WILLIAM FRANKLIN GROSS

The following bio was taken from page 220 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

My grandfather, William Franklin Gross, who was born in Tennessee in 1861 and died in Texas in 1912, married Sarah (Sallie) Ann Wylie (1863-1945) September 19, 1879, in Tazewell, Tennessee. They moved to Texas twice in 1884 and in 1893.

The Grosses were the parents of twelve children: Mary, born July 1880 in Tennessee; Ninnie, born July 1882 in Tennessee; Myrtle, born February 1885 in Texas; Lola, born February 1887 in Tennessee; infant boy, born in Indian Territory; Belle, born October 1890 in Grapevine, Texas; Margaret Ann, born in November 1892 in Grapevine; (the next four were born in Rusk County); Frank, born in September 1895 in Concord Community; Robert, born in May 1897; Leona, born in July 1899; Donald, born in August 1901; and Cleopatria, born in February 1907 in Nacogdoches.

Sallie’s ancestors were also from England. So far, the first to come was William Cloud, who came with forty Quaker families in 1682, when he was sixty-two years of age. Another ancestor, Zachariah McCubbins, descendant of a Scottish King, came to America early.

Four of the daughters married in Rusk County. Descendants of Mary and Lola still reside here.

Those marrying in Rusk County were: Mary, who married Sylvanus Phillips; and those children were: Berta, Myrtle, Maude, Ann, Rufus, Leo, William (Bill), Marie; Ninnie, who married Gustavus Phillips, and who was a brother to Sylvanus Phillips. Their children were: Emmette, Virgie, Felix all of whom moved away from Rusk County; Myrtle, who married Ben Mullins and whose children were Bernice, Velma, Viola, Doris; Lola, who married Owen Lafayette Sears and whose children were: Dora (Dorothy) Deane (August 1903); Nellye Gray (December 1905); Dock Graham (July 1908); Joe Alton (December 1920). Of these Graham and Joe are deceased and Nellye, who married Willis Ray Strong, lives in Houston. Joe married Helen Dombroski. Cindy Sears was adopted; and Dorothy, who married Merwyn Orr, had one child, Jo Ann Orr.

Merwyn Orr, merchant, rancher, and farmer, is a member of Patrick Presbyterian Church, the Masonic Lodge number 95 of which he is a life member, a life member of Pine Hill Eastern Star, Scottish Rite, and Shriners. Dorothy is a member of the Baptist Church, Texas Poetry Society, a life member of the Rusk County society, a life member of the Pine Hill Order of the Eastern Star, life member of P. T. A., and a member of Daughters of the American Revolution.

Orr’s Store was started in the Brachfield Community in Shelby Orr’s day, passed to his son, Newton, and thence to Merwyn. Arlen Orr was a partner with them for many years.

Dorothy Deane Sears and Merwyn Orr were married August 22, 1928 in Palestine, Texas at the home of Rev. Charles H. Simpson, a Baptist minister. Born to them on August 24, 1933 was a daughter, Jo Ann, who graduated from Henderson High School, received her Bachelor’s Degree from Texas Woman’s University in 1955 in Denton, and her Master’s in Counseling at John Tarleton, Stephenville, in 1981.

Jo Ann married Boyd Miller, November 28, 1958. Their son, Gary Herbert, born November 28, 1959, finished high school at Brownwood and is now a senior in Baylor University. Their older daughter, Caryl Deane, a Brownwood graduate, is now a freshman at San Marcos University. Their younger daughter, Karen is a sophomore in Brownwood High School in 1981.

Submitted by Dorothy Deane Sears Orr