WILLIAM HENRY COSTLOW

The following bio was taken from page 157 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, Rusk County TX Coordinator

At an early age of seventeen years in Monroe, Louisiana, William Henry Costlow and his six younger brothers and sisters were left parentless by the death of both their mother and father. Adoption was not a common act in the mid-1800’s. People just took the children they wanted and reared them. All contact with his brothers and sisters was lost until 1884, when, in a desperate attempt to locate his family, William wrote a sheriff in Henderson County. His prayers were answered. His brother George had been taken there as a child and was now married and settled in Texas.

William moved his wife, Jenny Finch Costlow and their first six children and two wagons to Athens where they remained until 1914. Because of the tales of better farmland in Reklaw, Texas, William and his now larger family of three more sons once again moved. Among these family additions, I am proud to say, was my grandfather, Percy Lum Costlow, born July 18, 1890.

On December 13, 1913, P. L. Costlow wed Nellie Jane Montrose. One year later to the day, they were blessed with a baby girl, Georgia Belle Costlow. There followed a son, Buford Costlow, on February 15, 1916; another beautiful daughter, Allie Mae Costlow Higginbotham, on November 29, 1918; and on April 14, 1929, a baby boy, Ray Barnett Costlow, my father.

One year (1928) before my father was born, Mr. And Mrs. P. L. Costlow became a working part of Rusk County. They lived in the New Salem Community, where they farmed as their fathers had done before them.

Percy bought and raised hogs to sell. To buy hogs from the four surrounding counties took a five or six day trip by horseback. The hogs were fed out and sold for five or six centers per pound. Inflation caused the price to soar to fifteen cents per pound, and, as Papa says, "the bottom fell out of my business." The Costlows changed with the times and became truck farmers, selling their vegetables in Jacksonville and Reklaw. A top grade tomato brought five cents a pound.

The Costlows continued farming for twenty years, but in 1965 tragedy hit us all – Nellie Jane Montrose-Costlow passed away. Percy, at the age of seventy-five moved to Henderson. Here he has remained and in 1981 is going strong, along with one daughter, six grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren, only one of whom will hopefully carry on our part of the Costlow name in Rusk County.

The brothers and sisters of P. L. Costlow were: Alice Atwood, John Costlow, Lilly Stephens, Ellen Dalton (John Dalton), Simon Costlow, George Costlow, Hugh Costlow, and Claude Costlow. In the event a family tree is ever started, one should also research the Costlow Desperados, as it is believed they were the sons of John, some of the six children, who never joined the others.

Submitted by Patricia Costlow Sedgewick