JOSHUA CROW

The following bio was taken from page 167 of the book entitled “Rusk County History” compiled and edited by Rusk County Historical Commission

Transcribed by Gloria Riley

Submitted by Gloria B. Mayfield, Rusk Co. CC

The most interesting story I ever heard about my grandfather, Joshua Crow of Rusk County, Texas, was the account of his going AWOL from the Confederate Army. He was a homesick teenage boy and he simply came home. An influential neighbor put him on a mule and sent him back. He was not court-martialed. Joshua Crow was born in 1830. He was married to Elizabeth Barton in 1850. Several daughters and two sons were born to this union. My father, John Robert, was the youngest. He was born in 1872 and was married to Betty McCauley. They had three children, Gertie, Hardy Louis, and Thelma. My father was a farmer, and when he died in 1898 we had a hard time. Neighbors and kinfolk helped and we survived. Sometime later my mother married S. E. Wallace and we moved to Wharton County. My sister, Gertie, and my mother are buried there. I came back to Rusk County as a teenage boy and lived with members of my family. The years passed swiftly and in 1918 as World War I raged, I went into the army along with several friends. Old friends were fine until the fighting began. It was hard to see them killed in action. In 1919 I was discharged with a purple heart and two clusters. Later that year I was married to Mary Jewel Jimerson. Three sons were born to us. John Hardy, who lived only four years, and George Dale, who married Lorene Fears. They had two sons, Johnny Dale and Steve Louis, and one daughter, Mary Elaine. Our third son, Thomas Aurbon, was married to Dorothy Jackson. They had one son, Thomas Aurbon, II, and one daughter, Leslie Jean. The Crow grandchildren, their spouses, and children are noted as follows: Johnny Dale to Carolyn Hewgley with one son, Johnny Dale II; Mary Elaine to Wiley Ford Walker, with three daughters—Celeste, Emiley, and Meredith, and one son, David Luke; Thomas Aurbon II to Teresa Wilmuth; Steve Louis to Jan Cuculic with two sons, Bryan Hardy and Austin Louis—granddaughter Leslie Jean is a senior in high school. Our family was represented in the Civil War by Joshua Crow, in World War I by Hardy Louis Crow and in World War II by George Dale and Thomas Aurbon Crow. Today the Crow name is perpetuated by great-grandsons, Johnny Dale, Bryon Hardy, and Austin Louis. At Christmas each year this unit of the Joshua Crow family, twenty-two in number, gathers at our home in the Rusk County community of Minden. This is just a few miles from my grandfather’s old home. As we count our blessings, we think of my grandfather, and know that all across the land numerous units of his family are meeting and remembering. We are happy to be the unit that is carrying the name of Crow into future generations. Submitted by Mr. H. L. Crow