Submitted by: Troy Everett
Email: troyeverett@msn.com

I was born and raised in the Crossroads community near FM31 and CR2199.  My 
great-great grandfather was Robert Burton Everitt.  He came to the area near 
the Blocker community from Jackson Parish, Louisiana about 1868 after he and 
two of his sons, William James Everitt (my great grandfather) and his 
brother, Joseph Everitt, fought in the Civil War.  I don't know all of their 
service, but I'm reasonably sure they were in the Battle of Mansfield, 
Louisiana.  All three survived the war.  After working some for a short time 
for Henry Ware who had married Robert's sister, Martha Ann, and preceded him 
to East Texas, Robert bought land from the old Lucinda Wallace survey at 
Crossroads and built a two story handhewn log home with handmade brick 
chimneys and four firplaces.  It was covered on the inside and outside with 
1 X 10 boards.  You could not tell that it was a log house by looking at it. 
  
The roof was covered by handsplit shingles.  It was built by ex-slaves who 
chose to follow the family from Louisiana to Texas after their emancipation. 
  
Robert and Jim, as my great grandfather was called, were good to them and 
since they didn't have anywhere else to go, they stayed with the family.  
The old home was on what is now my part of the old home place.  The house is 
now gone but stood until the late 1950's when my father , A. B. "Pete" 
Everett, gave away the logs, lumber, and bricks.  It was in need of repair 
but could have been saved.  I almost fainted when I came home from the army 
in 1959 and found that it was gone.

The grounds where the Crossroads Methodist Church and Cemetery are located 
was donated from the original Lucinda Wallace property before my family 
owned the land.  There is now a Historical Marker there at the cemetery.  I 
believe Robert Burton Everitt, born 14 March 1821, died 16 March 1884, and 
his wife, Martha Barr Everitt, born 22 Nov 1819, died 8 Oct 1894, are the 
oldest people there.  Mary Jane Everitt, their daughter, is buried next to 
them.  She never married and lived with her parents all her life because her 
fiance had been killed in the Civil War.  Almost all of my kin of the 
Everitt/Everett family are buried there.

We are also doubly related to the Woodley's through Henry Woodley who married 
Rebecca "Aunt Becky" Everitt, daughter of Robert Burton Everitt, and his son 
Richard Beavers Everitt who married Fannie A. Woodley.

I have been doing genealogy for over 40 years and have tons of information 
on families that were either related to us or lived in the vicinity of 
Scottsville, Crossroads, Blocker, Gill, Elysian Fields, and Marshall.