Family:Robert Patton and Nancy Black (1)

Clark County Marriages 1793 - 1825 http://www.angelfire.com/oh4/tangledwoods/page83.html Black, Nancy married Patton, Robert on 20 Feb 1806

Sarah Hicklin Black's Will

Morgan County,Alabama Court Clerk. It's either Will Bk A, or Deed Bk A: pg 15

Testator Sarah Black, date will written 21 Sep 1821, date probated 2 Oct 1821; Sons: Alexander Black, George, Black, William Black, Robert Black. Daughters: Margaret McCrary, Jane Peebles, Rachel Barnes, Nancy Patton. Others: gr.children William Patton, Sarah Patton, Andrew Patton. Executors Robert Patton. Witnesses: Isaac Langston, Samuel McAdams.

"Wm. Black & His Descendants" A letter to George Black from his sister Nancy and her husband Robert Patton.

Lamar County, Texas21 June 1842

To Maj. Geo. Black, Sir, _______ have had our health generally, since we arrived in this country. Thanks be to God for his mercies to us, and his many preservations on our long trip. We are, all that are here, well pleased. Andrew is in Alabama yet, and so is John S. Brooks. They have written us that they will come here this fall. We have a beautiful country; good land, and good range. Beautiful Prairies, but badly watered. As for springs and mills: Tho' I think not worse than Ky. was, at the 1st settling of it. And this country is not much, if any, inferior to Ky. in soil. This is much leveller and better summer and winter range than Ky. ever was, and I must think our land is equal to that of Ky. This is my 3rd year of experience in this country, and I find it to be a better country for wheat than I looked for: tho' it is a great place for vegetation and all that we have tried yet. We have about 50 acres in cultivation this year. 15 of this in cotton. We count on one bale, or the like, to the acre. This is the best season, here, so far, that I have yet seen. The 2 first being rather dry. They talk of 2000 Wt. to the acre, this year, tho' I think that is too much. Tho' crops look well at this time, and if the season continues, we will, for our chance, (as our farms here are new,) make great crops. There is a great improvement in this part, in these 3 years. We were on the outside, at the 1st., and had to go 18 miles to mill, and that mill just started that fall that we got here. Now we have 3 mills in 6 miles, 1 in 22, and the others 2 in 4 miles. We have 2 tanyards now in 20 miles of us. Our county seat is not fixed yet, tho' they have gotten the center of the county. It is about 6 miles of us. I am well pleased with my place. I have 2000 acres of land in this tract. I bought it after I went there. I gave 371, cts. per acre, I am on the edge of the Prairie, and near 2 my land is prairie, and as rich as I could wish it. Wm. is here in 7 miles of us, Direct your letter to Fort Towson, Arkansas.

Robt. & Nancy Patton

Extract from "Memoirs of Childhood" written by R. J. PattonMarch 15, 1895

Father William Black Patton and mother Elizabeth Lewis Patton, moved to Lamar County, Texas crossing the line into Texas on the 28th day of September, 1837, located in Lamar County, at that time a part of Red River County, Clarksville being the county seat, on Birdsong Creek in Blossom Prairie 12 miles southeast of Paris, Lamar County, Texas, near the village of Pattonville, Texas. There remained among the Indians and wild animals until the county settled up, which was rapidly done. Our nearest neighbor was 6 miles southwest, one Joseph Hamershill &wife & 1 daughter Amanda H. Next was one Jim Crowder and 4 sons, all gone except the youngest son, Thomas, who settled one mile west. Next was Samuel Bridges and wife & father 12 miles northwest, next was Shearal Rollins &family, next John Bailey & family, next Hugh Allen, John T. Hammon Sr., Dr. William H. Burris, Isack Cruce, G. S. Bonner, John Cushing, Richard Miller & John Pew all within 18 months from the time we arrived in Blossom Prairie. Our first neighbors was about 500 Chuchtoughs (Choctaws) in camps about 400 yards north of our camp, who was good and kind to us. My only playmates were Indian children for 18 months. Wild game and varmints was plentiful, deer by the hundreds, turkeys in abundance, antilopes and a few buffalo, mustang ponies. Plentiful fish, opossum, coons plenty fish. No squirrels for some years. Little black bears were plentiful. No elks. There could be found occasionally Panthers and Mexican cougars. Plenty wild bees and frequently wild indians waould make a raid on us. With the help of the Chocktaughs we held them off and they did us little harm. Now and then they would kill a family west of us. The nearest family to where my father lives was in the Steve Hughes family where the indians killed one woman 12 miles south on Sulphur Creek in Round Prairie one family by the name of Featherstone was one woman killed and 1 woman and boy made their escape at night, but Mrs. Featherstone afterwards died from the fright and fatigue of running for life. This was about the spring of 1840. I could relate many Indian scraps, running from the Indians & hiding out and hunting scraps but times and space forbid. I will pass on to my grandfathers coming to Texas in the fall of 1840 settling 6 miles west of my father on Sandy Creek near where Biardstown now is. There I spent one year of my childhood days hunting and fishing along with grandfather Robert Patton and grandmother Nancy Patton. Her maiden name was Nancy Black from Indiana to Kentucky where she married my grandfather Robert Patton.