Taken from Van Zandt County Texas Biographies 1848-1991 Vol. II. Thanks to Kitty Wheeler for the original information and for permission to use it on the web site. The information that is included in this document is transcribed portions of information that appear in the above referenced book. Additions, corrections, complaints or compliments concerning this page should be submitted to Betty Miller and Patsy Finley Vinson.
Like many of the other little villages, Creamlevel had a church where the people would gather to hear a preacher when he would come into their midst and other times for prayer meetings and a chance to have fellowship with one another. There was a school for the children to receive their lessons in, and a general store.
W. B. Cox, born 10 Aug 1856, in Van Zandt County, Texas, son of Tillman L. Cox and Nancy Riley. On 31 Jul 1880 William B. Cox married Miss Mary Anna Hallman. Together they had fifteen children, raising eleven to maturity. Mary Anna Cox died in 1912, and in 1914 William B. Cox married Pearl McBride. One child, a daughter, was born to this union.
W. B. Cox was considered an influential citizen in his community and was regarded as a good and useful citizen. He was a brother to Dr. Love Cox of Martins Mill.
A man lived at Creamlevel that nurtured the spiritual needs of not only the residents of Creamlevel, but also a large area of Van Zandt County. This gentleman known by many and loved by all was Rev. Richard Castleberry, born 26 Dec 1827, in Sinclair County, Alabama, son of Aaron Trice and Sarah C. Cunningham Castleberry.
At the age of seven, Richard traveled with his family to Texas. They traveled hundreds of miles in covered wagons pulled by teams of oxen, and sometime on the rivers in boats. In a wagon on the morning of 5 May 1835, they, and several other families crossed into Texas. On 7 Feb 1837, Aaron Trice Castleberry died leaving Sarah to raise their nine children. At the age of nineteen, Richard joined the United States Army for fourteen months during the Mexican War. Discharged 10 Jun 1848, he returned to his family.
Richard married Mary L. D. Kirkpatrick, daughter of Hiram and Adeline Kirkpatrick of Shelby County, Texas and had eleven children, raising eight of them to maturity.
One of the farmers that lived at Creamlevel was L. B. Faulk born 15 May 1827, in Pike County, Alabama, son of James and Rhoda Sloan Faulk. By 1859 he had accumulated 900 acres in Van Zandt County. The 1860 Van Zandt County Census shows him living next door to the family of William A. Slaughter. On the other side of the Castleberrys there lived a young couple, Ed and Lucy Castleberry and their baby boy, one year old John.
Not far from the Faulk farm there lived another family that had settled in the Creamlevel Community prior to 1860. Robert K. Gibbs, born 1824, in Alabama, married Lucinda Petty 29 May 1859. Lucinda was a young bride fifteen years old. One year later Lucinda was caring for quite a large family for one so young. Besides her baby daughter, she had a step daughter four years younger than herself and two step sons, ages ten and four.
The only thing remaining of the Creamlevel village is the Cox Cemetery where many of her residents rest for eternity, including many of the Gibbs family. The cemetery is located on land that at one time belonged to Robert K. Gibbs.
Patsy Finley Vinson