From Proud Heritage, Volume I by DCPA, not currently in print.
Eugene McPherson Lively came to Texas from Bowling Green, Kentucky, in 1853 with his parents, Patrick Henry Lively and Mary Smith Lively. They rented a farm their first yearin the county, located at what is now known as Greenway Parks. The following year they bought 640 acres bounded by what is now Northwest Highway, Inwood Road, Midway Road and Park Lane. The price of this land at the time was fifty cents an acre. Some of the land still remains in the Lively family, and some of the streets are named for members of the family: Lively Lane, Miron Dr., Woodfin Dr., etc. The family home was located at what is now the center of Midway Road and Lively Lane.
Eugene Lively married in 1872, Margaret Elizabeth Jenkins, a daughter of William and Cynthia Adeline Jenkins. Cynthia was a daughter of Issac Thomas of Sevier County, Tennessee. Issac Thomas was born in Virginia in 1735, of Welch descent from the Quaker Settlements of Pennsylvania. He was a successful hunter and Indian trader, and served as guide for Revolutionary Troops, for which he was commended by the General Assemblies of Virginia and Tennessee and given a land grant in Sevier County prior to 1794. He married Elizabeth Massengale, a widow whose husband had been killed by Indians. The children of this couple lived in Tennessee before moving to Kentucky and Missouri. Cynthia Thomas married William Jenkins in Missouri and then moved to Dallas County, Texas, as a bride. They farmed and raised cattle, and their homestead became a settlement known for many years as Vickery, near the intersection of Greenville and Park Lane. They gave land for the right-of-way for the Houston & Texas Central Railroad to build tracks into the county. One of Cynthia’s sisters was Mrs. Charles Durgin, who became the first postmistress of the county. Another descendant of Issac Thomas was Jonathan Thomas who became the first county judge of Dallas County.
A daughter of William and Cynthia Jenkins, Margaret Elizabeth Jenkins was born at Vickery. A granddaughter, Martha Lively Cullum married Dr. Walter T. Henderson, and they had three children.
William Henry Lively was the eldest son of Eugene and Elizabeth Lively and lived a good portion of his life in the family home. He and his brothers and sisters all owned the farm land that was bought by their grandfather in 1854. Their interests continued to be in the development of the land rather than in business. One sister, Minnie, married Woodfin Cullum, who was one of a large family in the North Dallas area. Both the Lively and Cullum families were active in the growing Oak Lawn area and in the Oak Lawn Methodist Church. Another sister, May, married Charles Coppedge whose family lived near the Lively family home on Midway.
By Margaret Lively Cullum Henderson, Dallas
