MR. ERNEST NETTLETON

Old Man Nettleton [Arthur A. Nettleton] married a Bond [Emma Bond]. He was an awfully good man, an Englishman. But he could get drunk. One night at Grandma Pierson’s hotel he went by mistake into a closet door where they kept old clothes. He banged on the wall at daylight for someone to let him eat. At first they could not locate him.

(I thought a lot of Mr. Nettleton, remember sitting on the store porch at Shive talking to him. Spoke well of my father. Went out there when he passed away. He looked like Kipling. Also liked his boys. Old Man Smart told me this story; he and Nettleton, Old Man Colson, perhaps others, were going back to the Shive country in a hack. Colson had had a run-in with Sheriff Ed Beck in Hamilton. Going out, getting bolder, he said they couldn’t arrest him. Mr. Nettleton tugged on his moustache, said, "Colson, they can arrest you, they can arrest you dead or alive! I say, I say, they can arrest you.

[Arthur A. Nettleton was born 22 April, 1852, in Plymouth, England.  He came to Texas at the age of 14 and stayed two years before returning to England.  About 1872 Nettleton returned to the USA.    He met Emma Bond and her family aboard ship on his return to Texas.  Nettleton was one of the early settlers at Shive.  Arthur and Emma were married 15 June, 1877.  Their children were:  Edward Alfred, Arthur Ernest, Mary Maria, James Bennet, Lewis Sloneker, John William, and Gordon Bond.  After Emma's death in 1898, Arthur married Jodie (Ferguson) Merchant on 5 March, 1903. Arthur and Jodie had two children--Florence and Bill.  Jodie had daughters--Robert Ivy and Euphia,]\

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