOES ON!" John caught up very quickly and soon they were both home. The Dodd family lived on the North side of the Jonesboro Road next door East of The Hinshaw Place about a mile west from the cemetery. An adult male member of the Dodd famly was mentally handicapped. They weren't challenged in those days, folks figured they had enough trouble. That man had wandered away from home and had taken shelter in the cemetery.

In 1886 Fannie took to her bed with a fatal illness. William M. straightaway hired a young lady named Katherine Cowan Melissa Hufferd to move in and take care of him and his wife. Fannie died on 27 June 1886 and a short time later Lizzie, wife of Billy, died from child bed fever following the birth of their fourth daughter, who they named Fanny in memory of Billy's departed Mother. About the only happy thing that happened to the family in 1886 was sometime before Fannie died her youngest child, Alice, married Thomas Jefferson Tuggle.

On July 3, 1877, John C. married Laura Sappington and on November 3, 1877 William G. married her sister, Lizzie Sappington. (I am going to call William G. Billy, because he was addressed as "Uncle Billy" by a whole pasture full of nieces and nephews and to help the reader separate him from William M.). After the Albion Road was completed in the 1870s, an East-West road was built about 200 yards North of the William M. house. On this new road just a bit Northeast of the existing Aubrey D. Raulston home is where John built his house. At a later date another house was built on this road, almost in front of, but a bit west from the homestead house. We don't know who lived there first, probably Billy, and when he married Kate and moved himself and kids into the big house with William M., we think Lonnie, son of John, moved into the new house. Daddy (Clarence M.) told me that Ed Thompson, son of Mary Raulston and North Thompson, lived there in the early 1920s and when he moved away he left an almost new cast iron, wood burning cookstove next to the south side of the well kerb and when the well caved in the stove went into the well and was covered with fill dirt. That well was located where there exists today a co-op water meter which is some twenty feet south of the latch post of a 16' galvanized gate leading into a hay pen. On January 1, 1901, John was killed in a riding accident. I may have misinformed John's grandson, Cleburne T. Raulston, about the date of his father's death when Cleburne had a marker placed at his parents grave in the early 1980s. When I was researching my first Raulston Book, published 1973, my father and uncle Ike Thompson both said John died the first day of the week, the first day of the month, the first day of the year, and the first day of the century. Pa said 1900, Ike said 1901. Had my brain not been "out to lunch" I would have known the century begins on the '01 year not the '00 year. To compound the felony, my publisher goofed, the caption under John's photograph reads, "1854-1904"! Today I am certain the caption and the headstone should read 1854-1901.

On the day that he died, John had been to town to buy medicine for an ailing Laura. She died in April of that year. They left behind three boys and three girls. The oldest boy, Lonnie, was married and he and his wife, Mattie Bridges, took in the siblings except Delbert, who was grown and had already gone out on his own, and Amos, who was about 16, and had long been a favorite of Billy and his wife, Kate. He moved in with them. Uncle Billy insisted that Amos spend a lot of time helping Lonnie work his crops, get in winter wood, mend fences, etc.

When I asked my father why John went to town to buy medicine on New Years Day, he said folks didn't pay much attention to holidays back then except July 4th, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. When I asked him what they did to celebrate the 4th of July, he replied, "It was just another hot day fighting crab grass here on the farm, but in town they closed up for that day and gathered at the Reunion Grounds. A couple of ambitious young men set up a stand the day before where they sold ice cream, cold drinks, hot dogs and fireworks, usually a couple of pretty girls helped with the selling. There was always some of the well muscled young men gathered in a grassy area where they removed their shirts and wrestled. The young women gathered round and stood under their umbrellas and watched and whispered a tittered. Most families shared a picnic lunch which Mother spread on her best checkered tablecloth."

I have often wondered about the reunion ground and have concluded it was an area on the edge of town set aside for the annual gathering of old soldiers. My Father often spoke of horse racing on the reunion grounds, but not in connection with the 4th of July. He also said they sometimes held the County Fair on the Reunion Grounds.

Soon after Billy's wife, Lizzie, died he married Katherine Hufferd on January 27, 1887. It was a real handy arrangement since Kate was already on the scene doing housework and cooking for Billy's father, William M. At the time he married Kate the children of Billy were: Lelia - age 8, Claud - age 6, Maud - age 4, and Fannie - an infant girl. I have spelled her name Fanny in a couple of places in the foregoing to separate her from grandmother Fannie. To Billy and Kate, the following children were born: Alice - 1888, Mattie - 1890, Jessie - 1892 (died age 2), Clarence - 1894, Ernest - 1897, and Farris - 1904.

At about the time Billy's wife, Lizzie, died he and a brother-in-law, Norfleet Thompson (which the natives in their own inimitable way had long since changed to North Thompson) became very close. Uncle North was the husband of Mary Raulston Thompson (an older sister of Billy) and father of Ed and Elbert Thompson. Billy and North worked together daily and entered into several business ventures together. I am not going to enumerate dates here because it would require considerable research for which I have neither the energy nor the inclination. In the late 1870s or early 1880s William M. or William G. bought the N.C. Ward place which was situated across the road North from the East 1/2 of the Raulston Homestead tract. It was in the early 1880s that Billy and North put in a shingle mill at the Southwest corner of this place. The millpond is still there, but the shingle making enterprise lasted only five years. Their next endeavor was a horse and mule barn with livery and blacksmith shop. It was located on West Monroe about two blocks West from North Cedar in Clarksville. At this time Billy had another brother-in-law, Richard Logan Dietz, who was operating a cabinet shop, gun shop, and blacksmith shop at 200 South Walnut in Clarksville. The Raulston/Thompson mule barn lasted no more than a year or two. Their next move was to buy 200 acres of land which joined the Raulston Place on the East. Billy took the East 100 acres which was the home place of his Uncle Daniel Chesshire. The house that North and Mary moved into on the West 100 acres was built by a Mr. Williams, a prior owner. This was the final enterprise entered into jointly by these two men.

In the late summer of 1904 Billy came down with a bad case of bronchial pneumonia in both lungs. he recovered to the point that he could walk around a bit outside. He was wandering around in the apple orchard Northeast of the house when the lady in the tenant house across the road yelled to him, "Uncle Billy, you brang me some of them apples and I'll make you a pie fer yer supper!" He did, and she did, and he came down with a severe case of indigestion, and as a consequence, had a relapse with the pneumonia. He died on 6 November 1904. His youngest child, a son called Farris, was six months old. My father, Clarence, lacked two months being 11 years old. Amos, who was 21 years of age, was still living with Billy and Kate and, much to her relief, took over as man of the house. He taught my father how to farm and Daddy often commented to me that Amos Raulston was the best man with a pair of horses or mules who ever stuck a plow in the ground in Red River County.

Grandfather (William G.) and His Three Brothers

Shortly after John and William G. Raulston were married to their respective spouses, they bought out all the other heirs' interest in the 240 acre tract of land known as The Raulston Homestead. They then divided it in half, John taking the west 120 acres and William G. taking the east 120 acres. William G. married and set up housekeeping in the old home place a year after his Mother died. His Father lived with him three years before he died. William G. and Uncle North Thompson bought 200 acres of land joining the Raulston tract on the east. The 200 acres were divided with William G. taking the east 100 acres. They bought this land from their uncles, Mr. Cotton and Mr. Chessir, mentioned earlier as being brothers-in-law to William M. The east tract was sold in the early 1900s by my Grandmother, Katherine Hufferd Raulston, to a Mr. Wyman and was called for a time "the Wyman Place." This tract is known today as the Finley Place.

January 1, 1900 was a cold rainy, sleeting day in Red River County. In the late afternoon my Father, then aged 6, had walked out in front of the house with his Father to watch Uncle John and a man named Bud Honeycutt as they approached on their return from town. The riders lined up to race the last couple of hundred yards. John was riding a young, not completely broken horse. As the race got under way Honeycutt's raincoat flared in the wind. This spooked John's horse and it shied across the bar ditch into the timber. John dodged the first tree that came up on his right but a second tree loomed on his left too soon for him to veer. He was buried in the New Haven Cemetery.

John built his home near the northeast corner of his 120 acre tract. This same site later became the home of Artis, son of Jimmie D. After John was killed his Brother Jimmie acquired the west 120 acre tract. He bought land to the west and north of this tract and with the help of his large family farmed most of his acreage. Uncle Jimmie lived to be 79 years of age. He was a man with deep religious convictions and a leader in his church. In his late life when he had many years experience and was filled with wisdom, his advice was sought on all facets of rural life. His support of a candidate for political office was a guarantee of support by everyone in the North County area. He told many stories which had been told to him by his parents about life in early day Texas and Tennessee. It is tragic that no one was interested enough to take written notes.

Lambert N. Raulston supported his family by farming rented or leased land in the Dimple area. In his late life he moved his family, some of whom were married, to the Tillison farms in Northeastern Bowie County. There the family managed a very large acreage of Red River bottom land. Uncle Lambert died in Bowie County in 1929. He and his wife are buried in the New Haven Cemetery. After his death the family moved back to Red River County except for one son, Willie, who stayed in Bowie County to raise his family. Lambert was not a religious man in the popular context. This is not to say that he was a man without morals. He instilled in his sons a respect for honesty and hard work. His sons and their sons are the most industrious, hardest working people in the home community today. It is perhaps paradoxical that of the Raulstons who own and reside upon their land in the Dimple area, all are descendants of Lambert.

Lambert and his Brother Jimmie were small wirey men filled with vinegar and each had a flaring temper. This led to a lot of friction between the two when they were young men. Whenever Jimmie approached Lambert on the subject of religion he was turned off quickly by the reminder that religion had killed their Father. It was Lambert's view that dunking the old man in a boat filled with cold water had contributed immensely to his death. These noisy, quick tempered arguments were never of a lasting or serious nature. The brothers worked together at intervals over many years in such endeavors as winter wood cutting and making fence posts. Older brothers, John and William G., were usually close by to act as arbiters. It is interesting to note that John and William G. were larger, comparatively dark visaged quiet men compared to the Scotch-Irish appearance and temperament of Jimmie and Lambert.

For the most part the children of William G. were quiet and somber whereas some of John's children were energetic, nervous people. This nervous energy is a trait passed down from William M. to all branches of the family.

When the old man was semi-retired, he often rose from his bed at night to ride the woods accompanied by a feisty dog. When the dog found a lizard or a mouse in the woods William M. whooped, yelled and made so much noise that most folks hearing him thought he had a bear at bay. [I love this part... Paula... because it explains so much about all of us!!] E-mail Paula Duchesne

The first generation descendants of William M. and Fannie Raulston inherited habits and language typical of the South-central and Eastern regions of Tennessee. The family library consisted of a Bible, an almanac and a copy of "Ned's First Reader." Due to limited education, there was an aversion to reading. We of the later generations tend to view these customs and this dying language with amusement or even, disdain. We should not allow our relative sophistication to blind us to the functionality of their customs or the unique perception and continuity of their language. Some examples of their language follow: (The present tense will be used because some third and fourth generation descendants in the home community still use these words.)

A bee hive is a bee gum.
Brittle is brickle.
A vegetable patch for home use is a garden, if it is for market, it is a truck patch.
A small watering hole is a pond or pool depending upon size and depth.
Lumber less than one inch thick and more than six inches wide is a plank, if it is less than six inches in width, it is a strip.
Hand made shingles are boards.
A dish cloth is a drying rag.
Kerosene is coal oil.
Store bought bread is light bread.
A staple is a steeple and a nut and bolt is a tap and bolt.
A skunk is a pole cat, a woodpecker is a peckerwood and a dragon fly is a skeeter hawk.
Mother is mama, father is daddy and wife is woman.
The devil is the booger man, a no-good dog is a pot licker, and a catalpa tree is a towba.
The noon meal is dinner, the evening meal is supper, and fresh ears of corn for table use are roast'nears.
The out house is the closet, a storage room is a side room, and a burlap bag is a tow sack.
A ghost is a haint, a fancy bed cover is a counterpin, and a picket fence is a paling fence.
A mild swear word is dad-burn, one too close with his money is tight, and courting is sparking.
A knife sharpening stone is a whitrock, an earth worm is a red worm, and wire for fencing is bob wire.

The sons and grandsons of William M. Raulston were the last of the rugged individualist. Theirs was a free spirit untethered by the rigid laws of a machine controlled economy. Their life was a day-to-day struggle and they wouldn't have had it otherwise. The machines would come, automobiles would roar by, planes would fly overhead, electrical appliances would make life easy, and their scions would become slaves to the time clock. Theirs were indeed the last of the golden years.