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Texas roots are that of a transplanted type that originates with Joseph Houghton who came to Texas from Michigan with a pregnant wife and 4 sons. He is the son of Jonathan and Nancy.
Note: Thanks to Dave Reedy for digging up most of this information in his genealogy search. Joseph Personal Joseph Houghton was born on April 18, 1837, in Bedford Township, (Upper Canada), Ontario, CA. His parents were Jonathan and Nancy (Gilchrist) Houghton. Jonathan was from Vermont, his mother was a Canadian, or her family had also come from early British Colonies. His paternal grandparents were Joseph & Hannah. His Maternal grandparents were Archie and Nancy M, (Clawson) Gilchrist. It is believed that his great-grandfather was named Oliver. Details about Oliver are not yet known. Joseph and his siblings came to US, with their parents Jonathan & Nancy, to Dekalb, Illinois from Ontario, Canada in 1854 or 55. He enlisted in the army at Dekalb, Illinois, on Aug. 14, 1862. He served as a private in Company K, 105th Regiment of the Illinois Infantry for the duration of the Civil War except for a short time in October of 1862 in Frankfort, Kentucky where he was sick for a while. The war was over in April of 1865. He mustered out of active service on June 7th of that year in Washington, D.C. and returned to Dekalb, Illinois. In 1866, at age 29. He marries a local girl named Mary
Jane Duffy. It is believed that she was the daughter of James
Duffy, a farmer, and she was born in Ohio in 1843. Their first son was born
in Michigan in Dec of 1866. In
fact four of the five sons were born in Michigan. Joseph & Family in Texas The
next time we find Joseph Houghton in record is in 1880, living in Cleburne,
Johnson County, Texas. The census record read as follows: As you can see they had moved to Texas sometime about summer or fall of 1876 because Oscar was born in Texas in November of 1876. Also Joseph lost his wife, Mary Jane, who as I found later, had died in Cleburne in 1879. Now my heart was really going out for this man. He is left with no wife, five little boys, and him a 43 year old disabled veteran. We know this by the pension that he filed for in 1891 pursuant to an Act of June 27, 1890, granting money to Union Civil War Veterans. In his claim for a pension he stated that he had been disabled since 1874 with "inflammatory rheumatism", "chronic sore eyes, "paralysis", "deafness", and later heart trouble. One of the affidavits signed by a close associate claimed he had been unable to work a day for years. He was finally granted a pension of $6.00 a month. In 1904 he was given a raise to $8.00 a month. On
January 14, 1884, he married a widow woman in Cleburne named Mary
Malinda (Mooney) Tubb. They moved out of Cleburne to Nemo, a small
community in neighboring Somervell County. They were still living there
in 1904. Joseph's Death Joseph died March 8, 1906, at 11 pm. at age sixty nine. The odd thing is that his death record shows that he died at Weatherford, in neighboring Parker county. this has not been verified yet. It is said that he was visiting his son Wyman in Weatherford when de died. It is also said that Oscar got notice from a neighbor that his father Joseph passed away and he rode a horse to Strawn RR Station to take train to Cleburne where he rented a horse from livery stable and rode to cemetery where he and Wyman dug the grave and buried their father. This would mean he is buried around Cleburne. It was said he rode horse several hours to get there from Cleburne. Could it be Nemo or Venus or Godley? The
following information was sent to Dave Reedy by Mrs. Betty Roberts, a friend living near
Cleburne, TX. 7/05/01 (Derl) Did computer search of cemeteries in counties in-and-around Cleburne found a Mary Houghton in Somervell Co. That would be Nemo where Joseph and his second wife lived about the time he died. This could be the second wife. Found no other Houghton's on those that are online. There is several cemeteries not on line yet but I have a list and their locations. I will continue to expand on some of this info. *************************************************** Return To Top The following information has been gathered about Joseph and Mary's children. Sherman
Houston Houghton Family Information has been partially collected but not added yet. ************************************************************** Return To Top Wyman
L. Houghton Family No information about family has been gathered to date. *************************************************************
Return To Top Fredwin
Dustin Houghton Family Fredwin
Dustin Houghton was born the 10th of September, 1870, in Mayfield, Michigan. He
was the third son born to Joseph and Mary Jane (Duffy) Houghton. His father
farmed about 160 acres there, but in 1875 they sold out and left family and
friends and move to Texas. Fred was just five years old. The family rented a
farm in Johnson County and raised cotton. In November of 1879, Mary Jane died
from typhoid fever, and from then on her boys grew up without a mother, until
1884 when Joseph re-married to Mary Mooney. By then Fred was 13 years old. He
doesn’t show up in records again until March 15, 1899. This was his marriage
to Miss Demie Ellen Holibaugh of Cleburne, Texas. The service was conducted by
D. W. McKay.
In the 1900 census, Fred is 29 years old and is listed as living with Mark Page, who he is employed as a farm hand. Then in the 1910 census, Mark Page is listed as living with Fred’s family, as a uncle. So Mark must have been an uncle to Demie. Fred and Demie had four children: Myrtie, Jodie, Paul, and Mamie. Mamie recalls her father as the kindest man she ever knew. To her knowledge he never lost his temper, was loving and honest as the day is long. Fred
raised cotton, hay, corn, and cattle on a farm they rented outside of Cleburne.
He paid one third of the feed and one fourth of the cotton he raised for the
rent. All went well until about 1922 when Fred suffered from a severe heat
stroke which nearly took his life, and the effects from which he never really
recovered. He passed away In May of 1924. Fred was buried in the Buchanan Cemetery
near his home. Demie never remarried. She lived around Godley most of her life
where she died at the age of 91 on May 23, 1971. She is buried in the Godley
Cemetery. Descendants
of Fred & Demmie Houghton 1. Myrtle Alice Houghton, born April 10, 1900 in Johnson County. Married Luther Bell who died in 1950, and then married Cecil Dempsey, who died in 1959. Myrtle did not have any children by ether marriage. She passed away on August 27, 1965. 2. Jodie Verbin Houghton, born March 22, 1902 in Johnson County. Jodie never married. He died February 7, 1960, and is buried in the Godley Cemetery. 3. Paul
Ball Houghton, born December 16, 1904 in Johnson County. Paul was name after the
doctor who delivered him and his name was Ball. Paul married Pauline
Terry and they had two children.
They live most of their lives in Austin where Paul worked for the Texas State
Highway Department. He died in 1982. *********************************************************** Return To Top Franklin Foeman Houghton Family As compiled and written by
Rose Mae Emm and Dave Reedy about 1990. A biography of Frank Foeman Houghton. Frank was born September 18, 1873, near the town of Mayfield in
Grand Traverse County in northern Michigan. His father, Joseph, was a farmer and
had moved to the county in 1866 to be near his father. Frank already had three
older brothers all born in Mayfield. They were Sherman, Wyman, and Fred. When Frank was three, the family packed up a moved to Texas.
They settled eventually in Johnson County renting a farm near Cleburne. Almost
as soon as they arrived there was the birth of the youngest brother, Oscar.
Joseph changed into a cotton farmer and I’m sure the boys did too, as cotton
farming was usually a family affair. In 1879, when Frank was just six, his
mother died at the age of 33 years. At
this same time his father was failing in health due to injuries in the civil
war, and was unable to do full time farming.
A Lot of the load fell on the older boys. Martha Jane Wright, age 17, was
the adopted daughter of James Monroe and George-Ann Anderson. Actually James was
George-Ann’s second husband having married him in 1883.
George-Ann Rebecca Hart first married Ruben Wright. According to family
stories, he was a Caddo or a Comanche Indian, and after being married only a few
years, he left with all their belongings and never returned. George-Ann and her
three-year-old daughter stayed with neighbors until she could somewhat recover.
In truth, if he was an Indian I can find any record of it. He was from
Harpersville and is buried there beside his parents. He did leave her and went
up around Breckenridge. There he started a second family. George-Ann then
married James Anderson and they had four children, three that lived: Mary Etta,
James Benjamin, and Adda. Soon after Frank and Martha
were married they moved to Palo Pinto County and rented a farm on Ioni Creek.
Their first child was born January 11, 1896, and they named her Olive Mae. I
don’t know if she was born before they left Johnson County or after they
arrived in Palo Pinto County. Soon after followed little Mattie Vera on December
7, 1897. Frank rented a larger farm on Cedar Creek and they moved there. Here is
where little Vera died from the whooping cough in the fall of 1899. On 10 May
1900, their first son was born, and they named him Oscar Franklin Houghton. Then
in 1904 there was George William Joseph Houghton. In 1906, Frank bought his first
farm. He purchased it from Tom Moore for about $600. This 80 acres and its small
two-room house would from now on be called “The Home-place”. Frank paid for
it from the proceeds of the first years cotton harvest. It was a good thing he
did too, for the next year the boil weevils got the cotton. Also in 1906, Willie
died from the whooping cough at the age of two. November 28, 1907, after a bad year for cotton, Frank and Martha were blessed with the birth of another daughter, Hattie Florice. It was after the birth of Florice that Martha began to have occasional seizures that she had for the rest of her life. Orville Emerson Houghton,
better know as “Brown”, was born January 23, 1910. Shortly after his birth
the family moved on the Will Nickel place for a few years. Here is where
daughter Rosa Etta was born on November 26, 1912, and later Richard Ivan, who
was born April 15, 1915. Then shortly after Richard was born they moved back on
to the home place. The farm had not been producing that well for the last few years due to bad weather and drought conditions. Their oldest son Oscar, along with other family and friends, had gone to Arizona to find work and told the family how well things were there. Frank decided that they would move to Arizona too. So he sold the home place and began to make preparations to ship Jim & Pat, their two work horses, to Arizona. This proved to be a mistake, for soon the rains came and the drought ended. Instead of going to Arizona they rented the Jasper Cowert place and lived there for five years. This all happened in 1917. In 1923, Frank bought the home
place back from a man named Boarman and this time he paid $800 for it, and that
was minus half the mineral rights. Two years later, son-in-law Wallace Berry,
moved in another house on the place from the old Hart place across the road.
This house is still there today. This is where Frank and “Marta” lived until
their golden years. Martha was a good mother. She
was always busy canning, sewing, cooking, quilting, or something, despite her
aliments. Her children remember her reading to them from books that she had. She
was strict though, and she only spoke once. She was a deeply religious woman,
being a regular member of the Cedar Springs Methodist Church. She saw that the
family attended camp meeting too. Once she asked the Sullivan family if she
could borrow their one-horse sury so her family could go to camp meeting in
style and not in their old wagon. For a time she not only raise her own family
but also took care of her mother who had moved in with them. As she got older
the seizures came more frequently. Frank,
on the other hand was a hard worker, but he was more easy-going than Martha. He
was always joking with the kids or reading the comics to them from the
newspaper. Nephew, Cecil Moore, remembers staying with Uncle Frank in the summer
and being caught riding one of his calves in the pasture. Frank smiled and told
him not to let the calf get too hot, and not to let "Aunt Marthy" see him or
she’d whip his butt. Frank loved his children as well as his grandchildren. He
was always doing little things for them or telling them stories. Brown describes
his father as his pal when he was growing up. He taught him how to work on the
farm, how to play baseball, and how to be a respectable person. He was loved by
everyone that knew him. As Frank and Martha grew older
the chores of the farm became too much for them to handle alone. They moved off
the home place and rented the Thompson place where there was just a small house
on a lot. Oscar and his family moved on to the home place and farmed it. Later
Oscar moved Frank and Martha back to the home place where he and Ola could watch
them closer. In 1956 Frank found that he had cancer and chose to forego medical
treatment and die quietly at home. At the age of 83 years and one month, Frank
passed away on October 18, 1956, and was buried in the Brad Cemetery. Martha was
taken care of by Oscar and Ola until her death on August 17, 1958, being 80
years old. She is buried next to Frank. Oscar and Ola eventually bought the home place and lived there most of their lives. Oscar died on June 19, 1975 and Ola followed on February 29, 1984. They are buried together in the Brad Cemetery. **************** The Descendants of Frank F.
Houghton. See "Tree" on
Home Page (summary structure of family) 1. Olive Mae Houghton, married Wallace Berry on January 11, 1914. They lived in Graham most of their lives and had two children; Eunice Mae and Elvin Lee Foeman who they just called Buck. Ollie died in 1983 at the age of 87. They had been married for 67 years. Wallace died in 1984 being age 93 years old. 2. Osacr Franklin Houghton,
married Ola Beatrice Anderson, a half-cousin through their grandmother
George-Ann Wright Anderson. They were married on November 22, 1924, in Caddo.
Nine children were born to them; Earl Benjamin, Joseph O’Neil, Martha Jean,
Rose Mae, William Ephamays, Donald Franklin, Frances Helen, Elois Elizabeth, and
James Orville. 3. Hattie Florice Houghton, married Charles Gordon September 22,
1924, They had one son Hugh who lives in Houston, TX. Charlie worked with
drilling equipment and they lived throughout the southwest. He died in 1971.
Florice has since past on. 4. Orville Emerson Houghton, better know as Brown, married Ellen Ball in Reno on January 19, 1938. They had two children; Janice Gail and John Philip. Brown has since past on. 5. Rosa Etta Houghton, married Henry Whitley. They had three daughters; Geraldine, Evelyn, and Shirley, and they all live in Arkansas. Henry died in 1981, and Rosa resides in a rest home in Booneville near her daughters. 6. Richard Ivan Houghton, married Anna Proctor and they had one
daughter, Ruby Estelle. Later he
married his, Donnie Mae Houghton, and they had two son; Derl and Jackie.
Richard died on February 26, 1944, from meningitis. ************************************************************** Return To Top Oscar Carver Houghton Family(5Th & Youngest Son of Joseph and only one born in Texas) As compiled and written by Rosa
Emm and Dave Reedy about 1990. Oscar didn’t get to know his
mother very well, for she died in 1879 when he was just three years old. The
cause of her death remains unknown at this time. When he was seven, his father
married a widow woman, Mary Malinda Mooney (Tubb), who became his stepmother. He
spent much of his formative years there in Johnson County. When Oscar was 24 years old, he
married Theodocia Elliege of neighboring Parker County. She was the daughter of
Jim and Drucilla Ellege, born May 6, 1881. According to the Federal Census of
1910, she claims to have been born in Mississippi. They were married near the
end of 1900, near Garner, Texas, and here is where their first child was born on
September 21, 1901. They named him
Duffy Drue Houghton; Duffy after his grandmother’s maiden name and Drue after her
mother’s name. Soon after, the family moved to Stevens County and rented the Pollard place. Their second child, Oscar Fred was born here. Then they rented the Cowart place near Caddo. Here Odie Elizabeth and Sherman Paul was born. One year later, Oscar bought the Curry place which consisted of 100 acres, and later bought an adjoining 125 acres from Walter Christian. These lands were located just across the county line into Palo Pinto County. His farm was adjacent to the farm of his brother, Frank. By 1910, their family had grown
to five children. They were Duffy, Fred, Odie, Sherman, and Eugene. Later they
had another daughter they named Ora Lee. They farmed cotton on this land and the
whole family worked it together. Duffy remembers a time when he was small, they
were picking cotton and the stalks were taller than he was. So he got the idea
to break the stalks over to reach the ripe cotton balls, not thinking about the
unripe balls still on the stalk. When his father saw what he was doing, he made good use of
one of the broken stalks, teaching Duffy a quick lesson in farming on the seat
of his pants. In 1916, Doshie took sick with tuberculosis. Even though her name was Theodocia, she never cared for it, so she changed her name to Doshia Drue. Her condition gradually worsened till she passed away on September 16, of that same year. She was just 34 years old. Oscar had taken a wagon load of cedar logs 18 miles into Strawn to buy some groceries when he was called to the phone to be told that his wife was dying. He rushed home but she died before he got there. He buried her in the Brad cemetery. Oscar remarried in 1918 to Maybon Glover (Storey) of Mineral Wells. Her husband, John, had passed away leaving her with two children, Marvin and Nettie. Oscar still had six children at home, adding her two made eight, and then they had five more. There was Donnie Mae, C.M., the twins Pearl Julia and Earl Junior, and Truman Carver. In 1939, times in this country were not so good. Work was hard to find, and we were just about to enter World War II. Oscar sold out and moved his family to Caddo. Only C.M., Pearl, Earl, and Truman were still at home. They bought a house, and there they lived for the next ten years. The remaining children all married and left home. After that, they moved to Mineral Wells where he and Maybon could be near Pearl and Donnie. It was in Mineral Wells that Oscar C. Houghton died, on the 12th of October, 1961. He was almost 85 years old. He is buried in Brad cemetery next to Doshia. Maybon lived until July 7, of this year. She would have been 93 on her next birthday. She is buried in Mineral Wells next to John. Oscar is remembered by his
family as being a hard worker, and who
sacrificed much for his loved ones. He didn’t like laziness, and wanted
everyone around him to be busy. Both of his wives were religious women which
must have affected him, for he was saved at a camp-meeting. ************************************************************** The Descendants of Oscar C. Houghton. See "Tree" on Home Page (summary structure of family) (see genealogy: individual bio-sheets for additional information) 1. Duffy Drue Houghton, married Louise Harris. They had six children, three boys and three girls. Duffy ran a couple of beauty salons in Dallas. He stayed active until his death. Louise passed a couple of years later. Their children are scattered across the country. His oldest son Dwight was killed several years ago 2. Oscar Fred Houghton,
graduated from Hardin Simmons or Tarelton State in the late 1920’s. He lived
most of his life in Dallas, where he drove a pie truck and owned a service
station. He passed away April 6, 1987. He did not have any children except a step daughter and lived several of
his last years with his brother Sherman in Hamlin, TX. He had severe
diabetes and had one leg amputated before his death. Fred loved to talk and
visit. 3. Odie Elizabeth Houghton, married Jim Carson and they lived in California. They had four sons, all who are still in California. Odie passed away in 1980, and Jim followed in 1982. 4. Sherman Paul Houghton, married Myrtle Lou Whitley. They moved from Caddo to Hamlin in 1942 where Sherman worked at Celotex for 28 yrs. They have four boys and one girl. Sherman has since past away. His children are scattered across Texas. Ernest lives in Odessa. Raymond and Jesse live in Hamlin. Alvin lives in Arlington. Juanita lives in Odessa. 5. Eugene Houghton, married Ollie Whitley. They had three boys and one girl. Ollie died when the children were young. Later, Eugene married Thelma Kidd. He also worked at Celotex until retiring. He passed away a few years ago. His surviving sons Benny & Roy live in Corpus Christi, TX. Virginia lives in Almagardo, NM. at last account. 6. Ora Lee Houghton, Married Martin Wilson and lived their
lives in Denton, TX. They had no children of their own, but they did raise
Eugene’s daughter, Virginia, after Ollie's death. They both have passed away. 7. Donnie Mae Houghton, married Richard Houghton, and had two boys. Richard died young and Donnie then married Warren Elmore. They had two boys before he died of a heart attack. She passed away from Cancer a few years ago. 8. C. M. Houghton, married Ruth Ellen Whitley and had a boy and a girl before his wife died. He later married Wanda Groves and they were married several years. He worked at Celotex in Hamlin, and was retired. C. M. had a respiratory disease and heart problems which resulted in his death in 2001. 9. Earl Junior Houghton, married Geneva May and had three boys. He also worked at Celotex until it closed. Earl retired then later passed away. Geneva lives in Hamlin. 10. Pearl Julia Houghton, married Leroy Windland. She is a housewife in Mineral Wells, and they had two daughters (Edna and Brenda). 11.
Truman Carver Houghton, married Margaret Williams, and they had two boys
(Melvin & Bruce) and a girl (Helen). They are retired and live in Hamlin, TX. ******************************************************* Families were raised and most have stayed in Texas. Some have moved to other states and planted new roots where their families have multiplied. Descendents of Jonathan and Nancy are scattered throughout Canada and the US. Our feet have touched the soils of many countries in our travels. Whether you pronounce it "How-ton" or "Ho-ton", we are the same proud heritage of a very long line of Houghton's.
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