WILLIAM JAMES JARRELL

The following bio was taken from page 259 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

Three women called Bill Jarrell husband. Eleven people called him papa. Twenty-three called him grandpa. Many call him forefather.

William James Jarrell, born in 1849 in Indian Springs, Georgia, was one of three sons of Henry and Martha Buckner Jarrell. Before Billy was two, Henry died and later Martha married John Sparkman, a Baptist minister. The Sparkman's and Buckner's migrated to Texas and settled in Rusk County. The Sparkmans reared Julius, Billy, and Joe Jarrell and seven Sparkman children at what is now the Hardy Crow place near Minden.

As a young man, Billy bought some land three miles north of Minden, where he and his first wife, Martha Crow, lived with three sons – Willis, Lewis and Barton. In 1880 Martha died of pneumonia, and for a time Billy’s widowed mother lived in the home.

Then Sallie Hays, daughter of Dr. Elijah Hays of Panola County, became Billy’s wife. She was a mother to three small boys and later to her children, Alston and Gertie. In 1886 the family moved into a new house – much larger and better than the old. Good times lasted only until 1887 when Sallie was a victim of pneumonia. Again Grandma kept the family together.

In 1888 Nannie Liles Harris, a young widow from Panola County, became wife and mother to the family. The wedding day was cold and rainy, and the couple rode from Fair Play to Minden in a buggy. Streams wee swollen, and at one crossing the bride’s purse, containing $300.00, fell into the water. The groom hastily disrobed, dived into the water, retrieved the purse, dressed and continued the trip. Somehow Nannie reared eleven children without any feelings of "step" or "half" relationships. Her natural children were Frank, Grady, Mittie, Achsa, and Carter (Bill).

Billy farmed and operated a gin and gristmill. The boys helped him, and the girls helped Nannie with household work. All were well provided for and happy. Work, recreation, and discipline often overlapped. Fishing, hunting, and seeking wild fruits sometimes lured children from work and into punishment. Big offenders were likely to shuck corn for punishment; little ones got short confinement in the panty – not bad after they learned to raid the sugar barrel. All shared evenings when Billy sang folk and religious songs.

Although the family lived three miles from Minden, all the children attended school. Occasionally they walked, but usually they rode horseback or in a buggy. Five of the eleven received some higher education – Gertie at Baylor Academy, Mittie and Achsa at North Texas Teachers College, Grady at College of Marshall, and Euola at Tyler Commercial College.

As adults, the children’s lives varied. Willis spent many years in New Orleans working for the Southern Pacific Railroad. Barton and Bill had a special love for oil fields and drilled from Spindletop to Venezuela, Louisiana, and East Texas. Like their father, Alston and Frank farmed and operated the gin. Lewis and Grady died young. Of the survivors, Willis and Barton had no children, but the others reared families in Rusk County. Mittie Harris and Achsa Hays still live in Rusk County. (See Mittie Jarrell Harris).

Submitted by Mary Jerrell Smith and Ethel Rettig