George L. and Evelyn CORRY APPELBEE

The following bio was taken from pages 95-96 of the book entitled "Rusk County History" compiled and edited and used with permission of the Rusk County Historical Commission.

Transcribed by Gloria Riley

Submitted by Gloria Briley Mayfield, Rusk County TX Coordinator

George and Evelyn reside in the Chapman Community east of Henderson, having moved there with their three grown children in 1969 from Dallas County, having been born and raised in Collin County.

George’s parents were William Leonard Appelbee and Alta Fulsom Paysinger. His paternal grandfather, John Luther Appelbee, came riding into Texas from Kentucky at the age of eighteen or nineteen, on what was said to be one of the most beautiful horses ever to be seen in that area. He was offered a job by Dr. Kirkpatrick of the Walnut Grove Community, owner of the first house John spend the night in. He stayed, to eventually marry Mattie Addaline Scott and become a prominent businessman and farmer of McKinney, Texas. Mattie’s parents were James Preston Scott and Jane Craghead Carruth of Wilson Zion, Tennessee. All consequent efforts to trace the Appelbee ancestry have proven futile.

George’s maternal grandparents were George Alexander Paysinger and Ann Thomas O’Neal of Lincoln County, Tennessee, where Alta was born. His great-grandfather, Thomas Jefferson O’Neal, wrote from the battlefields to name Ann Thomas, but was killed in the Civil War without seeing her.

Evelyn’s parents were Benjamin Thomas Corry and Mattie Gertrude Brummett. Her parental ancestry has been traced and recorded from about 1600 in the English peerage and Baronetage beginning with John Corry, who immigrated to America in approximately 1736, who was a descendant of Robert de Corry, Earl of Castlecoole. Her maternal grandparents were Onias Pleasant Brummett and Louisa Virginia Hunter Cook. The Hunters and Brummetts helped settle the township of Nevada, Collin County. Louisa’s mother, "Granny" Hunter, took a slave, a container of laudanum, and her eldest child and traveled by wagon to bring her wounded husband home from the Civil War. Before reaching home, he died of his wounds.

George and Evelyn are the parents of three children. Georganna Sue, born December 13, 1948, married Joe Duran of Pine Hill; Evelyn June, born December 16, 1949, married Thomas Allan Butler, son of Marie Harrison and Brose Earl Butler of Henderson; Steven Leonard, born October 15, 1952, married Patricia Ann Taylor, daughter of Charlcye Jones and Rev. Jim Taylor of Chapman.

At the time of this writing, they have two grandchildren: David Allan Butler, born December 11, 1971, and Alicia Jill Appelbee, born March 31, 1979.

George, a veteran of the Air Corps, WW-II transferred to the East Texas area as Supervisor for Whitson-King Food Brokers. His avocation is fishing and hunting, and working his small acreage. Evelyn is proprietor of Country Trader Wood Burning Stoves, Chapman, and a free-lance writer and poet. She is a veteran of the U. S. Marines, Women’s Reserve, WW-II. They are affiliated with the Pine Hill Baptist Church, where George serves as Sunday School Superintendent and Deacon and Evelyn teaches the adults.

Written by Evelyn Corry Appelbee