From Proud Heritage, Volume I by DCPA, currently out of print.
James Barker Lowrey, a son of Mark Lowrey and Margaret Barger, was born September 17, 1823, at Sparta, Tennessee, in White County. He married Elizabeth Hunter on November 25, 1845. She was also a resident of White County, the daughter of Dudley and Henrietta Hunter. She was a grand-niece of Daniel Boone. Both families had been early settlers in that section of the country.
James was apparently a fifth generation American, the first immigrant having been Lazarus Lowrey, of Scotch-Irish descent, who came from Donegal County, Ireland, to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, about 1729. He became a licensed and well known Indian trader and merchant. The family connection from Lazarus probably came through his son, James, who married Susanne Patterson, and from them to Alexander Lowrey, who would thereby represent the third generation in America. At this time, and to my knowledge, the exact relation has not been confirmed.
It is certain, however, that Alexander was born in Augusta County, Virginia, in 1767. He moved to Kentucky and from there to North Carolina, now Greene County, Tennessee. From this point the family story is certain and well documented. Greene County was part of the proposed State of Franklin. It was here that Alexander married Arnie Gist in 1790. She was the daughter of Benjamin Gist (1730-1810) and Mary Jarrett. They were married in the home of Valentine Sevier in Greeneville, Greene County. This house is still standing and is still occupied. Among the signers of the petition for release of this western country from the authority of North Carolina were Ben jam in Gist and Alexander Lowrey.
By 1807, Alexander and Arnie had moved to White County. In 1809 the legislature designated a permanent county seat for this new county on the Calfkiller River. The new town was Sparta, and Alexander was one of the commissioners elected to lay out the town site. He also donated much of the land involved. Alexander served as a private in the American Revolution and as a colonel of Tennessee militia in the war against the Creeks. He saw further service in the War of 1812. He died in 1846, and his grave in Sparta has been appropriately marked by the DAR.
The first son of Alexander and Arnie Lowrey was Mark Lowrey, who married Margaret Barger in 1813. Mark (1790-1879) and Margaret (1791-1858) are also buried in the old cemetery on the hill overlooking the downtown area. I have visited the cemetery recently and have met other descendants of these early settlers, who are, of course, my distant relatives. I have also found that several other early Lancaster, Texas, families had roots in the Tennessee town of Sparta.
James Barker was the seventh child of Mark and Margaret. He and Elizabeth, my great grand parents, moved to Texas in 1859, and settled on land located on Pleasant Run Road in the southern part of Dallas County between Lancaster and Wilmer. During the Civil War he drove a stage and carried the mail between Dallas and Waco. Texas State Archives, File 1478, also indicate that he was a private in the Dallas Light Artillery, C.S.A. for a period of about a year. James was later in the mercantile business in Lancaster.
At one time, he owned two saloons, one in an area known as “Cockle Burr Patch,” just outside the city limits of Lancaster, which was dry. The other saloon was in Wilmer, four miles down the road. He assembled over 2300 acres of farm land and in 1881 purchased 124 acres from Mrs. Malinda Pruitt out of the Goar Survey. His plans were to have a farm and home for each of his children as they came of age and married.
James and Elizabeth added to the small two-bedroom house that was on the property and had a large barn built. Several large pecan trees shaded the house that were just twigs when the house was first built. The builder of the barn was Mr. John Lott from St. Louis, Missouri. The lumber was hauled in by mule train from Louisiana.
The children of James Barker Lowrey and Elizabeth Hunter Lowrey were: Dudley B.; Nicholas 0.; Seth C.; Ida H. and Henriette. All lived in the area of Lancaster and Wilmer.
James died July 20, 1906. His wife, Elizabeth, had died in 1898.
The second child of James and Elizabeth was Seth Carrick Lowrey (1848-1928). He married Laura Moffett (1853-1912) on January 25, 1872. She was the daughter of William Ringo Moffett and Eleanor Ratcliff. A daughter of this marriage was Laura Elizabeth Lowrey, who was born in 1891 and died in 1957. She and Charles Edison Winniford (1881-1939) were married in Dallas in 1912, and a son, John C. Winniford, was born in 1917 when they lived on Corinth Street. Therefore, the grandchildren of John C. are sixth generation Texans and Dallasites through this family line. The Carrick name entered the line on two occasions several generations ago. Seth Lowrey continued to live on Pleasant Run Road until his death, and the old home place there is still in the family and is the present home of Moffett Lowrey. All the Texas Lowreys are buried in Edgewood Cemetery at Lancaster.
By John Carrick Winniford, great grandson, Dallas and Helen Hurst, Lancaster
