WILBERT LEE PURSLEY
The following bio
was taken from page 353 of the book entitled “Rusk County History” compiled
and edited and used with permission of the Rusk County Historical Commission.
Transcribed by
Claudia Schuster
Submitted by
Gloria Briley Mayfield, Rusk County TX Coordinator
I, Alice Janet Pursley, dedicate this brief family
history to the two best parents and family that a person could wish to
have—Wilbert Lee Pursley and Mary Norma Gallaway.
Out of this union I and a wonderful twin sister, Eva Janice Pursley
Climer were born. Janice married
Willie Roy Climer, Jr. He was
tragically killed in a car accident. They
have two sons, Eric Weston and Michael Randolph.
Out of the Pursley union my older brother, Lee Wain Pursley, was born.
He married Linda Ann Acord and they also have a son, Stephen Wain Pursley.
As children we spent many wonderful summers
in Laneville, Texas at the home of a great aunt and uncle, Monnie and Hall Wood.
As we would turn into their long driveway after our lengthy trip from
Odessa, Texas, I would see a big, old white farmhouse with a breezeway down the
middle and around it a veranda with a porch swing.
What an experience for me to cut across the backyard, then the garden and
lastly a field to get to use the outhouse, which was a novelty to me.
A black couple, Johnny and Lilly Loftis
worked for them. I especially loved
Lilly who was fat and jolly. I
remember one time when Johnny killed a hog and he, Uncle Hall, Harold (Uncle
Hall’s son) and my dad (the fellow from the city) all guessed its weight. To everyone’s surprise, my dad guessed it exactly.
He may have been from the city, but owning a lumberyard, he dealt in
weight every day!
In one of the bedrooms, I would go visit with
my great-grandmother. To everyone
else she was known as Hannah Josephine or “Josie”, but to me her name was
“Great-grandmother with a Hurt Leg.”
She had fallen off the veranda and broken her hip.
Because of her age, her hip never healed, so she was bedfast.
Josie dipped snuff and was
hard of hearing. She was born,
reared, and died at 101 years of age in Laneville—all within a half mile.
Many fun-filled hours were spent playing with
all my cousins and swinging in the porch swing and the old tire hanging from a
rope from the big oak tree in front of the house.
It was while sitting here in the porch swing that my grandmother used to
tell of Laneville and our ancestry and instilled in us such a love of family
history.
My Rusk County history comes through my
grandmother, Alice Houston Wood, daughter of Josie, and my grandfather Roy
Randolph Gallaway.
In 1849 my great-great-grandfather, Vincent
Blair and his wife, Mary Houston Grigsby, with his brother Hugh and his wife,
Sarah Elizabeth, left Tennessee with their families to come to Texas.
Both families lost children to cholera in Shreveport, Louisiana.
Vincent bought 600 acres to farm, and Hugh donated the land for the
Redland Church in Rusk County. Vincent,
as well as Josie’s husband, Charles Drury Wood, fought in the Confederacy in
the Civil War. My
great-great-great-great-grandfather, John Blair, fought in the Revolutionary War
in the Battle at King’s Mountain. The
Blairs were originally from Scotland where Blair Castle still stands.
Mary Houston Grigsby’s mother was Margaret
Houston. It is believed that she
was a first cousin to General Samuel Houston.
Margaret married James Grigsby. His
father, Charles Grigsby, and his grandfather, John Grigsby, both fought in the
Revolutionary War. John Grigsby
helped found the Falling Springs Presbyterian Church in Rockbridge, Virginia.
Charles Grigsby married Elizabeth Wallace, daughter of Colonel Samuel
Wallace, my great-great-great-great-grandfather.
Colonel Sam fought in the Revolutionary War. Through him, Big Foot
Wallace, the famous Texas pioneer, and General Lee Wallace, who wrote Ben Hur,
are in my line of descent.
In 1849, Colonel John Pruitt, my
great-great-great-grandfather, left Alabama with 200 Negro slaves and moved to
Laneville. The barn that Colonel
John originally built is still standing in Laneville. Colonel John’s father, Jacob Pruitt, as well as his
grandfather, William Pruitt, fought in the Revolutionary War. Catherine, Colonel John’s daughter, married my
great-great-grandfather, Robinson Hendon Gallaway. After died, he married her sister, Nannie.
Since I am a twin, I find it most interesting that twins run all through
the Pruitt line. Robinson Hendon
fought for the Confederacy. The oak
trees are still standing in front of the site where his home used to be in
Laneville. His grandfather, Matthew Gallaway, fought in the
Revolutionary War.
My great-grandfather, Amos Ponder Gallaway, married
Sallie Margaret Simmons. Her
father, John Simmons of Rusk County, fought for the Confederacy. John married Eliza J. Newsom, my great-great-grandmother, and
her side of the family has been researched all the way to England.
John Simmon’s father, James Simmons, married Edith Sparks.
Her father, William Sparks, my great-great-great-great-grandfather, also
fought in the Revolutionary War and in 1836 settled in Nacogdoches County.
My ancestors were staunch community
participants, hard-working, church-going, freedom-fighting, adventuresome
people. They were originally from
Scotland, Ireland, and England, and came to Rusk County mainly from Tennessee
and Alabama, making their mark in history by giving my family a wonderful
heritage. Three generations of
grandparents are buried in the Laneville Cemetery.
Submitted by Janet Pursley