Person:John Chisum (3)

John was known as "Flat-Creek John" in Limestone County because he lived on Fla t Creek and to distinguish him from the other John Chisums.

John is in the 1 850 Cherokee County, Texas census (page 857, family 357) and the 1860 Springfield, Limestone County, Texas census (family 46/43). John was a farmer. On the 1 860 census he claimed that he had $43,000 worth of real estate and $7,000 worth of personal estate. That is some kind of farming! In1870 in Grayson County, he claimed only $10,000 worth of real estate and $3,000 worth of personal estate. In 1880 they were still -- or again -- living in Grayson County, Texas, but in Precinct 6. While he called himself a farmer, John was really a land speculator. He had received a land grant in Greer County, Texas, of 1240 acres for service in the Texas revolution. When Congress decided that they were going to u se the main branch of the Red River to separate Texas from Oklahoma rather than the North Fork, it put his land in Oklahoma. Oklahoma would not recognize a Texas land grant and took all but the house and a few acres around it. John and Mary are buried about 75 feet from the house. There is evidence that Mary was the Widow VanWinkle with a league of land in Rusk County surrounding present-da y Kilgore, and when John married her, they sold off all that 4,180 acres. John probably turned over in his grave when they discovered all the oil that came f rom that land!

1. ↑ Headstone, John Monroe Chisum. (Greer/Jackson County, Oklahoma).

   John and Polly were buried on the home place, 7 miles from Altus, Oklahoma.

2. ↑ John Chisum. Affidavit of Military Service of John Walling. (Grayson County, Texas).
3. ↑ Jackson, Ronald V. Texas Census, 1820-90 Record. (Ancestry.com, 1999).
4. ↑ U.S. Census Bureau. 1870 U.S. Census Whitesboro, Grayson County, Texas. (Ancestry.com)
   Image 57 of 62; Microfilm Roll 1588, pg. 127.