After haring Aunt Olah, Uncle Charlie and Uncle Chester debate whether Grandpa Hall came from Missouri or Georgia, I thought we would see what we could find out for them. (We being Kenneth and Wendol Hill--MHH) She knew that Grandmother Hall was a Jonas and remembered hearing Butler County, Missouri mentioned. We sent a letter to Popular Bluff, requesting information about a marriage record for Jehu Hall and Sarah Jonas. We soon received a copy of their marriage showing that Jehu Hall married Sarah Jane Jonas on 18 July 1858.

Opal Boyett located Jehu with his first wife, Jane Cockram and children on the 1850 Murray County, Georgia census. We still have many gaps to fill on these children and we are still researching. We suspect some of the children remained in Georgia when Jehu went to Missouri and others remained in Missouri when Jehu and Sarah came on to Texas. We do not know if his first wife died in Georgia or on the way to Missouri.

We have been unable to find the Jehu Hall family on the 1860 census, we suspect they were in transit from Missouri to Texas during the census period. The Dallas County, Texas 1870 census has Jehu and Sarah living in Dallas and a son Jeffe born in Texas in 1861. Ellsberry is also shown on that census as being born in Missouri.

Dallas County 1870 census records lists Jehu age 54, Sarah age 32 and the children Lumpkin 18, Ellsberry 11, Jeffe 9, George 5, Octavia 4 and Palmira 1. Jehu owned real estate valued at $350.

Stories go that Jehu was too old to serve the Confederacy but was conscripted by the state militia to oversee or guard a mill located at Eagle Ford near the present site of Dallas. We have not proved or disproved this as yet, but know there was and still remain traces of this place on present city of Dallas maps.

Dallas County records show that a Jehu and Sarah E. had property near Cedar Creek and that he paid 300 confederate notes for personal property tax on 292 head of livestock in 1864. Deed records show that Jehu and Sarah E. sold their property in Dallas County in 1875.

Uncle Chester says that Jehu Hall and his family moved to Palo Pinto County for a short while and then to Bosque County where he settled on public lands and staked his claim. The Bosque County survey map shows a J. Hugh Hall Survey on the Meridian Creek next to the Hamilton County line.

Bosque County tax records show that Jehu Hall paid taxes on 160 acres Pre-emption (Public lands) in 1877. This continued until 1884 when we find that he is taxed for only 15 and 1/16 acres of land in Bosque County. He did not move and apparently sold no property as might be indicated by deed records. Later research found Jehu paying taxes in 1886 on 145 acres of land in Hamilton County, indicating a county line adjustment or re-survey.

In 1880 Bosque County census Jehu is married to his third wife, Polly, and has married during the census year. Sarah must have died between 1877 and 1880 and she is said to be buried on the place on Meridian Creek. Jehu died 7 September 1888 and is also said to be buried on the home place.

No reocrd of Jehu and Polly's marriage has been found. Polly Hall and J.M. and J.E. Eary sold 145 acres of land in Hamilton County and 15 acres of land in Bosque Count to Mr. Domsted on 26 September 1905. You could assume the name Eary could have been Polly's name and that J.M. and J.E. were her offspring from a previous marriage.

When Jehu and family left Dallas in 1875, we believe that Ellsberry stayed in Dalls. He is found living with his half sister, Sarah Revington, age 24, she is a widow and head of the household. Ellsberry is 20 and his half brother, Jacob Jonas, age 22, is living with his step sister. Sarah has two daughters, Julia age 6, Fannie age 3 and both were born in Tezas. The census indicated Sarah was born in Georgia. In 1886 both Ellsberry Hall and Jacob Jonas were married and paid taxes in Bosque County. Ellsberry Hall and Bettie Ann Smith were married in Hamilton County, 1 January 1885.

Grandma Hall, Elizabeth Ann Smith was born 15 December 1866 in Tennessee (Hawkins County). She was the eldest of sx children born to George Washington Smith and Mary Ann Brown Ragel. Mary Ann Brown was the daughter of Benjamin and Elizabeth Horton Brown. July 1861, Mary Ann Brown married David Ragel who was killed in the Civil War; they had no children.

George Washington Smith was in the Civil War. He was at the surrender of Vicksburg. George Washington Smith and Mary Ann Brown Ragel married 3 January 1866 in Hawkins County, Tennessee and Elizabeth Ann Smith was born 15 December 1866. Mary Jane (Aunt Janie) was born in Tennessee in 1869. Between 1869 and 1877, George Washington and Mary Ann Smith traveled to Texas with a sister of George Washington named Phoebe that married James Patterson. They first lived in Collin County, Texas, where the Patterson's remained. George Washington Smith moved to Hamilton County where he was a founding member of the First Baptist Church in Cranfills Gap, Texas.

Ellsberry Hall and Bettie Ann Smith were married 1 January 1885 in Hamilton County and Uncle Lee was born 30 October of the same year. The new Hall family remained in Hamilton County from 1885 through 1893 and their numbers increased to six with the addition of Jehu (Uncle Jay) in September 1887, Mattie Florence in September 1889, Preston in March 1892, and Birdie Mae in July of 1894. They moved to Johnson County sometime between July of 1894 and September 1896 when Uncle Charlie was born in Godley, Texas. We have found nothing about their residence in Johnson County, but have not searched Johnson County reocrds. They again moved to Hamilton County since Uncle Chester was born in Hamilton County in 1899.

The 1900 Hamilton County census reocrds, Uncle John Smith (Grandma Hall's brother) was living with them. By 1909 they had moved to Erath County near Clairette. They remained in Erath Couty until 1911. The 1910 Erath Couty census reocrds the addition of the three girls, Olah, Effie and Beulah. Grandpa Hall and Grandma Hall with Uncle Charlie, Uncle Chester, Aunt Birdie, Aunt Olah, Mother (Effie) and Aunt Beulah moved to Wise County on a place between Bridgeport and Decature near Sandy Creek. This place was known as the Porter Kee place. Uncle Jay had married and the story goes that Uncle Press helped them move and went back to Hamilton County and married Aunt Mandie, the sister of Uncle Jay's wife, Aunt Laura. Aunt Florence and Uncle Bob also moved to Wise County.

Mother (Effie) always said that after Grandpa Hall picked cotton on the Denton Creek place he wanted to move there; he thought it was a good place to live. He soon traded Porter Kee Place for the place on Denton Creek in the Sycaomore Community, where they were members of Sycamore Baptist Church. They remained in that home until Grandpa Hall died. Many of us remember visiting at that place. We had fun climbing the sand hills, playing on the rocks and the big trees. We ate cold watermelons that had been colled in the ever-running spring house. Mother would tell of their growing up there with Aunt Beulah, Aunt Olah and Uncle Chester. Uncle Charlie married Aunt Doll and moved to a farm in Ford County. Uncle Lee and Aunt Daisy lived on the farm after Grandpa died.

Our knowledge of the Jonas and Smith family at this time is sketchy. We do know that the father of Sarah Jonas Hall was Jacob Jonas and he was a sheriff of Butler County, Missouri in 1861. We found some reference to this in Deems History of Butler County, Missouri. The book they let us read at the librarian's desk in Popular Bluff is very old and out of print. There is also some reference in Goodspeed's History of Southeastern Missuri.

Brown and Horton information was mostly furnished by James Brown and records we have found in the Hawkings County, Tennessee Court House. We obtained some information on the Michael Brown family (brother of Grandma Smith) from a Mr. Williams in Hamilton, Texas. He had found his mother's Bible after her death. Aunt Janie's first husband was the son of Michael Brown, so he was her first cousin.

Much of the Smith, Skelton and Christian family information we have came from an unpublished book that we were able to copy by a strange turn of events. This book is titled Christian, Skelton History and Genealogy by T. H. Bailey, Kingsport, Tennessee, 1964. Pat Trollinger had this book and while Beverly and Betty Jean were in the Hawkins County, Tennessee Court House they found this womand address label on some records. it was noted right away by Betty Jean that she must be one of our son-in-law Mark Jarrett's Grandmother Large's family since that was her maiden name and they lived in the Miami, Oklahoma area. We also found her label on some records at the Mr. Robert Ellis home. They said at the Court House that this lady was a native and spent the summers searching their records and finding old graves, etc. When we returned to Euless we wrote her a letter asking if she knew anything about our Smith and Brown families. Three days after we wrote the letter, she called us. She was in Fort Worth for an Indian Organization meeting in Arlington. She brought the Bailey book with her and said it had our Smith family in it. We met her at the Fort Worth Public Library the next day and she loaned us the book overnight for us to copy part of it. The next day we met her at the Holiday Inn in Fort Worth and returned her book. The book had been a gift to her by Mr. Bailey. She is married to a nephew of Mark's Grandmother and still spends her summers in Hawkins County gathering family history.

As more information is found, it will be added to the book at later dates.

(signed) Kenneth Hill

This is a copy of the forward by Kenneth Hill to the Ancestors and Descendents of Ellsberry Hall and Bettie Ann Smith book.