Hugh
Embury McAfee |
|
|
Back
Row:: Left to Right: A friend; and Reverend Conway, Photo from the Collection of Herman McAfee Daniel
In the fall of 1869, following a year's stay in Arkansas from Mississippi, the Hugh McDuffie McAfee family joined a wagon train that inched its way toward Texas and Navarro County. They settled in the soon to be named Emmett Community where the unmarried twenty-one year old, Hugh Embury, purchased his first hundred acres with silver dollars borrowed from neighbors and where the single log cabin that housed the school and church was situated. Shortly he married Elizabeth Groves, fifteen year old daughter of a Corsicana Cumberland Presbyterian minister [Richard B. Groves]. In 1886, the couple purchased an adjoining hundred acres and promptly gave to the growing community four choice acres, designated for "school and church purposes" where a single dwelling became the school and on Sunday the two congregations, Methodist and Baptist, met. In 1888 he donated two acres for the Emmett Cemetery [Prairie Grove Cemetery], and later in 1898, an additional two acres for a new Methodist Church and parsonage, with its deed reading as follows: "Of the love we bear for the cause of Christ and from an earnest desire to promote his heritage on earth, we give ---."
Thus the McAfee children "played church," learned early to sing, and matured, all having been born in Emmett, except Richard, the youngest who is a native of Blooming Grove, where the "singing" McAfees moved for five years so the older daughters could attend the finishing school there. Each child was baptized in the Emmett Methodist Church, and as each married remained life-long Methodists save one. These eleven became active church participants with the girls playing the piano or teaching classes and the sons leading the song services or serving on boards. One son, Edmond, became a Methodist minister and served in Arkansas. A daughter, Ollie, purchased and gave to the Methodist Church at Emmett the organ and later became Sunday School Superintendent at Brushie for over twenty years. Another daughter, Clemmie, taught music at Emmett. Three children became school teachers - Ira, Ollie, Rufus - with Ollie teaching twenty-five years and Rufus, School Superintendent and coach for thirty-five years. The sole surviving child, Rufus, currently sings in the choir of the First Methodist in Hillsboro. Graham, in Young County, played an important role in the life of this family for the father bought a third farm near Graham and later five married children - Georgia, Dee, Clemmie, Irvin, Richard - maintained homes there simultaneously (other children - Ira, Eva, Edmond - having lived in Graham at different times), with all being active in the Methodist Church there. Later Georgia was to become to her relatives the acknowledged matriarch of the clan. Often the Emmett McAfees visited Graham, once traveling by surrey, a journey that took a week, with the children walking beside the wagon to help "pass the time." Two McAfee children graduated from Graham High School, Ollie, salutatorian, in 1913; and later Rufus, valedictorian, in 1923. So lasting an influence had their father on the children that several openly expressed a desire to be buried near him. Thus four generations of McAfees are buried in Emmett cemetery, including three of the children - Ira, Eva, Ollie, the last named one beside her father. And is was Mattie, the oldest, who lived to be eighty-nine, who chose the epitaph for the parents' stone. And Hugh Embury's influence reached to grandchildren whose careers include public school teachers and college professors, musicians, and artists. Three of Ira's children taught school, Thelma, Vivian, Decherd, the latter a chemistry professor at U.T.A. Another daughter, Aletha, ;published a volume of poetry. Other teachers include Mary G. Hill, daughter of Rufus, and Lometa Brinkley, daughter of Irvin. College instructors include Wayne McAfee, art instructor in Arkadelphia, and McAfee Daniel, English instructor and chairman at Navarro College. Two are newspaper writers, Nita Miller, daughter of Georgia, a and the late Claris Crist, daughter of Eva. Another daughter of Eva, Ruth Nevins, currently teaches piano in Dallas. Many of the grandchildren are musically inclined, including Sue Allison of Dallas who possesses significant piano ability. And Pat Stroder of Emmett is the artist. Among great grandchildren hail a Ph.D., several school teachers, an artist, a minister, a psychologist, and a former football player for Southwest Conference. The original McAfee property in Emmett is still in the family with Pat and Aldrich Stroder owning the "lower" place, and McAfee Daniel and Sue Allison, the "home" place. And two descendants bear the given name of McAfee, a grandson, McAfee Daniel; a great-grandson Joel McAfee Stroder. Thus the McAfee clan, stretching from Navarro County to Oregon, maintain a strong identity with close church ties and often exerting a leading role in church and community - for education and religion appear to be the indelible twin pillars most influential in their legacy. The original farm of 82 acres was purchased by H. E. McAfee in 1886 with silver dollars at fifty cents an acre. the land remains in the family and is co-owned by Sue Daniel and McAfee Daniel. the home was built by the owner, H. E. McAfee, with the assistance from a local carpenter, Mr. Wylie. This story and a half frame structure was built in 1907 and stood on the H. E. and Betty McAfee property directly west of the Emmett Cemetery (Prairie Grove Cemetery). The total price of construction was $2,200. Six rooms with twelve-foot ceilings were downstairs and a bath. A wide hall connected the front porch that fronted the house on the east and south with the back porch. The upstairs was a single room.. Together they comprised some 3,200 square feet of living area. Eight hundred pounds of nails were used in the construction and a single chimney served two fireplaces in adjacent rooms. This building remained the home of H. E. and Betty McAfee and their eleven children. In 1933 one of the sons-in-law and daughter, Herman and Ollie Daniel, purchased the house and the eighty-two acre farm where it remained in the family. On December 6, 1961, the home was destroyed by fire. From "An Update of our McAfee Family" HUGH EMBERRY McAFEE (1859 - 1926). Born in Mississippi, he came to Blooming Grove in Navarro County. After one year, he bought and moved with his bride, Elizabeth Rice Groves, to a black land farm at Emmett. He was also a music teacher and wrote sacred songs, some of which were published. All of his children were musicians and singers. Ira and all the girls played piano, and the other boys played violin and/or guitar or mandolin. Three children taught music and three taught school. He donated the land for a Methodist church where the present-day community church and cemetery are located. In that cemetery the gravestones of Hugh McDuffee, Rosanna, Hugh Emberry and Elizabeth are no more than twenty feet apart. [ Prairie Grove Cemetery, Emmett, Navarro Co., TX ]
Navarro County Death
Volume See Navarro County History; Volume II, pg 459 for Hugh Embury McAfee Family History
Descendants of Hugh Embury McAfee 1 Hugh Embury McAfee
2 William Lee McAfee
CENSUS Submitted by Edward L. Williams |
A deeply religious
man, he named some of his sons, Ira, Dewitt, Irvin, Edmond, Rufus,
Richard - after Methodist Bishops; and some of his daughters -
Mattie, Eva, Clemmie, Georgia, Ollie - from Methodist missionaries.
A musician himself, he taught each daughter save one to play the
piano an each son to play other musical instruments. Both a
church and community leader, he was active as a song leader in
Sunday School and at revivals and taught singing schools. A
composer, he wrote words and music to four gospel hymns.
Methodist preachers, assigned to the 
Navarro County TXGenWeb
© Copyright
March, 2009
Edward L. Williams & Barbara
Knox