TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN

The following was told to my by my Grandmother, Fannie (Frances) Williams 
McCoy about her family.
    She did not tell me her parents given names.  She said her parents, 
with other families came in a wagon train to Texas from Alabama in 1856.
They crossed the Red River on a Ferry near Texarkana, Texas. Her family
consisted of the father, Mother, and four or five children.  I do not 
know if any children were born after they came to Texas, however, Aunt 
Lou Henson may have been born in Texas because Aunt Lizzie Williams 
Andrews Price had a little girl about the same age of her little sister,
Lou Williams Henson.  My great grandfather and great grandmother Williams 
settled in Angelina County, Texas.  He died there and I presume his wife 
did also.  She died a few years after her husband died.  My grandmother 
Williams McCoy said that her father died from overwork - he had settled
land and was putting in a farm.
    The children were: the oldest daughter's name I do not know, but she
married and died at childbirth with the first child; then Elizabeth 
Williams Andrews Price; Lou Williams Du Bris; Frances Williams McCoy; 
Uriah D. Williams and Mollie Williams Henson.
    When our great grandmother Williams died, Aunt Lizzie Williams 
Andrews Price took her sisters and only brother and brought them to 
Centerville, Leon County, Texas to live with her and Mr. Andrews, her 
first husband until she could get homes for the children. (In those
days there were no orphans' homes and the relatives and friends took 
the orphan children and raised them.)  I do not know the names of the 
people who she placed them with.  Aunt Lizzie Andrews Price got a home 
for my grandmother, Frances Williams McCoy with a Doctor and his wife 
and she lived with them until she married John McCoy.  Lou Williams 
married a Mr. DuBris at Centerville, Texas and they had one child.  
When this child was a baby the husband died with typhoid fever.  She
left Centerville after his death and she was living in St. Louis, 
Missouri when I was a child.  Aunt Lizzie Andrews Price placed Uncle
(Bud) Uriah D. Williams with a family whose name I do not know there 
at Centerville.  When he was a young boy the family moved to 
Gatesville, Texas and ranched in that area.  He lived there until his 
death. 
    Aunt Lizzie Price Williams kept her baby sister, Lou Williams 
Henson and raised her.  Aunt Lizzie had a little girl; near Aunt Lou's 
age, so she raised the children together.  Aunt Lou Williams married 
a Mr. Henson at Centerville.  I don't know how many children she had.  
However, she lived with her eldest daughter at Minerla, Texas (Mineola?)
when she died which was after World War I.    
    Aunt Lizzie Williams Price married Mr. Andrews who was old enough to
be her father just before the beginning of the Civil War.  She had two 
children by him, a little girl whose name was Laney Andrews and a little 
boy, but he died before his father did, right after the Civil War.
    Aunt Lizzie Williams Andrews Price continued to live in Centerville, 
Texas.  Some years later Uncle Dave Price came to Centerville, Texas.  
I don't know what brought him there unless the county was settling up 
after the Civil War.  Uncle Dave was a Welchman born on the Isle of Wales.
He was a sailor on an English sailing vessel.  Sometime after the Civil
War his ship came to New Orleans, Louisiana and he decided to quit the sea
and came to Texas.  He met Aunt Lizzie at Centerville and they were 
married.  They did not have any children but he helped her raise her little 
girl and Aunt Molly Williams Henson.  Uncle Dave had the contract to carry 
the mail from Jewett, Texas where the railroad was to Centerville, Texas,
the county seat of Leon County.  Centerville was an inland town and still 
is.  Uncle Dave had the mail route until he died in the early 1900's.
    Uncle Dave and Aunt Lizzie kept my father's sister, Elizabeth McCoy 
and sent her to school for two or three school years.  They also kept Clara
Williams Shipman and Lizzie Williams McHarg and sent them to school for 
several terms.
    You can see what a wonderful daughter, sister and Aunt that Aunt 
Lizzie was, for a long time she had more financially than any of her sisters 
and brothers and she was a great believer in education so she did all she 
could to help her family.  I remember her as one of the most gracious persons 
I have ever known.
    Her daughter, Laney Andrews, grew to young womanhood in Centerville.
She also attended Sam Houston Normal School (now Sam Houston State College, 
Huntsville, TX) when it first opened.  She taught school, then married a 
young man at Oakwood, Texas not far from Centerville.  However, this marriage
did not last and she came home and taught school at Centerville until she died  
two years later.  After Uncle Dave died, the two negro women who had worked for
him and Aunt Lizzie died about two years later.  This left Aunt Lizzie all alone
a long distance from her family.  My grandparents, Fannie Williams McCoy and 
John W. McCoy went to see her and invited her to come to live whth them at 
Thorndale, Texas.  This she did with the understanding that she would build 
her a room on to their house.  She moved to their home either in 1902 or 1903.
My grandfather died June 1905 and left my grandmother and Aunt Lizzie alone
out in the country on a farm.  So they broke up housekeeping and my grandmother
made her home with my parents, William Perry McCoy and Flora Brown McCoy
until she, Flora, died in April 1921.
    Aunt Lizzie Williams Andrews Price was invited by her only brother, Uriah
D. Williams, to come to his home out in the country at Gatesville, Texas and
live with him and his wife.  She accepted his kind offer.  There she built a
room for herself on to Uncle Bud's house.  She lived there until she died after
World War I.  Uncle Bud and his children were wonderful to her as long as she 
lived.
    I have written this letter about Aunt Lizzie Williams Andrews Price to let
her descendents know how loyal and faithful she was to her brother and sisters
and their children.  I remember her well because she visited in my parents home
about every two years until she became too ill to travel.  All of this I have
written was told to me by my grandmother, Aunt Lizzie and my parents.
    I have been told by a friend that we might learn our great-grandparents
Williams' given names by going to the Ft. Worth Library and looking at the tax 
rolls for 1860 for Angelina County, Texas.
    It has been my happiness to give this history of so much as I know of our
"Williams Family".

Faithfully,
Ione McCoy Vickery, granddaughter of Frances Williams McCoy







copyrighted by Cindy Foerster and Bobbie Ross Sept.2000