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Hiram David (Dave) Cave was
born Sept. 30, 1845. When just a young man, he moved with his
widowed mother to Bell Co., Texas, near Salado. He was married
to A. Jane McGlothlin at Salado on
Oct. 14, 1865. Jane McGlothlin was born in Missouri at
Cassville, Barry County, July 15, 1848, and had also moved to
Bell Co., Texas with her family.
About 1877, the Dave Caves came to West Texas, first
settling at Valley Creek near Wingate. Their seventh child,
James Wesley, was born there in 1880; and when he was still a
baby, they moved to the new town of Sweetwater. Mr. Cave built
one of the first permanent residences in Sweetwater.
One of the older sons, Walter, in an interview before
his death in 1954, gave his version of the first school in
Sweetwater which he attended: "When school opened in 1882, a
bunch of gun totin' cowboys started in the first grade. It was
the first time they had ever been inside a schoolhouse. They
didn't like the benches or the teachers. They ran the first two
out of town. They ganged up on the third. He wouldn't run. He
knocked the first boy in the head with a stick of wood, laid his
pistol on the desk and went on with the reading lesson. He
stayed five years. Many of the cowboys finished school and
wound up as lawyers."
Coming to West Texas with the Cave family was Jane Burks
(daughter of Mrs. Cave's sister, Nancy Louisa McGlothlin). Jane
Burks married Willie A. Corbet in Sweetwater and their children,
W. A. Corbet, Jr. and Hattie Maude (Mrs. G. E. Bradford) spent
their lives in Sweetwater.
H. D. (Dave) Cave ran cattle to the north of Sweetwater
and bought land in Fisher Co. in about 1883. When he moved his
family there, Mrs. Cave said she would never move again; she was
tired of moving and she stayed and cared for the place while her
husband was frequently away on cattle drives. They built a large
two story house which burned in the 1930's along with much
antique furniture and family records.
Mr. Cave died in 1897 after having an appendectomy
performed in the home of Aunt Queen Long, his half-sister, wife
of Andy Long, who lived in Sweetwater at that time.
The oldest Son, E. C. (Ras), helped his mother raise the
younger children, never marrying until he was in his forties.
Jane McGlothlin Cave died in 1936, and both she and her husband are buried in Sweetwater Cemetery along with a child or two who died in infancy.
Children of Hiram David and A. Jane McGlothlin Cave (all
deceased):
Erastus Cecratus (Ras) born 19-25-1866. Married Laura Mardis. Died 7-03-1954. No children. Bell Dora born 2-29-1868. Married N. I. Dulaney, after he died married John Goggins. Several children. Dallas born 3-07-1870. Married Lupe Hinton. A son and a daughter. Walter W. born 1-11-1872. Married Anna Simmons, after her death married LaVonia Shanks. Died 1954. Six sons, one daughter. Adella born 2-01-1875. Married Tom Polk. One daughter, one son died from a snakebite when a child. Vida A. born 2-02-1877. Married Willie W. Barron. One son, two daughters. James Wesley born 7-10-1880. Married Nina Belle Splawn. Died 11-1955. One son. Thomas born 6-11-1883. Died 11-30-1945. Married Fannie Jo Schumaker. Two daughters. Mark born 6-12-1888. Married Ruby Dennis. Three sons, one daughter. Emmett born 3-06-1893. Married Callie Moulton. Died 8-21-1977. One son, two daughters.
Submitted by James Cave.
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