Athens Weekly Review
Old Settlers Edition
August 2, 1901
J. T. Meredith
Jim was born in Georgia in May 1851 and while yet an infant his
parents, without his
knowledge or consent brought him to Texas and Henderson county in
October 1851,
settling in the town of Athens in that month and year. His
father, C. B. Meredith came
out to Texas in 1850, leaving his then-young family in Georgia.
Finding that a new county site had been located at Athens, he
together with E. A. Carroll
built the first store house ever built by setting poles in the
ground the proper distance
apart and nailing red oak boards on the outside for
weatherboarding, covering it with
the same kind of boards. For a good while they had no door
shutter and used to hang
a blanket up for one.
Jim's mother is our present Mrs. Easterling, her maiden name is
Georgia Ann Reed.
C. B. Meredith died in the spring of 1859. That fall Mrs.
Meredith moved back to Georgia.
She afterwards married Judge J. M. Easterling. The fruits of that
marriage are our Dr. Harry
Easterling and Mrs. EulahMurchison, wife of our merchant
red-headed John.
In 1875 Jim married Miss M. H. Flowers, who was raised in this
county. He has been
busy raising children ever since and now has four boys and four
girls living. Four of
these are grown one of which, Wayne is our present county
attorney.
Jim was appointed about the year 1878 to fill out the unexpired
term of A. F. Wood who
had died. The first race Jim ran for county surveyor he got left
and I think it was on account
of some of the speeches made in a jocular way by one of his
friends. At the first speaking
of the candidates on the round an old man by the name of Headens
took the stump for Jim
and I remember a part of Headens' speech. He said that Jim had at
great expense equipped
himself as a surveyor, securing or inheriting a fine compass;
that he had had considerable
experience in surveying, having surveyed the collard patch of
some old woman living there
in the neighborhood. I also remember well the first surveying Jim
ever did. It was on Cedar
creek on the Jonathan Ping league taking in a part of the Spivy's
prairie. Jim had procured
from his office the field notes. Dutch Faulk and I went along
with him. His field notes called
for an elm out in the prairie. Dutch and I went on ahead of Jim
and his compass and found
the tree. We then went south of that tree about 50 yards and sat
down by the side of another
elm about half size of the one having the marks on it, and when
Jim emerged from the
thicket into the edge of the prairie he turned his compass at
about an angle of 45 degrees
and aimed at the tree where we were sitting. When he got there he
claimed that he had
struck a bunch of weeds there about 5 feet from the tree. You can
imagine how Dutch
joked Jim about this matter. We never have let it die out on Jim.
He tries to deny it
but it is the truth.
Jim, however, soon got over all kind of breaks and made a fine
surveyor. He knows nearly
all the mark tree lines and corners in the county.
Jim became well known in the county, and out surveying he would
have to stay among the
people and quickly established a reputation of being the biggest
eater in the county, Capt.
Eustace not excepted.
Jim went out with Sant Miller on one occasion to survey some land
that Sant had dup up
on his land abstract. They stopped at a place to get dinner. The
lady of the house had
heard of Jim and his being such a big eater, but she did not know
that the Mr. Meredith
That Sant had introduced her to was the veritable Jim Meredith,
the big eater. After Jim
had eaten several slices of ham, drunk three cups of coffee and
had chambered his
twelfth biscuit and was reaching for the thirteenth, it occurred
to the lady who Jim was,
and she remarked to him, "Ain't you Mr. Meredith the
surveyor."
Jim served as County Surveyor by election and under appointment
for about ten years.
I must say that he was a little excusable for making the break on
Spivy's prairie in
setting his compass at an angle of 45 to hit the wrong elm, as he
was appointed one
day by the County Commissioners and inexperienced surveyor and
was called on the
next day by the writer to do the surveying in question.
There are but few who knows that Jim is a practical tanner. He
served his three years
apprenticeship at that trade in 1870 - 1 and 2 in Georgia, under
C. C. Cleghorn and got
his certificate. He came back to Texas from Georgia in 1873. Jim
says he would have
kept the business up but that he was too tall to bend his long
back over the currying beams;
he preferred surveying so that he would not have to bend so much.
Jim has been a right successful farmer, but the crops raised on
his place were usually
raised by the boys under Jim's supervision. He has with the aid
of our liberal public
school system given his children a good education and they are
starting out in the
world to make their fortunes.
Transcribed by Bunny Freeman 2003
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