JAMES FRANKLIN HACKETT

     James Franklin Hackett (1849-1937) married Mittie Matilda Greer (1863-1949), a native of Falls County, at the of her widowed mother north of Deer Creek near present-day Chilton in January 1881. During most of her remaining years, Mit's mother, Sarah Greer, made her with the Hacketts. Frank and Mit reared the following six children and two grandchildren in Falls County: James Elliot (1881- 1910), Sallie Ellis (1884 - 1911), Bess Greer (1886 - 1965), Charles Wilson (1888-1951), Mary Lucille (1891-1970), Frank Ernest (1898 - 1971), and Sallie Frances Steele Shelton and Seth Hackett Steele.

     Frank and Mit's forebearers generally came from England in the 1600s to the Chesapeake Bay area, the Hackett progenitors settling on the eastern shores of Maryland and Virginia and in Delaware and the Greer ancestors in the western bay area north of Baltimore on the Gunpowder River and in Virginia. Her mother's people entered the U.S. at New Bern, North Carolina.

     Frank was the first Hackett to come to Texas and traveled by himself while the Greers and related families journeyed either together or followed relatives as they gravitated through Virginia, Georgia, and Mississippi before reaching the Brazos Valley. All were farmers.

     Frank's antecedents in the U.S. were Thomas I. Thomas II, Thomas III, Luke, and James Madison Hackett. Mit's forefathers in America were James, John, Aquilla, Asel Sr., Edmund, and Benjamin Franklin Greer, her father, who married Sarah Ann Ellis in 1847. The B.F. Greer family and Greer relatives in Falls County are discussed elsewhere.

     Departing from Maryland's Dorchester County in 1875, Frank spent the winter in Kansas. In 1876, he crossed the Red River from Oklahoma in a boat by himself during a flood which had destroyed all bridges. He settled briefly in Giddings before moving to the present-day Chilton area where he first worked for one of the Gaithers. Charles Trice, another Dorchester native, worked for Frank when he first arrived in Falls County before settling in Lott.

     The Hacketts' first from 1881 to 1884 was a log cabin. Next, they relocated to their newly acquired farm northeast of Chilton and began obtaining other land, ultimately owning 483 acres including a 150-acre tract presently held by three of their grandchildren. From 1887 to 1917, Frank and Mit lived on their farm between Mooreville and Dot, and after 1917 they resided in Chilton on the north side of U.S. 77.

     While near Mooreville, the family was active in the Mooreville Methodist Church. The family which included her widowed mother was deeply religious. Mit's grandfather Alfred Ellis had been a Primitive Baptist minister in North Carolina and Mississippi, and her great-grandfather Benjamin Hodnett's early conversion to Methodism about 1785 in Virginia deeply influenced his heirs. Although Mit was a Baptist and Frank a Methodist, they felt at in all area churches and generally served as the host family for visiting revivalists of all denominations after re- turning to Chilton.

     Between 1899 and 1909, four of the Hacketts' children attended The University of Texas. Jim enrolled in 1899, Sallie in 1901, Bess in 1903, and Charlie in 1905 after graduating from Marlin High School. Jim married Cyrene Whitaker and established his law practice in Midland; their daughter Tilda lives today in Dallas. Sallie married Seth R. Steele, a minister, and lived in Arkansas and Arizona; their daughter Sallie F. Shelton resides in Edmond, Oklahoma, but son Seth is deceased. Bess became a teacher first in Reagan, next Corsicana, and then in Dallas where she taught from 1924 until her retirement. Charlie taught at the University of California in Berkeley while completing his Ph. D. degree and became a professor at The University of Texas starting in 1918. He subsequently filled visiting professorships at Harvard, Stanford, Columbia, and the National University of Mexico. He married Jean Hunter of Austin, and their daughter Frances H. Clark now lives in Cleveland, Ohio and son Charles Jr. in Austin.

     Daughter Lucille married Albert G. Hubby, and he first farmed at Mooreville but then moved to Waco where they reared their two children. Bess Hubby Slay now lives in Hillsboro and Albert Jr. in Dallas. Ernest married Garnet E. Van Norman of Dot. He farmed at Chilton for many years and also held positions else- where in Texas, California, and Colorado with rail- roads and hotels. Their children Ernest Eugene and Elizabeth H. Crites are deceased, and daughter Mary H. Mathis recently moved to the Athens area from Colorado.

     About 1928 the Hacketts built a two-story Dutch colonial with a commodious south front porch having a commanding view across old U.S. 77 of the Deer Creek Valley and the Carolina Hills. This breeze - swept porch became a popular gathering place for their many friends and relatives on summer evenings. Their barn was particularly popular with the grandchildren "ho always looked forward to visiting "Mammaw and Pappaw."

     By 1962, Frank and Mit's descendants had increased in number to 35, none of whom now lives in Falls County. However, many of the descendants of Mit's brothers and sisters still reside in the Marlin and Chilton areas. The Hackets made a permanent impression upon everyone who knew them because of their honesty, sincerety, and loyalty to friends and relatives. Older Falls County residents remember them fondly.

Copyright Permission granted to Theresa Carhart for printing the biographies of these Falls County Families to this Web page.
"Families of Falls County", Compiled and Edited by the Falls County Historical Commission, page 206 column 1, page 207 column 1 and 2 and page 208 column 1.  
Member of Falls County Historical Commission.