***
[Godwin-Hill and Related Families by Ruth Godwin Gadbury, page 41-45]
John Allen Godwin, Jr., son of John Allen Godwin, Sr. and Aletha Spencer, was born 27 January, 1854, Clark County, Arkansas, south of Hot Springs. He died 23 October, 1932 at age 78 at his home in Mills County, Texas, near Lometa. He married 'Liva Ann Smith 15 October 1874, Hopkins County, Texas in the home of her parents. Liva Ann was born 11 October 1850, Calhoun County, Alabama, the daughter of Enoch Smith and Jane Moore. She died 28 April, 1935, at 8 o'clock Sunday evening at the home of her daughter, Beulah Hill.
John Allen's father and 3 young sisters died in a fever epidemic near Arkadelphia, Arkansas. John Allen Godwin, Jr. was born three months posthumously and given his deceased father's name. His two older brothers died in the Civil War in 1865, when he was eleven. His mother soon moved her family from Arkansas to Upshur Co. TX in December of 1865, then on to Hopkins Co. TX in 1866, during the period of Southern Reconstruction.
When he was about 14 or 15 years old, being the only boy left in the family, he was sent back to Arkansas horseback to collect a debt owed to his mother. He accomplished his mission and on the way back he rode along with a stranger who suggested a short cut through the woods. After they were well into the woods and night had come, the boy feared the stranger meant to rob him. Though [or because?] he kept his hand on his gun back of his saddle all the way through he met no trouble.
He joined the Baptist Church in 1872 at age 18. Liva Ann had come with her parents, Enoch and Jane Smith, three brothers, and four sisters from Calhoun County Alabama to Hopkins County, Texas in 1870 at age 20. Here she and John Allen met and married.
Husking bees and country socials were popular in their younger days. Liva Ann was a quiet, pleasant woman with freckles and light, very wavy hair which she wore in a bun at the back of her head. She was a neat housekeeper, proud of her feather beds and pillows and her beautiful parlor which was rarely used after her younger daughters married. She was also a good cook, but very frugal. She lost her first three babies when they were 9 to 15 months old, two of them she thought died because she became pregnant again so soon and her milk no longer agreed with them.
They raised five children to adulthood, and her mother-in-law lived with the family for most of 25 years. After John and Liva Ann married in 1874, they made their home in Hopkins County, moved to Hunt County in 1883, but back to Hopkins County in 1886. there at Como, Texas, with John F. Smith, a brother-in-law, he operated a General Merchandise Store for a few years. The wooden frame house with a porch across the front that John Allen built still stands [in 1976] in Como facing the railroad track just as Enoch Godwin remembered it from his early childhood there.
Their first five children were born in Hopkins County, Enoch in Hunt County, Effie back in Hopkins County, and Della, the youngest, in Mills County. Besides the three children who died in infancy, Riley, their next son, died at 27. John and Liva and their other four children all lived to be between 75 and 85 years of age.
John Allen was primarily a farmer, so in 1889 he sold his interest in the store and bought three new wagons and started for Mills County, Texas, near Goldthwaite. It began to rain a real East Texas rain and being December, they soon were very cold and bogging in the deep mud. At Greenville he chartered a box car, loaded everything and everybody in it and came on to Goldthwaite, settling in Big Valley Community.
They made a move to north central Texas in 1895 to Montague County near the Red River. John Allen plowed there with six yoke of oxen in the red farm land. When the dust storms came, he would keep plowing until he could not see the first yoke of oxen. They fished in the Red River that year. But during the cold winter, John Allen maintained that his mules always stood facing Mills County, which was south, so the next year they moved back to Big Valley Community, then on to the Long Cove Community near Lometa on July 28, 1901.
Here he bought 640 acres of land between two of the hills that enclose Long Cove. He later sold 160 acres each to his son Enoch and Beulah husband, Lonnie Hill, and retained 320 acres to retire on, which is what he did when his children all married. He ran beef cattle on the pasture land and rented the farm land out on "thirds and fourths," which meant that he got one-third of the feedstuff for his animals and one-fourth of the cotton for cash.
J. A. as he became known, made his occasional trips to town in a buggy, carrying for sale the extra eggs and butter, and bringing back their grocery needs. He bought Cream of Wheat and Saltine crackers which they ate for breakfast, the crackers crumbled in the hot Cream of Wheat. He kept peppermint sticks of candy to delight the grandchildren or reward those who brought his mail to him. His favorite pastime was sitting on his wide front porch in his rocking chair with his feet propped up on the banister, smoking his pipe of home-cured tobacco. And thus he lived out his life.
His sons were formers and his daughters married farmers. All were Baptist, with Beulah, Enoch, Effie and their families involved in the Long Cove Baptist Church. As the children married, John Allen helped each of them secure land nearby, and as they died each child and spouse were buried near the parents in the Long Cove Cemetery north of Lometa, Texas, being clustered close in death as in life.
***
[Godwin-Hill and Related Families by Ruth Godwin Gadbury, page 41-45]
John Allen Godwin, Jr., son of John Allen Godwin, Sr. and Aletha Spencer, was born 27 January, 1854, Clark County, Arkansas, south of Hot Springs. He died 23 October, 1932 at age 78 at his home in Mills County, Texas, near Lometa. He married 'Liva Ann Smith 15 October 1874, Hopkins County, Texas in the home of her parents. Liva Ann was born 11 October 1850, Calhoun County, Alabama, the daughter of Enoch Smith and Jane Moore. She died 28 April, 1935, at 8 o'clock Sunday evening at the home of her daughter, Beulah Hill.
John Allen's father and 3 young sisters died in a fever epidemic near Arkadelphia, Arkansas. John Allen Godwin, Jr. was born three months posthumously and given his deceased father's name. His two older brothers died in the Civil War in 1865, when he was eleven. His mother soon moved her family from Arkansas to Upshur Co. TX in December of 1865, then on to Hopkins Co. TX in 1866, during the period of Southern Reconstruction.
When he was about 14 or 15 years old, being the only boy left in the family, he was sent back to Arkansas horseback to collect a debt owed to his mother. He accomplished his mission and on the way back he rode along with a stranger who suggested a short cut through the woods. After they were well into the woods and night had come, the boy feared the stranger meant to rob him. Though [or because?] he kept his hand on his gun back of his saddle all the way through he met no trouble.
He joined the Baptist Church in 1872 at age 18. Liva Ann had come with her parents, Enoch and Jane Smith, three brothers, and four sisters from Calhoun County Alabama to Hopkins County, Texas in 1870 at age 20. Here she and John Allen met and married.
Husking bees and country socials were popular in their younger days. Liva Ann was a quiet, pleasant woman with freckles and light, very wavy hair which she wore in a bun at the back of her head. She was a neat housekeeper, proud of her feather beds and pillows and her beautiful parlor which was rarely used after her younger daughters married. She was also a good cook, but very frugal. She lost her first three babies when they were 9 to 15 months old, two of them she thought died because she became pregnant again so soon and her milk no longer agreed with them.
They raised five children to adulthood, and her mother-in-law lived with the family for most of 25 years. After John and Liva Ann married in 1874, they made their home in Hopkins County, moved to Hunt County in 1883, but back to Hopkins County in 1886. there at Como, Texas, with John F. Smith, a brother-in-law, he operated a General Merchandise Store for a few years. The wooden frame house with a porch across the front that John Allen built still stands [in 1976] in Como facing the railroad track just as Enoch Godwin remembered it from his early childhood there.
Their first five children were born in Hopkins County, Enoch in Hunt County, Effie back in Hopkins County, and Della, the youngest, in Mills County. Besides the three children who died in infancy, Riley, their next son, died at 27. John and Liva and their other four children all lived to be between 75 and 85 years of age.
John Allen was primarily a farmer, so in 1889 he sold his interest in the store and bought three new wagons and started for Mills County, Texas, near Goldthwaite. It began to rain a real East Texas rain and being December, they soon were very cold and bogging in the deep mud. At Greenville he chartered a box car, loaded everything and everybody in it and came on to Goldthwaite, settling in Big Valley Community.
They made a move to north central Texas in 1895 to Montague County near the Red River. John Allen plowed there with six yoke of oxen in the red farm land. When the dust storms came, he would keep plowing until he could not see the first yoke of oxen. They fished in the Red River that year. But during the cold winter, John Allen maintained that his mules always stood facing Mills County, which was south, so the next year they moved back to Big Valley Community, then on to the Long Cove Community near Lometa on July 28, 1901.
Here he bought 640 acres of land between two of the hills that enclose Long Cove. He later sold 160 acres each to his son Enoch and Beulah husband, Lonnie Hill, and retained 320 acres to retire on, which is what he did when his children all married. He ran beef cattle on the pasture land and rented the farm land out on "thirds and fourths," which meant that he got one-third of the feedstuff for his animals and one-fourth of the cotton for cash.
J. A. as he became known, made his occasional trips to town in a buggy, carrying for sale the extra eggs and butter, and bringing back their grocery needs. He bought Cream of Wheat and Saltine crackers which they ate for breakfast, the crackers crumbled in the hot Cream of Wheat. He kept peppermint sticks of candy to delight the grandchildren or reward those who brought his mail to him. His favorite pastime was sitting on his wide front porch in his rocking chair with his feet propped up on the banister, smoking his pipe of home-cured tobacco. And thus he lived out his life.
His sons were formers and his daughters married farmers. All were Baptist, with Beulah, Enoch, Effie and their families involved in the Long Cove Baptist Church. As the children married, John Allen helped each of them secure land nearby, and as they died each child and spouse were buried near the parents in the Long Cove Cemetery north of Lometa, Texas, being clustered close in death as in life.
***
***
[Godwin-Hill and Related Families by Ruth Godwin Gadbury, page 41-45]
John Allen Godwin, Jr., son of John Allen Godwin, Sr. and Aletha Spencer, was born 27 January, 1854, Clark County, Arkansas, south of Hot Springs. He died 23 October, 1932 at age 78 at his home in Mills County, Texas, near Lometa. He married 'Liva Ann Smith 15 October 1874, Hopkins County, Texas in the home of her parents. Liva Ann was born 11 October 1850, Calhoun County, Alabama, the daughter of Enoch Smith and Jane Moore. She died 28 April, 1935, at 8 o'clock Sunday evening at the home of her daughter, Beulah Hill.
John Allen's father and 3 young sisters died in a fever epidemic near Arkadelphia, Arkansas. John Allen Godwin, Jr. was born three months posthumously and given his deceased father's name. His two older brothers died in the Civil War in 1865, when he was eleven. His mother soon moved her family from Arkansas to Upshur Co. TX in December of 1865, then on to Hopkins Co. TX in 1866, during the period of Southern Reconstruction.
When he was about 14 or 15 years old, being the only boy left in the family, he was sent back to Arkansas horseback to collect a debt owed to his mother. He accomplished his mission and on the way back he rode along with a stranger who suggested a short cut through the woods. After they were well into the woods and night had come, the boy feared the stranger meant to rob him. Though [or because?] he kept his hand on his gun back of his saddle all the way through he met no trouble.
He joined the Baptist Church in 1872 at age 18. Liva Ann had come with her parents, Enoch and Jane Smith, three brothers, and four sisters from Calhoun County Alabama to Hopkins County, Texas in 1870 at age 20. Here she and John Allen met and married.
Husking bees and country socials were popular in their younger days. Liva Ann was a quiet, pleasant woman with freckles and light, very wavy hair which she wore in a bun at the back of her head. She was a neat housekeeper, proud of her feather beds and pillows and her beautiful parlor which was rarely used after her younger daughters married. She was also a good cook, but very frugal. She lost her first three babies when they were 9 to 15 months old, two of them she thought died because she became pregnant again so soon and her milk no longer agreed with them.
They raised five children to adulthood, and her mother-in-law lived with the family for most of 25 years. After John and Liva Ann married in 1874, they made their home in Hopkins County, moved to Hunt County in 1883, but back to Hopkins County in 1886. there at Como, Texas, with John F. Smith, a brother-in-law, he operated a General Merchandise Store for a few years. The wooden frame house with a porch across the front that John Allen built still stands [in 1976] in Como facing the railroad track just as Enoch Godwin remembered it from his early childhood there.
Their first five children were born in Hopkins County, Enoch in Hunt County, Effie back in Hopkins County, and Della, the youngest, in Mills County. Besides the three children who died in infancy, Riley, their next son, died at 27. John and Liva and their other four children all lived to be between 75 and 85 years of age.
John Allen was primarily a farmer, so in 1889 he sold his interest in the store and bought three new wagons and started for Mills County, Texas, near Goldthwaite. It began to rain a real East Texas rain and being December, they soon were very cold and bogging in the deep mud. At Greenville he chartered a box car, loaded everything and everybody in it and came on to Goldthwaite, settling in Big Valley Community.
They made a move to north central Texas in 1895 to Montague County near the Red River. John Allen plowed there with six yoke of oxen in the red farm land. When the dust storms came, he would keep plowing until he could not see the first yoke of oxen. They fished in the Red River that year. But during the cold winter, John Allen maintained that his mules always stood facing Mills County, which was south, so the next year they moved back to Big Valley Community, then on to the Long Cove Community near Lometa on July 28, 1901.
Here he bought 640 acres of land between two of the hills that enclose Long Cove. He later sold 160 acres each to his son Enoch and Beulah husband, Lonnie Hill, and retained 320 acres to retire on, which is what he did when his children all married. He ran beef cattle on the pasture land and rented the farm land out on "thirds and fourths," which meant that he got one-third of the feedstuff for his animals and one-fourth of the cotton for cash.
J. A. as he became known, made his occasional trips to town in a buggy, carrying for sale the extra eggs and butter, and bringing back their grocery needs. He bought Cream of Wheat and Saltine crackers which they ate for breakfast, the crackers crumbled in the hot Cream of Wheat. He kept peppermint sticks of candy to delight the grandchildren or reward those who brought his mail to him. His favorite pastime was sitting on his wide front porch in his rocking chair with his feet propped up on the banister, smoking his pipe of home-cured tobacco. And thus he lived out his life.
His sons were formers and his daughters married farmers. All were Baptist, with Beulah, Enoch, Effie and their families involved in the Long Cove Baptist Church. As the children married, John Allen helped each of them secure land nearby, and as they died each child and spouse were buried near the parents in the Long Cove Cemetery north of Lometa, Texas, being clustered close in death as in life.
***
[Godwin-Hill and Related Families by Ruth Godwin Gadbury, page 41-45]
John Allen Godwin, Jr., son of John Allen Godwin, Sr. and Aletha Spencer, was born 27 January, 1854, Clark County, Arkansas, south of Hot Springs. He died 23 October, 1932 at age 78 at his home in Mills County, Texas, near Lometa. He married 'Liva Ann Smith 15 October 1874, Hopkins County, Texas in the home of her parents. Liva Ann was born 11 October 1850, Calhoun County, Alabama, the daughter of Enoch Smith and Jane Moore. She died 28 April, 1935, at 8 o'clock Sunday evening at the home of her daughter, Beulah Hill.
John Allen's father and 3 young sisters died in a fever epidemic near Arkadelphia, Arkansas. John Allen Godwin, Jr. was born three months posthumously and given his deceased father's name. His two older brothers died in the Civil War in 1865, when he was eleven. His mother soon moved her family from Arkansas to Upshur Co. TX in December of 1865, then on to Hopkins Co. TX in 1866, during the period of Southern Reconstruction.
When he was about 14 or 15 years old, being the only boy left in the family, he was sent back to Arkansas horseback to collect a debt owed to his mother. He accomplished his mission and on the way back he rode along with a stranger who suggested a short cut through the woods. After they were well into the woods and night had come, the boy feared the stranger meant to rob him. Though [or because?] he kept his hand on his gun back of his saddle all the way through he met no trouble.
He joined the Baptist Church in 1872 at age 18. Liva Ann had come with her parents, Enoch and Jane Smith, three brothers, and four sisters from Calhoun County Alabama to Hopkins County, Texas in 1870 at age 20. Here she and John Allen met and married.
Husking bees and country socials were popular in their younger days. Liva Ann was a quiet, pleasant woman with freckles and light, very wavy hair which she wore in a bun at the back of her head. She was a neat housekeeper, proud of her feather beds and pillows and her beautiful parlor which was rarely used after her younger daughters married. She was also a good cook, but very frugal. She lost her first three babies when they were 9 to 15 months old, two of them she thought died because she became pregnant again so soon and her milk no longer agreed with them.
They raised five children to adulthood, and her mother-in-law lived with the family for most of 25 years. After John and Liva Ann married in 1874, they made their home in Hopkins County, moved to Hunt County in 1883, but back to Hopkins County in 1886. there at Como, Texas, with John F. Smith, a brother-in-law, he operated a General Merchandise Store for a few years. The wooden frame house with a porch across the front that John Allen built still stands [in 1976] in Como facing the railroad track just as Enoch Godwin remembered it from his early childhood there.
Their first five children were born in Hopkins County, Enoch in Hunt County, Effie back in Hopkins County, and Della, the youngest, in Mills County. Besides the three children who died in infancy, Riley, their next son, died at 27. John and Liva and their other four children all lived to be between 75 and 85 years of age.
John Allen was primarily a farmer, so in 1889 he sold his interest in the store and bought three new wagons and started for Mills County, Texas, near Goldthwaite. It began to rain a real East Texas rain and being December, they soon were very cold and bogging in the deep mud. At Greenville he chartered a box car, loaded everything and everybody in it and came on to Goldthwaite, settling in Big Valley Community.
They made a move to north central Texas in 1895 to Montague County near the Red River. John Allen plowed there with six yoke of oxen in the red farm land. When the dust storms came, he would keep plowing until he could not see the first yoke of oxen. They fished in the Red River that year. But during the cold winter, John Allen maintained that his mules always stood facing Mills County, which was south, so the next year they moved back to Big Valley Community, then on to the Long Cove Community near Lometa on July 28, 1901.
Here he bought 640 acres of land between two of the hills that enclose Long Cove. He later sold 160 acres each to his son Enoch and Beulah husband, Lonnie Hill, and retained 320 acres to retire on, which is what he did when his children all married. He ran beef cattle on the pasture land and rented the farm land out on "thirds and fourths," which meant that he got one-third of the feedstuff for his animals and one-fourth of the cotton for cash.
J. A. as he became known, made his occasional trips to town in a buggy, carrying for sale the extra eggs and butter, and bringing back their grocery needs. He bought Cream of Wheat and Saltine crackers which they ate for breakfast, the crackers crumbled in the hot Cream of Wheat. He kept peppermint sticks of candy to delight the grandchildren or reward those who brought his mail to him. His favorite pastime was sitting on his wide front porch in his rocking chair with his feet propped up on the banister, smoking his pipe of home-cured tobacco. And thus he lived out his life.
His sons were formers and his daughters married farmers. All were Baptist, with Beulah, Enoch, Effie and their families involved in the Long Cove Baptist Church. As the children married, John Allen helped each of them secure land nearby, and as they died each child and spouse were buried near the parents in the Long Cove Cemetery north of Lometa, Texas, being clustered close in death as in life.
***
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