ROGERS
HALE
The
following bio was taken from page 223 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
Joel Whitehead Hale was born in Clark County,
Georgia, June 6, 1814 and married Nancy Tigner Elder, September 8, 1836.
They came to Rusk County about the middle 1800’s, bringing with them
several slaves. They acquired about
a thousand acres of land about seven miles east of Kilgore in north Rusk County.
Joel Whitehead, who died very young, August 19, 1854, was buried in the
George Hale Cemetery near Cross Roads, leaving Nancy Tigner with ten children.
She went right on with the farm and employed James Watson for overseer.
She was very industrious, weaving her own cloth and making all the family
clothing. After she reared her
family, she gave most of the land to her children who wanted to stay in Rusk
County. Some of the land is still
in the Hale family, owned by the John and Ruth Hale Baton family.
A son, Howell Pope Hale at age
twenty-two enlisted as a private in the Texas Cavalry Company, 10th
Regiment of the Civil War. After
being made third sergeant, he was wounded, left the command on January 23, 1865,
came back to Rusk County, and married Sue Morgan Brown.
They had a son, Joel Neill Hale, who was High Sheriff of Rusk County for
eighteen years. (See County
Officials, opening section.)
Joel and Nancy Tigner Hale had
a son, Joel Blanton Hale, who married Mollie Virginia McHaney and reared a large
family on some of the original Hale land. They
had a son, Joel Cliff, who served through World War I, but was gassed and had to
be discharged. He came back to Rusk
County, was elected Rusk County Tax Assessor and Collector, and later married
Myrtle Eaton. Joel Blanton and
Mollie V. had another son named Alonza Blanton Hale, who married Mattie Hill
Rogers on April 11, 1906. He was a
farmer and cattleman. They bought
and settled land adjoining the original Hale property there.
Alonza and Mattie had eleven
children. Two sons, Kos Quinton,
born August 19, 1917, and Mark Travis, born October 12, 1919, joined the U.S.
Air Force on December 7, 1941, and served in World War II until it ended. This family was very much a part of the Cross Roads Methodist
Church. Their first child, Rogers
Blanton Hale, was born January 25, 1907. He
attended grade school in Cross Roads and went to high school in Kilgore and
Longview. July 7, 1928, he married
Myrtle Pauline Hedge in Rusk County. They
lived in Kilgore before settling in Rusk County.
They had one daughter, Mary Lynn, born in Kilgore on January 31, 1934,
who went to school in Henderson and Texas Christian University.
On May 28, 1955, Mary Lynn married Rex Darrell Webb.
They have two children, Richard Darrell and Mary Melinda, all now living
in Irving, Texas.
Rogers Blanton Hale spent
fifty-five years in the construction business.
These are three of the projects he did in Rusk County, Texas.
They are pictured here.
Submitted by Rogers Hale