Ellis G. Wheeler was born in 1866 at the place where the city of Dallas was later founded. His father, Tom W. Wheeler, came from Missouri and settled the place where Dallas is now, traded forty acres for a pony and settled within twelve miles of Paris, Texas, where E.G. grew up. In 1890 he married Miss Clara Humphrey. In 1919 they moved to a farm in Crosby County and have lived in the county ever since, now living in Ralls.They recall seeing Paris burn, and thought it was a prairie fire. They also recall when there was not a bridge on creeks in Lamar County and the land was not under cultivation. They came to Crosby County and saw another county change from grass to growing crops.
Mrs. Wheeler came from Quincy, Illinois, to Oklahoma. "It took us about two months and as there were so many rivers and creeks to cross, we were going back half the time. But everything was fun."
Mr. and Mrs. Wheeler's grandson, Tony Wheeler, was prisoner of war of the Japanese on Bataan Island where he was stationed and Tony was in the "Death March". He was released and came home after the war.
Source: Through the Years, A History of Crosby County, Texas by Nellie Witt Spikes and Temple Ann Ellis
We came to Texas from Illinois in a covered wagon. Though I was only eleven years old, I remember every stop of the way and wish I could make that trip again in the old covered wagon, just rolling along with my father, mother and their five children. We were two months on the road; it was just a cow trail. If you met anyone on the road there was hardly any room to pass.My father left Illinois with eleven head of fine horses and his cows. Just imagine cows walking that far, but that wasn't so bad; we children walked most of the way. We would get tired waiting for the horses and would run on ahead, and sit down and wait for the wagon to catch up. When we would come to a nice, shady place with plenty of clear water, mother would put in the day washing and drying our clothes, and of course she did not iron them. We would "iron" them after we put them on. After so long we arrived in Texas. Mother thought it took ages to make the trip, but how I long to make it again! We located in Lamar County and began to help build up the "wild and wooly west." The first year father planted seven acres of corn and five acres of cotton. My, we thought we had the whole world of cotton! I will tell you of the wild prairie fire. It got started, some way, and burned everything in its path. There was a drove of jennys and jacks roaming over the prairies and could not escape the fire, so after the fire had burned out, there were those little jacks and jennys lying around dead.
Well, the first year's going was plenty tough, but when I think back they were happy years; all we had we had either to raise or make. I remember my school dresses my mother wove that we then called "linsey" cloth. I thought they were worth a million dollars when I started to school with my new linsey dress down to my ankles, for everyone wore them long. I remember wearing big coarse shoes with three buckles on them like they used on horse collars, but we were proud we had shoes rather than go barefooted in the snow. Well, my father and mother got rambling in their shoes again, so off we went to Indian Territory. That was about twenty years later and lo and behold they really did go to a wild country! There were Indians and rattlesnakes and grass as high as our heads. My father made the "run" and settled on a hundred and sixty acres of land. Father did not live long after that, so my mother was left with five children to raise. Every once in a while a drunken Indian would come to the house with a great long knife and try to run us all off and all the kids would scatter like quails, and leave mother to fight the battle and she had a crippled foot, so all she could do was to run a bluff and scare the Indian off, but they never hurt us. My mother was a brave woman.
I remember one day my father came in when times were bad and said to mother, "Well Kate, how in the world will we get some work shoes and chewing tobacco?" When my mother was worried, she would drop her head and pull her underlip, so she jerked her head and answered, "we will sell a feather bed and buy you some shoes and tobacco." So the feather bed was sold and Pa got some Star Navy and shoes.
By Mrs. Clara WheelerSource: "Through the Years, A History of Crosby County, Texas" by Nellie Witt Spikes and Temple Ann Ellis ©1951; The Naylor Company, San Antonio, Texas p.306
Burial Site
Ralls Cemetery
- Subdivision7
- Lot 37
- Space 1
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