Chasing Our Tales - Willow Pond Cemetery and the Glovers

Chasing Our Tales, Willow Pond Cemetery and the Glovers

Inspiration Point Road was known in the 1950's, as much as anything, because it was one of two "parking" places for high school kids from Mineral Wells...the other being Welcome Mountain. Now, I won't belabor you with whether I know this from first or second hand knowledge , but there it is--part of our local lore, and I am sure many of you remember!

Anyway, we had cause to drive out Inspiration Point Road, or for the younger/newer residents of the county, Texas Route 2256, today to have a look at Willow Pond Cemetery.

You see, I had an email asking about this cemetery: "Maybe you can help me.. I am looking for a cemetery in Mineral Wells called Willow Pond. There was a church there and the cemetery. (I am) trying to find my family who is buried there in 1908 thanks for any help you can give me." Trouble was, this message did not carry the family name. Oh, well, we still went out to look at the cemetery, anyway.

We found that Willow Pond is a small, compact, and easy to navigate cemetery. The most prominent names on the tombstones were Glover, Fowler, Rhodes, Greathouse, Burns, Schaffner, Lackey, White, Guinn, Bandy, Terry, Courtney, Newberry, Hess, Smith, Crawford, Marlow, Ballinger, and Gayler. There were others, as well, but these stood out, and we weren't there to transcribe.

Willow Pond is one cemetery that seems not to have been transcribed either by the Historical Association of Palo Pinto County or by the church, First Southern Baptist, which sits south of the cemetery off High 2256 and Oaks Crossing Road. It would certainly be a good cemetery to transcribe, and if anyone is up to doing it, and I will certainly post the transcription on the Palo Pinto USGenWeb site on the internet. Just let me know!

Willow Pond Cemetery is located in the Progress Community, and many years ago, before the new church, there was a Willow Pond Church on the cemetery's north side.

There is a concrete marker almost hidden on the ground which gives this information about the cemetery:

"John Washington Glover donated the land for the Willow Pond Cemetery on the death of his grandson Jesse Glover in 1900."

This led me to try to discover more information about John Washington Glover. He appears on the Palo Pinto County Census rolls of 1880, with the township information listed as E. D. 155; ID# TX28438110.

I have found that John Washington Glover and his wife, Durcilla (Drusillar /Drussillar) Vaughn, 1848-1913, came to Mineral Wells in the 1870's. John was born near Neshoba Mississippi on 7 March 1847, and died in Palo Pinto County on 26 January 1917. John Washington had a brother named James Monroe Glover and a first cousin named Charles Monroe Glover who came to Palo Pinto County. There was another Glover, Doyle Edward, who was either a cousin or brother and also came to Palo Pinto County.

James Monroe Glover was born in Louisiana and moved to Johnson County, Texas where he married Lue Nettie (?). They moved on the Palo Pinto County where seven children were born to them.

John Washington Glover moved from Mississippi to Georgia where he married Drusilla. Her parents were Matthew Jackson and Margaret Pulliam Vaughn. These Vaughns had 14 children. The first nine were born in Georgia, and then them moved to Palo Pinto County where five more children were born. Matthew Vaughn's brother, Rueben Vaughn, was the first permanent settler of Palo Pinto County.

John and Drusilla settled one section of land in Palo Pinto County in the Bourne Survey. They bought it from A. D. Hendry for $1 an acre. This was Starr Bounty Land, first owned by the family of Richard Starr, an Englishman, who died at the Alamo.

The story goes that John Washington was in the last Indian fight in Palo Pinto County, where a posse of settlers caught a raiding party at Oaks Crossing, killed most of the Indians and took back stock which the Indians had stolen.

John Washington and his wife had the following children: Margaret Elizabeth (1869-1948) who married Jim Trolling; James Richard "Jim" (1871-1942) who married Ida Salena Jones; William Matthew "Will" (1872-1945) who married Annie Whitley, Robert Wesley "Bob" (1874-1939) who married Hattie Elizabeth Autry, Sarah Martha "Mattie" (1875-1963) who married Arthur Adkins, Jesse Alexander "Jess" (1877-1946) who married Bana Hamilton, John Elbert "Ebb" (1879-1954) who married Corah Harrington, Francis Watson "Watt" (1881-1954), Mary Jane (1882-1883), Joseph Oliver "Ollie" (1888-1961) who married Ella Pearl Christian, Tressy Lee Bertha (1888-1974) who married Cal Osborne, and George Washington (1890-1944) who married Fannie Knight.

Ollie and Ella's son Clifford Aubry (1923-1993) married Doris LaRue May (1929) who was born in Loraine, Mitchell County, Texas. They were married in Clyde, Callahan County, 1 May 1948. Their children were Andrea Sue (1949) and Michael Aubrey (1951). Andrea married Delton Steven Taylor in Euless, Texas, and Michael married Deborah Ellen Wilson and then Diane Bennett.

Jim (James Richard) who married Ida Jones had a daughter named Margaret Virginia Glover Crawford. They also had a grandson named Floyd Wallace.

John Hamilton Glover, born 26 August 1909 in Mineral Wells, Texas, died 5 January 1992, was the son of Bob, Robert Wesley Glover, and Hattie Elizabeth Glover(Autry).

Jess, Jesse Alexander Glover, and his wife Bana had a son named Hamilton Glover who was born about 1910.

The Glover family history sort of "materialized" about 1066 when William the Conqueror came across the English Channel.

The Glover name is undisputedly of Saxon origin and was formerly spelled "Golofre", then "Glove". In the middle of the fourteenth century it was written as it is now, Glover. Some of the earliest settlers of New England occasionally wrote it with a u, instead of a v, and some also spelled it "Glovier", which can be seen in early census records.

Glover family names have been recorded in Buckinghamshire, Berkshire and Warwickshire, England, about the middle of the fourteenth century. The names John, William, Robert, Thomas, Richard, and Henry are amongst the earliest Christian names of Glover. These names have been perpetuated and have descended, like their estate, through many generations both in old and New England.

Little, if anything, has been discovered of the Glover family prior to the Norman King, William the Conqueror's time, 1066. William dispatched his heralds to gather the genealogies of his newly conquered land about 1087, and the records of all such families as then existed, with their rank and pedigrees, were ordered to be preserved in the Tower of London. An account of the Heralds' visitation is given in Fuller's Worthies, written about the fourteenth century or about the twelfth year of the reign King Henry VI, as returned by the commissioners, in 1433.

According to a survey made in the following counties, the name Glover is recorded as follows: County of Berkshire: Johannies Glover, Sheriff, in the 12th year of Henry VI, AD 1433; Buckinghamshire: John Glover of Kimball; Bedfordshire: Robert Glover of Monceter, Gentleman, martyred at Coventry, September 5th, 1555; Middlesex: William Glover, Sheriff in the time of Queen Elizabeth, London, Middlesex-Kent, about l558; Kent: Robert Glover, Somerset Herald, son of Thomas and Mildred, born at Ashford, Kent, according to the epitaph on his monument. He died, not forty-six years of age, Anno 1588 and was buried without Cripplegate, London, St. Giles, on the south wall of the Choir.

With so many similar Christian names in the Glover lines, I found this naming chart to be interesting although, not always accurate. It was posted to a list on the internet by Beverly German:

1st son after the father's father

2nd son after the mother's father

3rd son after the father

4th son after the fathers eldest brother

1st daughter after the mother's mother

2nd daughter after the father's mother

3rd daughter after the mother

4th daughter after the mother's eldest sister

Other information about the name Glover states that a glover is a person who makes or sells gloves...that makes sense.

I also found posted on the internet the suggestion that there were Irish Glovers who were in the meat/sausage business in Northern Ireland and who immigrated to New York. One of these Glovers was named Walter. And I have found there is a Gloversville in eastern New York state, so perhaps that was where this family settled.

There are 38 Glovers in the DAR patriot index. Of those, the Christian names are: Alexander, Amose, Benjamin, Chesley, Daniel, Edmund, Edward, Elisha, Frederick, Henry, James, John, Jonathan, Jones, Joseph, Joshua, Philip, Robert, and Samuel.

One of these Glovers, John, was born in Massachusetts 5 November 1732 and died 30 January 1979. This particular John Glover was a Brigadier General in the American Army.

Most of the Southern patriot Glovers were born or died in North Carolina or Virginia, although I found a Colonel Joseph in South Carolina, and a John who married Judith and Sarah in Kentucky. Most of the patriot Glovers were from Massachusetts.

This has been a most interesting column to write, and I hope it assists some of you who have Glover connections.

Well, I think we have time for about one query:

"I hope someone can help me with W. J. Hale, a Texas Ranger with Palo Pinto County Rangers. Enlisted December 13, 1873, Disc. April 13, 1874. He had 4 months service. Would like to know where he was from? Who he's parents were? Thank you." Mary Ann ([email protected]).

If you would like to answer this query or post your own to me please send it to Sue Seibert, P. O. Box 61, Mineral Wells TX 76068-0061; or email me at: [email protected].

See you next time!