From Proud Heritage, Vol. 1 by DCPA, not currently in print
George and Mary C. Wilson Huffhines, both natives of Simpson County, Kentucky, came to Dallas County in 1853 with other members of the Huffhines family. They settled west of a spot which later became Breckenridge. George, born 21 March 1826, was the third of fourteen children born to John and Elizabeth Wright Huffhines. Mary C. Wilson, born 13 April 1830, was from the equally large family of Samuel and Mary Lawler Wilson. George and Mary C. married in Kentucky after the 1850 Census. Their first son, John S., was born 9 January 1852 before they came to Texas. Their second child, Mary Elizabeth, was born in Dallas County on 13 September 1854.
In 1855 George and his brother-in-law Daniel Doughty, also first cousin of George’s mother, jointly purchased two tracts of land. For $400 they bought 320 acres of prairie land, now bounded by Coit, Spring Valley, Maham, and LBJ. They paid $1300 for 255 acres on the east side of White Rock Creek, now the northern end of Park Central.
George and Mary C. returned to Kentucky, probably after they rendered their taxes in They came back to Dallas County in 1857 at some time after the birth of their third child, “Major”, on 29 January 1857 in Simpson County. Their other four children were born at their home southwest of what is now Richardson.
On 1 January 1861 Daniel and George divided their jointly-owned property. On 2 June 1861 George bought 35 acres from Nancy Heffington Huffhines for $106.50. At sometime before his enlistment in the Confederate Service George and Mary C. built a rambling one-story home on their land at the northwest corner of what is now Central Expressway and LBJ.
In 1861 they owned 10 horses and 35 head of cattle. George enlisted in Captain J. D. Stratton’s Company in 1862 or 1863. Winfield Scott, his son who was four years old at the time, said his only clear memory of his father was the day his father left for war. As the family stood on the porch, George told John S., who was then ten, “You are a man now … take care of your mother”. George mounted his horse and rode off to war. He was killed on 19 September 1863 in the Battle of Chickamauga. He was cut nearly in two by a cannon ball but lived long enough to send his love to his family. He was spared the horrors of the second day which was largely hand-to-hand combat. Almost 34,000 men lost their lives in two days, their bodies buried in unmarked graves.
Mary C. and her children attended the Mt. Calvary Baptist Church, which was organized in 1865 and built on the present site of Mt. Calvary Cemetery. Described as a short, plump woman and sometimes referred to as a “rich widow” she, with the help of her children, raised and traded in livestock. Tax rolls of 1869 show 10 horses and mules, 9 head of cattle, and 30 sheep. Tax rolls of 1870 show 24 horses and mules, 25 head of cattle, and 38 sheep.
Mary C. Huffhines married Andrew J. Jasper on 13 September 1870, the ceremony per formed by Rev. W. B. Long, who lived on an adjoining tract. This marriage brought to her household his 5 children by a previous marriage. The youngest, Joe Jasper, was born in November 1869. On 22 October 1870 Mary C. Jasper purchased as her separate property 120 acres for $1071.00 or $8.88 per acre. This tract of land was a part of what is now Hamilton Park. On 3 April 1873, A. J. Jasper and Mary C. deeded 6 acres on the eastern edge of this tract to the H & TC Railway for $1.00 and enhanced value to the land. On 12 February 1874, Mary C. Jasper purchased 18 acres adjoining her home from the Rev. J. W. B. Long, who had moved to Johnson County.
The Huffhines and Jasper children attended the Cottonwood Creek School less than 1/2 mile north of their home. The four younger Huffhines children and Mattie Jasper, their half-sister, were sent to the Woodlawn Academy when it was founded in 1877 and taught by Levi Coleman (son-in-law of Dr. R. C. Buckner, founder of Buckner’s Orphan Home). This was the first opportunity afforded the community for higher than elementary education. C. C. (Major) was then 20 years old. It was about this time that A. J. Jasper was “asked to leave”. He signed quit claim deeds to Mary C. and moved to Hill County.
George and Mary C. Wilson Huffhines had the following seven children: 1) John S. Huffhines born 9 January. 1852, died 22 June 2) Mary Elizabeth “Sis” Huffhines born 13 September 1854, died 13 August 1887; married 20 June 1872 in Dallas County to Andrew Jackson Fender born 19 December 1844, died 16 May 1918, son of Jonathan and Cynthia McCoy Fender and younger brother of Dr. James H. Fender, all born in Tennessee. “Sis” and Andrew moved to Rockwall County by 1880. Both are buried in the Mt. Zion Cemetery. Their children were George W., Mrs. W. T. (Cynthia Catherine) Wade, Walter S., Mrs. C. Ross (Sallie K.) Smith, Mrs. Charles Olin (Ida May) Wade, and Robert Newton Fender. 3) Christopher Columbus “Major” Huffhines born 29 January 1857, died 28 February 1932. 4) Winfield Scott Huffhines born 28 May 1858, died 17 December 1939. 5) George Washington Huffhines born 14 September 1859, died 1 October 1938. 6) An unnamed son born 25 February 1861, died 12 March 1861. 7) Sallie K. Huffhines born 16 April 1863, died 12 March 1885; married in 1878 to Robert S. Stark, son of William H. and Kezia Tucker Stark. Andrew J. and Mary C. Wilson Huffhines Jasper had one daughter, Mattie Arwin Jasper born July 1871, died 1901; married Robert Lee “Bob” Chick. Their children: Mrs. Edgar (Audry Lee) McCollum, Leslie, Gordon, Mrs. Roy (Willie May) Dalton, and Jack Chick.
The John Huffhines Family reads “Sally Huffhines died in childbirth the same day her mother, Mary C. Wilson Huffhines Jasper, died.” Bob Stark related to Mattie’s daughter, Willie Mae Dalton, that his wife died of typhoid fever and that her mother, who had been in constant attendance, went home to rest, fell asleep on the porch and contracted pneumonia. Mary C. died 13 March 1885. A double tombstone marks their graves in Mt. Calvary Cemetery.
By Everts E. Jackson, Richardson
