Used with permission of Norman Lowell McCarver, Jr. These electronic pages may not be reproduced in any format by other organizations or individuals. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material must obtain the written consent of McCarver family relatives or contact William Kent Brunette, Robertson County TXGenWeb coordinator.
|
The
Hearnes
The
lineage of the Hearne family, for whom Hearne, Texas was named, from the Norman
Conquest to William Hearne who came to America in 1681 is rather unconnected.
But, from this William Hearne, many of his descendants can be traced in a
very direct line.
The
name Hearne, meaning Heron, was taken from the village of Hairnu, near Rouen,
Normandy. The following different
spellings of the surname occur in legal papers; Hairnu, Heiron, Herou, Hearon,
Hearn and Hearne.
William
Heron held a Barony in Normandy.
Tihel de Heiron was in Essex in 1086, having accompanied William The Conqueror.
Odnel Heron witnessed a charter in Duram, England in 1087.
Alban de Hairnu held a Barony in Herefordshire in 1165.
Dru de Hairnu was in Yorkshire.
Jordau de Hairn lived in Yorkshire, England.
Baron William Heron was a Governor at Northumberland at the time of Henry III and lived at Bamborough Castle.
William Heron was Treasurer of the Chamber to Henry VIII.
Sir
Nicholas Hearon was knighted in 1566.
Sir
William Hearne was Knight of Maidenhead and High Sheriff of London in 1797.
A
descendant of this Anglo-Norman family, William Hearne, left London in 1680 and
traveled to Barbados, St. Thomas Island in the West Indies. Here he opened a large trade in general merchandise between
London and the islands and later to the colonies on the coast of Maryland and
Delaware. In 1681, William Hearne's
two brothers, Derby and Ebenezer, joined him and the three brothers settled on
the coast of Maryland, this site having been granted to James, Duke of York, and
by the Duke of York to Lord Baltimore.
The
Mason and Dixon Line, which was surveyed to settle the dispute between the Lord
Baltimore and William Penn grant, passed through the Hearne property and left
the homestead on the Delaware side of the line.
As late as 1895, this site in Delaware was still known as the Old Hearne
Homestead.
This
first William Hearne and his wife Mary had two sons, William and Thomas. William Jr. and his wife Elizabeth had nine children.
Thomas Hearne and his wife, Sally Wingate, had twelve children.
With such large families as this, using the same name over and over,
cousins marrying cousins, it is almost impossible to keep the family line
straight. However, one of the
twelve children of Thomas Hearne and Sally Wingate Hearne, was named Nehemiah.
He and his wife Betty Hearne had five children.
Their two sons Joshua Hearne and William Hearne moved to North Carolina.
William Hearne moved to Lowndes County, Alabama and was married to his
cousin Tabitha Hearne. This William Hearne and his wife Betty Hearne were the
grandparents of the first Heames who came to Texas.
At
the commencement of the American Revolutionary War, this William Hearne of
Lowndes County, Alabama enlisted and served through the entire war period. William and Tabitha Hearne had eight children.
Another
William Hearne who was born in 1784 married Nancy Miles whose mother was a Lee
from Virginia, a sister of Light Horse Harry Lee.
Of their eight children, five moved to Texas; Ebenezer Hearne, Horatio
Ransome Hearne, Roda Lee Hearne, Adeline Hearne, and Frances Hearne.
William
and Tabitha Hearne's second son was named Selby Hearne and he married Elizabeth
Ransome. Their son Christopher
Columbus Hearne was born in Hannock County, Georgia November 25, 1814.
Along with his sisters Tabitha Hearne and Priscilla Hearne, he moved to
Texas. His sister Tabitha Hearne
married Thomas Powell and Priscilla Hearne married her cousin Horatio Ransome
Hearne.
Christopher
Columbus Hearne was married to Mary Ellen Gilmer of Caddo Parish, Louisiana in
August 1842. Mary Ellen Gilmer
Hearne was born in Montgomery County, Alabama August 7, 1820.
In
1852, under the leadership of Christopher Columbus Hearne, the Hearnes came to
this section of Texas. This group
of Hearnes were decendants of the Alabama tribe and came from Lowndes County,
Alabama with a stopover in Louisiana and finally settled at Wheelock, Texas, a
rural community in Robertson County. Included
in this group were cousins of Christopher Columbus Hearne, Horatio Ransome
Hearne, Ebenezer Hearne, Roda Lee Hearne, Adaline Hearne and George Washington
Hearne and his wife Frances Hearne. Other
members of the Hearne family that settled in this area were: Sam Hearne, Alfred
Hearne and Selby Hearne.
The
Hearnes came bringing their household and farming equipment, livestoclr, and
quite a number of negro slaves. Christopher
Columbus Hearne purchased land in the Wheelock vicinity and with his slaves
burned brick and erected a commodious home.
The authors of this book visited the old Hearne homesite in the summer of
1957 and have in their possession two bricks from the foundation of this old
home. This home became the
headquarters for the family while they searched for suitable locations for
permanent homesites. Another
brother of Christopher Columbus Hearne, Asa Hoxie Hearne, came to Texas about
this time and located on farm lands in the Red River Bottoms and was later
joined there by his sister Roda Lee Hearne.
The
Hearnes were considered good farmers and knew good land when they saw it. The Brazos Bottom lands were just what they were looking for.
Acting by and through Christopher Columbus Hearne the Hearne family
acquired a large acreage of the Francisco Ruiz Grant from the heirs of Rhody
Kennedy, both parties to this land deal being fully aware of the conflict of
title of the Francisco Ruiz land. In
order to protect themselves in this land transaction, the Hearnes acquired this
land by contract instead of deeds.
Christopher
Columbus Hearne lived and died at his home in Wheelock in October of 1867, but
Horatio Ransome Hearne and Ebenezer Hearne, while owning large tracts of bottom
lands, built their homes in the uplands east of Little Brazos River while their
sisters Adeline and Frances homes were built in the town of Hearne soon after
the townsite was located. The
bottom lands were largely in timber at this time and with very poor drainage.
Malaria fever conditions generally prevailed and the bottom lands were
considered no place for a white man to live.
Ebenezer
Hearne' who died in 1860, married Minerva Walker of Alabama, and five children
were born to them; William Hearne born in 1840, Mary Hearne born in 1841, Mitty
Hearne born in 1846, Isophena Hearne born in 1848 and Ida Hearne born in 1861,
after her father's death.
Horatio
Ransome Hearne was born in Montgomery County, Alabama and married his cousin,
Priscilla Hearne on January 27, 1842 at Caddo Parish, Louisiana.
Several children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Horatio Ransome Hearne but
only two of them lived to maturity; a daughter Betty Hearne who married George
N. Aldredge and their children were George E. Aldredge born in 1883, Horatio R.
Aldredge born in 1885 and Sawnie R. Aldredge born in 1890; another daughter
Alabama Hearne who married Samuel J. Adams and their children were Horatio R.
Adams, Samuel J. Adams Jr., and Hearne Oliver Adams.
Horatio
Ransome Hearne used lumber produced from his own saw mill for the material of
his home. This lumber was cut from
prime cedar in the immediate territory. The
home was a typical country home being a two-story structure with large bedrooms
twenty feet square with high ceilings. All
windows and doors were made of cedar and were built by carpenters at the bench.
The studding was made from cedar saplings squared on two sides to receive
the siding and ceilings, the studs being left in their natural stage on the
other two sides. Ash pins were used
to fasten the studs with cedar being used throughout the house from the ten by
ten square sills to the shingles on the roof.
This beautiful home was located in a grove of oak trees and all kinds of
imported shrubbery was planted. Mr.
Hearne attended to the yard and garden and planted all sorts of fruit trees and
vegetables. He was known to be very proud of a good sweet watermelon and
on many occasions cut as many as six melons before he found one to suit his
taste. His wife, Priscilla Hearne,
left the pigs and cows for Mr. Hearne to attend to.
Her hobby was her vast flock of fowls; ducks, chickens, geese and
peafowls, to say nothing of her guineas. This
home was located about five miles southeast of the present town of Hearne and
for many years Horatio Ransome Hearne was a regular traveler from his home to
his several plantations in the Brazos Bottom.
He carried his weekly payroll in the back of his buggy, and even though
this was generally known, he never was relieved of the payroll by the notorious
bandits of the day.
After
the death of his wife Priscilla Hearne, Mr. Hearne left his beautiful home and
went to live on one of his farms in the bottom lands.
On this particular farm Mr. Hearne developed a natural gas supply from
his artesian wells for his household use. It
was also on this farm that Mr. Hearne took up the arduous task of teaching his
young grandson the fine arts of farming. Horatio
Ransome Hearne died a few years later, closing an eventful and pioneering life,
leaving a very large estate to his family.
Ebenezer
Hearne located his home in the uplands and was nearer to his farm having to
cross Little Brazos River at a place that is still known as the Ebb Hearne
Crossing. His home was not as
pretentious as the home of Horatio Ransome Hearne.
No signs of the old Ebenezer Hearne home stand today, but near the old
homesite on the Little Brazos River under the protection of an iron fence is the
old Hearne Cemetery where the remains of Ebenezer Hearne and his wife Minerva
Walker Hearne rest and where a number of the children of Horatio Ransome Hearne
and Priscilla Hearne are buried. One
lone grave just outside the iron fence is the last resting place of a family
slave.
William
Hearne, the only son of Ebenezer and Minerva Hearne, acquired his own farm where
he made his home for many years. In
the early 1890's William Hearne sold his farm to his uncle Horatio Ransome
Hearne and moved to Wharton County, Texas where he died soon thereafter.
Frances
Hearne, who married her cousin George Washington Hearne, lived in Hearne where
she and her husband owned the first hotel to be erected in the town. This hotel was located on the corner of Market and Barton
Streets. George Washington Hearne
was a great hunter and through this skill provided the fresh meat for his hotel.
George Washington Hearne, his wife Frances Hearne, and Mrs. Hearne's
sister Mrs. Adeline Hearne Lewis are buried in Norwood Cemetery in Hearne,
Texas.
Adeline
Hearne married Colonel Charles Lewis and their farm was located at what today is
known as Valley junction. This farm
consisted of a thousand acres of fertile bottom land.
Colonel Lewis established his home in the town of Hearne and he and his
family lived in this home for many years. This
home was located on the corner of Magnolia and Barton Streets.
The children of Colonel and Mrs. Adeline Hearne Lewis were: Fannie Lewis,
Henry Lee Lewis and Miss Willie Lewis who married Dr. Clifford Moreland of
Atlanta, Georgia. Henry Lee Lewis was a very capable and active man and was a
very valuable citizen of Hearne during his life.
At the death of his father Colonel Charles Lewis, he took over the Lewis
estate and held the property intact and cared for his mother and sisters.
With farm expenses constantly mounting, he carried the burden of the four
families and greatly increased the family land holdings which at his death was
approximately five thousand acres of excellent farm land.
The
original Hearnes probably acquired more land in this area that has ever been
under one family ownership, and as they brought more and more acres under
cultivation, the moving of crops and getting in supplies became a great
handicap, keeping their teams on the road to and from Houston, Texas
continuously. So, in 1855 when the
rumor of an intended railroad from south to north Texas seemed substantial,
Christopher Columbus Hearne went to Houston and told the promoters of the
proposed railroad, the Houston and Texas Central Railroad, that if they would
give him a shipping station anywhere between Wheelock and Port Sullivan on the
Brazos River he would give them all of the land needed for the railroad right of
way and a town site. The railroad
officials accepted Mr. Hearne's generous offer, stating to him that the shipping
station would be located as requested and would be named Hearne, Texas.
Thus the first seeds of the town of Hearne were sown.