JOHN M. HEARNE 

The following bio was taken from page 231 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 

John Milbrey Hearne came to Rusk County, Texas, in 1870, with his parents, Ebenezer and Easter Hearne, from Tennessee, along with three sisters and two brothers.  They settled in the northern part of Rusk County, where Ebenezer was a farmer.   

John Milbrey Hearne married Anna Belle Alston.  They lived in the Oak Hill Community but later moved to the Monroe Community, where they bought a tract of land.  John Milbrey established a cotton gin and ran a general store. 

Anna Belle was born March 4, 1861 and moved when she was a small child from Marshall County, Mississippi, settling near Elderville in Rusk County with her parents, Willie W. Alston and Abigail Milan Angle.  Anna Belle was one of seven children.  She, like the pioneer mothers, passed through the dark and dreary days of adversities, sharing the joys and disappointments of life with those whom she loved.  Her godly life was not only exemplified in her home, but was also felt throughout the community in all her many years.  Her life was giving in service to her family and friends. 

John Milbrey loved to fish and whittle.  After he gave up his business, he would help the J. E. Sheffield’s in their general store at Monroe.  Mrs. Omie Sheffield stated that he could decipher any note that was sent for goods, no matter how badly it was written. 

John Milbrey and Anna Belle Hearn’s children were four boys and three girls:  Culver Hearne, who married Edna Harwick, and after her death married Willie Bird Walker; Lee Roy Hearne, who married Ellen Jacob; Joe Graham Hearne, who married Julia Drennan; Willis Alston, who married Myrtle Ross; Irene Hearne, who married W. R. Young; Annie D. Hearne, who married J. R. Walker, and later J. V. Anderson; John Milbrey Hearne, my baby sister, who inherited her father’s name and who married, the first time, L. D. Wright, and, the second time, Ben Spinks. 

We Hearne children attended school in the Monroe Community.  Willis Alston went on to College at San Marcos. 

The old family home was torn down in 1954 with some of the lumber being used to panel the sanctuary of the Cross Road Methodist Church.  John Milbrey and Anna Belle Hearne are buried at Elderville Cemetery, along with their daughters, Milbrey and Irene.  Anna Belle’s spinster sister, Dora Alston, and bachelor brother, Willis Henry Alston, are buried there, too. 

Perhaps this bit of history may be of interest to those to follow.  I felt it should be written, as I am now the only surviving child of John Milbrey Hearne and Anna Belle Alston Hearne.Submitted by Mrs. Annie D. Anderson