Henderson County Texas
Robert Saladon Doc
Cotten
And
Mary Louvendia Mollie Frasure Cotten
by Great Granddaughter,
Betty Terrell Owens
BeTER77@aol.com
Robert Saladon Doc COTTEN was born in Lampasas, Texas
on 1 December 1874, and died 5 October 1965 in Henderson County,
Texas. He married Mary Louvendia "Mollie" FRASURE in
1895 in Milam County, Texas. She was born 29 December 1875 in
Texas, and died 11 February 1946 in Henderson County, Texas. Both
are buried in the Rock Hill Cemetery a few miles from their farm
in Henderson County.
Doc and Mollie COTTEN were the parents of
these children only:
1. Robert Jackson COTTEN b. 11 January 1896 in Cameron, Milam Co.
TX
d. 28 December 1968 in Henderson County, TX married Naudie Belle
GRIER
22 July 1920. She was b. 27 February 1901 in Henderson County, TX
and
d. 8 November 1983 in Smith County, TX. Her parents were Andrew
Jackson
Grier and Sarah Elisabeth POWELL GRIER
2. Harvey Curtis Cotten b. 25 Nov. 1897 TX d. 1972 Henderson
County, TX
unmarried
3. Maude Marie Cotten b. 2 Nov. 1905 TX d. 1997 Henderson County,
TX
married first J.C. Davis, and second, Mr. Johnson.
4. Marvin Clifford Cotten b. about 1914, married Sophia Lee
Owens, still living
5. One female, died in infancy, buried in Hill County, Texas.
Robert Saladon Doc Cotten was the son of John
Augustus Cotten and Mary Kathryn Kate SMITH Cotten.
He was raised in the Hill Country, spending the first years of
his life on his parents ranch in Lampasas, Texas. His
grandsons remember these stories:
Otis Cotten related that at the age of six years, Doc
had carried a Winchester rifle, and that his father would send
him and his brothers out to kill jackrabbits for food.
Marshall Cotten remembered the story that John Augustus, father
of Doc, bought a new wagon. He owned a muzzle-
loading gun that he would not allow his sons to shoot. One day
when their father was away, the boys decided to load the gun with
beeswax that was used sometimes instead of lead or powder. They
loaded up the gun, and, looking for a target, decided to shoot at
the new wagon from about twenty paces. The beeswax blew a hole
through both sides of the wagon. While searching early tax
records in Lampasas County, the fact was found that John Cotten
was taxed for a new wagon in 1885.
Robert Saladon Doc moved with his family to Milam
County, Texas in 1889.
As teenagers around 1890 in Milam County, Doc and his
brothers formed a band, and would play for weddings, dances, etc.
in the Hill country. Sometimes they would play too late to ride
home by horseback, or it would be too far, and they would seek
shelter to spend the night. One night they headed for a country
church that was left open at night. When they arrived, they found
a gang of outlaws already there. The Cotten boys slept under the
stars that night. (Source: Maude Cotten Davis Johnson )
The story is told in the family about the disappearance of Doc
Cotten for several days. His hat was found floating in a creek,
but no sign of Doc. He never, to anyones
knowledge, told a soul what had happened to him. Maude Cotten
Davis Johnson said they thought he had been with outlaw gang
members.
In 1895, Doc and Mollie Cotten were
married in Milam County. She was the daughter of William Asbury
Berry FRASURE and Mary Louvendia GRAY of Milam
County, Texas. Mary L. Mollie Frasure Cottens
relatives lived in Hill County. Her brothers, Henry Frasure, and
William N. Frasure and relatives are buried in the Itasca
Cemetery.
The next year, Robert Jackson Cotten was born in Cameron, Milam
County, Texas. Doc Cotten and family are next found
living in Hill County, TX in 1910. They lived in the little town
of Peoria. Maude Cotten Davis Johnson said she had a little
sister buried in the Peoria Cemetery.
Marshall Cotten related to me that Doc had played on
a National League (local) Baseball team around 1910
with two friends, Will Dunn, and one that Marshall could not
remember the name. They were childhood friends. Will Dunn came to
Henderson County, TX and bought a farm at the Martin Springs
Community of Henderson County. Doc came to visit, and
liked the area, and bought the adjoining farm. The other friend
bought the Ingram place.
Doc and Mollie Cotten moved to Henderson
County, Texas and are on the 1920 census there. Maude Cotten
Davis Johnson told the story of her family moving. She said the
family put all its possessions in a railroad boxcar on a train,
including their mules. It seems the mules got rowdy in the car,
and caused the train to derail. Maude said her father used to
complain that the mules busted up everything he owned.
Maude said that at one time Doc Cotten had lived in a
covered wagon.
Doc and Mollie lived the life of typical
farmers, which in the 1930s in Texas was not an ideal life.
They grew cotton, and one of his account books has records where
he paid grandchildren to pick cotton. He also grew peanuts.
Like his dad, John Augustus Cotten, Doc Cotten was a
blacksmith by trade, and made many of the implements used on a
farm.
Granddaughter, Doris, and her husband, Douglas Terrell,
remembered that Doc had also made coffins in the
English manner, not straight sides, but sort of
elongated diamond shaped coffins. They said that he kept a roll
of black cloth in his barn to line the coffins. They said he
probably made the last one in the 1940s. Docs
father, John Augustus Cotten, was known for making coffins.
After Doc and Mollie moved to Henderson
County, and he had not seen his brothers and sisters for a long
time, they all got together, and came to visit him. (Source:
Clarence Vaughn) They all played various musical instruments, and
they brought them and had a party. People from all over the
community came to the party and to listen to the music. (Source:
Douglas Terrell) Doc played a violin, and the couple
owned an organ. Doc was from a very musical family
that lived mostly around Hood County, Texas.
Two sons, Robert Jackson Cotten and Harvey Curtis Cotten were in
the US Army in World War 1. Robert served as a Private in Supply
Company 323 of the Infantry. Robert went to France, but the War
was at an end. He saw Paris, France before he returned home to
marry his Redwing, Naudie Belle Grier. (ancestors of
the author) Curtis served in both World Wars.
Doc was a Mason before he moved to Henderson County,
and remained one. His son, Curtis, was a lifelong member of the
Chandler Masonic Lodge.
Doc and Mollie made visits to Galveston
to visit her brother, William N. Frasure. She brought back many
pretty seashells that she used to decorate her yard.
Mollies favorite flower was a King Alfred
Daffodil (source: Doris Cotten Terrell)
Their farmhouse was located on a high hill, and one could look
out over the countryside from the front porch. The yard was
enclosed in a barbed wire fence, and the soil was sandy, with no
grass. Pretty rocks and seashells outlined walkways.
Doc and Mollie lived the life of a
typical East Texas farmer. Mollie died in 1946, and
Doc lived to see his great great grandson, before
dying in 1965.
Robert Saladon Doc Cottens Ancestors
Robert Saladon Doc Cottens parents were married
in Limestone County, Texas about 1866. The courthouse had burned
there, and these documents are not recorded. His father was John
Augustus Cotten, and his mother, Mary Kathryn Kate
Smith was the daughter of Permelia Thomas Smith and Jim Smith.
Permelia and children are enumerated on the 1860 census of
Limestone County, Texas.
John Augustus Cotten was just five years old when he arrived in
Texas with his parents from Mississippi in 1833. His parents were
John Ira Ellis Cotten and Abigail Herring Cotten. John I. E. was
born in Tennessee, and died after 1843. Abigail was born in 1799
in South Carolina and died after 1860 in Texas. They were married
October 7, 1821 in Claiborne County, Mississippi.
Being the only son at that time, John Augustus shared his wagon
with several sisters. His father picked out prime land along the
Sabine River, and applied for a Spanish Land Grant on 20 August
1835, in San Augustine, Texas. A baby sister, Amanda, was born to
the family in 1835 in Texas, the only known Texas born child of
the Cotten family. Later, John Ira Ellis and Abigail would have
two more children born in Louisiana.
Family stories relate that John Ira Ellis and Abigail Cotten were
the parents of eight daughters and two sons. The Texas character
certificate of Cotten stated that he had a wife and four children
in 1835. His application for land said that he had a family that
consisted of eight persons. Known children are:
1. Martha b. 1823 MS married 1. John Lee on 22 June 1840, DeSoto
Parish, LA and 2. W.D.Lawrence on 26 Mar. 1845, DeSoto Parish, LA
2. Joanne Ann b. 1825 MS
3. John Augustus b. 8 March 1828 MS married Mary Kathryn Smith
4. Amanda b. 1835 TX probably married John Sanders
5. Ellen b. 1838 LA
6. James C. b. 1844 LA
7. Mary b. c 1834 married W.J. Marler
This leaves three unidentified daughters.
Perhaps they had dreamed of a plantation spreading across the
Sabine River. For unknown reasons, the application for land in
Texas was not completed; plans had gone awry. John Ira Ellis
Cotten, born in Tennessee, married in Mississippi to a girl from
South Carolina, moved to Texas, then to Louisiana, was missing
from his family group on the 1850 census of DeSoto Parish,
Louisiana. Gordon A. Cotton, historian and author, stated that
John Ira Ellis Cotten was a builder, and that the legend exists
that he was constructing the Red Lick Presbyterian Church near
Lorman, Mississippi when he was murdered. The church was
constructed in 1846. The crime was never solved.
John Augustus, age twenty-two, was left to care for his mother,
unmarried sisters, and baby brother, James. They all moved to
Personville, Limestone County, Texas, before 1855. (Limestone
County School Census, Tax Records) They established themselves in
the new community, bought 320 acres of land, and made new lives.
Then the Civil War broke out.
John Augustus Cotten served in the Confederacy. He was the ideal
age, and unmarried. Proof exists in the State Archives, in the
Confederate Indigent Families List of Texas 1863-1865, although
no official military record has been found by the author. His
brother, James Joseph Curtis Cotten received funds from the State
because his brother, John, served. Because Abigail is not listed,
this presents a closer time of her death. Permelia Smith also
received funds at this time in Limestone County, Texas.
By 1866, John Augustus, age thirty-eight, had sold his land and
holdings in Limestone County. (Tax Records). He married his young
neighbor, Mary Kathryn "Kate" Smith in 1866. She had
been born 28 February 1846 (death certificate) to Jim and
Permelia Thomas Smith in Texas. They moved on to finally settle
in Lampasas County, Texas. By 1885, John and Kate had purchased
155 acres of ranch land, (Lampasas Tax Records) and were adding
to their livestock. They were the parents of 12 children,
including Robert S. "Doc" Cotten. Surely, they believed
that they had found their home for life, and were building for
the future.
An ominous hint is found on the 1880 census of Lampasas County.
John Augustus is listed as having a broken leg. Family stories
call him a one legged man. He is said to have had
various jobs in addition to his farm and ranch: blacksmith,
driving a chuck wagon on cattle drives, a saddle maker, a coffin
maker. Perhaps some were jobs for a handicapped man.
By 1887 the family home was sold, (tax records) and the family
was moving back by wagon to Central Texas. John Augustus Cotten
died on the trip back on 5 February 1889, and was buried in
Burleson County, Texas.
After the death of John A. Cotten, the family lived on the Red
Bluff on Colorado River (Source: Clarence Vaughn). The 1900
census shows them living in Milam County.
"Kate" Cotten was left to provide for her full house of
children. She tried her hand at farming along the banks of a
river. Hitching up a steer to plow, and wrapping the reins around
her wrists to help control the animal, she tried to prepare the
ground for seeds. This story survives because it must have been a
humorous sight to her offspring. It seems that when the steer
would get thirsty, he would charge off to the river, dragging the
plow, "Kate", and all behind him. When he had cooled
off, and quenched his thirst, the steer would emerge from the
river, dragging the plow. (Source: Clarence Vaughn)
By 1910, Kate Cotten had moved with her son, Andrew, to Hood
County, Texas. Otis Cotten said he had been told that when they
got to Hood County, that they had all spent the night under a big
tree, which is still standing. She died in Nehri, Hood Co. TX 19
October 1919, and is buried in Nubbin Ridge Cemetery, near the
Brazos River.
According to Clarence Vaughn, when she died, there was a very
long procession of wagons going to funeral at the church at
Nubbin Ridge. He disputed my information that she was born in
1846 (as is on her death certificate). He said his two
grandmothers always said they were born in same year, 1847. Kates
tombstone had 1847 engraved on it.
John Augustus and Mary Kathryn "Kate" Cotten's children
are:
1. Mary Abigail "Mollie" Cotten b. 1868 TX d. 1967 TX
married Martin Delaney McKee, lived in Granbury, Hood Co. TX
2. John Lafitte Cotten b. 1869 TX d. 1936 TX married Emmy Henry
3. James Franklin Cotten b. 1871 TX d. 1906 married Annie
Appleton
4. Sarah Kathryn Cotten b. 1873 TX d. 1888 TX
5. Robert Saladon "Doc" Cotten b. 1 December 1874 in
Lampasas, TX d. 5 October 1965 in Henderson County, TX. married
Mary Louvendia "Mollie" Frasure b. 29 December 1875 in
TX d. 11 February 1946 in Henderson County, TX
6. Andrew Jackson Cotten b. 1876 TX d. 1934 married Bertha Lee
Spears
7. Suzanne Ellen Cotten b. 1879 d. 1879
8. George Washington Cotten b. 1880 TX d. 1967 married first
Maggie Umphress, second, Ivy Rule
9. Ada Artilla Cotten b. 1882 TX d. 1972 TX married William Alex
Vaughn
10. Sam Houston Cotten b. 1884 TX d. 1889 TX
11. William Joseph Cotten b. 1886/87 TX d. 1949 married Dora
Spears
12. Thomas Jefferson Cotten b. 1889 TX d. 1889
Family Story
The ancestry of these Cottens remained a mystery until evidence
was sent to the
author by Melanie Dotson, who cleared up their story. Her 89 year
old aunt had given
her all her years of research concerning the family. Thanks to
Melanie Dotson, the ancestry of John Ira Ellis Cotten is known.
In short form, here is that story.
John Ira Ellis Cotten had several brothers, among them, Joab
Cotten. Their parents were Joseph Abner Joah and
Elizabeth PICKETT Cotton. Their children were born in Tennessee,
or maybe a part of it that was part of Kentucky. They moved to
Mississippi where both John and Joabs marriage records have
been found in Claiborne Co. MS.
At some time (this part of the story is Melanie Dotsons
family tradition) several Cotten brothers worked in the
blacksmith shop of James Bowies brother in Natchez,
Mississippi, and they got into a fight with some locals. One of
the Cotten brothers was killed. The Cotten brothers retaliated,
and killed whoever it was that killed their brother. So a sort of
war was started. The Cotten brothers dispersed with their
families to escape revenge.
John Ira Ellis Cotten moved to Texas, established citizenship,
and applied for a Spanish Land Grant. Perhaps this is why the
land grant was not granted
.John Cotten was running for his
life. Whatever happened, he disappeared after his youngest child
was born, and he is not found on the 1850 Census of DeSota
Parish, La. with his family.
When his wife, Abigail and children, moved to Limestone County,
Texas, they were moving near relatives, her brother in law, Joab
Cotten and his wife Sarah Jane WALLS Cotton. Later, Joabs
daughter, Sarah Jane Cotton would marry her first cousin, James
Joseph Curtis Cotten, brother of John Augustus Cotten, and thus
enable the author to find out about the rest of the Cotten
family. Although a pedigree for this family is known, the author
does not possess documents to prove the line.
Betty Jean Terrell Owens line to John Ira Ellis Cotten has been
proved for membership in the Tejas Chapter Daughters of the
Republic of Texas.
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