MAYFIELD - LAWSON

 The following bio was taken from page 282 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, Cemeteries of Texas

My father, John Mitchell Lawson, was born November 9, 1900 in Grandma Young’s house.  He was the first grandson of John Augustine Young and Sally Gibson Young.  He went to Arlam School in Rusk County through the ninth grade.  He was blacksmith, surveyor, farmer, horse trader, sailor, pipe fitter, and he was good at every trade he tried.

 John’s mother, Betty Elizabeth Young, married Michell Elmo Lawson, October 26, 1899, in Nacogdoches, Texas.  They met at a house party and fell in love.  Grandpa Lawson came to Arlam on horseback and met Mama Betty at the well or spring where washing was done, and with the help of Lizzie McNair they eloped on horseback.  They lived in Arlam most of their married life except for a brief time in Trinity, Texas, where daughter, Rubye Dell was born August 31, 1907.  Grandpa died in 1926.

 Mama Betty went to Jacksonville, Texas to Nursing School and went to work for Dr. George H. turner in Garrison after she finished school.  Mama Betty married Dr. Turner May 28, 1934.  During her schooling, Aunt Rubye boarded with various families and Daddy spent much time with his father on the railroad.

 Daddy married Annie Belle Mayfield in Garrison, Texas, November 1, 1933 and four children were born to that union:  I, Joyce Evelyn, Betty Georgee, George H. Turner, and Jim Young Lawson (born dead in 1942).  Daddy farmed the land belonging to Mama Betty on the road behind the Arlam store.  He brought the first peanut thrasher to south Rusk County, and he also baled hay for other people.

 Daddy was a very likeable man, he had a very charismatic personality and could spin a yarn a mile long.  He loved animals and was a good fisherman.  He worked thirteen years in Houston, Texas for Sheffield Steel mill and moved back to Rusk County in 1951.  He lived in a small house on the south Rusk County line near Garrison, owned by his sister, Mrs. Prentis Dumas.  He continued to live there until 1971.

 Daddy sold the original farm to Edgar Fountain and bought a farm in Mer Rouge, Louisiana where he lived for a short time.  Daddy wasn’t a member of the church at Arlam, but he always went to hear Brother Al Samford preach.  Brother Samford always said about Daddy that God had a place for a man that could “talk tame” a horse.

 After Mama and Daddy divorced, he married Rosa Strunk of Huntsville, Tennessee.  She came to Texas to live in Rusk County with Daddy, and they moved back to Huntsville, Tennessee in 1973 after Daddy became ill.  Daddy died May 21, 1974 at Onieda, Scott County, Tennessee and is buried in the Strunk Family Cemetery at Huntsville, Tennessee.

 My sister, Betty Georgee, married Joe M. Clark Jr., and they had three sons:  Joseph Mark Clark, Kenneth Russell Clark and John Phillip Clark.  They adopted my oldest son, Michael Henry Watson, born July 25, 1951, when he was five years old and raised him.  George H. Lawson, born April 10, 1937, died March 6, 1975.  George first married Mary Collins of California and had one son, George H. Lawson, Jr., December 9, 1961.  He later married Juanelle Smith (Skeeter), and they had two daughters, Juanelle Ann, born November 11, 1969, and Terri Renee, born March 14, 1974.

 I, Joyce Evelyn Lawson Dorris, born December 26, 1932, married first Marion Haywood Watson; second, William Taft Buffalo; and third, Elmer Laverne (Eddie) Dorris.  I have three sons and one daughter:  Michael Henry Watson, born July 25, 1951; Charles Patrick Buffalo, born August 2, 1955; Rubye Laree Dorris, born February 26, 1952; and James Stacey Dorris, born August 29, 1961.

 On February 20, 1981, my husband and I purchased two acres of land in Rusk County on the old farm of Aunt Rubye’s where Daddy lived his last years in Texas, and we built a new house and continue to live there.  My half-sister, Sandy Lawson Natusch, writes about Daddy’s first family of four children.  (See Walker-Lawson Account)

 Submittd by Joyce Lawson Dorris