GRAHAM DEASON

 The following bio was taken from page 173 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

 Having married into a family whose roots are woven deep into Rusk County, I came to Henderson in 1940 as a bride after meeting Graham Deason, a young law student, just before our graduation at Baylor University.  One of Graham’s first cases was being appointed (along with Ben Payne) to defend the nephew of one of Texas’ most notorious criminals, Clyde Barrow.

 My father-in-law,  A. J. Deason, was born in Minden in 1887, and became Mayor of Henderson in 1924, when the first streets were paved.  He inundated me with Rusk County history, recalling events of his boyhood and young manhood, especially the way in the cotton field when he threw away his hoe, vowing “never to chop another row of cotton as long as I live.”

Strongly aware that there must be a better life somewhere, A. J. began arrangements to attend Kansas City Veterinary College.  He returned to his beloved Rusk County to become Henderson’s first veterinarian.  Work was plentiful and money scarce, but encouraging entries in his daily (and nightly) journal show “$2-visit mule; $3-sick cow,: testifying to a  busy and happy life.  His enterprising nature paid off better in 1929, when he and his brother, D. F. Deason, bought some land for farming west of town, only to have it turn out to be part of the East Texas oil field.

 Graham’s mother, Bonnie Welch, was the daughter of one of Minden’s most industrious farmers, Joseph Alexander Hamilton Welch, who reportedly enlisted in the Civil War before he was eighteen and because of his small stature served as a flag  bearer.

 Graham practiced law here until World War II, when he volunteered for the army and served four years, two of them in New Guinea and the Philippines.  While our two sons were growing up, he served on the local school board and was appointed by Governor Allen Shivers as a regent of Texas Women’s University.  He joined his father and brother-in-law, Elton Davis, in the operation of a polled Hereford ranch near Minden.

 Making our family Texas through and through is my ancestry, which includes one of the founders of the City of Houston.  History records an incident in which my great grandfather, John K. Allen, and his brother sat on the banks of Buffalo Bayou and cast lots to decide whether the little town they had just built should be named for them or for their closest friend, Sam Houston.

 Daniel Arthur and Glen Allen Deason, our sons, take great delight in Rusk County history.  Dan, a musician, who lives in Dallas is employed by the Dallas Civic Opera and Kessler Park Methodist Church, while Glen resides in Alpine where he is employed by the Texas Department of Public Safety, serving in the Criminal Law Enforcement Task Force, assigned to narcotics.  Glen and his wife, the former Kathy Wylie, have a two-year-old son, Caleb, and an infant daughter, Sarah Marguerite.

 Submitted by Gwen Deason