Charles Alexander, James Gray, Daniel Edward, William David, and John Morgan
Charles Alexander Gordon was born in the Township of Hillsboro, Scott County, Mississippi, on Friday, the 14th of February 1845. Scott County is located approximately 40 miles south of the geographical center of the State. Scott County is in the central prairie region of the state and the soil is extremely varied. It was organized on December 3, 1833, and was named in honor of Abram Scott, seventh governor of Mississippi. The land was acquired from the Choctaw Indians in the treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek in 1830.
Charles’ father, George Alexander Gordon was born on the 4th of November 1822 in Georgia. George married Margaret Adeline Gray on 26 October 1843 in Tennessee. She was born on 15 May 1824 in Tennessee. Margaret died on 2 Nov 1856 in Hillsboro, Scott County, Mississippi. Charles Alexander Gordon and his sister, Caroline Malinda, were the only children out of eight to reach maturity. The other six children all died in infancy, none reached the age of seven years. All eight births would have been in the state of Mississippi.
After Margaret’s death in Mississippi, George A. Gordon migrated to Cherokee County, Texas, in early 1857. He was granted two tracts of land by the State of Texas in the Mud Creek area of New Summerfield. His preemption certificate on one tract was issued by the County Court of Cherokee County on August 11, 1856, indicating that he had lived on the land prior to that date and improved it. The patent was not issued until January 21, 1861. Cherokee County, located in eastern Texas, was created in 1846 from the parent county of Nacogdoches which was formed in 1836 from an Old Mexican Municipality.
He married Mrs. Rinee M. Fox on the 12th of February 1857 in Cherokee County. In various official sources, Rinee’s name has been spelled at least three other ways, e.g, Rina, Rhynah and Renee. Her maiden name is not known and it is presumed her name of Fox was from a possible first marriage. A connection has not been made to the Fox family. New Summerfield Historical Memories states that Rinee M. was born in Tennessee about 1832.
G.A. and Rinee M. Gordon lived in the New Summerfield community in Cherokee County. New Summerfield began in the 1840’s when free land became available for homesteading. Homesteaders were soon joined by relatives and friends. By the mid?1850’s pioneers went there to avoid the forth?coming Civil War. Most of the early pioneers were farmers who settled in small neighborhoods, so New Summerfield was a “composite town” developed by a merging of small neighborhoods.
Four half-sisters and one half-brother to Charles Alexander and Caroline Malinda were born to George A. and Rinee Gordon. All of these siblings, with the exception of Amanda E. were born in Cherokee County. Mary A. was born in 1858 and Mary married J.K.H. Brown on the 21st of October 1875 in Bosque County, Texas. The second child, Martha was born in 1861. Martha married A.B. Garrison in Bosque County on the 22nd of November 1883. William B. Gordon was the third child and was born in 1863. He married Mary E. Newton in Bosque County on the 14th of December 1882. The fourth child, was another girl, Cynthia E. who married J.W. Bagwell in Bosque County on the 2nd of December 1883. The last child born to George A. and Rinee was Amanda E; she was born in Bosque County in 1874. There is no record found for a marriage for Amanda E. Bosque County was created in 1854 and was formed from two different parent counties, McLennan (1850), and Milam (1836) which was also an Old Mexican Municipality.
In the 1860 Federal Census, Mahala Morris, age 15, was living with George A. and Rinee Gordon. County records show that George A. was appointed as her guardian on 28 Nov 1859. Mahala was the heir of a Cynthia Morris, dec’d. [Maryalice notes on Mahala Jay] Twenty years later, the 1880 Federal Census lists Mahala McBee as a sister-in-law living with George A. and Rinee M. Gordon and family. Mrs. Mahala McBee married J.W. Powell on 28 Oct 1880 in Bosque County. Mahala may be a sister to Rinee. If so, Rinee’s maiden name could be Morris. No confirmation has been made of this fact.
Official county records show that George A. Gordon was elected to the position of Justice of the Peace for Precinct #3 in Cherokee County in the years 1859, 1862, 1864, 1866. He is shown as being replaced as a Justice of the Peace by B. W. Heath in the year 1869. A marriage record for John J. Gill (Charles Alexander Gordon’s future brother?in?law), and Elizabeth Tennison lists G.A. Gordon, J.P., as the person solemnizing the Rites of Matrimony on the 24th of February 1867.
In 1869, George A. and Rinee sold a part of their land grant to G. W. Loftus and his wife, Louisa. In 1870 they sold the remaining acreage in that tract to J.B. Bullard and his wife, Mary. J.B. Bullard and his wife apparently followed G.A. Gordon to Bosque County as their headstones are in the Riverside Cemetery in Iredell. G.A. Gordon and Rinee also sold the other 320?acre grant about that same time in 1869.
According to the New Summerfield Historical Memories George A. moved his family to Iredell, Bosque County, Texas in 1869. The publication reported him to be the first Justice of the Peace in Iredell and the first Master Mason of the local Masonic Lodge of Iredell and that he donated land for a cemetery and a school were named for him. The school is no longer in existence. These two adjoining properties are located approximately three miles north of the town of Iredell. George A. apparently owned considerable land tracts in the Iredell area as he made dozens of transactions as recorded in Deed records. The Meridian Tribune (a weekly newspaper) had a column for many years called “Gleanings Gathered at Gordon Community”.
A History of the Iredell Masonic Lodge No. 405 states that G.A. Gordon was the Worshipful Master and one of the first officers of the lodge after it obtained its charter. He served as the Master for the first five years (1873?1877) of the Lodge’s existence. This history reads as follows: “The Lodge was fortunate in having such a capable and devoted Mason as Master. He had received his degrees in 1853 in New Salem Lodge No. 87 in Rusk County* and had served 13 years as an officer ? 8 as Worshipful Master. Rev W.V. Jones in his History of Iredell Lodge, written in 1917, calls attention to this ‘faithfulness and punctuality during those five years when the Lodge was in its formative state when it took men of brawn and brain to keep the Craft afloat’. During the first five years the Lodge held 66 meetings and G.A. Gordon was present at 62 of them. This unusual record becomes more significant when we recall ‘that Brother Gordon lived three miles in the country’ and had to ride horseback, by buggy or wagon or walk to meetings.” *Rusk County is adjacent to Cherokee County.
Charles Alexander Gordon joined the Confederate Army at New Salem, Rusk County, Texas, as a private on the 21st of September 1861. At the time of his enrollment he apparently represented himself to be 18 years of age despite subsequent census records showing his birth year to be 1845, thus making his actual age to be 16 at the time of his enrollment. He was mustered into Capt J.F. Wiggins Company F, 7th Calvary, 3rd Regiment, Sibley’s Brigade, Texas Mounted Volunteers. He had declared 350 miles of travel to a rendezvous and that the value of his horse was $15.00 and his equipment was valued at $35.00. The Seventh Texas Cavalry was organized at Victoria, Texas during the summer of 1861. Shortly after being mustered into Confederate service it was ordered to join General Sibley in the Territories of New Mexico and Arizona. Company F was recruited in Cherokee and Rusk Counties. The Seventh Texas Cavalry participated in a number of various type engagements, skirmishes, engagements, raids, actions, campaigns, operations and battles, etc., during its career, from 19 Feb 1862 to 18 May 1864. These operations took place in New Mexico Territory and in Louisiana.
A compilation of official records of the Union and Confederate Armies lists Capt J.F. Wiggins and his company as participating in a battle near Golisteo, 20 miles south of Santa Fe, New Mexico, on March 26, 1862. A James F. Wiggins is found in the 1860 federal census in Cherokee County, Beat No. 3. The census was enumerated on the 2nd of July 1860 by J. Pat Henry. It stated that at Residence #939 James F. Wiggins was 36 years old, born in Tennessee, married to Josephine A. who was 23 years old and was also born in Tennessee; they had an unnamed male child 2/12 years old who had been born in Texas.
Charles Alexander Gordon’s first marriage was to Lucy A. Gill on the 6th of September 1866. Lucy was born in 1846 in Tennessee. Her parents were John M. and Lucy M. Gill. The Gill’s were a prominent family in the New Summerfield community in Cherokee County. Charles and Lucy’s marriage produced one child, George Mills Gordon, born 20 August 1869 in Cherokee County. George Mills Gordon married Annie Jane Meyers on 29 May 1895 in Bosque County. George Mills was a pharmacist and manufactured a patent stomach medicine which carried his name on the label. They had one son, Harley Bryan Gordon, born on 6 Dec 1896. Harley’s first marriage was to Louella Parks. They had no children. Harley was married a second time to Blanche Myrtus Batchler. A Meridian Tribune article in 1929 mentions Harley and a wife and baby visiting in Iredell. Harley, in later years, was in the cosmetics and pharmacy business in Southern California.
In 1870, Lucy A. Gill Gordon and her son George Mills Gordon were living with her parents, the John M. Gills. Lucy was supposedly in poor health. Charles Alexander had reportedly gone west to Bosque County where he had developed, patented and sold some type of herb medicine for a few years. The local story in the New Summerfield Historical Memories community is that Charles Alexander had left the area with Amanda Heflin when he went to the west and that Lucy A. died in 1874, and after her death George Mills lived as an orphan with his Gill and Darby relatives until his father moved him to Iredell to live. Josephine Gill (b. abt 1854), Lucy’s youngest sister, married Julius Darby in 1869.
Based upon the New Summerfield Historical Memories Charles presumably married Amanda Elizabeth Heflin in 1874. A Deed record filed on the 26th of August 1946 by Fannie Gordon Sawyer Dawson states that her father’s first wife died prior to 1873 and that he married her (Fannie’s) mother, Amanda, in that year. The obituary for Charles Alexander Gordon states that his marriage to Amanda took place on 24 July 1873. The entry in the Gordon family Bible* states their marriage to have taken place in Hillsboro, Hill County, Texas, on 24 July 1873. A Rite of Matrimony Certificate obtained from Hill Country confirms the date of 24 July 1873. *The family Bible is in the possession of Margaret Adell (Mardell) McCleskey Hattendorf, Arlington, Texas.
Amanda, the second wife, was born on Friday, the 7th of January 1853 in Rusk, Cherokee County, Texas. Amanda’s parents were David Green Heflin (b.1812) and Mary Ann Hester Heflin (b. abt 1819, d. 18 Dec 1863). David’s parents were William Wyatt Heflin and Mary Rebecca Richards Heflin. Mary Rebecca Heflin died in 1848 near Ponta, Cherokee County, Texas. William Wyatt returned to Georgia. David and Mary Ann Hester Heflin’s marriage In Pike County, Georgia, in 1836, produced eleven children (6 boys, 5 girls) between the years of 1837 to 1859; Amanda was their eighth child.
The Heflin information above was obtained from an article in the Fort Worth Star?Telegram, dated February 9, 1969. David Green Heflin was the Justice of the Peace for Precinct #3 in 1867, the same position that G.A. Gordon also held for many years before and after that date.
Charles Alexander and Amanda Elizabeth Heflin Gordon had a total of eleven children. It is believed that all were born in the Iredell area of Bosque County, Texas. James Gray (1874?1953), an Infant Girl who died at birth (1875), Daniel Edward (1876?1961), Mittie Ethel (1879?1953), Mary Adaline (1881?1882), John Morgan (1883?1969), an Infant Son died at birth (1885), Martha Louera (Mattie) (1886?1905), William David (1888?1977), Frances Ruth (Fannie) (1890?1975), and Charles Wesley (1892?1964).
C.A. Gordon was a hotel keeper at the time of the 1880 census. He has six borders listing occupations of saloon keeper, merchandising, tinner, blacksmith, freight agent and domestic. Charles was also proficient in woodworking and made various pieces of furniture for neighbors and friends. He was in the drug and merchandise business after the turn of the century with Robert Kummins who was listed in the 1910 census as a physician.
Amanda Elizabeth Heflin Gordon died on Wednesday, the 14th of July 1915 in Iredell, Texas, and is buried in the Riverside Cemetery, Iredell, Texas. Amanda Elizabeth was 62 years, six months and 7 days old at her time of her death. Charles Alexander Gordon lived in Iredell until his death on Wednesday, the 30th of January 1929. Charles was 83 years, 11 months and 16 days old at the time of his death. He too is buried in the Riverside Cemetery.
George Mills Gordon was the only child born to Charles Alexander and Lucy A. Gordon. Mormon computer records have a birth date of 20 August 1868 but information in three different census would seem to support the 20th of August 1869. His father, Charles Alexander Gordon, left George and his mother to go to west Texas after his birth. They lived with Lucy’s parents and after her death in 1873, George lived with a sister of Lucy until Charles came back for him and took him to Bosque County.
George was a pharmacist and had a drug store in Iredell. A 1907 picture of the store front shows him to be in partnership with a Mr. Kimmins. Robert Kimmins was a physician and had a small office, with a side entrance, at the back of the drugstore. A 1900 census lists a Mr. Joseph G. Saddler as a 36 year old Medical Doctor living with George as a border. George Mills donated land in 1910 at the corner of McLain and Eastland (now Main Street) where a brick Methodist Church was built. That structure was torn down in 1960 and the current Iredell Methodist Church was built on the same land. George joined the Iredell Methodist Church in 1884, was a member of the building committee in 1910 and served as a trustee of the church in 1911.
George M. Gordon lived in Dallas from 1917 to 1928 and was in the business manufacturing and selling medicines. He began famous for a stomach medicine which carried his name. He sold his GM Medicine Company in 1925 for $80,000. George Mills was shown as living in Tarrant County, Texas, in the early 1940’s when he sold his interest in Iredell land to his brother William David Gordon but his death certificate lists his length of residence in El Monte as 15 years, making his arrival there in approximately 1937. A Certificate of Death lists his place of his death at the Medical Center of El Monte, El Monte, Los Angeles County, California. The date of death was 14 Dec 1952 and the cause was coronary thromboses. A hand written note of John M. Gordon lists George’s death date as 14 Dec 1952. At the time of his death, George Mills was 83 years, 3 months and 24 days old. His widow, Annie Jane Myers Gordon, attended the 50th anniversary of the building of the rock Iredell Methodist Church in 1910.
James Gray, the first child of Charles and Amanda was born on 27 May 1874 in Iredell, Bosque County, Texas. He is listed with his family in the 1880 federal census (the 1890 census was destroyed in a fire in Washington, D.C.) but does not appear with his family in the 1900 census nor has he been located in the 1910 census. James first marriage was to a Myra Eaton on the 15th of February 1906 at Dallas, Texas according to the Gordon family bible. The 1920 census lists James G., Rose and a daughter, Eleanor, as living in Alameda County, California. His occupation is listed as a passenger brakeman. A marriage certificate from the State of California shows that James Gray Gordon, age 41 and divorced, married a Rose Strauch Evans, age 33 and a widow, on 25 December 1915. Is Eleanor his daughter or Rose’s? Several Bosque Deed Records exist in the Clerk’s office listing James G. Gordon. One Deed Record, Book 133, Page 518 and 519, lists James G. and Rose E. Gordon as living in Tehama County, California, in December 1940. At the time of his sister Mittie’s death in 1953, her obituary stated that James G. was living in Hayward (Alameda County) California. A hand written note of John M. Gordon lists James Gray as dying on 14 Sep 1953. A Death Certificate from California Vital Statistics confirms his death date and lists the cause of death as arteriosclerotic heart disease. He died in the Veterans Home of California, Napa, Napa County, California. At the time of his death, James was 79 years, 3 months and 18 days old. James was a veteran of the Spanish American War.
Daniel Edward Gordon was the third child, born on 2 November 1876. A Rites of Ceremony issued in 1904 lists a marriage between D.E. Gordon and Miss Louise Mayson (Mason) on 6 Nov 1904. The 1910 census listed a wife named Carrie(?) (age 22) and a child Charles P, age 5/12 months. He had four children listed with him on the 1920 census, all born in Texas; Paul (age 9), Edward (age 7), Lucille (age 5) and Leon (age 1 1/12). A Veterans application for pension in 1924 listed his children as Charles, b. 12 Jan 1910; Edward, b. 14 Feb 1912; Lucile, b. 5 Jul 1914; and Leon, b. 5 Jul 1918 (actual date 24 Jun 1918. The Gordon family Bible showed Louise Bell Gordon as having died on 22 Oct 1918. A second wife, Lela died. Her name is referenced in the Fort Worth City Directory in 1928 and 1929. During 1929, several references were made to Ed Gordon and wife visiting his father in Iredell. It is known that Ed did not marry Amanda until 8 September 1930. In Fannie’s 1946 Deed Record, Daniel’s wife’s name is listed as Amanda. Amanda was the widow of Homer Lowry (Loury). A Rites of Ceremony listed the marriage of Mrs. H.H. Loury to D.E. Gordon on 8 Sep 1930. During this same period of time, a Rosa Lowry (widow of Monroe) lived at the same residence as Amanda. Daniel Edward’s niece Kathleen Tryphenia Gordon, W.D. Gordon’s daughter married a Lowry. Amanda could have been Kathleen’s aunt by marriage or her mother?in?law. Daniel Gordon served in the Spanish?American War as a private with Captain W. Walpole’s Company I, 3rd Texas Infantry of Saint Jo, Texas. His death certificate gave dates for his military service as 28 Apr 1898 to 7 Dec 1899. His Application for Hospital Treatment, dated 9 Nov 1955, listed his dates of service (from memory) as 3?1898 to 2?1899.
Daniel Edward worked for several different companies and city agencies from 1904 to his retirement. He was a lineman for SW Tel and Tel Co., a lineman for the Fort Worth Power and Light, and an Assistant Superintendent for the fire alarms for the Fort Worth Fire Department.
John Morgan Gordon, the sixth child, was born on Monday, the 30th of July 1883 in Iredell, Bosque County, Texas, and died on Monday, the 7th of April 1969 in Monahans, Ward County, Texas. He was 85 years, 8 months and 8 days old at the time of his death. John followed his father when choosing a career field and became a pharmacist. John’s first wife was Annie Lee White. John and Annie had one male child named James Clark Gordon. John and Annie were divorced when she reportedly would not leave her mother. John was living in Fort Worth with his brother, Daniel Edward, in 1912. John and Annie were divorced on 2 Dec 1913. John then married Annie’s friend Josie Kate Weeks on 31 May 1914. She was born on Monday, the 5th of November 1888 and died on Tuesday, the 23rd of January 1973 at the age of 84 years, 2 months and 18 days. To this marriage three children were born. Margaret Ruth Gordon (1916-1994), Kate Gordon (1919), and John Morgan Gordon Junior (1927).
William David Gordon, the ninth child was born on 1 December 1888 in Iredell, Bosque County, Texas. He died on 17 October 1977 in city of Clifton, Bosque County, Texas, in a nursing home. He was 88 years, 10 months and 16 days old at the time of his death. William was living with his family at the time of the 1900 census. He has not been located in a 1910 or 1920 census. He was apparently living in Temple, Texas, in 1918. During the early 1920’s several mentions were made in the Meridian Tribune of a Will Gordon, wife and child, visiting his father in Iredell. It is reported that he was married several times. According to William Gordon’s Probate Minutes of his Will, he had only one daughter named Kathleen Tryphenia Gordon Lowry. It is further stated in the Probate Minutes that her mother’s name is unknown. It is presumed that this unknown wife was William Gordon’s first. The Fort Worth City Directory lists a wife Helen E. living with him from 1926 to 1932. At the time of his sister Fannie Gordon’s 1946 Deed Record, William was married to Kittie Nolan Strong Gordon. They had an agreeable divorce. During the 1930’s and 1940’s W.D. Gordon purchased the C.A. Gordon land holdings from his siblings. His last marriage was to Lottie Wortham Pike in 1949, a widow who owned extensive ranch land in the Iredell area of Bosque County. William and Lottie are buried in the Pike Plot in the Mitchell Cemetery, Iredell, Texas. William’s career was with the Gulf Colorado & Santa Fe (G.C. & S.F.) Railway Company as a switchman and engineer foreman. Family members say that he worked primarily in the Forth Worth freight yard.
Margaret McCleskey
Arlington, TX
mamccleskey@worldnet.att.net