According to this obit, Papa Hearon moved to Whitehouse in 1901. This is something I have been trying to find out.

Joe Hearon

As far as anyone knows, Papa Hearon only had one first name. Joe. Some relatives have added various names. No where in any official information is there any record of any other name. My grandmother, Maggie Hearon, also told me one time years ago, that Papa only had one name. So I guess we'll never really know.

Papa Hearon was born in South Carolina and moved with his family when he was almost grown to the area of the Louisiana/Arkansas State Line near Shongaloo, Haynesville, & Sarepta, La. He and one of his brothers, Sam Hearon, met the Ashby family there, and each married one of their daughters. The Ashby family moved to the very small farming community in East Texas called Whitehouse. Some time after the Hearon brothers married the Ashby sisters, they also moved to Whitehouse.

Papa was married to Elizabeth "Bettie" Ashby and they had four children: Andrew, Alvin, Arthur & Allie. Bettie got very sick, probably with typhoid fever, since they suspected the water well on her father's farm had become contaminated, and they were living with them at the time. She died leaving Papa a widow with four young children.

He then met and married my grandmother, Maggie Mitchum. The Mitchums had lived in Whitehouse for a good many years; Joseph Mitchum, her father, had moved here from Alabama and her mother, Mattie Shahan, had been born in Illinois, moving with her family also to Whitehouse.

After Maggie and Joe married, Arthur & Allie contracted one of the diseases that were rampant in those days, and died. They are buried with their mother in the Whitehouse Cemetery.

Maggie and Joe had six children of their own. Their fifth chid, John Henry, died with diptheria on Christmas Day. Their other five children, and Andrew and Alvin, lived very long and full lives. As I write this, Molien is the only child still living. (Note: also now deceased)

Joe and Maggie bought a farm on Willingham Road, two miles south of Whitehouse. Willingham Road was named for Dr. Willingham who had a big white house at the corner of Main Street and Willingham Road. (It was torn down in approximately 2005 or so to make room for the highway expansion). My grandparents actually lived directly across the road from the house I have lived in since 1977 when my daddy, Leroy Hearon, (their second child) was born, but shortly thereafter, they moved down and across the road a few hundred feet onto the 56 acre farm. We do not know if they actually built the house they lived in or if it was already there. It was a new house though and we think they might have built it. The picture posted on this page is of Mama and Papa standing in front of that house, which, by the way, is still standing. It has been remodeled several times, keeping the style of the old house, except for closing in the dogtrot in the middle. It has continuously been inhabited all these years since my grandmothers's death, in 1970, as it is currently.

I have only the memory of my grandfather as he lay dying in his bed at home. My brothers and my cousins have vivid memories of him. My brother, Bill Hearon, tells this of him coming to Whitehouse for supplies: "Papa never learned to drive. He had a car, but our daddy, Leroy Hearon, did the driving. He either came to town in a wagon, or on horseback." Bill tended to our daddy's ice house in the middle of Whitehouse and it was located right in front of what later became Shahan's store, so he had a birdseye view of all the comings and goings in Whitehouse. "Papa was quite a sight to see when he came to town. He was tall and straight in the saddle and always wore a hat. He rode a big, light brown mare and brought sacks (we called them tow sacks) that he tied together and threw over the horse that held his purchases. He would ride by the ice house and tie his horse up where everyone left their buggies and horses, down by the railroad tracks near Granny Shahan's house."
I wish I could have known him, as he gave all the grandkids nicknames, including me. My brother's account of him is vivid to me though, and I can see him clearly in my mind.

Elaine Hearon Everett Shelton, June 5, 2010