Purchase of 200 acres on what is still known as Stephens Creek. Territory recently ceded by Creek and Cherokee peoples. The geographic anchor of the Stephens family's American story. → View Stephens Creek Georgia Map

1,298-acre headright on Pine Creek in northwest Lamar County. Lamar County First Class File #126, Certificate No. 24. Survey by John W. Smith as adjacent neighbor. 32-year gap between survey and patent is typical for Republic of Texas era — Civil War halted processing. Original 7-page patent document preserved at the Texas General Land Office archives and downloaded for this project. Descendants still farm portions of this land today. → View Original GLO Patent (PDF) · → Lamar County 1870 Map

Multiple tracts acquired in Fannin and Lamar Counties. Deeds dated February 1836 — before the Stephens party had even arrived in Texas, they were laying claim. Original Fannin County acquisitions in Bonham courthouse deed books. Lamar County expansion documented at the GLO.

~40 acres on the south side of Sanders Creek, Cato Community, northwest Lamar County. Purchased from a bachelor at approximately $0.50–$1.00/acre. Note: This homestead was acquired by the U.S. Army c. 1942 for Camp Maxey and is now submerged beneath Pat Mayes Lake north of Paris, Texas.

Third Sergeant. Served as teamster under Captains Nicholson and Sharp, under Major T.W. Randolph. Last documented movement June 30, 1863 — dispatched to Honey Grove on extra duty driving an ambulance for Colonel Harrison. Fate unknown; never returned home per family history.

Confederate Compiled Service Records — Ancestry collection 2322, record 89365556 ("Hezekiah Brown")
Civil War Soldiers — collection 1138, record 2368026 ("Hezekiah R. Brown")
Civil War Draft Registration 1863–1865 — collection 1666, record 3725597 ("Hesekiah Browne")

"H R Brown" listed in Lamar County voter registration during Reconstruction. Confirms his post-war arrival in Texas during federal military occupation. The 1880 census finds him farming in Precinct 3 with wife S.E.A. and six children including Lula (age 7) and Martin Luther (age 1).

Roger's great-great-uncle. Born November 4, 1924. Served as PFC in the U.S. Army during World War II (Texas). Died January 8, 1973. Buried at Pyles Cemetery, Lamar County. Married Jacqueline Crawford Brown (1925–2007); their son Donnie W. Brown (1943–2005) also documented.

Documents birth of Ethel Lula Brown (called "Lula" as a girl) in Direct, Texas. Father listed as "M L Brown" (Martin Luther "Whit" Brown Sr.), mother as "Lucy Jane Rankin." Confirmed against her death certificate (Ancestry 2272/22612804).

Discrepancy note: Death certificate names parents as Wright D. Brown and Sarah Thornberry — contradicting the Hezekiah R. Brown census inference. The death certificate takes precedence as primary source. Research priority: locate Wright D. Brown in Lamar County records 1870–1900.

H.R. Brown (42, Alabama), S.E.A. Brown (41, Arkansas), M.J. Brown (13), John T. Brown (11), S.E. Brown (9), L. Brown "Lula" (7), J.W. Brown "Walter" (3), M.L. Brown Martin Luther (1, born Texas). Confirms family in Lamar County by at least 1879.

Martin (age 30) and Lucy (27) farming on the "Direct and State Shoals Road." Daughter "Lula E. Brown" age 5 (Ethel). Infant daughter "Namid Brown" (likely Naomi/Nannie — census transcription error). Hired hand John Stewart in household. Land owned but mortgaged.

Marriage of Martin Luther "Whit" Brown Sr. and Lucy Jane Rankin, documented in Lamar County marriage records. Paris, Texas — the same courthouse where the family's deeds, wills, and vital records accumulated for a century.

Jim Ned settling the estate of his son Littleton Henry Stephens, who died young and unmarried in 1842. Filing papers continued until 1847. Last documented evidence of Jim Ned alive. He was dead before the 1850 census.

Confirms parents: William Thomas Tallant (1868–1928) and Mary E Rogers Tallant (1874–1974). Resolves the previously open question of Minnie's parentage. Confirms Mary E Rogers Tallant's extraordinary 100-year lifespan (born Reconstruction, died year Nixon resigned).

Written by Kate Patterson (granddaughter of Robert William Thompson) to her cousin Bettie Jo Thompson. Only first-person account of the covered wagon journey from Alabama to Texas (~1853–1860). Describes Robert William's period as overseer on an Arkansas cotton plantation during the journey. Confirms: "Papa [John William Thompson] lived till his death in 1953. He was 91."

Eyewitness account reprinted 1954: "The party departed from Memphis, traveled by boat to the Red River and then up the Red River to the mouth of Bois d'Arc Creek. Other settlers included John and Ned (James Edward) Stephens and their families, Daniel Slack, Hillary Bush, Richard Locke, Jacob Black, and Mr. Harmon and their families." Confirms Jim Ned's given name (James Edward) and the journey route.

"First Fannin County Settlement. One Mile East of Landing. Established in April 1836 by five pioneers moving to Texas on the 'Rover', one of the few steamboats to pass around snags and bends of the Red River to this area. The colonists from four states of the Old South were Richard Locke, Dr. Daniel Slack, Edward and John Stephens." Note: "Edward" = James Edward "Jim Ned" Stephens.

Confirms Floyd Stephens (age 90) as surviving father at time of Clea's death. Surname spelled "Tallent" (for Minnie's maiden name) — same family as "Tallant," different transcription by different scribes. Clea died at McCuistion Medical Center, Paris, TX; buried at Georgia Cemetery.

Burials documented: William Russell Stephens (1860–1924), Adeline Thomas Stephens (1861–1945), Clea Fulton Stephens (1907–1975). The Georgia Community is the geographic heart of the Stephens family's Texas story — the same land Edward Perkins Stephens farmed and patented in the 1830s–1870s.

Burials documented: John Thompson (1901–1985) and Ethel Lula Brown Thompson (1904–1959). Husband and wife rest together; Ethel predeceased John by 26 years.

Burials documented: Martin Luther "Whit" Brown Sr. (1879–1963, FindAGrave #42673654) and Martin Luther Brown Jr. (1924–1973, FindAGrave #42673655). Father and son, buried together in the same Lamar County soil the family had farmed since the 1880s.

Burial documented: Robert William Thompson (1824–1876). Died November 19, 1876, age 51. The man who brought the Thompson family to Texas in a covered wagon, buried in the county he chose.

Burials documented: John William Thompson (died December 8, 1953, Sumner, Lamar County) and Willie Mae Thompson (b. November 16, 1890, Chicota TX; d. August 17, 1983, Paris TX). Siblings from the first generation of Thompsons born in Texas.

Family history records Charlotte Russell Stephens (wife of Edward Perkins, who later remarried Shaffer) as buried at Selfs Cemetery. Death date not yet determined. Finding her death date would help close the Edward Perkins Stephens post-Civil War timeline.