HEDDINS, JAMES - Henderson County, Texas | JAMES HEDDINS - Texas Gravestone Photos

James HEDDINS

Heddins Family Cemetery
Henderson County,
Texas

James "Jim" Heddins
October 26, 1824 - January 24, 1881

James ("Jim") Heddins was a son of Josiah "Isaiah" Heddins and Salome (Carpenter) Heddins. He was born in Berkshire Township, Delaware County, Ohio. In the mid-to-late 1840s their family moved west to Coles County, Illinois where they lived and farmed in Pleasant Grove Township just outside Charleston.

On 28 Feb. 1850, James Heddins married Clarinda ("Clara") Lee Brewster/Bruster, daughter of Thomas Brewster and Martha (Jeffris) Brewster in Coles County, Illinois.

Jim & Clara started their family in Pleasant Grove Township, and then in about 1853 they moved far south to Texas with their two young children. They made the long trek across the country in a wagon train with other families moving south. Jim and his family homesteaded on 160 acres of land in southern Van Zandt County, Texas in the Pleasant Ridge community and received a patent for that land from the state of Texas a few years later.

Jim and Clara Heddins had ten children altogether; six boys and four girls. Tragedy struck the Heddins family several times between 1868 and the 1890s. First 12-year-old William Rufus Heddins died, then about four years later their oldest son, Thomas Jeffris Heddins, died, followed by their daughter Drucilla Adelia two days later. Then nearly a year later in September of 1873 Clara herself died at the young age of nearly 42. Then about seven years later Jim died at the age of 56. Sometime between 1883 and 1890 their daughter, Martha A. (Heddins) Oliver died, leaving a husband and one daughter. Then a few years later, in the mid-to-late 1890s, Jim & Clara's sixth son, Oscar Winnfield Heddins, apparently died (he suddenly disappeared from the VZ County tax records and wasn't enumerated in the 1900 census).


Clarinda Lee "Clara" Brewster Heddins
December 17, 1831 - September 27, 1873

Clarinda ("Clara") Lee (Brewster) Heddins was a daughter of Thomas Brewster and Martha (Jeffris) Brewster (sometimes spelled Bruster). Clara's paternal grandparents were Thomas & Sarah (Davis) Brewster, and her maternal grandparents were Thomas & Martha (Ferguson) Jeffris. Clara was a direct descendant of Elder William & Mary Brewster who came over to America on the Mayflower in 1620. Clara was born in Grayson County, Kentucky, and in her early childhood their family moved to Coles County, Illinois.

On 28 Feb. 1850 Clara Brewster/Bruster married James ("Jim") Heddins, son of Josiah "Isaiah" Heddins and Salome (Carpenter) Heddins in Coles Co, IL. They had two children and then in about 1853 joined a wagon train and moved south to Texas where they homesteaded on 160 acres of land. A few years later they sold that property and bought more land just south of the Van Zandt County line in northern Henderson County.

Clara died at the young age of 41 (nearly 42) and was buried on their land in northern Henderson County.

Visit the Heddins family website at: www.heddins.com

*Photo & information courtesy of:
R.J. Heddins

Contributed on 5/16/20 by ashaw444
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Record #: 314157

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Submitted: 5/16/20 • Approved: 5/16/20 • Last Updated: 5/23/20 • R314157-G314157-S3

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