Today I received an envelope from my mother which, when I opened it, proved to contain two or three pages photocopied from a reference book on the Cleburne (Texas) cemetery, and a handful of snapshots of gravestones. The stones were those of my great-great-grandfather, his wife, and some of their descendants buried at Cleburne.
This is something I had wanted to go see about myself, but hadn’t found the opportunity to do yet; I also want to go poking in the Johnson County courthouse records and see what records might be left; deeds, property taxes, and of course district court records—Grandfather Hall was a district judge for a number of years. (What I’d love best is if Moon and I could go there for a long weekend, which would be very convenient since Cleburne is only thirty miles or so from Fort Worth—but given her husband isn’t comfortable with us taking trips together, that can’t happen.)
I wish I knew more about Grandfather Hall than I do; he was quite remarkable, by all reports. He served in the Fifth Alabama Infantry during the War of Northern Aggression, rising to the rank of colonel, and had he not had his arm shot off at Spotsylvania he would have risen to the rank of general; his commission was signed and waiting when he was wounded. After Lee’s surrender, and once he had recovered some, he was allowed to give his parole and go home.
After the war, he moved his family to Marshall, in far east Texas, and served as mayor for several years during Reconstruction, fighting gangs, gamblers, and general lawlessness, as well as running the city during a smallpox epidemic (which he managed not to catch) and surviving the yellow fever. He moved to Cleburne after his appointment to the Eighteenth District, and was involved with the UCV, the Odd Fellows and the Masons. Despite everything, he lived to the remarkable age of 86, dying on the eighteenth anniversary of his wife’s death, February 6, 1915.
And beyond that, I know fairly little. I know who a few of his children are, and have pictures of the gravestones for the few who are buried in the family plot with him. It needs a lot more work.
Henry the Hamster indicated a moai on Easter Island. Fnord.
