Earley, Lawrence, Price, and Dee Ancestors
The first known Townsend ancestor of any line to arrive in North America was an Earley ancestor – Thomas Wootten (1585-1669). He was a surgeon who came to Jamestown in 1607 on the first ship and was one of the few original Jamestown settlers to survive the next few years. You can read about him and other 17th century Virginia ancestors by following this link:
George Washington Lawrence arrived in Texas with his family in 1835 and fought for Texas independence at San Jacinto. You can read more about him in the section on Texas Pioneers linked here:
George Washington Lawrence and his wife Sarah Whitley were born in Illinois during the first decades of the 1800s. Their parents were from Virginia and were part of the migration from the original colonies to the Midwest that started after the Revolutionary War. They married in 1854 and moved the next year to the Sabine district of Mexico (East Texas) along with Sarah’s parents, Mills and Elizabeth Whitley and her brothers and sisters later they settled in Walker County. In 1836 George fought for Texas Independence at San Jacinto. They owned a farm west of New Waverly where they started a family in the early years of the Republic of Texas.
Charles M. Lawrence was their oldest son, born soon after the family arrived in the Sabine District, Mexico in 1835. In 1865, he married Susanna Smith, daughter of William Smith and Elizabeth Smith in Montgomery, Texas. Susanna moved from Florida to Texas sometime after 1850. Charles died in 1905 in Walker Co., Texas and Susanna died in 1907.
Norman Franklin “Lit” Earley, son of George W. Earley and Elizabeth Love was born in 1860 in Georgia. He married Elizabeth Lawrence, daughter of Charles M. Lawrence and Susanna Smith in 1892. Lit and his mother Elizabeth arrived in Texas sometime between 1870 and 1873. He died in 1907 and is buried with his in-laws in the East Sandy Cemetery, New Waverly Texas. The cemetery is 5 miles west of I-45 on FM 1374. Their son Red Earley was born in Conroe. Elizabeth died in 1947 and is buried in the Conroe, Texas cemetery.
Price Family
Three generations of Prices moved from Mississippi to Limestone County, Texas between 1850 and 1870.
The grandfather Edmund Price, son of Edward W. Price was born on 28 Dec 1790 in Hancock, Georgia. Edmund was a veteran of the War of 1812: (Private US Army War of 1812, Chile’s Battalion, Mounted Gunmen, East Tennessee Volunteers). He married Rebecca Moore in 1818 in Marengo, Alabama. Rebecca died in 1844 in Alabama. Edmund relocated to Mississippi with his children and married Elizabeth Slayton in 1856. He and Elizabeth were still living in Mississippi by the 1860 census. Edmund and Elizabeth followed their children to Texas sometime after 1860 (maybe after the Civil War). He passed away in 1878 and Elizabeth died in 1881. They are both buried in the Eutaw cemetery in Kosse, Texas.
Edmund’s son with his first wife, George Henry Price, was born in Alabama in 1823. He married Louisa Marie Hughes in 1844 after the family had relocated to Mississippi. Their son Jimmie Price was born in 1845 in Mississippi. George then married Margaret Rose in 1849. Louisa, Jimmie’s mother, lived until 1900, so they must have divorced. Sometime between 1850 and 1860 George, Margaret, and Jimmie moved to Limestone County, Texas. George died in 1887. He and Margaret are buried in the Eutaw cemetery in Kosse with the Price family. Margaret’s headstone is not visible in the cemetery.
James Edward “Jimmie” Price, son of George Henry Price and Louisa Maria Hughes was born on Jul 1845 in Dalesville, Lauderdale Co, Mississippi (The family Bible shows Jimmie Price was born in 1846, but his tombstone shows born 1845). He died on 01 Jul 1937 in Falls, Co, Texas (Died Thursday, at 7:30 a. m.). Burial: Kosse Cemetery, Kosse, Limestone County, Texas. He married Martha Elizabeth “Mattie” Dees, daughter of William R Dees and Louisa Mary Josey on 16 Aug 1893 in At Mr. and Mrs. Gibson’s home in Brazos, Texas.
Jimmie Price’s Obituary:
The information came from Harry’s bible. It states he was born in Lauderdale City, Miss. July 11, 1846, and died 1937 at 7:30 am at age 92. He was a Confederate Veteran and one time friend of Sam Houston. He settled in Washington Co, Texas where he lived until 1865, then lived in Limestone Co., where he died. His funeral was at First Baptist Church-Kossee, Texas. He was planning on attending the old soldier reunion in Pennsylvania but died before they had it.
JE Price was a farmer in Eutaw just east of Kosse TX. He lived on the stagecoach route from Huntsville to Waco and would bring water out to Sam Houston and talk with him during his journeys. He served with Company E of the 35th Texas Calvary. The Kosse Cemetery is .2 miles north of downtown Kosse.
Martha Elizabeth “Mattie” Dees, daughter of William R Dees and Louisa Mary Josey was born on Mar 1865 in Alabama. She died on 02 Aug 1961 in Marlin, Falls Co., Texas. Mattie was an avid crochet artist and made many crochet pieces for her family.
Mattie was born 31 March 1865 in Mississippi, died 2 August 1961 in Marlin, Texas, 96 years old. She was a faithful member of the Presbyterian Church. Funeral 10:00am Friday Aug 4, at Kossee Methodist Church. She was in the hospital 8 days prior to her death. It also states she was survived by one sister, Mrs. Annie Jones of Houston, Texas, and two stepdaughters, Mrs. Jimmy Dees and Mrs. J.J. Suttle of Kossee, Texas.
Mattie Dees was born in Alabama in 1865 at the end of the Civil War. By 1880 the family had relocated to Mississippi where Mattie married James Walters in 1882. James died in 1891.
Between 1880 and 1890 William, Louisa, and family relocated to Texas. It’s possible that Mattie followed them to Texas after the death of her husband James.
Mattie married Jimmie Price in Texas in 1892. Jimmie was a Civil War veteran and 20 years older. Mattie’s mother Louisa died in Texas in 1906. Her father William died in 1909 in Mississippi.
Moye Green “Red” Earley and Pearl Elizabeth “Lizzie” Price
Moye Green (Red) Earley son of Norman Franklin Earley and Elizabeth Lawrence was born on 20 Mar 1896 in New Waverly, Walker Co., Texas. He died on 11 Apr 1971 in Ingram, Kerr Co., Texas. He married Pearl Elizabeth Price, daughter of James Edward “Jimmie” Price and Martha Elizabeth “Mattie” Dees on 19 Sep 1921 in Marlin, Texas.
Red was born and raised in Conroe Texas. In 1916 he went to work as a roughneck in the East Texas oil fields for James S. Abercrombie. He married Pearl Elizabeth Price from Kossey, Texas. Their grandchildren called them Gramps and Wee Wee. They moved all over Texas and Louisiana following the oil business. He eventually worked his way up in Abercrombie’s Oil Company (of Spindletop fame) to Drilling Manager based in Bay City Texas.
When Abercrombie sold the business Red received his share of the sale of the old Ocean Field. His share was $3,000,000 delivered by Abercrombie himself in a suitcase full of $100 bills in a Houston hotel room. Abercrombie offered to give him Cameron Iron instead of the cash, but Red wanted to retire after 30 years in the oil field and took the cash. Red retired in 1946.
Pearl Elizabeth (Liz) Price, daughter of James Edward “Jimmie” Price and Martha Elizabeth “Mattie” Dees was born on 02 Oct 1901 in Kosse, Texas. She died on 28 Jan 1993 in Kerrville, Texas. Gramps (Red) called her “Lizzie” and she went by Liz. The younger generations called her, Wee Wee.
During his retirement Red traveled the world hunting big game. He had a large room built to house his trophy collection. This is a published article about one of his hunts:
This is a copy of the article “Big Ram of Pilot Mountain Article” that describes one of Red’s hunts:
Red’s and Liz’s ranch was a 10,000 acre property in Hunt, TX. At first the ranch had only coal lamps and an outhouse. Later he brought an electric generator from the oil field to power the ranch.
Famous visitors to Red’s ranch included the pro golfers Jimmy Demeret (Masters golf tournament Champion) and Jimmy and Jackie Burke. Demeret and Burke developed Champions Country Club in Houston.
Red won the Jefferson St. property in Kerrville that Ron Townsend and Hardy Callcott owned in downtown Kerrville in a four day long gin rummy game. At the time there was a Lincoln-Mercury dealership on the property.
While Ron was in school Gramp’s and Wee Wee moved to a large home in Kerrville. The family attended the Episcopal Church in Kerrville. After Gramp’s passed away Wee Wee moved to a home at 105 Cynthia Loop.
Family recollections:
After the war the family (Moye E, Donald, and the two boys, Ron and Donnie) moved back to Houston before moving to Hunt, TX along with Gramps and Wee Wee, sometime in ’45 or ‘46. While their house (1/2 mile on the right from Heart of the Hills) was being built nearby, they lived at the old ranch house without electricity using coal oil lamps. The ranch was 15 acres next to the Heart of the Hills. Gramps eventually bought a generator (like the ones used with oil rigs-duh!) in Houston and a big shed was built around it, Don installed the generator, and this was how they got their electricity at the ranch.
Don opened “the Sport Shop” on Water Street. He was coming home from a buying trip in San Antonio for the store when he veered off the road and died. An autopsy was not performed but it was assumed he died of a heart attack in 1950 when Dad (Ron) was 9 years old. Gramps bought family plots in the cemetery outside of Kerrville, so Don was the first to be buried there. For a while, Gramps hired someone to run the store but eventually sold it.
Gramps and Wee Wee moved to Kerrville in the 1950s due to Norma Jane’s asthma and they were advised her asthma would improve in the hill country. Norma attended Camp Mystic prior to the move, and they were familiar with Hunt and Kerrville because of bringing Norma Jane to the camp. Gramps was also a gambler and won the 2 lots Dad and Hardy now own in Kerrville during a game of poker! When Dad asked Wee Wee, several years after Gramps died how much she wanted for the two lots she said that Gramps told her it was worth $32,000 when he won it in the 1950s so that’s what she wanted for it. (They got a big ole bargain)
Gramps gave Jackie Burke, professional golfer and Golf Hall of Famer, his first set of clubs; later he would give Jackie money for starting Champions Golf Club with Jimmy Demaret, another professional golfer and Golf Hall of Famer, in Houston.
On Wee Wee’s side, the Price family, she was born Pearl Elizabeth, Gramps called her “Lizzie” and she went by Liz. Her older sister, Jewell was married to Sydney Carrington (this is where Dad and Bubba got their middle name) they lived in River Oaks. Her other sister was Ruby along with little brother Harry, called “Peanut”. Wee Wee said she remembered riding in covered wagons as a child on their farm in Kosse, TX. Her Dad was a civil war cavalry veteran and much older than their mother. Grandma Price crocheted and made beautiful, crocheted items.
Moye Elizabeth (Beth) Earley
Moye Elizabeth Earley, daughter of Moye Green Earley and Pearl Elizabeth Price, was born 19 Mar 1922 in Houston, Texas. She married Donald Fisher Townsend, son of August Emmett Townsend and Velma Blanche Fisher 25 Sep 1939 in Jennings, Jefferson Parish, Louisiana.
After Donald’s death in 1950 she married and later divorced Gene Crider. She then married Major (Francis William) Bill Lang in 1970 moving into his stone house on two acres on the Guadalupe River on Arcadia loop just outside Kerrville city limits.
She died of lung cancer on 30 Oct 1998 in Kerrville, Texas and is buried in the Kerrville Cemetery.
