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Fannin County TXGenWeb
Page Family

Nathan James Page Family of Fannin County
from Gene Johnson The grandfather of the man seated in the rocker in this 1916 photo was also called Nathan James Page. This earlier Nathan James and his wife Joanna produced a son, Charles Francis, in 1816. Charles Francis Page took an early interest in locomotives:
   "In 1840;I went up into New Jersey to visit relatives.There for the first time I saw a railroad, the Camden & Amboy, which had been started in 1831 and supplied with cars drawn by horses. I was so pleased with the whole thing that I took a notion at once I would like to be an engineer;In 1836 the Camden & Amboy had substituted steam power for horse power, and the engine ;John Bull; was the first one put on the road;for several years I was its fireman and then its engineer."
   Charles Page married a young woman named Catherine Garnes, and among their other children was the man pictured here seated in a rocking chair. Charles and Catherine lived in Watseka, Illinois, and their son Nathan James Page came along in November 1844, born in Watseka, Iroquois County, brother of Elam M. Page and numerous other siblings. Both brothers would eventually fight for the Union in the Civil War.
    When the Civil War broke out, Nathan James Page, not quite seventeen, signed up in Indianapolis,Indiana, and became a private in Company D of the 10th Regiment of Indiana Volunteers. Nathan James received an honorable discharge in 1864. Eventually, with his new bride Armilda Elizabeth Dees, he left the North for good to seek his fortune in Texas.
   Nathan and Elizabeth settled in a place called Selfs in Fannin County. In December 1874 Nathan and his wife welcomed a baby girl to their family and decided to call her Nellie. Arthur James came along in April 1876, the Centennial Year, followed by Fred in 1880, John 1883 and Ernest in August 1887. Sadly, Armilda Elizabeth Dees Page passed away four years after the birth of her youngest son. She died the day before Valentine's Day, 1891, and was never to see the new century just around the corner.
   Nathan remarried, this time to a much younger woman--Margaret Weldon. Nathan James became the stepfather of the Weldon girls, Mary and Betty, beautiful blue-eyed girls with delicate waists and fair hair(see picture below) A child of their own was born to Nathan and Maggie in April 1893, little Lillie, and Willie came along the very next October.
   By the time this family picture was taken, Nathan James Page had lost two wives and three children. Elizabeth died in 1891 and Maggie in 1905. Willie as a teenager was possum hunting when he tragically fell from his perch in the tree, fatally injured. The year was 1909. Nathan buried his son beside the young man's mother in New Salem Cemetery. Nathan had also given up another son. Arthur James Page died in February before this picture was taken later that same year.
Arthur James' widow was Mary Aldona Little Page. Also missing from the photograph is Nathan's daughter Nellie Page, deceased.
   At the age of 85, Nathan James Page had outlived two wives and all his children except John. Like his father before him, Nathan James watched the beginnings of a new and exciting method of transportation-this time, the automobile. He had lived to see the dawn of a new century,and he watched his countrymen leave to go overseas and fight in a great World War, just as he had served his country in his own youth . Nathan James Page died December 31, 1929, and he is buried in the Page-Wilkinson cemetery north of Honey Grove.

Mary & Betty Standing
"Aunt Dora" seated

See page tombstones in New Salem Cemetery
and Tombstone Repairs made to Page Tombstones