by Patsy Fuchs
This information was taken from the book: “Our Kin” by Patsy Rich Fuchs. 2003. - page 2
Thomas J. McCarty “ Col. T.” was born in 1802 in Virginia, died 21 Dec 1884 on the Browning Ranch (now Glass Ranch), in Dickens County, Texas. He married about 1825 Rebecca (Comstock?). She was born about 1810 in Tennessee and died after 1860. He married (2) about 1845 Sarah Eliza Jane LeFors. She was born 4 October 1831 in Kentucky. He married (3) 17 June 1857, Rutha Wakefield Grogan. She was born about 1836 in Indiana and died 1869/1870 near Fort Griffin, Shackelford County, Texas. He married (4) 14 November 1874 Sarah Elizabeth Farmer Bradford. She was born 27 February 1849 in Jefferson County, Tennessee and died 21 September 1917 near Afton, Dickens County, Texas.
Thomas J. McCarty was born in 1802 in Virginia. His parents have not been proven. At an early age his family moved near the Cumberland Gap and he lived there until he reached manhood.
Thomas was a big man. “He was over 6 feet tall. Some folks called him a brawny, friendly, happy Irishman while others thought of him as a hard bargaining, straight-laced, tight lipped Scotchman. He was a might good-looking an with dark curly hair and Irish blue eyes”, (From Mrs. JAB- (Joseph A. Browning?)). He wore a short beard along his jaw line and chin. Thomas probably had a meager education, but he did learn to read and write.
He married Rebecca (Constock?) about 1825. Their first child many have been born in Tennessee before they left for Indiana in 1826. There were several McCarty’s as well as allied families that moved to Clark County, Indiana and later to Putnam and Morgan counties. They lived in Indiana for about 14 years. Most of their nine children were born there. There was a Thomas McCarty listed on the 1830 Federal Census of Morgan County, Indiana.
The Indians, thieves, and killers scourged that part of the country so it was necessary for the people to travel together in wagon trains and even then it was very dangerous. In 1840 there was another migration of the McCarty’s and their allied families to the southern counties of Missouri and northern Arkansas. Thomas was among them, and chose to settle his family in Marion County, Arkansas. He and his sons operated a sawmill there. It was probably located on the White River or one of the creeks leading to the river. He paid taxes there for several years, including the years 1846 to 1851. Thomas lived there until about 1854. The records of Marion County were burned during the Civil War with only a few surviving.
Rebecca left Thomas about 1844, going to Greene County, Missouri. In 1852 she was living in a household with the children of Abel Lanham. The Lanham’s lived in Tennessee before going to Missouri. Anna Lanham was married to William McCarty, probably an uncle to Thomas. Anna and Abel were sister and brother. There is no information about Rebecca’s connection to the Lanham’s. In 1858 she married James R. Gilbert, a farmer of Webster County, Missouri. There is no further information about Rebecca.
Thomas married Sarah LeFors about 1845. She was the daughter of James Jefferson LeFors and Jeanette Jones. She was born in Kentucky, 4 October 1831. Sarah was about thirty years younger than Thomas. The 1850 Federal Census of Marion County, Arkansas names four males (older sons of Thomas) as well as Thomas, Sarah, and their 2 children. Two sons were born in 1850 and in 1852.
On a Sunday morning, in the spring of about 1853, Thomas and Sarah were on their way to church and decided to cut across the land belonging to a man called Sully. Thomas and Sully were not on good terms and on this day Sully shot Thomas, the ball entering and passing through the stomach area. Sarah took him back to the house and set about to make a poultice to go on the wound. She made a tube from slippery elm bark and inserted it into the wound to keep it draining. Then she boiled slippery elm bark and made a paste to apply on the outside to keep down infection. Thomas was very near death for about 17 days. It took several months for him to heal and gain back his strength. It was said that Sully left the country when he hear Thomas was on the mend. (From Mrs. JAB)
Thomas was on the move a lot from 1854 onward. He bought a farm in McDonald County, Missouri about this time and soon after moved his family to Newton County, near the village of Neosho, to manage a grist and lumber mill. He bought 2 racing horses around 1855. Preston was the jockey but whether they were ever in a race is not known.
In 1855 in Benton County, Arkansas Thomas filed for a divorce from Sarah and he had it dismissed in 1856. At that time Sarah was living in Benton County, Arkansas and Thomas was living in Greene County, Missouri. By 1856 the children of Thomas and Rebecca were either married or living somewhere else and Thomas was left with four small children to care for. There is no information that tells us why Thomas had the children with him, nor why they were not with Sarah. In March of 1857 Thomas sold the McDonald County farm. This property was located on the McDonald County and Benton County Arkansas line. Two parcels were involved. The east half of the southwest quarter of section number twenty seven, in township number twenty one of range thirty one, eighty acres, and also the southwest fourth of the northeast quarter of section number thirty four, in township number twenty one of range number thirty one, containing forty acres. Thomas received $500 for the eighty acres from Ambrose Williams. He held a bond against John A Johnson for a title to the forty acres. Ambrose Williams paid Thomas $1,000 and Johnson signed the bond to Williams. Sarah did not sign the deed until February 6, 1858. She received $1 and a $50 horse for relinquishing her dower. There is no further information about Sarah after 1858.
Thomas married Rutha Grogan in 1857 in Webster County, Missouri. She was a young woman from Newton County.
In 1858 Thomas was involved in at least 2 court cases in Greene County. He owed money to the Bank of Missouri and there was a judgment reached in that case. In the same year Thomas filed a suit against Pleasant Henderson for money that Pleasant owed him.
On June 1, 1859 Thomas patented 106.84 acres of land in what is now Christian County, Missouri. It was not far from the land owned by Thomas’s daughter and son-in-law, Elizabeth and Reason Friend.
In the early fall of 1859 Thomas decided to go to Texas with his son Marion. He still had business in Webster County to take care of, so he and Marion agreed to meet at Elm Springs, Arkansas. Marion drove a team of oxen and Jeriah and Rutha both drove a te4am of horses. Angeline and Preston rode the two racehorses and the 3 small children rode in the wagon with Rutha. Oxen were very slow and with the added weight of the loaded wagon it made them even slower. They did not take any furnishings, such as they might have had in those days, only the necessary provisions to get them to Texas. Whatever the reason for the fast move it appears that Thomas was indeed in a hurry to get out of Missouri. They could only travel about 15 miles a day and Thomas met them 2 days after they reached Elm Springs.
It took over a month for them to get into Indian Territory. At this time Thomas seem to be more at ease. They arrived in Texas in the late fall of 1859. Thomas immediately begin thinking of shelter for the winter. He, Marion, and the older children set about cutting pecan trees and sawing them into lumber. Thomas had already made a deal with the army at Fort Belknap to buy what he could supply. They paid him $15 for 1,000 boards 2 feet long and $4 a bushel for 4 bushels of pecans. They burned the scrap from the pecan trees and Rutha and Jeriah leached out the lye and added antelope fat to make a years supply of soap, while Thomas and Marion made a few household furnishings.
In early 1860 the Indians raided the Hubbard Creek Colony stealing as many horses as they could get away with. The little group was forced to abandon their little colony for protection at Fort Belknap. After camping near the Fort for about 10 days Thomas decided to rent a farm he had heard about in Johnson County. He was listed on the 1860 Federal Census of Johnson County. Ruth, Preston, Angeline, Catherine, Ferwich, Melvin, and William are listed with him. His occupation was farming and his post office was Buchanan. They lived in Johnson County until about 1864. Thomas spent a lot of time at Fort Davis, the civilian fort in Stephens County. Sam and Susan Newcomb referred to him as Col. T. McCarty. Marion was living near the Fort and he and Thomas hunted buffalo, as they were still very plentiful at that time. They rounded up the longhorn cattle and branded them forming their own herds. Thomas used the CTM brand and it is on record in the Dickens County Courthouse.
When the Indians made another raid on the community where the McCarty family was living Thomas again packed up and moved near a Fort, leaving Johnson County. This time they moved to Fort Davis, a civilian fort. They moved with an oxen team because the Indians had stolen all their horses, including the two racing mares. Thomas had acquired a small herd of longhorn cattle that Preston drove to the new place.
By 1865 Angeline had married Joe browning and they were living at Camp Cooper, a military post that the army had abandoned. The was over by 1866 and even thought Indians were still a threat, the occupants of Fort Davis began to move out to other places. Thomas moved his family to Camp Cooper where Joe and Angeline were living.
One afternoon Preston and 4 other boys were out hunting cows when a party of Indians attacked them. Preston escaped and rode at full speed to Camp Cooper to report what had happened. A search party went out looking for the boys and found one of them had been killed. There was no sign of the Indians. After another wait of several days to see if the Indians were going to attack again the McCarty’s and Browning’s moved to Miller Valley in Haskell County where the grazing was better. This was in the fall of 1866.
In 1867 Marion and Jeriah moved to Miller Valley and built a large house. They invited Thomas and his family to move in with them. They were still rounding up the longhorn cows to build their herds. One evening Joe returned home to tell Angeline that Marion had branded a JAB calf with his brand. He confronted Marion and there was a shoot out. Marion was mortally wounded with a shot to the heart, and Joe took a bullet to the hip. A rift developed between the families and it lasted for many years. In 1869 Thomas went to see Angeline after the birth of a child and shook hands with Joe and ended the hostile feelings. Whether the rest of the family ever became friendly again isn’t known. There is not record that tells us Angeline was on good terms with any of them except Thomas and Rutha.
The McCarty’s moved from Miller Valley back east of Fort Griffin after Marion’s death. For a few years they enjoyed several happy events. Catherine was married to John William Newcomb in Shackelford County near Fort griffin, Rutha gave birth to a baby girl in 1859, named Cordelia, and Prerston married Martha Shaw in 1870.
About 1869/1870 Rutha became quite ill and Thomas took her for a visit with Angeline. They were still Angeline when Rutha died. Thomas became very despondent for a long time and Angeline finally sent for Preston. When he saw Thomas he immediately decided to take him back to Missouri for a visit. It was over 3 years before Thomas returned to Texas. The must have spent those years visiting the daughters, sons and grandchildren he had left behind in 1859.
It was in 1874 that Thomas married Sarah Elizabeth Farmer Bradford, a widow, living in Green County, Missouri. Sarah had a four-year old son from her previous marriage. They moved to Texas in 1875 to the town of Fort Griffin where their daughter, Flora, was born. They lived in or near Fort Griffin for about 6 years. Thomas paid taxes in Shackelford County from 1875 to 1881. They were listed on the 1880 Federal Census living in Shackelford County. About 1882 Thomas migrated on west to Dickens County were Angeline was living. They lived on Duck Creek about 3 miles west of where the town of Dickens now stands.
One evening about dusk Thomas and Sarah were returning home and a heavyl rainstorm came up. Sarah got out of the buggy and proceeded to lead the horse in the blinding rain. A wheel on the buggy dropped into a hole and the buggy overturned. Thomas received a broken hip and he later developed pneumonia. He was not strong enough to recover and he died on 21 December 1884 at the age of 82. He was buried on the W. L. “Bud” Browning Ranch, west of Dickens. A hand carved sandstone rock marks his grave. There are 2 unknown children’s graves beside him. The graves are located on a cliff on the east side of a branch off of Duck Creek about 1000 feet north of the east road crossing to the old Goens ranch house (now the Glass Ranch).