Note: This post was updated with new information from what was originally published in the Stickneys of Texas Newsletter, March 2014.

James Franklin was born May 13, 1849 the fifth of six known children born to Edward Lawrence and Catherine M. (Childers) Stickney in what was then Milam County, Texas. This according to Bible records and the 1850 federal census that shows him listed as “Francis” age two. May 9, 1853, a few days before James Franklin’s fourth birthday tragedy struck his family when they were flooded out of their home in Belton, Bell County, Texas. Their loses and others are related in the following article from Texas State Gazette, (Austin, Tex.), Vol. 4, No. 39, Ed. 1, Saturday, May 14, 1853, page 3, via The Portal to Texas History.

Even though his father E. Lawrence Stickney along with his wife’s family the Childers had helped establish Nolansville, the original name given to Belton, this loss appears to interrupt the family’s future in Texas. In the following months E. Lawrence sells his two town lots and the flooded farmland on Nolan’s Creek. This suggests that E. Lawrence was giving up and moving his family back to his hometown of Mobile, Alabama, but perhaps they were planning this eventual move all along and the flood produced the need sooner than later. Hopefully, more research may uncover evidence and give a more accurate picture.

Whatever the reason or cause for being in Mobile it was not a new beginning, but further tragedy for the family. According to Edward Lawrence Stickney’s grave marker he died near Mobile on May 9, 1854, exactly a year after the flood. His death certificate states he died from yellow fever and he is buried in his family’s plot at Church Street Graveyard, Mobile, Alabama. Catherine was pregnant with their youngest daughter who was born a few months later on June 16, 1854. She is named Hannah Jones Stickney, so Lawrence and Catherine must have had a stronger connection to Lawrence’s sister Hannah Jane Stickney and her husband Emanuel Jones. Perhaps they were staying in their home at the time. Whatever the support during this devastating time for Catherine, she felt a stronger pull to return to Texas and be near her family. Certainly this place was responsible for Lawrence’s death, and Catherine could not continue with this new plan without any support.

Catherine would not leave family tragedy behind in Alabama, it would continue back in Texas with the deaths of her two older daughters within the next ten years. A census taken on July 31, 1860 shows Catherine age 38 and the children, (Emma age 14, James F. age 11 and Hannah J. age 6), living with her son-in-law, John Key, a 27 year old herdsman and wife, Lidia [sic] age 17. Also living in nearby households are Catherine’s brothers Pryor and William Childers. James Franklin Stickney became of age in this household. John P. Key would have been a father figure for him along with his uncles Pryor and William. The 1870 census show us Catherine again, is living with another daughter, Emma Caroline, who is married to Crockett King and their two children in Gatesville. Hannah Jones is there as well, but James Franklin is not found. After the civil war William and David Jones established a steam saw and grist mill on the Coryell and Hamilton County line and perhaps this is what brought James Franklin to this area finding work in the mill. He also ran a store for a while in what became known as Jonesboro. His brother-in-law, John P. Key, was a surveyor and I imagine he helped James Franklin find 160 acres of unclaimed land to homestead just west of Jonesboro. The original Coryell county land map from the Texas General Land Office shows this plot of land and that J. P. Key, himself had several small plots nearby.

By 1870 James Franklin has established his own household and is enumerated in Coryell County precinct 3 and post office known as Moundville which is marked through and Leonville is written. The information was taken October 9, 1870, but was supposed to be given as if it were June 1, 1870 and lists his name as Frank, age 21, a farmer, value of real estate as $100 and also listed his wife, Alace J., age 19. This census record is the only information I have on James Franklin’s first wife. Beside her age it notes that she was born in Ioway[sic] and that both her parents were foreign born. Alace apparently died sometime between when the census was taken and December 7, 1871 when James Franklin married Elvira Tennessee Perry.

Elvira Tennessee Perry was fifteen when she and James Franklin married. Their Family Bible gives her birth date as November 26, 1856, and originally thought her the daughter of John L. and Eleanor C. Perry, but now believe Elvira is the daughter of Rev. Jackson H. and Sarah (______) Perry and born in Jackson County, Tennessee. Jackson and Sarah Perry are found in Jackson County, Tennessee 1850 census with one son, William B. age 3. By 1860 the family had relocated to Hillsboro, Hill County, Texas, and the census recorded two more children Rufus P. age 7 and Elvira T, age 4 both born in Tennessee.

Elvira and James Franklin would have ten children, eight of which lived to adulthood. Clydine Stickney, the youngest of their children, relates in a letter to her niece Gwen Blank of their home in Jonesboro and how she and her siblings made a few trips back there to view the home. Clydine did not know her father since he died just before her first birthday, on July 30, 1898 in Robert Lee, Texas. The family had just moved to this new area evidently in this last year of his life, for Clydine was born in Jonesboro. Family lore has it that they moved to a dryer climate of West Texas because of their father’s ill health. Their move apparently was not soon enough, and Elvira was left to raise the rest of their children on her own. The 1900 census shows Elvira as the head of household with six of the children still at home. The two older boys had since died, and the two eldest girls married. The census tells us that Elvira was supporting herself as a laundress and that she owned her own home free of a mortgage. James Franklin had taken care to make sure Elvira and the children had a home before he died.