JOHN BLAKELEY

The following bio was taken from page 117 of the book entitled "Rusk County History" compiled and edited and used with permission of the Rusk County Historical Commission.

Transcribed by Shirley Koym

Submitted by Gloria Briley Mayfield, Rusk County TX Coordinator

John Blakeley was born January 5, 1813 in Knox County, Kentucky, the son of Samuel and Elizabeth (Elder) Blakeley of Clarke County, Georgia. He married Martha Holloway, daughter of David and Mary (Hardigree) Holloway. In 1848 John and Martha with their large growing family moved to Texas. John was the boss of the thirty-wagon train, and the trip took over three months. There were four mules to a wagon, and a good milk cow was led behind each wagon. They settled in Rusk County, at Camden on the Sabine River, where there was a ferry crossing. John led in the building of the Christian Church (Church of Christ) which was large enough to accommodate both white and black members.

Only nine years after the organization of Rusk County, in 1843, a Masonic Lodge was organized at Walling’s Ferry, Camden. There were docking facilities for rather large steamboats at Walling’s Ferry in 1853. There were stores, saloons, a tavern with eight large rooms, each room having four beds; a schoolhouse, and a blacksmith shop – everything a small frontier town could expect to have in that day.

The Lodge had the following charter members at its organization on August 5, 1853; Robert D. Wyche, W. W. Freeling, J. P. Gladney, J. M. Langhorne, T. H. Etheridge, Andrew Watt, Henry Alston, Enoch Hays, John Blakeley, Thomas S. Young, James M. Walker, W. S. Robertson, Willis A. Wilson, Thomas A. Brown, Dennis Cochran, J. B. Herndon, Ben E. Etheridge, A. G. Shaw, John B. Vinson, W. B. Matthews, R. S. Ryan, L. F. Keener, J. J. Murphy, W. S. Middlebrook, and M. S. Pool. First officers were: Robert D. Wyche, W. F. Freeling, J. P. Gladney, J. M. Langhorne, Enoch Hays and W. S. Middlebrook.

The children of John and Martha (Holloway) Blakeley and the persons they married are listed here. Elizabeth A. married John J. Murphy on December 7, 1851 in Rusk County; on March 10, 1858, Mary Celeste married Dozier Thornton Prothro, son of James and Mary Ridley (Mims) Prothro in Rusk County; Ellen married John M. Manuel January 1861, and after his death married Benjamin E. Etheridge; Susan was born in 1850 in Clarke County, Georgia, died May 10, 1880, never married, and is buried in the Hallsville Cemetery with her father and sister Martha; Samuel Thomas was born in 1843 in Georgia, returned from serving in the Civil War to marry his childhood sweetheart Saraphine Gertrude Robertson, daughter of Jeremiah and Teresia (Moore) Robertson of the community of Monroe, Rusk County; Martha Durham, called "Queen" married in 1867, Rusk County, Addison Hinton Vinson; David Polk never married, returned wounded or ill from service in the Civil War, buried at Christian Union Cemetery; Ermine Catherine, the first of the Blakeley children to be born in Texas, was born 1849 and married Andrew Jackson Starkey in 1869; James Moore married Sarah Jane Green, daughter of Ephraim Green of Harrison, County; Sarah Alice married John Will Hall, son of Charles Maclin and Ambrillus (Price) Hall, Harrison County pioneers; and Johnnie born December 7, 1858, married in 1888 Thomas Harvey Etheridge son of Thomas H. and Elizabeth Ann (Rogers) Etheridge.

Martha died in 1864 and was buried in the Christian Union Cemetery. In 1868 John Blakeley married Ambrillus (Price) Hall, the widow of Charles M. Hall of Harrison County. John died in 1897 and was buried in Hallsville Cemetery in Harrison County.

Submitted by Nancy B. Ruff, Assisted by Ruth Hall Edwards