A. L. Nelms was the son of the Rev. John Archibald and Mary Belle (Crain) Nelms. He also was the father of Laura Belle (Nelms) Dulaney, the wife of Robert E. Lee Dulaney. Americus was married to Minerva Jane(Pierce) Nelms. Many relatives of the Nelms and Dulaney families are buried in the old Carson Cemetery. The cemetery is located just South of the Red River near Ector, Texas.

Members of the Nelms family fought in the Civil War. They became known as the Caney Creek Boys of the Thirty-fourth Texas Calvary. The Nelms family has been in America for many generations. The first Nelms came from London in about 1620. Members of this family also served with the Virginia Militia during the American Revolution. Photos of A. L. Nelms; wife, M. J. and their daughter, Montee Irene, were taken from the book, "Plow-Horse Calvary", by Mr. Robert S. Weddle, a descendant of the Caney Creek boys of Fannin County. To take a quote directly from Mr. Weddle's book, "The Caney Creek farmers, leaving their women and old folk to tend the farms, took their shotguns and squirrel rifles, mounted their plow horses and rode off to war."

With the Early Settlers in Fannin County

By Mrs. C. L. Weddle

From the:

Bonham Daily Favorite

31 Jul 1924

(The following article was written for the Progressive Farmer of Dallas, which offered prized for the best articles on "Old Times in the South" and was one of the articles winning a cash prize. It will be of interest to old timers, here, who knew all the parties referred to. Uncle Lee Nelms, the subject of the sketch, is expected to attend the Old Settlers reunion here this week. - Ed.)

My father, A. L. Nelms, was born in Logan county, Kentucky, June 17, 1832, the youngest of a family of nine children, and moved with his parents, two brothers and five sisters, to Texas, when he was 14 years of age.

My grandfather, John Arch Nelms, was a shoe and boot maker by trade and a minister by profession - a local Methodist preacher. The Kentucky home was a typical log house of two rooms, covered with clapboards, which were held in place by weight-poles, nails being a scarce and expensive article at that time.

The local preacher, licensed, but not ordained, drew no salary, so the living came from the making and mending of boots and shoes and also the occupations of two older sons, who farmed some, raising corn and oats, and some wheat, usually, for their bread.

The trip to Texas was made in the spring of '46, for the purpose of obtaining a home, as they owned no home in Kentucky. They traveled by land to Clarksville, Tennessee, then took boat on Cumberland River, descending Ohio and Mississippi rivers to New Orleans, then ascended the Mississippi to the mouth of Red River, then up Red River to Shreveport, then up Lade Soda to Jefferson. They first set foot on Texas soil at Swanson's Landing, next to Port Caddo, between Shreveport and Jefferson. Leaving boat at Jefferson, they traveled to Dallas in wagons. Grandfather hired one ox-wagon to convey his family to Dallas, and left the main bulk of their provisions, a sufficiency [text missing] to get them after they got to Dallas, who returned saying that the warehouse fees had eaten up the supplies; however, it was suspected that the old man appropriated them to his own use, as he seemed to have plenty of money, whereas he had not before.

Dallas at that time consisted of one general merchandise store, Smith & Patterson, proprietors; a blacksmith shop, a hotel, and five or six resident houses.

Grandfather's company camped in Dallas for about two weeks until they could have time to look at a location. They selected a location in Collin County, on White Rock Creek, and began a settlement in Peter's Colony. Married men were allowed 640 acres each, single men, 320 acres. There were six married men and three single men in this ____ who were desirous of establishing a foothold in this new country.

Grrandfather and his family first lived in a little log cabin on the creek, then moved to the _____, where they lived in a little b_____ shanty. They had no sooner arrived on White Rook than they began having illness. Very little medicine was to be had, and no physician within less than 20 or 25 miles (no telephones or automobiles), so ____ a number of the company died of chills and malaria. Grandfather lost two daughters, a son's wife with infant, and a small granddaughter.

Some had commenced to build but after a trial of about our months, they abandoned the settlement, some returning to Kentucky. Grandfather and kin moved to Bonham, Fannin County, which was a town of about 75 families, give general merchandise stores, two drinking houses, later called "saloons," and one ten-pin alley.

Here grandfather and two oldest sons, Uncle Chris and Uncle T. Nelms, worked at shoe and boot trade for two years, then the married son went into the saddle business. They were all disabled to some extent by the sickness and hardships they had undergone, and father, the youngest child, who had had a spell of lung fever, was neither physically, nor financially able to attend school the direct year. He did some work, however, his first job in Bonham being to cut up a load of wood for a German merchant, for 75 cents. He got some schooling by piece-meal - schools were all pay schools, all short terms. He had attended two short terms of school in Kentucky, where he studied Goodrich's readers. In Bonham, he attended five schools, perhaps covering a year's time in all and studied the Blue-backed speller and McGuffey's readers as high as the fourth grade. He professed religion at a camp meeting in Bonham in the fall of '49.

It is remarkable how Grandfather and his sons worked together, each son being on the alert to purchase provision for the family, or to make any kind of trade that would be for the mutual benefit of all. Father as a young boy purchased produce and game from the Choctaw and Cherokee Indians, who came across from the Nation to Bonham to trade having bought from them many a ____________ dollar.

Father sometimes worked as a day laborer in the fields with negro slaves, and had good opportunity to observe the customs of slave-holding times. I could give some interesting incidents relative thereto, but such as I can give I do not consider as particularly typical of the times in a general way, for where there was cruelty and inconsideration on the part of one slave-master or mistress, followed by the revenge of the dependent and helpless slave, there was perchance in many another case real human kindness, begetting profoundest humility and loyalty.

Our people manage to pay for a home in Bonham, which was a half-acre lot with a hewed-log house of two rooms. The relative value of this property is shown by the fact that one of my uncles traded this same house and lot for 160 acres of land five miles west of Bonham, and two tracts of land in Collin County, one comprising 430 acres on Indian Creek and one of 200 acres on Potract (780 acres in all.) The 160 acres became Grandpa's permanent home. Uncle afterwards traded the 200-acre tract for a wagon and a span of mules, and sold the 420 acres for $2.50 per acre in gold, and carried the money home (from Collin to Fannin County) in his pocket, then purchasing the home near Ector, which is still owned by his heirs. When Father married, Grandpa deeded him 80 acres (from the 160 acre tract), a part of which is included in the present home place where he still resides.

My father and my mother first met each other at a quilting, in 1854, which was a social gathering common in those times, where old and young met together to work and to enjoy social conversation, as they did at the corn-shuckings and log rollings. There was a big dinner and a party at night, form which the boys escorted the girls to their homes. Mother had come with her parents to Texas in '53 and settled near where Ector now stands. She and Father were occasionally together after they met at the quilting, walking or riding horseback to singings, meetings, an occasional party or picnic, and attended together one 4th of July celebration in Bonham. They were married in 1856.

Then came the War in '61, to work all sorts of disburbance, if not havoc, in the homes both old and new. Father enlisted in the army in July '62, Alexander's Regiment, Company E. and left wife and little son with his aged parents. His company was seldom called into action, hence he fired only two shots during the war, those being at the battle of Prairie Point, Arkansas, in a skirmish with some cavalry. His duty was mainly as a scout to watch the outskirts and prevent the interference of stragglers. He was on post duty at Marshall about nine months of the time, and when not on duty, was employed by a German named Decker, to make boots and shoes, and was also at home on detail during one winter to make shoes for the army. He was with his company at the battles of Nutonia, Missouri, and Mansfield, Louisiana, where he had a number of friends killed or wounded. He was with his Regiment at Hempstead, Texas, when General Lee surrendered.

We often hear people speak of "the good old times," as though the old times were better than the present. If those times were better than the present, no one would dare say that the people who developed this great county, had an easy time. When we compare the resent with the times of our ancestors, three things stand out prominently in favor of the past: fertile soil; immense acreage of the very best range; a united, contented people. The soil was fresh then, but erosion has greatly reduced its fertility, however, we have means and methods for restoring the fertility, and modern machinery by which we can handle a larger acreage.

The people were closely united because circumstances forced them to be, for their own protection and progress. They really knew and appreciated each other, and although at present we live more independently of our neighbors, circumstances are forcing the people of the rural South to unite more closely. The people were contented, because they had a definite task, developing the country, and had faith to believe they were going to succeed, though no doubt the way sometimes looked dark.

Here's hoping that all young people, who read these articles on the Old South, will realize and appreciate more than ever the difficulties of the people who developed this great heritage they have given us.