A Classic Pilgrimage From Rome to Athens, 1941 Henderson Co. TX

Athens Daily Review
Athens, Texas, Historical and Home-Coming Edition
May 1941

A Classic Pilgrimage From Rome to Athens

By Dan Browning
Superintendent of Center Point Public School

Ancient lore tells us that emigrants form Athens or nearby settled Rome, but that order
was reversed in America. At least one caravan of covered wagons with a score or more of
westwardbound souls, counting both white and black, reversed the ancient order and moved
from Rome, Georgia, to Athens, Texas, in the fall of 1856. It came about this way.

In the beginning of the last half of the nineteenth century. John Davis Reynolds and his wife,
Katie, were living on a typical Southern plantation near Rome, Georgia. One daughter who
had married Charley Finley soon came to Henderson county and settled somewhere near
Athens. An unmarried son, Jim visited this sister and family, returning to Georgia in 1856
with flowing tales of the opportunities in Texas. Having recently suffered financial reverses
as most planters on the South Atlantic Seaboard did about this time, John Davis and Katie
Reynolds decided to come to Texas and bring as many of their seven rambling children
as they could. Eliza, who had married Jessie Forester, and Ann, who had married Marion
Otts, did not come with them, but did come in a few years and were on farms in the New
York community when the war between the States began in the fall of 1861.

In this "classic" caravan, besides John Davis and Katie and two or three families of negro
slaves, were the following children and grandchildren: Jim, who lead the way, having been
to Texas before; Julia, who later married Ambrose Coleman; Puss, who married Wick
Middleton and died early; John, a boy of 13, who later was county treasurer of Henderson
county and died in the New York community in 1902 and leaving a host of descendants,
and William, the oldest child, and his family of six children besides his wife as follows:
Davis, who died in 1920, the father of Turner, who lives near Athens; Lou, who married
John Cook and died early; John, better known as Johnnie, the father of West. Jim Hogg
and Mrs. Fannie Forester, who still live in Henderson county; the twin girls, Della, who died
in the early twenties, and Keely, the mother of Della Richardson, now living with her brother,
Dr. Will, in Athens and Nammie* (photo says Nannie) the mother of the writer and the only
living member of that caravan unless some of the colored members are living.

This only living member, now eighty-five was about a year old at that time and had learned to
walk, but had to learn over after the long trip, as she did not have much time to practice on
the way. I have heard her and Uncle Davis, who was eleven at that time, tell of this long
trek. Uncle Davis drove the slave wagon. All slaves not able to walk rode. On the way near
a little stream called Tippecanoe, a girl baby was born to Aunt Til, one of the slaves. she
was named for the stream and called "Tip."

On account of the hardships caused by the war and reconstruction, most of this caravan died
at a very early age. The only exceptions I know of are Uncle Davis Reynolds, the father of Turner,
who lived to be seventy-five; Aunt Keel Richardson, who died in 1932 at the age of seventy-nine,
and the only living survivor, Mrs. Nannie Browning, the writer's mother, now eighty-five.

The head of this family named the little community of New York. he said he wanted it to grow
to its name. his family all settled there and most of them died there, and the Reynolds stamp
has been placed on the community for a long time. I venture to say there will never be a time
when no descendant of John Davis and Katie Reynolds lives near the old spring that had a
gum in it for ten years when the family first saw it in 1856. Uncle Sam Hines, who died near
Chandler about thirty-five years ago, told the writer just before he died that he placed the gum
there in 1846. IN 1901 this gum was still where Uncle Sam placed it fifty-five years before.\No
doubt it is still therein a good state of preservation. Let me suggest to the people of New York
that the annual homecoming in that community be held in 1946 at the old spring. I would like to
see the old gum again that furnished pure Adams Ale to so many pioneers. Let us go back
there and pause for a while to honor the ones we owe so much.

Some day I hope to write a history of this Reynolds family. The descendants of John Davis and
Katy are as the sand of the sea. All Forester, Otts and Reynolds families in Henderson county
are descendants with the exception of the Reynolds family of Malard Prairie. Of course there
may be some new families that are not but I do not know of them.

In the meantime let us not forget the Centennial Celebration at the old spring at New York in 1846.

Transcribed as article was written.

Aug. 2002

Old Newspaper Articles of Henderson County

Back To Henderson County TXGenWeb

This site is owned and maintained by the Henderson Co. TXGenWeb Co. Coordinator. Content of this site has been gathered from many sources and transcribed records. Therefore, errors may occur. When in doubt as to the accuracy of data contained herein, go to the actual records yourself. If you find any inaccurate data, please let us know. The information contained in this website is for your personal use only. All pages, compilations, transcriptions and abstracts are protected by copyright law and may not be published in whole or in part without written consent of the author, contributor and/or webmaster.