Chasing our Tales to The Fortune Bend of the Brazos River in Palo Pinto County
We went out for one of our Sunday drives and decided to see how far down Fortune Bend Road we could go. Fortune Bend can be accessed off of Highway 4 north of Palo Pinto, and before becoming completely private land, you can drive for a little over ten miles seeing some of this most beautiful land which has become known as the North Texas Hill Country.
About eight miles in to our drive we came upon the Fortune Bend Cemetery. It is a lovely, peaceful little plot nestled into the side of a hill, the ground purple with juniper berries. I have no idea how many graves were in this tiny cemetery, as many were only marked with a limestone head and foot marker with no names inscribed which could be read.
The oldest readable marker was that of J. T. "Jim" Snoddy. This marker had been crudely carved of a handmade orange cement, and it had recently been replaced with a new marble marker. The marker states that Jim Snoddy was born in January 1868 and died in November 1902. There was a second Snoddy grave which stated that A. R. Snoddy, born 28 February 1895 and died 19 May 1933 was the son of J. T. and Mollie Snoddy.
Other familes buried in the Fortune Bend Cemetery included Moore, McCoy, Lewis, Thomas, and Richardson.
Fortune Bend was named for John Fortune who came to the area as a pioneer in 1846 with many slaves. Mr. Fortune never moved his family from his Waco, Texas, home, and stayed, himself, only a few years before returning to Waco.
The next family to move into the Bend, which is bordered on three sides by the Brazos River, was the Williams family who arrived about 1872. Henry and Gipp Williams brought their families to Fortune Bend from Illinois. At that time, Mineral Wells had not been settled, as the Lynch family did not arrive until 1888, so the nearest town was Weatherford. The Williams family reported seeing many wild animails including bears.
After the arrival of the Williams' other families began to move to the Bend. They included Crabtree, Giddings, Weldon, a second Williams family, and Snoddy, and about this time a school was built in the area, and the families began farming cotton and corn and raising cattle.
By the turn of the century Bend family names included West, McCoy, Richardson, Gann, Simms, Pendergraft, Garland, Days or Daes,Height or Hight, Basham, McHare, Coker, Camel, Walker, Sellers, Upton, Adkins, and Blue.
In 1920 the school burned, and another school was built by 1922. Teachers of the Fortune Bend school included Dora Peach, Lena Ruth Watson, Clarence Giddings, Delia Watson, Bob McNeme, Myrtle McConnel, Lela Bell Harris, Nola Marshall Garland, Grace Webster, Homer Tate, George Slimp, Coon Garland, and Afton Walker.
There is a second Fortune Bend Cemetery very close to the first one. It is located about two hundred yards passed the first where you take a right turn and followed the road up the hill. Continue up this road until you reached an old house and barn. This is theWilliam's old family home. Behind the house, upon the hill, is found a small family cemetery containing the markers for the Weldon family.
Thomas Fielder Weldon and Elizabeth Craig Weldon were farmers and ranchers. They established a small ranch in Fortune Bend. They registered the XAV brand on 8 February 1881. Their homestead was started on a hill with a living spring at its base. A doorway was dug into the hillside and framed with cedar logs. On the threshold, at the mouth of the spring, is built with river rocks and the initials TFW-MEC are carved in the rock facing the entrance. When Elizabeth died in 1883 at the age of 42, she was buried on a hill some distance from the house. After Elizabethís death, Thomas went back to Arkansas for awhile, returning to the home place in Texas, where he died on arrival 1885.
This area was often plagued by Comanche Indians, who stole their livestock and killed or wounded the settlers. One interesting occurance can be read at http://www.forttours.com/pages/stcraw.htm and is entitled "Crawford Fight on Chick Bend Mountain". This Indian raid occured in 1874 and many of the early pioneers are listed in the article.
Another Fortune Bend family is the John Worth and Bonnie Marie Storm Gann family. John Worth Gann, the fourth child of Bayless and Laura Etta Hunt, was born 16 November 1894 in the Veal Creek community. He married Bonnie Marie Storm 23 September 23 1920 at Pickwick, Texas. She was born 27 April 1899 in the Pickwick area. Their children were twins, Veva (McCoy) and Vearon, born 18 July 1921 in Caddo, Texas, Vearon died 30 June 1985 and is buried in the Indian Creek Cemetery west of Mineral Wells, Texas; Vera Nell (Phillips), born 14 October 1923 in Pickwick; and Cecil, born 9 June 1938 in the Fortune Bend community.
John Worth Gann served in the Army in WWI. Vearon served in the Navy in WWII. The son-in-law, Euther Phillips, (ret. U.S. Army) served in WWII, the Korean conflict, and in Vietnam War.
John and Bonnie lived in Pickwick, Caddo, Fortune Bend, and Mineral Wells. John was a farmer and rancher and did custom hay baling. He moved to Mineral Wells in 1940 and set up an auto salvage business.
John died 24 July 1972 and is buried in the Indian Creek cemeteryand. Bonnie died April 1997 and is also buried in the Indian Creek Cemetery.
You can discover much about the Gann family on the internet at http://www.galen.gann.com/ .
Here is information on other Fortune Bend residents.
Henry Montgomery Goodin was born in Colgate, Oklahoma, in 1922, and attended school in Fortune Bend. He moved to Abilene from DeKalb in 1991. He had worked for Hall Construction Company for 12 years and for Mineral Wells Sand and Gravel for three years before he retired. He married Edith Franklin in Palo Pinto in 1968. She preceded him in death in 1990.
Jack McCoy was born 28 December 1929 at Fortune Bend and died 22 July 1977, Park Lake, Palo Pinto,Texas. He was married to Letha Lavell Storm, daughter of Leroy "Buddy" Storm and Thyrza L. Mitchell. Leory was the son of Allen and Jessie Nicholas Storm, and Allen is the son of George Storm and Emily Moore. Jack and Letha Storm's children were Sharon, Caron, Sue, Jackie, and Shawna. Information on this family can be found at http://midatlantic.rootsweb.com/database/d0044/g0000092.htm on the internet.
There is certainly a wealth of genealogical information about the Fortune Bend area, and I hope, as time goes by, to tell you more tales of the area.
If you have questions or information regarding this or any of my other columns, please write me at Sue Seibert, P. O. Box 61, Mineral Wells TX 76068-0061; or email me at [email protected].
Hope to hear from lots of you good folks, and you all take care until next time!
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