WILLIAM AND SARAH STRONG YOUNG

The following bio was taken from page 466 of the book entitled " Rusk County History" compiled and edited and used with permission of the Rusk County Historical Commission.

Transcribed by Claudia Schuster

Submitted by Gloria Briley Mayfield, Rusk County TX Coordinator

Augustine Young, oldest son of Robert Young and Celia Strickland, was born August 17, 1799 in Hall County, Georgia. He married Catherine Pounds November 23, 1820 in Georgia. In 1833, he bought a tract of Cherokee land near Stone Mountain near present Cedartown, Georgia and built a two-story house and in 1834 moved the family there.

The children of Augustine and Catherine were Minerva, William, Russell (Dock), Mary Ann, James, Robert, and Martha Ann.

William, oldest son of Augustine and Catherine, was born January 10, 1825 in DeKalb County, Georgia, and married Sarah Elizabeth (Betty) Strong, daughter of John W. and Mary Ann Whatley Strong. (See Strong family accounts.) They are both buried in the Strong Cemetery. William and Betty moved to Rusk County about 1850 and settled where the New Prospect Community is now located. He died in Louisiana, February 26, 1864, where he was in charge of the Confederate teams and supplies. A letter written to his wife in 1863 is elsewhere in this book.

William and Betty had four children: Mary Catherine, born June 27, 1846, who married Captain James H. Garrison, (1864-1915). Both are buried in Greenwood Cemetery, Garrison. Laura Minerva (1849-1917) married Jesse W. Bell. Both are buried in Greenwood. John Augustine (1853-1854) was the first person buried in the Strong family cemetery. John Augustine, Jr. (1855-1903) married Sallie Cornelia Gibson (1860-1936). Both are buried in Greenwood Cemetery.

John Augustine, Jr. married Sallie Cornelia Gibson, April 10, 1879, and settled near Garrison. They had the first house built in what is now Ariam Community. He was a land surveyor and sold land in ninety-three acre tracts.

Sallie Cornelia Gibson was the oldest child of William Calhoun Gibson and Eliza Julian Fleming, daughter of John L. Fleming and Sallie Fleming. William Calhoun Gibson, born around 1834 in South Carolina, married August 20, 1955. Eliza J. Fleming, born around 1835 in South Carolina. They moved to Rusk County about 1860. He served in the Confederate Army. William and Eliza Gibson lived forty-nine years in Craig, Rusk County, Texas. Their other children were; Church C.; Oscar; Ludie who married John Wesley Crim; Willie married S. Mims; Jane married a Goodlett and Leia Gibson who never married.

The children of John Augustine, Jr. and Sallie Cornelia Gibson are: William Calhoun Young, who was born May 19, 1880, and married Stella Brown on May 2, 1907. They had one child, Mildred Young, who married Forrest M. McClelland. The second child, Russell Young, born March 23, 1882, and died July 6, 1883; and the last child Betty Elizabeth Young, born June 12, 1884 who married, first, Mitchell Elmo Lawson (1877-1926) October 25, 1899. Elmo is buried in Pruitts Chapel, Hornbeck, Louisiana. After Elmo’s death, Betty Young Lawson married Dr. George H. Turner of Garrison. (See Lawson stories).

Submitted by Joyce Lawson Dorris and Sandy Lawson Natusch