The following was told
to my by my Grandmother, Fannie (Frances) Williams
McCoy about her family.
She did not tell me her parents given names. She
said her parents, with other
families came in a wagon train to Texas from
Alabama in 1856. They crossed
the Red River on a Ferry near Texarkana, Texas.
Her family consisted of
the father, Mother, and four or five children. I do not
know if any children were
born after they came to Texas, however, Aunt Lou
Henson may have been born
in Texas because Aunt Lizzie Williams Andrews
Price had a little girl
about the same age of her little sister, Lou Williams
Henson. My great grandfather
and great grandmother Williams settled in
Angelina County, Texas.
He died there and I presume his wife did also. She
died a few years after her
husband died. My grandmother Williams McCoy said
that her father died from
overwork - he had settled land and was putting in a
farm. The children were:
the oldest daughter's name I do not know, but she married
and died at childbirth with
the first child; then Elizabeth Williams Andrews Price;
Lou Williams Du Bris; Frances
Williams McCoy; Uriah D. Williams and Mollie
Williams Henson. When our
great grandmother Williams died, Aunt Lizzie Williams
Andrews Price took her sisters
and only brother and brought them to Centerville,
Leon County, Texas to live
with her and Mr. Andrews, her first husband until she
could get homes for the
children. (In those days there were no orphans' homes and
the relatives and friends
took the orphan children and raised them.) I do not know
the names of the people
who she placed them with. Aunt Lizzie Andrews Price
got a home for my grandmother,
Frances Williams McCoy with a Doctor and
his wife and she lived with
them until she married John McCoy. Lou Williams
married a Mr. DuBris at
Centerville, Texas and they had one child. When
this child was a baby the
husband died with typhoid fever. She left Centerville
after his death and she
was living in St. Louis, Missouri when I was a child.
Aunt Lizzie Andrews Price
placed Uncle (Bud) Uriah D. Williams with a family
whose name I do not know
there at Centerville. When he was a young boy
the family moved to Gatesville,
Texas and ranched in that area. He lived there
until his death. Aunt Lizzie
Price Williams kept her baby sister, Lou Williams Henson
and raised her. Aunt Lizzie
had a little girl; near Aunt Lou's age, so she raised
the children together. Aunt
Lou Williams married a Mr. Henson at Centerville.
I don't know how many children
she had. However, she lived with her eldest
daughter at Minerla, Texas
(Mineola?) when she died which was after World
War I. Aunt Lizzie Williams
Price married Mr. Andrews who was old enough to
be her father just before
the beginning of the Civil War. She had two children
by him, a little girl whose
name was Laney Andrews and a little boy, but he
died before his father did,
right after the Civil War. Aunt Lizzie Williams Andrews
Price continued to live
in Centerville, Texas. Some years later Uncle Dave
Price came to Centerville,
Texas. I don't know what brought him there unless
the county was settling
up after the Civil War. Uncle Dave was a Welchman born
on the Isle of Wales. He
was a sailor on an English sailing vessel. Sometime
after the Civil War his
ship came to New Orleans, Louisiana and he decided to
quit the sea and came to
Texas. He met Aunt Lizzie at Centerville and they were
married. They did not have
any children but he helped her raise her little girl
and Aunt Molly Williams
Henson. Uncle Dave had the contract to carry the mail
from Jewett, Texas where
the railroad was to Centerville, Texas, the county
seat of Leon County. Centerville
was an inland town and still is. Uncle Dave
had the mail route until
he died in the early 1900's. Uncle Dave and Aunt Lizzie
kept my father's sister,
Elizabeth McCoy and sent her to school for two or three
school years. They also
kept Clara Williams Shipman and Lizzie Williams McHarg
and sent them to school
for several terms. You can see what a wonderful daughter,
sister and Aunt that Aunt
Lizzie was, for a long time she had more financially
than any of her sisters
and brothers and she was a great believer in education
so she did all she could
to help her family. I remember her as one of the most
gracious persons I have
ever known. Her daughter, Laney Andrews, grew to
young womanhood in Centerville.
She also attended Sam Houston Normal
School (now Sam Houston
State College, Huntsville, TX) when it first opened.
She taught school, then
married a young man at Oakwood, Texas not far from
Centerville. However, this
marriage did not last and she came home and taught
school at Centerville until
she died two years later. After Uncle Dave died, the
two negro women who had
worked for him and Aunt Lizzie died about two
years later. This left Aunt
Lizzie all alone a long distance from her family. My
grandparents, Fannie Williams
McCoy and John W. McCoy went to see her
and invited her to come
to live whth them at Thorndale, Texas. This she did with
the understanding that she
would build her a room on to their house. She moved
to their home either in
1902 or 1903. My grandfather died June 1905 and left my
grandmother and Aunt Lizzie
alone out in the country on a farm. So they broke
up housekeeping and my grandmother
made her home with my parents, William
Perry McCoy and Flora Brown
McCoy until she, Flora, died in April 1921. Aunt
Lizzie Williams Andrews
Price was invited by her only brother, Uriah D. Williams,
to come to his home out
in the country at Gatesville, Texas and live with him
and his wife. She accepted
his kind offer. There she built a room for herself on
to Uncle Bud's house. She
lived there until she died after World War I. Uncle
Bud and his children were
wonderful to her as long as she lived. I have written
this letter about Aunt Lizzie
Williams Andrews Price to let her descendents
know how loyal and faithful
she was to her brother and sisters and their children.
I remember her well because
she visited in my parents home about every two
years until she became too
ill to travel. All of this I have written was told to me
by my grandmother, Aunt
Lizzie and my parents. I have been told by a friend
that we might learn our
great-grandparents Williams' given names by going to
the Ft. Worth Library and
looking at the tax rolls for 1860 for Angelina County,
Texas. It has been my happiness
to give this history of so much as I know of our
"Williams Family".
Faithfully, Ione McCoy Vickery,
granddaughter of Frances Williams McCoy
