O. WILLIAM HALTOM 

The following bio was taken from page 225 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, Cemeteries of Texas 

Oran William son of William Haltom, Sr., was born June 3, 1792 in Montgomery  County, North Carolina.  He married Priscilla Lundy Harris, March 18, 1813.  She was born March 9, 1797, the daughter of James Harris, Revolutionary War veteran of the Battle of King’s Mountain, and Priscilla Gilliam.  William served in the War of 1812.  Their first child, Nancy James, was born in Montgomery County and many years later was married to James Lucas Sory in Texas.

 In 1815, the Haltom family sold their home, bid family and friends good-bye and answered the call of the “west.”  They were in Milam, Gibson County, Tennessee in 1816, where their first son, Edmund William, was born.  He was to marry first Dorcus McClatchy, then Martha A. Newsome Jackson of Rusk County.  Alfred Harris, a second son, was born in 1819.  He married Margaret McClatchy in Mississippi.

 In 1821, the Haltom’s moved across the county line in Mifflin, Madison County.  Here Jane Katherine was added to the family.  Many years later she married John Eli Sory, Sr. in Texas.  Another move brought the Haltom’s back to Milam, and it was here that Eldridge was born in 1824.  He married Sarah Alexander Hawkins of Rusk County in 1848.  Shortly after Eldridge was born, the family returned to Mifflin, where Priscilla Lundy, Noah Gilliam, and Martha Myrick were born.  Noah’s twin, Sophronia, lived only two weeks.  Priscilla later married Isaac Reese Vannoy of Mt. Enterprise, and Noah married, first, Lucy Lanier Smith, then Nora Lee Pipkin, both of Rusk County.  Martha married four times.

 At last the family arrived in Texas!  We wonder if they were on their way to Texas all those years and all those miles, stopping on other way for the coming of babies and maybe to make a crop to help them on their way!  They settled in Mt. Enterprise, Rusk County. (then Nacogdoches County).  In the Republic of Texas in 1838, James Gray was born.  He died in the Civil War.  Josephine Aliza was born in 1842 and became the wife of Henry Gatlin of Mt. Enterprise. 

William received a land grant of 620 acres from the Republic of Texas in 1839, proving that he was a resident of the Republic with a family for more than three years and had performed all the duties of a citizen.  

Priscilla Lundy Harris Haltom died April 30, 1868 at her home in Mt. Enterprise.  William died the next year on August 15, and both are buried in the lovely little Gatlin Cemetery at Mt. Enterprise.  Their double gravestone is still imposing looking and the dates are clear and easy to read after more than a hundred years. 

Submitted by Mrs. M. W. Bourne and E. Ray Green