In July, 1862,
he enlisted in Company C, Alexander's Second Texas regiment of calvary
and served west of the Mississippi. He was in the Quartermaster's department.
He then transferred to Captain Smith's Company C, First Texas Sharpshooters
in the Indian Department under General Sam Bell Maxey.
We were told that this Battalion was one of Maxey's favorites. My Grandmother,
Berta Huddle Hathaway said
that her Daddy was a blacksmith and therefore, the most important soldier
in the Company. He took care of the horses. He was paroled May 30, 1865.
William Huddle had seven children, Lura,
Gideon who was a physician in the
Maxey community of Lamar County, Jim,
Lizzie, Ella,
Edgar and my grandmother Berta
whom he called Susie.
Mr. Huddle owned a farm of 900 acres of land in the Hopewell
community of Lamar county Texas. On this farm was a cotton gin, grist mill and
hay press. He was a blacksmith and skilled machinist.
Mr. Huddle was a member of the Albert
Sydney Johnson Camp No. 70 of Confederate
Veterans. The United
Daughters of the Confederacy Lamar Chapter #258 awarded the Cross of Military
Service to William on Feb. 1, 1904 for his service as Private, Co. C, 2nd Regiment,
Texas Volunteers.
His home overlooked the city lake [of Paris], now Lake Gibbons. He sold the land to the city of
Paris to build the lake in 1899. He had named the community Hopewell after Hopewell
in his native Virginia.
Mr. and Mrs. Huddle were both members of the Methodist Episcopal church South. His chair
was never vacant during the 35 years of service in the district conference.
Mr. Huddle
died at is home near Hopewell, December 8, 1919 and was buried in the Hopewell
Cemetery.
THE
PARIS NEWS
Tuesday, December 10,
1919
"William Huddle,
one of Lamar county's oldest and most highly esteemed farmers and citizens,
died at 10:40 o'clock Sunday night at his home at Hopewell, six miles northwest
of Paris. He was a sufferer from Bright's disease and had been in failing health
for two years.
He was born in Wytheville, Va., November 8, 1840,
and was in his eightieth year. He moved with his parents from his native state
when he was a boy sixteen years old. They located near the present site of the
city lake, and when he married in 1861 he moved to the farm adjoining his father
where he had resided continuously for fifty-eight years at the time of his death.
This year he made his fiftieth crop. Besides being a farmer he was a blacksmith,
he having learned the trade in Virginia, and ran a shop all the time that he
farmed. He was also one of the oldest ginners in the county. When he first started
ginning he used oxen to pull the levers. He also had a mill to grind wheat at
the gin.
During the Civil War he made nails and shod horses
for the army part of the time and served as a soldier part of the time. He was
a hard worker all of his life and was regarded by those who knew him as one
of the best men who lived in Lamar county.
He was for many years a faithful member of the
Methodist church and was a steward for forty years. It was exceedingly rare
that he failed to attend the annual conference.
He is survived by his wife and by three sons and
two daughters. Two of the sons, W. E. and
J. C. Huddle, are farming in the Hopewell
community and the third son, Dr. G. H.
Huddle, lives in Dallas. The daughters are Mrs. J. V. Caviness
of Caviness and Mrs. J. C. Hathaway of
Brookston. He also leaves several grandchildren.
The funeral will be held at the Hopewell church
at 1 o'clock this afternoon, conducted by Rev. G. H. Brown,
the pastor. Interment will be at the Hopewell cemetery."
Texas Historical Commission
Medallion marker on his home reads:
"William
Huddle Home - Built by William Huddle,
owner-operator of cotton gin and grist mill. He came to Texas from Virginia
in 1855. First house, built in 1870's, was destroyed by fire. This one built
in 1880's has same floor plan--the ell-shape typical of farm houses in mid-19th
century. Has 7 doors opening onto galleries on 3 sides. Heat is from 3 fireplaces
on ground floor. Contains no closets. Water supply was cistern at rear. Recorded
Texas Historic Landmark, 1968."
The following
is the application and background summary for the Texas Historical Commission
marker on the Huddle home written by Mrs. Morrison George,
February 3, 1968. William Huddle Home -
Hopewell community, Lamar County, Texas (now in 1968, owned by a grand-daughter,
Mrs. Morrison George, 607 Clarksville, Paris.)
This is a
late nineteenth-century house situated on ten acres on the south side of Lake
Gibbons, about seven miles northeast of Paris. It is a story-and-a-half frame
farm house built by William Huddle, probably
in the late 1880s. William Huddle is not to be confused with his cousin, William
Henry Huddle, prominent nineteenth-century Texas artist. The house was built
before the construction of Lake Gibbons, formerly the water supply for the City
of Paris. Mr. Huddle sold the acreage to the city for the lake (per minutes
of City Council 1-10-1898 in Minute Book #D, page 297), retaining ten acres
surrounding his existing home. This ten acres today remains the only privately-owned
property between Lake Gibbons and FM Road #2820. Gambill
Game Preserve is on the north side of the lake and Camp
Gambill (Girl Scouts) on the east.
William Huddle
was born in Wythe County, Virginia, in 1840 and moved to Lamar County with his
family in 1855.
From a column
by the late A. W. Neville of the Paris
News regarding Mr. Huddle published October 12, 1933,
"In 1862 William (Huddle) enlisted in the Second
Texas Cavalry and was later transferred to Smith's company of Texas sharpshooters
under Sam Bell Maxey in Indian Territory.
Returning from the wars he turned his attention to making a living and so well
did he succeed by steady work that before his death he was the owner of 900
acres of land and operated a gin and grist mill and baled hay from his meadows."
(Ruins of the boiler of the cotton gin still remain east of the house).
The original
home of William Huddle on this site was
build in the early 1870s, deed of the property to him of record in Lamar County,
Book V, page 330, 1-9-1871. Other lands deeded to Huddle appear in Book 131,
pages 44 and 45, dated 2-3-1867. The first Huddle home was destroyed by fire,
probably in the late 1880s. Mr. Huddle immediately rebuilt the present house
on the same location and after the same floor plan as the original. It has undergone
two restorations with no changes in the original structure. Built in the L-shape
typical of farm houses of that era in this locality, it has seven doors opening
onto galleries on three sides of the house. Heat is from three fire-places on
the ground floor, and in order to conserve this heat, there are no connecting
doors between the downstairs front rooms. There are no closets in the house.
The two upstairs bedrooms were allotted to the children of the family, one for
boys and one for girls. A large collection of square nails has been accumulated
during recent repairs to the house. Water supply was from a cistern at the rear
of the house, and the original well-house has been restored. William
Huddle died in December, 1919, and his wife a few months later. Before his death,
he deeded his property to his five living children and the home place when to
a son, W. E. Huddle (Lamar Co. deed records,
Book 185, page 33, 10A, "ten acres of W. H. Hobbs survey being homestead tract
of William Huddle," dated 11-5-1919.
W. E. Huddle subsequently sold his property and it remained outside the family
until William Huddle's daughter, Mrs. J. C. Hathaway
and her husband, bought it in 1931 (Book 232, Page 390, Lamar County Deed Records,
10-10-1931). They did an extensive restoration with repairs to chimneys and
foundations at that time. At the death of Mr. and Mrs. Hathaway, the property
came into the hands of the present owners, their daughter, Mrs. Morrison George
and Mr. George.
Verification
of the exact age of the house is unobtainable but the following persons can
attest to the fact that the house was built in the late nineteenth century:
Mr. J. M. Caviness, 559 Church, Paris;
Mr. M. Otto Stephens, Rt. 2, Sumner;
Mrs. Linnie Cloud, 516 4th NW, Paris; Mr.
Louis Huddle, Rt. 1, Sumner.
Editors
Note: William Huddle does not appear
in the US National Archives microfilm M323-260 & 261 - Compiled Service
Records of Confederate Soldiers Who Served in the Organizations from the State
of Texas, Burnett’s Battalion First Texas Sharpshooters. However, this
does not prove that he did not serve with the unit in that the unit’s
written records are incomplete and stop in 1863, two years before the end of
the war.
©Ron Brothers and Dr. Bill George, 2006.
All Rights Reserved
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