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THE GENEALOGY OF ROBERT (ROBIN) EASLEY, THE FRENCH HUGUENOT IMMIGRANT, AND ANN PARKER THROUGH GEORGE WOODSON EASLEY AND DELLA JEANETTE AND THEIR FAMILY

Chief Quanah Parker was one of the chiefs based in Oklahoma for whom the town of Quanah was named. He would bring some of his people to Quanah and make "medicine" at Medicine Mounds, Texas. That was six or eight miles from the Whitton ranch and Grandma Whitton gave them a steer each year. They would butcher the steer and eat it all in the week or ten days that they camped at Medicine Mounds.

The story is that Chief Quanah Parker asked Grandma Whitton for Della's hand in marriage. The chief had several wives. Grandma told us the story and Mom [Della Jeanette Whitton Easley] said it really happened.

You can get the Quanah story on search. Look up Quanah Parker or Medicine Mounds. Uncle Carlos Easley

MEDICINE MOUND, TEXAS. Medicine Mound, on Farm Road 1167 twelve miles east of Quanah in east central Hardeman County, took its name from four local elevations, 200 to 250 feet high: these mounds were camps and ceremonial sites of the Comanches. The community moved 2½ miles north in 1908, when the Kansas City, Mexico and Orient Railway was built. At one time Medicine Mound had a population of 500 and twenty-two businesses, including a newspaper (the Citizen). A fire in 1932 destroyed most of the business buildings, and few were rebuilt. In 1940 the town had six stores and 210 people. Its school was consolidated with that of Quanah in 1955, and the post office and gin shut down in the 1950s. The population was fifty in 1980 and 1990.

The mounds were an ideal campsite for the archaic hunter-gather groups as well as the Plains Indians, who arrived in the late 1700s. Because the mounds had abundant spring water, the site was a favorite camp ground for hunting, the gather of medicinal plants and for worship.

The Comanche Nation considers two of these mounds to be sacred: the tallest mound, Medicine Mound and the second tallest, Cedar Mound. It was here that Comanche braves came for vision quests - a ritual where the young man isolated himself from his tribe and sought communion with nature and the spirit world. At this place, Comanches and other peoples would gather medicinal plants to maintain their health. Native Americans continue this practice and return to such sites to gather the necessary plants and herbs as well as to seek spiritual guidance.

This location has witnessed many historical events, such as the recapture of Cynthia Ann Parker by Sul Ross in 1860 near the Pease River. In 1864, the African-American frontiersman, Britt Johnson, recaptured his family at the mounds from Indians who kidnapped his wife and children at Jack County, Texas. Later, this area saw several skirmishes between buffalo hunters and Indian hunting parties.

After moving to the reservation, Comanches, under the leadership of Quanah Parker, the namesake of the largest town in Hardeman County, often traveled to this site for hunting and religious activities.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Bill Neal, The Last Frontier: The Story of Hardeman County (Quanah, Texas: Quanah Tribune-Chief, 1966). Hardeman County courtesy of the Quanah Chamber of Commerce.

Next Anecdote

JOHN ELLINGTON EASLEY

and

SARAH JANE CLIETT

Aunt Janie's Story

The following document was first recorded and then transcribed and compiled by my Aunts Lena and Margarie Easley in 1965. They interviewed their Aunt Janie. Janie is Grandpa George Woodson Easley's baby sister. You can see her as the little girl between her mother and daddy in the family portrait. Aunt Margarie (Easley) Bennett and Aunt Lena (Easley) Atkisson transcribed the recording, documenting the story.

Family members will enjoy this rich story of personal struggle and triumph. Starting and unfolding just at the time of this country's Civil War, the reader will be thrilled by the trivial activities of everyday frontier life on the Texas prairie. The family values grew out of a deep religious faith and a respectful educational program. The family built churches and schools and were one of the primary families settling Hardeman County, Texas.

As it turned out, George Woodson Easley eventually left Texas, his mother, his Easley siblings and his land, completing Manifest Destiny by moving his remaining family to California. Of all the many forks in the roads from Virginia Colony to sunny California, this last move completed their great America quest. Ruby Roberta (Easley) Heflin was born in Covina, California. From Robert Easley, the Virginia Colonist, to Ruby Easley, the California baby, the George Woodson Easley family completed the about 250 year westward-ho sojourn. And, here we all are!

Aunt Margie, thank you for your meaningful contribution to our Easley web site

Please, enjoy this great piece of family history...

Introduction by Margarie (Easley) Bennett:

"This is the story about John Ellington Easley and Sarah Jane Cliett, married September, 1865, and their adventures in raising their large family in a rather hostile farming country in Texas. Ironically, this interview was taped in September, 1965 one hundred years after John Ellington and Sarah Jane were married, and just days before our father, George Woodson Easley died."

"While some of this material was covered in Mary Preston Marcom's Vines Tribute, "Sarah Jane Cliett Easley, a Pioneer Mother", this has been taken verbatim from the tape made by Aunt Janie (Easley) Suddeth when she came to Hemet, California to see her brother, George, for the last time. My sister, Lena Atkisson, and myself, Marjorie Bennett, were amateurs, but the personal way Aunt Janie tells the story, is what makes it so beloved."

"She begins the tape when John Ellington was in Texas just as the Civil War was beginning in 1861."

("Transcribed from the reel to reel tape made by my sister, Lena Atkisson, and me, Marjorie Bennett")

Reno, Nevada, 89502, May, 1998

(Reading Time: 10-15minutes)

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