Fannin County TXGenWeb
Samuel Augustus Erwin

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From R. Thomas Evans <[email protected]>

SAMUEL ERWIN’S FIRST FAMILY
 

 Samuel Augustus Erwin, 1785-1854, was a Virginia-born pioneer of Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri and Texas and a contemporary and associate of Davy Crockett of Alamo fame.  Probably on Crockett’s earlier urging, in the earliest years of the Republic of Texas Sam became the first permanent settler in what is now the city of Honey Grove, Texas.  A surveyor, he later became co-founder of Honey Grove.

 Living there with him were his wife, Sally R. Crisp Erwin, and their four children – Andrew Jackson, Louisiana, Margaret Missouri and Samuel A., Jr.  Sam became Honey Grove’s first postmaster, a sometime Justice of the Peace, and a successful owner of considerable real estate.

 Various publications to be found in the Bertha Voyer Memorial Library of Honey Grove and the Sam Rayburn Library in Bonham, and even official historical markers placed in Honey Grove by the State of Texas, recite these facts.  Yet none of these sources mentions the unhappy earlier times in Kentucky where a county court had bound out his first two children, born well before the four in Texas, to be raised by their grandparents.

 (From this point on, be aware of the vagaries of 19th-century spelling.  Erwin may appear as Ervin, Irvin, Irvine, Earvan, etc. – not too bad out of over 200 known spellings of the name.  The name of Sam’s son William Carroll is sometimes phonetically spelled Kerral.  And nicknames are popular, too – Polly Ann for Mary Ann, Sally for Sarah, and of course Sam for Samuel.)

 The earliest documentation on Sam that I’ve found so far – I’m still looking – is in the 1813 tax list for Pulaski County, Kentucky, which adjoins Casey Co. to the southeast.  He next appears in Casey Co. itself in 1814 and 1815.  (Kentucky Tax Lists).  I have possibly overlooked other tax-list entries, earlier, later or both.

 On 28 April 1817 “Polly Ann Ervin and Infant Children” of Samuel Ervin are found in the care of one Christopher Riff in Casey County, KY.  (Casey County KY Order Book 1, p. 349, photocopy and transcription attached.)

 On 26 June 1817, the Casey County Court bound out Mary Ann Ervin, age 3, “Infant orphan” of Sam Ervin, to Christopher Riff until age 18 to “learn the art of a Spinster”.  At the same time the court bound out “W. Kerral (sic) Ervin”, age about one year nine months, “an Infant of Saml Ervin” to Christopher Riff until “the full age of Twenty years to learn the art of Farmer”.  (Casey County Order Book 1, p. 353, photocopy attached.)  I believe there had been a third child, David, who was deceased before this time.

 The Christopher Riff referred to here was Brigadier General (KY Militia) Riff, pronounced to rhyme with fife and more commonly spelled Riffe.  He and his wife Mary Agnes Spears Riffe were the parents of Sarah, Sam Erwin’s deceased first wife.
(Will of Christopher Riffe, Sr; Casey County KY Will Book 2, p. 1)

 On 18 March 1834, Polly Ann Ervin was married to Austin Peyton in Casey Co., KY, by Jesse C. Portman, MG. (Marriage Register, p. 62, Casey Co. KY Clerk’s Office.)

 In 1847 through 1850, A. R. Peyton is on the tax lists of Fannin County, Texas, so it appears that Mary Ann and her husband Austin Peyton followed her father, Samuel Erwin, to Texas.  (But they’re in KY in the census taken 10 August 1850.)

 By 12 June 1848, Sam Erwin’s KY son William Carroll has died, but Sam now has a granddaughter there: The Casey County Court appointed Robinson Peyton (a brother of Austin) to be administrator of William C. Ervin/Irvin (both spellings are used), deceased, and also to be guardian of Sarah Irvin, Infant of Wm. C. Irvin dec’d.  Hence Sarah is a granddaughter of Samuel Erwin.  (My great-grandfather Thomas Evans, brother-in-law of Austin and Robinson Peyton, was one of those appointed to make security for the required $300 bond.)  (Casey County Order Book 5, p. 200.)

 By 12 April 1852, Mary Ann’s husband Austin Peyton had died.  (I would like very much to know when and where, and where he was buried.)  In KY, Mary A. Peyton requested the Casey Co. Court to appoint Robinson Peyton administrator of Austin’s estate.  (Casey County KY Order Book 5, p. 378.)

 In July, 1852, in KY, an attorney was appointed to represent the infant heirs of Austin Peyton, deceased (“infants” meaning legal minors).  They are named in the record and are the same children who appear in the 1850 U.S. Census of KY as Austin’s and Mary Ann’s children, all surnamed Peyton: Vincent, whom I will mention again shortly;  Sally R., Samuel E., Mary J., Clarissa, and Margaret.  (Casey County Order Book 6, p. 6.)

 On 20 March 1854, Samuel Erwin specifically called Mary Ann Peyton one of his heirs when he deeded to her 160 acres of land in Fannin Co.  His signature was witnessed and verified by his son, Samuel A. Erwin (Samuel Jr.). Sam Jr. added an unusual comment in which he seemed to go out of his way to support his since-deceased father’s action, stating that at various times he had heard his father declare that this was the land of Mary Ann Peyton and that he would convey it to her, and “that he spoke of it at various times prior to his decease as the land of said Mary A. Peyton     . . .  “ (Fannin County TX Deed Book I, p. 129, copy and transcription attached.)

 On 13 July 1854 Samuel Erwin died.  (Tombstone, Oakwood Cemetery, Honey Grove, TX.)

 In 1869, Sarah Irvin, Sam’s granddaughter in Casey Co., KY, again appears in this story.  (We last saw her in KY in 1848, when Robinson Peyton became her guardian.)  Now married to a John Deaver, she owns an interest in land which obviously was her father’s share of Sam’s estate, passed directly to Sally because her father, William Carroll, had predeceased his father, Samuel.  Unfortunately, the land is in Texas while Sally still lives in Kentucky, so she hopes to remedy this through her cousin’s help.  (Confusing enough?  Just wait!)

 A Kentucky document dated 14 December 1869 states that “Sallie F. Deaver, late” (i.e., formerly) “Sallie V. Irvin daughter of Carrol Irvin deceased and granddaughter of Samuel Irvin deceased” granted a Power of Attorney to Vincent Peyton of Fannin Co., TX.  Vincent (her first cousin, the son of Mary Ann Erwin and Austin Peyton) was to handle a rather complicated, interstate real estate transaction for her; it would, in effect, indirectly swap the Texas land that she inherited from Sam Erwin for some Kentucky land owned by Austin Peyton’s heirs.  (Fannin Co. TX Deed Book S, p. 371, copy and transcription attached.)

 I don’t know the results of Sallie’s deal, but I imagine it worked out.  All these people seem to have been proficient in planning and carrying out land transactions, interstate or not, and the more convoluted the better.  At any rate, the document again demonstrates that Sam recognized his Kentucky family, even at his death.

 Mary Ann and Austin had more than enough descendants to generate considerable interest in this history.  Their daughter Sally married John Eubank and had at least four children: Annie, Will, John Jr. and another daughter.  We don’t know about Sam Peyton’s descendants at this time, but Vincent had Mary (m. Peter Smith), Belle (m. Will R. Evans), Nannie (m. Tom Zinn), Alice (m. her cousin Henry Clay Peyton in KY), Nora (m. Oscar Galbraith), and Beulah (m. J. B. Laughlin).  (I lack documentation on this except for family notes and lore.)

 These all had several children, and the number of descendants has been increasing exponentially for a century since then.  Although later generations have scattered, some of these names are still familiar ones in Fannin County.

 I apologize for errors and omissions; no slight is intended to anyone whom I haven’t mentioned, and there are many of those.  I hope that some of the descendants will help me fill the gaps and provide me with more of the history, especially the names of Sam Erwin’s forebears and the ultimate fates of Mary Ann and Austin Peyton.

R. Thomas Evans, Great-great-great-grandson of Samuel Erwin

Revised July 23, 2003

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