LEFFEL SHEETS, ROWENA EVALYN - Hutchinson County, Texas | ROWENA EVALYN LEFFEL SHEETS - Texas Gravestone Photos

Rowena Evalyn LEFFEL SHEETS

Holt Cemetery
Hutchinson County,
Texas

Willis Ernest Sheets
February 7, 1872-April 19, 1909

Rowena Evalyn Sheets-Dellbrugge
September 1, 1876-December 19, 1928

What we keep in memory is ours unchanged forever

*Photo/information, courtesy of Edith Guynes Stanley

*Obituary for Willis Ernest
My grandfather, Samuel Benjamin Sheets, was born in Kentucky and came to Texas during the Civil War. He married Rebecca Ann Ellis near Bryson, Texas. They had five sons and one daughter – Martin, Ernest, John, Clarence, Claude, and Hattie. My father was Ernest and he married Rowena Evelyn Leffel in Jack County, Texas. Their children Dasal (of Texline) and Lena were both born in Texas. Then they moved to near Granite, Indian Territory in 1895, where Gertrude, Leonard, Eldred, Roy, and Ethel were born.

Our father came to the area around the Hansford/Hutchinson County line and purchased land in 1903 and came back later and made a dugout for our home. The family moved here in the spring of 1904, bringing along our cattle and horses. When we got to Wheeler County, near Story, we got to a neighbor’s house who had previously moved from Granite, the Tuttle family, and all had the measles there.

When we finally started on the road again, the cattle were left in Wheeler County on account of a big prairie fire had passed over our new home in Hutchinson County and all the grass was burned off. There was no grass or water and it was extremely dry. Soon after we arrived, it started raining and filled all the lakes with water and the grass became very lush and green. We went back to get the cattle, but the river was up so we had to wait until it went down as there were no bridges across the Canadian River at that time and it was very treacherous and dangerous because of the quicksand and whirlpools.

After we arrived at our new home – a dugout – Manny Wilbanks and his son Hix were drilling our water well, but we had to haul water from a neighbor’s to use. When the wind was not blowing, we would get water out of the lakes and then boil it for household use.

William and Riley were born after we came to this area.

We children started to school soon after moving here. It was a little one-room school-house called “Hardscrabble” with Eugene Hedgecoke as teacher. We either rode horse-back or went in a one-horse buggy, especially when it was cold. The Holt schoolhouse was built in the latter part of 1904 and the early part of 1905. Ben Holt gave the land for the schoolhouse and the cemetery adjoining it. The schoolhouse is still in use today – not the original one, but a new one was built in about 1916. This building is still used as a community center and is kept up by the community.

The first Church of Christ in the Hansford/Hutchinson County area was started in 1904 in the Holt Community. It was started by my father and others with the help of Uncle John Sheets and his wife Mattie shortly after they came to this country.

The Archer family was our closest neighbors and was also a member of the Church of Christ. We met at the Archer home as they had more room. Soon others began to come and we started meeting in the little schoolhouse. It was soon overflowing as everyone seemed to enjoy the chance of having services. We would have “singings” at various homes on Sunday afternoon.

We did not have a regular preacher, but sometimes a Brother Ross and A.L. Elkins would come from “No Man’s Land” or “The Strip”, as it was called, to preach for us. We had no baptistry, so we had to use a water tank for baptisms. Since we had no money to pay for their services, we usually paid in produce, such as eggs, meat, etc. I remember we took a wagonload of hogs for the preachers once. Each neighbor donated what they wanted to or what they had. There were several members of the Church, but some had made no effort to meet. Among the members were some of the Archer family, Judge Whiteside and family of Plemmons, the Groves family who lived near the town of what is now called Morse; the Pearson family who lived in Ochiltree County, and the Wilbanks families.

Once in a while we would have a visiting preacher hold a meeting in the summer. He also had singing schools and we practiced singing in the afternoons at various homes.

Brother Ira Rice and Brother Levi Snowden held a lot of singing schools for us. Soon more families – the Andrews, Storrs, and Buford families – moved in and started attending the Church.

All the farming was done at first with walking with two horses, and plowing one furrow at a time. My father planted the first wheat in the county. He plowed the land and then sowed the grain by hand. Mr. Harris from Groom came and thrashed the wheat. The thrasher was powered by horses and the wheat was hauled by wagon either to Channing, Glazier or Guymon.

Our corrals and outbuildings were made of cottonwood lumber. Mr. Latham had a sawmill on Moore’s Creek and he made the lumber. After about two years in the dugout, Papa hauled lumber from Channing and built a four-room house – two downstairs and two upstairs rooms.

My father died in April, 1909, and was the third grave to be put in the Holt Cemetery.

The Jeffrey Post Office was located in the Archer home, then some years later was moved to my mother’s home until it was discontinued.

A few years after my father’s death, my mother married Frank Dellbrugge, and they had three daughters – Jewel, Opal and Ruby.

Our mother died December 19, 1928.

Dasal married Tressie Lackey and they live in Texline. They had two sons and one daughter.

Lena married Dan Archer and they had two sons.

Gertie married Bob Archer and they had six sons. Bob was killed in a highway accident in 1939.

Leonard married Lola Bates. They had two sons and three daughters.

Eldred married Nellie Perkins. They had five sons and five daughters.

Roy married Ella Spradlin and they had three daughters.

Ethel married Irvin Hester and they had five daughters and one son.

William married Eva Lee Bagley and they had two sons.

Riley married Lillian Patterson of Oklahoma City, and they had one son and two daughters.
(Submitted by Gertrude L. Sheets Archer for inclusion in ‘History of Hutchinson County Texas, 104 Years, 1876-1980’, Copyright by the Hutchinson County Historical Commission)
-----

Texas, Marriage Index, 1824-2014
Name: Ernest Sheets
Marriage Date: 6 Nov 1892
Marriage Place: Jack, Texas, USA
Spouse: Eva Leffel

Contributed on 11/16/20 by neldapat
Email This Contributor

Suggest a Correction

Record #: 366883

To request a copy of this photo for your own personal use, please contact our state coordinator. If you are not a family member or the original photographer — please refrain from copying or distributing this photo to other websites.

Thank you for visiting the Texas Gravestone Photo Project. On this site you can upload gravestone photos, locate ancestors and perform genealogy research. If you have a relative buried in Texas, we encourage you to upload a digital image using our Submit a Photo page. Contributing to this genealogy archive helps family historians and genealogy researchers locate their relatives and complete their family tree.

Submitted: 11/16/20 • Approved: 11/18/20 • Last Updated: 11/21/20 • R366883-G366881-S3

Surnames  |  Other GPP Projects  |  Contact Us  |  Terms of Use  |  Site Map  |  Admin Login