Texas
and My Great Grandfather, William Rufus McMullan
After seeing the homestead, I headed east to Lubbock.
Using the topographical maps on my laptop computer, coupled to
the GPS, I was able to take some small county roads to the Texas
border and then catch some bigger highways on into Lubbock. As
soon as I got cell phone service, I called my mother in the hospital.
She was just about to undergo gall bladder surgery. When I got
to Lubbock, I went directly to the hospital and waited with her
husband and my brother and nephews. The surgery went well but
my mother developed some other problems and was placed into Intensive
Care. I saw her briefly the next morning and then continued on
my trip.
I left Lubbock at about 11am on Sunday morning April, 20, and
headed for Dallas. The weather was beautiful for the trip. I
got through Dallas without any problems and headed southeast to
Payne Springs. My great grandfather, William Rufus McMullan had
always been somewhat of a mystery to me. My grandfather had William
Rufus’s old Bible and had always told me that when he died,
he wanted me to have it. My grandmother convinced him to go ahead
and give it to me in 1990. All I had known about my great grandfather
was that he died at the age of fifty three from “dropsy”
now known as edema. His wife died at the age of forty three, January
19, 1902. I did not know where either of them were buried or much
else about them. In my great grandfather’s bible was a small
piece of orange paper, about one inch by one and one half inch.
The sticker says:
“3000 STICKERS. This size, with any address or business
printed thereon, assorted colors with gummed backs, only $1.25,
postpaid. W. Rufus McMullan, Decatur, Miss. Agent for books, mercantile,
printing circulars, cards, &c.”
From what I can ascertain, my great grandparents moved to Henderson
County, Texas in the late 1880's. The 1890 census shows them there
with all of their children except for my grandfather, who was
not yet born. He was their only child that was born in Texas.
The 1900 census shows, incorrectly, that my grandfather was born
in Mississippi.
At my grandfather’s funeral, I met my father’s cousin
and grandfather’s nephew, Maurice McMullan. He is the son
of John Vester McMullan, a brother to my grandfather. As I researched
the McMullan family, I called Maurice at his home near Idabell,
Oklahoma. He was a great resource in helping me find out more
about my great grandparents and in locating my great grandfather’s
grave. Maurice told me that his father had placed a head stone
at William Rufus’s grave several years earlier and the grave
was located at the Payne Springs cemetery. Through the help of
volunteers with the Texas Gen Web, his grave was located and a
photo of the head stone was put on their web page. They also e-mailed
directions to me so I could find the grave.
I arrived in Payne Springs at about 6pm that evening and found
the cemetery next to the Methodist church in the middle of town.
I have always heard that William Rufus McMullan was a minister
by the time he moved to Texas. Maurice McMullan said, “Grandfather
did the preaching and Grandmother did the shouting!” Some
relatives told me that my great grandparents were members of the
Holiness faith but it turns out that they were Methodists and
are listed in one of Henderson County’s historical books
as being members of that faith. In one of the pages in his bible,
William Rufus wrote, “I am still praising God for the conversion
of my soul about March the 28th or 30th, 1888. Praise the Lord,
O my body, soul and spirit. Glory to God. W. Rufus McMullan.”
I find this of great interest in that I am also a Christian and
an ordained minister.
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Maurice told me that he had seen the grave of my great grandmother
Susan(Sudie) Elizabeth White McMullan. He could not remember
exactly where she was buried but he said he thought it was near
the community of Pealetown, which is west of Payne Springs, and
near an old “Stubbs School”. Due to the time constraints
on our trip, we were not able to search for the grave and the
Texas Gen Web volunteers were not able to locate it either. Hopefully,
I will have more time in the near future to do some more searching
for her grave.
Update 5/13/2015: Through the help of the Internet and specifically Findagrave.com, I have been able to locate my great grandmother's grave. She is buried in the Pyle Prairie Cemetery in Kaufman County, Texas. Below are the directions and the gps coordinates.
From Kemp, Texas drive approximately 2 miles southwest on US HWY 175. Turn right (west) onto FM148 and drive approximately 2 1/2 miles. Turn right onto County Rd 4059. Cemetery is on the right at the end of the road.
32.42910 -96.31040 or N32 25.746 W96 18.624
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Susan (Sudie) Elizabeth White McMullan's grave in the Pyle Prarie Cemetery. It is 17.5 miles from William R. McMullan's grave. I was unable to locate her grave for many years and finally found this online! |
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William R. McMullan's grave on the left and Hester and Willis McMullan's graves on the right in the Payne Springs Cemetery. The cemetery is located at N32 16.734 W96 04.176. |
I had originally planned to backtrack to my daughter’s
home near Austin, Texas but I just did not have time and she
was also moving to a new house that weekend. My plan was to spend
the night in the Payne Springs area and then drive south to Houston
and Galveston, Texas so I could see where I had lived before
I moved to Utah and so I could drive on the beach up the Gulf Coast toward
Louisiana. I had also planned to meet some friends in Houston
for dinner. Instead of spending the night in Payne Springs, I
decided to head on down to Houston and spend the night there.
I went through Houston late that evening and stopped in Alvin,
Texas where I had lived before moving to Salt Lake City, Utah.
It was just after midnight that I got a hotel room and got to
sleep. The next morning, I drove by where I had lived in Alvin. One of my very good
friends owns a barber and style shop nearby in Pearland and one
of my other friends ended up having to be out of town that day.
I was disappointed that I was that close but did not have time
to see them. I hope to take a trip through south central Texas
and on to the Houston area to see where I pastored in Cuero, Texas
and to see many of our good friends in those towns.
In Galveston, I drove along The Strand which is a historical street
with beautiful Victorian buildings. I drove along Galveston’s
sea wall and then to some piers to see the fishing boats and the
big ships in dry dock. I took my place in a long line for the
ferry that takes vehicles across the bay to Bolivar where there
is a large lighthouse. I got out of the truck and went to the
top deck of the ferry to see what was going on in the bay. I tried
to get some good photos of the seagulls that were swooping down
to eat whatever the passengers aboard the ferry would throw them.
I saw some dolphins swimming across the bay which is always a
spectacular sight. After the ferry docked, I drove to Crystal
Beach, Texas and drove down the sand for a few miles as I watched
the waves break. There were several off shore drilling rigs and
oil platforms in the distance. It was still a little cool for
the beaches to be crowded. Thousands of
seashells littered the beach. I stopped and got photos of
my truck with the ocean in the background and picked
up a number of shells to bring home to the kids.
Leaving the sandy beaches of the Gulf Coast of Texas, I headed toward my next destination
of New Orleans, Louisiana. I watched the elevation on my GPS
go to zero and sometimes a foot or two below sea level. I got
to Port Arthur, Texas that evening and found a Wal-Mart to pick
up some traveling supplies and finally a motel, to spend the night.
The motel room in Port Arthur was very inexpensive, only $30 including
tax. It wasn’t in the best neighborhood but I could park
my pickup truck right in front of the room and that kept me from
worrying about it being stolen. Even though the room was cheap,
it was clean.
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