I am gathering information on the families who traveled by wagon train from Oktibbeha County, Mississippi to Central Texas in 1869. I have already posted queries in Lee County, Texas and in Oktibbeha County.

Some of the Milam County families known to be descended from this pioneer group include the families of Effie (Gay) Owens, Dose (Peebles) Underwood, Sam Peebles, Dovie (Pounders) Green, Skeet Quinney and Forrest Lee Pounders.

In the summer of 1932, eighty-year-old Mary Annie "Mollie" (West) Nettles (my great-great-grandmother) said that, "There were twenty-one families of relatives and friends who finally in 1869 had finalized plans to come to Texas where it was hoped it would be easier to start over (following the devastation of the Civil War). So we made the long trek from northern Mississippi and that in itself is a long tale. This afternoon is about spent and I have chores to do. Come again and I'll tell you of the trip and our early years in Texas...."

"Mollie had lost her father during the war, and her mother had later married Joe Thomas. One son, Eugene C. Thomas, was born to them in 1866. Later the mother died, and sixteen year old Mollie and three year old Gene came to Texas with Valentine cousins (we believe it was John and his wife, Maggie, who settled in the ROCKDALE area -- they had daughters, Porta and Irma)."

In April 1979, "The Giddings Times & News" of Giddings, Lee County, Texas published a lengthy article about Mollie's remembrances of the civil war in Oktibbeha County. The above excerpt is from that article which was written by Ruby (Nettles) Vance of Lexington, Lee County, Texas. Ruby is one of Mollie's granddaughters [as is my grandmother, 93-year-old Ima (Muston) Pounders of Rockdale]. Surnames included in the referenced article are: Bell, Carter, Forrest, Muston, Nalley, Nettles, Perry, Pounders, Sikes, Thomas, Valentine, Vance, Ware, West, Willoughby.

To read the article about some of Mollie's civil war experiences while growing up in Oktibbeha County, do the following:
1. Go to the RootsWeb Archives
( http://searches.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/listsearch.pl )
2. At "name of list" type in "MSOKTIBB-L" (without the quotes), and click the "submit query" button.
3. At "query" type in "Remembrances" (without the quotes), click the button beside 1999, and click the "search" button.

I look forward to hearing from some of y'all. And enjoy the article -- it's a good one!