December 10, Mattie and John

Mattie Pearl Willis LaGrone

Mattie is one of those elusive females. She shows up in census records and death records, but there is nothing that tells much about her life.

She was the daughter of Robert T and Elizabeth Stephenson Willis, born December 10,  1892 in Texas and is my first cousin three times removed. She first appears as an eight year old child in the 1900 Smith County census with her parents.

She married Charles Franklin "Bob" LaGrone in 1910 and their daughter Juanita LaGrone was born 2 Oct 1917 in Decatur, Texas.On the 1930 census for Wise County, she’s listed as 37 years of age. She’s living with her husband Bob and daughter Juanita living on their own farm.

In 1940 Mattie and Bob are still on their farm in Decatur but daughter Juanita has married and moved with her husband into her own home also in Decatur.

This is the last census available to the public. The 1950 census records will be released in April 2022 so that trail ends here. Bob has draft cards from WWI and WWII (old man’s draft).

Bob died in 1965 and was buried in Oaklawn Cemetery in Decatur. Mattie died in 1980 and was buried next to him.

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John Hewing Petty

John was born in either north or South Carolina (records vary) in 10 Dec 1795. He was one of 13 children born to George and Lydia Harrington Petty. John's father, George was the great grandson of Hubert Petty, our original emigrant Petty ancestor. John is my second cousin, six times removed. (He also was an older brother to Elijah P. Petty who I mentioned on our FaceBook page, but I’ll be getting to him later. His birthday is coming up in a few weeks)

Sometime before 1825 the family moved to Stewart County, Tennessee. John met and married Tamara Bruton May 19, 1825. (I’ve seen her name given as Tamara Theora Lesy “Terry” Bruton and several versions of that in different records.)

Their first child, the first of seven, was born a year later.

John worked as an innkeeper while in Tennessee. He might have taken over his father’s tavern before they left for greener pastures.

Between 1850 and 1860 the family migrated to Texas. They next are recorded on the 1860 census for Seguin, Guadalupe, Texas and John is farming. Three years later on July 26, 1863 John signed his will leaving the property to his wife, Terry, and some money to his children. He died a month later on August 23. He is buried at KingFamily Cemetery, Seguin, Guadalupe County, Texas.