'W' Ward County Pioneers

My great grandfather traveled from Georgia to Texas in the late 1890's arriving in Ward County, Texas, by way of a more Eastern route not show on map.  

A survivor and Veteran of the Civil War, he lost all family farming land to Georgia's Reconstruction and taxes after the Civil War.  Without the hope of owning land, he settled his family in the Southwestern part of Ward county know as Grandfalls.

A widower with 6 of his 10 children, my great grandfather's farming skills were in great demand among the Emigrant land owners. He and his children lived many years in Ward county, and became land owners of plats shown on the map. 

His last years were spent in the Confederate Soldiers Home in Austin, Texas.  His final resting place is in the Texas State Cemetery's Confederate Field.

Only one son, my grandfather stayed on in Grandfalls for the remainder of his life.  My two pioneer grandfathers' spirit flows through the veins of now eight generations of Ward County residents whose lives have been impacted by the 1902 General Land Office Map.