THE MARTIN SETTLEMENT

TAKEN FROM THE BOOK............"TATUM....A PLACE CALLED HOME"   BY CECIL WILLIAMS

DANIEL MARTIN, a native of Tennessee, enlisted under the standard of Andrew Jackson in the Creek War of 1813-14 and served as a soldier throughout the campaign. It was while in Florida, he met Mary Allen Ayers, the daughter of a sugar plantation owner. Following the war, young Martin returned to Florida and to the Ayers= plantation. He was employed to oversee the slaves of Mary Ellen's father. At convenient intervals, Martin wooed this young woman and she consented to become his wife. The Ayers belonged to the aristocracy of the south, and Mary Ellen was the only daughter in a large family. Martin was a typical frontiersman, a horse trader, and belonged to the great mass of poor white people of the South. The parents would not consent to the union of their daughter with one whose birth and parentage were so common. Martin was an attractive young man, had a strong personality, plenty of business acumen, and was dashing enough to captivate the heart of almost any young woman.

The young people waited for weeks, hoping that the father and mother would give in and finally agree for the wedding to take place in the plantation home. The parents never consented: and when all hope was gone, Mary Ellen and Martin met one evening at a dance. Martin had disposed of all his property except two of his best horses. During the dance the two eloped. They fled toward the north and the west and continued their journey as fast as possible for several days. They eventually reached Missouri and settled in what later became Clay Co. Here they lived until the fall of 1832. Leaving his oldest son, Jim Martin, in Missouri, this bold backwoodsman, with his wife and seven other children, packed his house hold goods on wagons and left for Austin's Colony in the Mexican Province of Texas. They crossed the Arkansas Territory and entered the Republic of Medico at Pecan Point. Over the Trammel Trace, Martin passed on southward intending to settle somewhere between the Trinity and Colorado Rivers.

At this time, the territory lying between Pecan Point and Nacogdoches was a wilderness infested with wolves, bears, and panthers and many Indians whose activities toward the white people were not at all friendly. As a result of Mexican colonization laws, scarcely any white people lived on or near the Trace.

It was during the first days of the Spring of 1833 that Daniel Martin, his family and a man by the name of John Iron climbed a hill south of the creek, which now bears Martin=s name and camped. They camped, fully planning of continuing their journey southward within a few days. But they never journeyed farther.

Under the Republic of TX, the Martin settlement prospered. Other settlers came as the government became more secure. By 1845 ther were, in addition to Martin and his children, a family of May, the Wyatts, The Huffs, the Williamsons. Jim Reel patented a league of land and was living just north of the creek. Silas Metcalf came in 1845 and taught the first school of the settlement. When TX became one of the United States, the Martin settlement was filled with approximately seventy-five plain, but happy and prosperous inhabitants