WILLIAM H. SPRAYBERRY

The following bio was taken from page 393 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

William H. and Virginia Ann (Burrows) Sprayberry moved their family from Nacogdoches County to Rusk County, Texas in the latter part of 1879, settling in the Dewey Community west of Mt. Enterprise. They were married August 22, 1871 by their pastor, M. Donegan, Methodist minister, in the Linn Flat Community of Nacogdoches County, where both had lived since young childhood. After the move to Rusk County, William and Virginia Ann joined the Baptist church, as there was no Methodist Church in the Dewey Community.

William, son of Uriah and Elmira (Bell) Sprayberry, was born March 21, 1849, in Georgia and died January 6, 1929 in the home of a grandson, Ernest Birdwell, two months and fifteen days before his eightieth birthday.

Virginia (Jenny) Ann, daughter of Josiah and Mary Ann Burrows, was born August 26, 1848 in Tennessee. She died July 23, 1915 at her home as she sat visiting with a neighbor, one month and three days before her sixty-seventh birthday.

William and Virginia Ann are buried in the King Cemetery near Mt. Enterprise, as are eight of their ten children. Eight of their children lived to be grown, to marry and to have families of their own. Some of the descendants of these children still own land they inherited, which was originally bought and farmed by William and Virginia.

The ten Sprayberry children are as follows:

William Christopher, born November 27, 1872, who married Laura Bell Wolverton, November 26, 1891 and died February 27, 1958, in Moscow, Polk County, Texas where he is buried in Holhausen Cemetery.

Sarah Bell Zora, born July 7, 1874, married John M. Birdwell, December 24, 1890, and died April 14, 1918.

Wilburn Dewey, born September 15, 1876, who married first, Janie Woolverton, December 1, 1894, second, Annie Moore, January 8, 1904, and third, Addie L. (Milstead) Peters, died November 16, 1958.

Rosanna Venetta, born February 17, 1878, married first, Elisha Washington Griffin, December 1, 1895, and second, James Harvey Everett, September 19, 1912; died March 6, 1964, in Humble, Harris County, Texas and is buried in Mt. Rose Cemetery south of Livingston, Polk County, Texas.

Charley Columbus, born August 8, 1879, married Lizzie Moore, September 21, 1902, died in 1952 in Houston, Harris County, Texas and his body returned to Rusk County for burial in King Cemetery.

John, born January 5, 1882, married first, Katie Lloyd and second, Allie Channel, and died September 12, 1968.

Mary Nettie, born March 25, 1884, married John Hamilton Moore, October 1, 1903, and died October 18, 1967 in Henderson Memorial Hospital.

Lawrence, born February 18, 1886, married Ethel Moore, October 8, 1905; died September 20, 1968 in a nursing home in Kilgore, Gregg County, Texas, his body being returned to Rusk County for burial in King Cemetery.

Bertha, born October 3, 1888, died November 3, 1888.

Donnie Virginia, born January 31, 1892, died August 6, 1906, at the age of fourteen.

Submitted by Anna Beth Butler