The Unidentified & The Cagle Mysteries

In the Wilks Cemetery there was a beautiful monument to the “Family of S. C. and M. G. Cagle”.  Tall, monolithic, beautifully carved and inscribed all round, it marked what we came to term, “the Cagle Row”.  To the north of the monument were four small foot stones with the initials, “MSC”, “SHH”, “ESC”, and “MVC”.  To the south was a foot stone marked, “JHC”, for a total of seven expected graves.  The disinterment revealed eight graves in this row, only two of which we could be certain about - the graves of Susan Catherine Barkley Cagle and Martin Gaines Cagle.

Rubbings from the Cagle monument.

Based on the inscription on the monument, the ready assumption was that the foot stones with initials ending in “C” were Cagle children.  It also seemed certain that SHH, resting between MSC and ESC, was a family member. I set out early on to discover as much as I could about the Cagle family, and align the facts with the evidence in the Cemetery.

I was able to use familySearch.org to zero in on an 1850 census that seemed to establish the nuclear family as parents Martin and Susan, along with children Robert, Frances, Edward (or Edmond), Martin, and Mary.  Then I discovered an entry in the 1850 Fannin County Mortality Index, that established the existence of little Martha, dead in Sep, 1850 of scarlet fever, and my definition of the family expanded. 

In the 1860 census, Susan, age 44, Robert, age 23, Edward, age 19, Mary, age 13, and John, age 9, are listed. Martin Cagle (the senior) had died in 1852.  I had found uncorroborated evidence that Martin (the son) died at age 16, placing his death in 1860, though he is not listed in the 1860 Fannin County Mortality Index. His absence from the census seemed to support an early death, perhaps earlier than 1860. Frances had married in 1956 which explains her absence. John was not yet born at the time of the 1850 census. His presence in the 1860 census led me to expand my definition of the family again. (As a side note, the 1860 census also includes Willis Escue, age 21, a farm hand.)

I worked for months with this family roster - Martin and Susan and seven children, mapping the family members onto the marked graves in the “Cagle row” with a sense of certainty.  MSC and MVC I ascribed to Martha and son Martin. ESC and JHC I presumed to belong to Edward and John. SHH remained a mystery.

Then, months later, I found a memoir written by Frances Cagle’s husband, Thomas Hale, which stated, “…. To Mr. and Mrs. Cagle were born eight children: Frances, who is now Mrs. Hale; Robert; Edward; Martha, who died in childhood; John; Martin; Susan, deceased; and Mary, the wife of R. Russell.”   My conception of the family had to expand again to include Susan, who must have entered and left this world in between census years. This bit of information had the advantage of providing closure in a reliable way - there were eight children, a fact confirmed by a close and contemporary family member, well after the death of the parents, Martin & Susan.  The family roster was complete.  However, I still had no information on little Susan other than the fact of her existence. And I had found almost nothing about the sons that appeared to reach manhood - Robert, Edward, and John.

Martin and Susan married in May, 1836.  Robert was 12 years old in the 1850 census, placing his birth in 1838 or thereabouts.  Frances was born in May, 1839.   In the 1840 census for Lafayette, Arkansas, which does not list by name anyone other than Martin, the family consists of an adult male between the ages of 30 and 39, an adult female between the ages of 20-29, two children under the age of 5, and a female aged 15-19.  The teenager is a mystery, but the adults correspond to what we know about Martin and Susan, and the two children to what we know of Robert & Frances.  It is possible that daughter Susan was born in 1837 and died before the 1840 census was taken, however there is a user-submitted family tree on ancestry.com that places her birth in 1847.  If this is Susan’s correct birth year, she presumably died in Fannin County, though we have no record of her death.  If she had died in the same epidemic as Martha, surely she, too, would be listed in the 1850 Fannin County Mortality Index.  Why is there no foot stone in the cemetery corresponding to her initials?  Had she already been laid to rest when Little Martha died?  Could she have been laid to rest elsewhere?  It saddens me to think of the little sprite all but lost to history.

Tax records also provided valuable insight into the family circumstances.  After Martin’s death in 1852, the records clearly show that Susan continued as head of household and might even have expanded the family holdings.  The Fannin County tax rolls for 1857 show Susan assessed for 320 acres on the Sulphur River in addition to the 214 acre tract that held the Wilks Family Cemetery.   The 1864 Tax Rolls list the tracts as “Cagle, Susan, by T. C. Hale, Admin”, indicating that the land is still held by the family despite Susan’s death in 1861.  In 1865, both tracts are listed under Thomas C Hale. 

This was the extent of my information when I began looking at the Fannin County Probate Minutes. In Book E of the Probate Minutes, page 260, there is an entry dated, November 24, 1862, which states

“Guardianship of the minors Mary C. Cagle and John H. Cagle. It is ordered by the court that Thomas C. Hale be appointed guardian of the persons and property of John H. Cagle and Mary C. Cagle ( the said Mary C. having chosen in open court the said Thomas C. Hale) and that he give Bond in the sum of $1000. One thousand dollars each and that letters issue.“

At the time of this entry, Mary Cagle would have been sixteen years old and John eleven. Then on page 421 of the same book, minutes dated November 28, 1864 address the settlement of the estates of Susan Cagle, Edward Cagle, and Robert Cagle. The entry reads in part

“Thomas C Hale the admin of the estate of Susan C. Cagle, Edward C. Cagle and Robert Cagle dec’d would file herewith his final report for a settlement of said estates and ask to be discharged from all further liability as admin. He states that there are but three heirs to the said estates viz Frances D. Hale the wife of this admin & the minors Mary C Cagle and John H Cagle.”

With this document we have confirmation of the deaths of Edward and Robert at some point prior to November, 1864, and a strong indication that they died without descendants, their siblings being their only heirs. The absence of any mention of son Martin, is a strong indication that he, indeed, died sometime prior to the death of his mother. Furthermore, we have confirmation that John H. Cagle is still living in late 1864.

In Book V, of the Deed Records, page 492, in an entry dated August 11, 1873, the sale of the 214 acres of the Wilks Cemetery tract by the Cagle heirs to Madison, Newton, and Milton Wilks is recorded. The signatories to this document are Thomas C. Hale, Frances D. (Cagle) Hale, R. F. Russell, and Mary C. (Cagle) Russell, leaving us to wonder still about the fate of young John. In 1873 John Cagle, if living, would have been a young man of 22. Does his absence as signatory to this deed indicate that he had died sometime between 1864 and 1873? Hoping to find more of his story I returned to the County Clerk’s Office to investigate the death records - records I had not yet dipped into. I went prepared to carefully search the death records from 1844 - 1873 - from a year prior to the date I believed the Cagles to have arrived in the area through the year of the sale of the Cagle property to the Wilks. I hoped to find more information about the deaths of the Cagle children. I hoped to find references to the burial place of Martin Gaines and Susan Catherine, a reference that might prove useful in understanding the history of what became the Wilks Cemetery. Sadly, what I found was that we do not have death records in Fannin County prior to 1903.

Regarding the foot stones in the Cemetery, the assumption that those with initials ending in “C” line up with children Martha, Martin, Edward, and John is not disputed by the facts, though the facts do not provide certain proof either. “SHH” is still a mystery - perhaps a member of the Hale family - and the unmarked grave even more obscure. Unless some unexpected breakthrough comes my way in my research, we will have to wait for what science and DNA can tell us.

There is an interesting side note that came out of this research. In the record of the transfer of the land to the Wilks, the document describes the property as

“…on Bois D’Arc Creek containing two hundred and fourteen acres less one fourth of an acre surveyed by virtue of the headright certificate of James Kerr…”. 

I can’t help but wonder if that 1/4 acre exclusion is our cemetery, and whether that indicates that it was, in 1873, seen as a community cemetery rather than a family cemetery on private land.

Story by Wanda Holmes Oliver.

The Land that Became the Cemetery

The story of the Wilks Cemetery is a story of the Kerr, Cagle, and Wilks families.  It begins in the earliest days of the Republic of Texas with the arrival of Robert Kerr.

On the basis of his 2nd Class headright, Robert Kerr arrived in Texas with his family between March 3, 1836 and September 30, 1837.  The family included three sons that would claim their own grants.  Yelverton (b. 1814) and Levi (b.1815) were in their early twenties in 1837, and each received 2nd Class land grants themselves as single men.  The grants to Robert, Yelverton, and Levi are recorded in Abstracts #609 (1280 acres), #610 (640 acres), and #606 (640 acres), respectively.  The three tracts are located north of an imaginary line from Ivanhoe to Telephone.  Yelverton’s and Levi’s tracts are adjacent to one another, and Robert’s is a bit to the north.

Son, James (b.1821), would have turned 16 at some point during 1837 - too young to meet the requirement to file as a single man for a 2nd class grant. His is a 3rd class grant issued to single men, 17 years or older, who resided in the Republic of Texas prior to January 1, 1840.  That he claimed his land rights later is also reflected in the fact that the land he gained title to is in multiple parcels, both miles distant from the lands of his father and brothers. James was issued Conditional Certificate #142 on January 2,1840.  Under this certificate, he was entitled to 320 acres of public land in Fannin County.  Conditional certificates were not issued for particular tracts of land, were not negotiable or transferrable, and were predicated on the grantee demonstrating three years of responsible citizenship before applying for the Unconditional Certificate that freed them from all restrictions on ownership.  The grantee had to locate the land he wanted to claim and have it surveyed himself.   Apparently he could stake his claim and exercise all ordinary rights of ownership during the three year conditional period.  As a 3rd Class Grantee, he could also just hold onto the right without having identified or invested in any particular piece of land (4th Class grants required that at least 10 acres of the claimed land be cultivated).

We don’t know when James identified the land he would claim, but he received Unconditional Certificate #150 on May 5, 1845, some five years after receiving his Conditional Certificate.  Under Certificate #150, he was granted patents (title) to two tracts of land at two different times, the first title not being granted until some months after he received his Unconditional Certificate.  It is easy to read into the delay of the Conditional Certificate, and the further delay between it and the first patent, the behavior of a young man growing into adult responsibilities.  But it is equally possible that he had actively claimed and worked his land  from the date of the Unconditional Certificate in 1840.

James’ first patent was to 106 acres located six miles southwest of Bonham.  James received patent to this tract on November 9, 1845. It is recorded in the County records as Abstract #613.  Patent was granted to the remaining 214 acres he was due on February 9, 1846 under Abstract #614.  The Wilks Cemetery is located on this tract, and using the abstract number and the tax rolls, it is possible to trace the ownership of the land that would eventually contain the cemetery as it changed hands over the years. 

Abstract data overlaid on Google Earth image, abstract data from EarthPoint.

James Kerr first appears on the tax rolls of Fannin County in 1843 when he was assessed a poll tax.  In 1845 he was taxed for 320 acres of land and two head of cattle.  He disappears from the rolls in 1846.  His 106 acre tract is, in 1846, in the possession of his brother, Yelverton.  Martin Gaines Cagle is assessed the taxes in 1846 for the 214 acre tract originally patented to James.   I haven’t been able to determine what happened to James after 1846.  While his father and brothers continue to figure prominently in the records of Fannin County, there is no record of him marrying, establishing a family, or owning other property in the county.  He was a young man of 25 - he might have simply sold out and moved on in a quest for greater opportunities. 

The 214 acre tract which now holds the Wilks Cemetery continues to appear on the tax rolls under Martin Cagle’s name for the next several years, passing to Susan Cagle after Martin’s death in 1852.  Though Susan died in 1861, the land is still on the tax rolls under Susan’s name in 1864, with a note that it is registered by her son-in-law, Thomas C. Hale (husband of daughter Frances) as administrator of her estate.  In 1865, the land is listed under the name, Thomas C. Hale, without any additional notes referencing Susan. Susan and Martin Cagle’s sons disappear from the records during the years of the Civil War. Perhaps in 1864 there was still some hope of at least one of them coming home to claim his inheritance. By 1865, the estate had apparently been settled in favor of Frances and her husband.

There is then a gap in the records.  The 1866 tax roll is silent for Abstract #614 and the records for 1867-1876 have not been available for search.  The tract reappears in the rolls for 1877-1879, registered to Matt Wilks and brothers, Newton and Milton Wilks.  This leads to conjecture that the land was sold by Thomas Hale to Thomas Wilks when the Wilks arrived in the area in 1865-866, Thomas’ sons inheriting it from him when he died in 1871.  In the 1880 tax roll, the three brothers are listed as tax payers, but with no land.  Tax is assessed to them based on personal property, horses and cattle.  In 1885, Newton owns a tract out of the M. J. Evans Survey to the southwest of the Wilks Cemetery site.  By 1894, all three brothers own small tracts in that area.  

The next steps in this process are to 1) address the gap mentioned above to confirm the transfer of the land to the Wilks, and 2) to identify who purchased the land from the Wilks. Addressing the gap is going to take some extended legwork. Then there is the 1880 tax roll to search. It comprises some 400+ pages, and the search by abstract number is one I have to do with my eyes, so it must wait for another day as well.  In any case, by 1880, the Cemetery was a well-established burial ground so the specific land ownership is perhaps less informative.  From the point of government owned wilderness to cemetery, the tale of the land is the tale of the Kerrs, the Cagles, and the Wilks.

Story by Wanda Holmes Oliver.