OCCUPATION: Spent most of his life in broadcasting.
Grace Wallace Griffin moved to the Texas Rio Grande Valley in 1923.
HONORS: In 1933, she was elected the most popular girl in Weslaco, TX and won a trip to the 1933 World's Fair in Chicago.
MEDICAL: Died of lung cancer.
Judge Otis Theodore DUNNAGAN (DOAS) Sr.
BIOGRAPHY: Otis Dunagan served two terms in the Texas legislature in 1933-34 and 1935-36.
He was one of three legislators who sponsored the original Texas Drivers' License law. He, and other legislators, were honored in Dallas on November 29, 1935.
He was appointed judge of the 7th Judicial District Court of Texas on October 29, 1942 and took the oath of office on the same day. He was one of the youngest jurists in Texas.
He presided over two noted trials. One involving the NAACP, represented by Thurgood Marshall, who later was appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court. The other trial involved Billie Sol Estes, who gained notoriety as one of the most infamous con-men in Texas history.
At retirement, he was Chief Justice of the 12th Court of Civil Appeals and was the second-most senior justice in Texas.
MEDICAL: He died within hours following a sudden heart attack that
resulted from a blood clot that went to his heart.Cathedral in the Pines
Died at 6:35 p.m. at St. David's South Austin Medical Center.
Marriage Notes for Judge Otis Theodore Dunnagan (doas) Sr. and Johnnie Louise THOMAS-453212
Representative Otis T. Dunagan of Big Sandy and Miss Louise Thomas of
Fort Worth were married Friday during the noon recess of the House.
The Reverend George W. Coltrin, House chaplain, officiated and the
ceremony was performed in the office of Speaker Coke Stevenson. The
wedding originally was planned for Saturday.Representative J. C. Duvall of Fort Worth and Miss Mary Ruth Gaither
of Fort Worth, with Representative and Mrs. T. L. Renfro of Fort Worth
were attendants.Mr. and Mrs. Dunagan will spend their honeymoon in Dallas, San Antonio
and other Texas cities.
James Lee (Jim) DUNNAGAN (DOAS)
HONORS: James Lee Dunagan, a farmer, was appointed Postmaster of Wilkins, Upshur County, Texas on November 9th, 1903. The office was discontinued on June 15th, 1904. Wilkins mail was then sent to Gladewater.
MEDICAL: He died Tuesday, April 2nd, 1940, at 9:35 in the evening after being critically ill for several days. He was 66.
CENSUS: Records show James Lee Dunagan was born 3/26/1874.
OBITUARY: Funeral services were held at the West Mountain Church of
Christ at 3:30pm. T. G. Blackstone of Big Sandy officiated.
Ella Lee Hawkins moved to Upshur County, Texas, in 1892 at the age of
14. She married James Lee Dunagan at the age of 17.MEDICAL: She died when she was 58 after being hospitalized for seven
weeks and twice undergoing surgery. The apparent cause of death was
cancer. She had been in poor health for several years.OBITUARY: Ella Lee Hawkins is buried in West Mountain Cemetery.
Died of colon cancer
OBITUARY: Funeral services were held at the church at West Mountain at 2:30pm. Brother B. B. Elder officiated.
She was born in St. Francis County, Arkansas, but spent most of her life in Texas. She lived in Fort Worth from 1917 to 1937. She moved to Gilmer is 1937, then to Tyler in 1947.
May have been born in 1883
MEDICAL: Alice Lenore Ellis died of cancer at 7:05 in the morning on Friday, October 5th, 1951. She was 68.
OBITUARY: Funeral services were held at 1 o'clock on Saturday at Burks-Walker-Tippit Chapel with Reverend Kelly Simmons of the First Baptist Church officiating.
Thomas Sanford DUNNAGAN (DOAS)
THOMAS SANFORD DUNAGAN
BIOGRAPHY: Thomas Sanford Dunagan, a Civil War veteran, was born about 1834 in Dickson County, Tennessee. His parents were Martin Dunagan and Margaret Donaldson. Thomas Sanford married Lucy Emily Richardson on February 5, 1857. Their children were Tommy Georgianna, William Marion, James Lee, Viola, Ieula and Mary. Ieula and Mary died at an early age.The family is buried in West Mountain Cemetery by the old rock grave. A Civil War marker was placed at his grave by Jack Wauna Dunagan.
The family first lived at Point Pleasant, Texas, very near Union Grove, where part of the family was born. Later, they moved to Mings Chapel, near where the Roy Beavers place is now. He built a log house and lived at this location for sometime. Other children were born
there.A few years later, he built a nice home at West Mountain. It was reported to be one of the first painted houses at West Mountain. The house had four enormous rooms with very tall ceilings, a wide porch across the front and a hugh hall in the center. Several years later,
a kitchen and dining room were added to the back of the house, as was common then.The family lived there until bad health forced them to ask Jim and Ella Dunagan, his son and daughter-in-law, to come take care of them, their house and their land. They did just this. There is a signed affidavit by Rube Smith and Isa Morgan to the effect that Jim and Ella
did take care of them in a good way.Thomas Sanford was a lay Church of Christ minister, preaching at Wilkins' Switch. He bled to death af-ter having his teeth pulled. Upshur County, Texas, tax records indicate he died about 1896 or 1897.
Year of birth based on military records
MEDICAL: He bled to death after having his teeth pulled. Upshur County, Texas, tax records indicate he died about 1896 or 1897.
Death is based on Upshur County tax records that show Thomas Sanford owning property in 1896. The same property is owned by his son, James Lee, in 1897.
MILITARY: Marker reads..."Co E. 14th Regt. / Texas Ca. C.S.A."
MILITARY: Microfilm records at the Texas Archives Library in Austin show that he enlisted at age 27 in Company D, First Regiment Mounted Volunteers, Texas Cavalry on January 2, 1862 at Henderson. His military service began at Camp Likens on February 15, 1862, for a
period of one year or less. The First Regiment was later known as Company E, 14th Regiment, Texas Cavalry. It was also called Johnson's Regiment, Texas Cavalry and First Regiment, Johnson's Brigade, Texas Mounted Volunteers. He entered as a private and received no promotions.On July 18, 1863, just two weeks after the fall of Vicksburg, Thomas Sanford was captured by Union forces near Jackson, Mississippi, and was sent to Camp Morton, Indiana.
Camp Morton (IN) Military Prison, 1862-1865. Located on the state fair grounds in Indianapolis; unfloored barracks within an enclosure. Impossible for the prisoners to keep clean--or to keep warm in winter--because fuel was extremely scarce despite the large number of trees in the enclosure, which prisoners were forbidden to cut.
He enlisted in the Union army at Indianapolis, March 24, 1865, at Camp Morton by Lt. J. A. Hearn for a term of three years.
Thomas Sanford, a guard with the rank of sergeant, deserted from Company G, 6th U.S. Volunteer Infantry on March 5, 1866, at Laramie Peak Sawmill, Wyoming. He carried away a gun, a full set of accouterments, a knapsack, a haversack, a canteen and other items, a
bedsack, a letter, a bugle and number for a cap.He was back in Upshur County by early 1867.
Emily Richardson is buried next to her husband, Thomas Sanford
Dunagan. Her grave is marked with a rock at the head and another at
the foot. There is no name and no other identification.
Died at four years of age.
WILLIAM M. HAWKINS and Lizzie Ann Hester moved from Mississippi to East Texas in November 1893. Most of the time, the Hawkins family lived in the Wilkins community.
Civil War pension #04054.
Company G, 43rd Mississippi Infantry
CivilWar pension #04054.
She and her husband, W. M. Hawkins, moved to Texas in November, 1893.
According to the Big Sandy newspaper, she died at age 95 of an attack of indigestion. Death may have resulted from food poisoning.