A. J. HINDMAN

The following bio was taken from page 236 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

Alamander James Hindman and his wife, Malissa Barton Hindman, came to Texas from Spartanburg, South Carolina in the early 1870’s. They rented farmland about six miles south of Kilgore and lived there with their two sons, Frank and Robert, for one year.

A. J. bought some two hundred acres of land in the northwest corner of Rusk County, in April 1848. The western boundary of this section was Rabbit Creek, and the northwest corner was near and south of the Old Rabbit Village.

Another son, Jim, was born soon after their home was built, which is located about one-half miles north of the Leveretts Chapel School.

Lucy Barton, widow, mother of Malissa Hindman, married James Hindman, widower, father of A. J. Hindman in South Carolina and started to Texas. James Hindman died in Georgia and Lucy Barton Hindman came to Texas with two children, Lum and Elizabeth, to live with the family of A. J. Hindman.

Three other children were born to Malissa and A. J. – Lula, Emma, and William Allon.

In later years, Frank related an experience of going to Jefferson, Texas in wagons with his father and other farmers of the area with their bales of cotton to the docks to be loaded on ships bound for New Orleans. It took two weeks to make the trip.

After the death of Malissa and A. J. in 1915 and 1916, the land was divided and given to Emma, Jim, and Allon. Frank, who bought land nearby from Reid Switch and did not want a share of land so he received money.

Allon, the only surviving child of the A. J. Hindman's, still lives on his part of the inherited land which his father purchased from the M. D. Leverett heirs in 1896 for $1.50 an acre. Allon, not content with farming as a way of life for his wife, Georgia, and daughter, Evalyn, had moved away three times to Dallas, to Henderson, and to Troup, but always returned to the farm. In 1929, a bachelor wanted to buy the farm but was so timid he would not ask Georgia to sign the papers.

The depression years were "oil boom times" years in this part of the country. A new way of life had suddenly developed. People flocked here by the thousands, hunting work and wanting something to eat and places to sleep. For the first time, locks had to be placed on doors and windows. People would break in and steal flour, sugar, coffee, shortening, bedding, and other furniture. After a few years, the "boom" aspects were gone and life took on a new meaning.

Evalyn Hindman Swan, who had gone away to college, came back to the "farm" to raise her family of Sonny, Mary Ann, Jeanette, and Dee. In 1980, five generations of the Hindman’s were living on this same land. Jessica Zimmerman, great-great-granddaughter of Allon Hindman, is the seventh generation to live here.

Submitted by Evalyn Swan