Memory B. LANFORD

The following bio was taken from page 279 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

Elizabeth Earle Goodlett, born May 13, 1836, married Memory Brockman Lanford on October 10, 1854. Memory was a descendant of James Lanford, who fought in the Revolutionary War and settled in South Carolina very early (before 1790). Memory was born August 10, 1830, and was a bookkeeper by profession. The young couple lived in or near Spartanburg, South Carolina, where their first child, a daughter, was born in 1855, and died in 1857. A second daughter arrived in 1858, and the next year the family moved to Texas, with Elizabeth Earle’s family, the Goodletts.

The Lanfords bought a 320-acre farm near Henderson in 1860 and were just getting a good start when the Civil War broke out in 1861. Memory enlisted and went away to fight, leaving his wife and children to do the best they could. He was an excellent letter writer and his descendants still have in their possession a number of these letters, showing the wonderful character of this man and his love and concern for his family, and his country. He participated in two of the famous battles of the Red River Campaign, the Pleasant Hill and Mansfield Battles, where he contracted measles and died June 7, 1864. His exact burial place is unknown, but a marker has been erected for him in the New Prospect Cemetery, Rusk County, beside the grave of his wife. It was placed there just one hundred years after his death (1964).

Elizabeth Earle, after Memory’s death, married William York, September 14, 1885, and they had one son who died in infancy. Elizabeth lived only a few more years, dying July 9, 1870. Her three small daughters were left in the care of their stepfather, William York, and the Goodlett relatives who helped look after them until they married.

Memory and Elizabeth both died at the age of thirty-four and were the parents of: Mary Parthena, born in South Carolina, September 22, 1855; died August 11, 1857.

Margaret Frances, born in South Carolina, October 7, 1858, married George Henry Cole Wright, November 25, 1874 and spent sixty-seven years together, had five sons and three daughters. She died May 14, 1941.

Emma Jane, born November 9, 1860, in Texas, married Veasy Shannon Brown, November 17, 1878. She rode horseback to her wedding when she became the bride of Veasy, son of Richard Brown, famous member of the Mier Expedition to Mexico. Four daughters and one son were born to them. Emma died May 11, 1924.

Memory Elizabeth (Betty), born March 18, 1863 in Rusk County, married Thomas L. Yandle, November 5, 1882. Betty was born while her father was in the Confederate Army, and he only saw her once. She was left an orphan when only seven years of age. Then her husband died after only seven years of marriage, and she was left a widow with three small children to rear. She died February 1949.

The son born to Elizabeth Earle and William York was Willis Jesse York, who was born and died in 1866.

Written by Margaret Brown