FIRST COUPLE TO BE MARRIED IN WISE COUNTY TERRITORY
(source: The Pioneer History of Wise County)
JAMES A. PROCTOR, b. 7-3-1829, Rockcastle County, Ky. d. 11-19-1912, Bridgeport, Wise County, Texas
Married MARY (POLLY) HUNT, b. 6-?-1836 Rockcastle, KY, died 11-3-1907. Child of William Perrin's second wife. The Perrin family moved to Texas in 1853, arriving in Wise Co. the day before Christmas, 1854. James accompanied them because he wanted to marry Mary, but she was too young at the time.
Rockcastle County, KY 1850 census verifies James A. Proctor, Mary (Hunt) Perrin, and their families. They lived next door to each other.
James and Mary married in Cooke County, Texas, Jan. 4, 1856 (Cooke Co. Marriage Records) They were the first couple to be married there. The marriage took place at the home of Ben Haney at Old Aurora, a distance of 15 miles from the home of the principals reached by horseback. Ben Haney was the authorized official in charge of Wise Co. territory affairs.
James Proctor is mentioned in the Pioneer History of Wise County several times. In 1855, he began with 160 acres near the future Decatur, TX, where he and his wife, Mary, lived in a log cabin for three years after their marriage, but when the town of Taylorsville (now Decatur) was laid out, Mr. Proctor deeded 60 acres to the county for the town site. Their log cabin stood just southeast of the F. W. & D.C. Railway station and across the track. Mr. Proctor afterwards lived on Sweetwater Creek, then on the Greathouse farm; then moved back to Decatur for awhile. In 1875, they moved to old Bridgeport where Mr. Proctor eventually donated the land for the old West Side Bridgeport Cemetery where he and his wife are buried.
1860 Wise Co. census shows they had 1800 acres in that year.
They raised 9 children, 3 boys and 6 girls. Lucy, Laura, Mary (Molly), William D, James C., John R., Artemissia? Elvira, and Maud.
If anyone can tell me anything about the Proctor children, I will be glad to have the information. My grandfather, James C., migrated down into Webb and LaSalle Counties where he worked on ranches and became the foreman of the Atlee Ranch just north of Encinal, TX. He married late, when he was 48 years old, to Ellen Moore of Austin, TX, and they are buried at the Encinal Cemetery.
jcolston@gvtc.com
La Darla, there is a picture of the Proctor family and house in the Pioneer History of Wise Co. on page 277. If you can add it to this, please do so.
Janie Proctor Colston
Family Picture
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