There was a saying in post-Civil War Tennessee: “He’s GTT.” It meant, “Gone to Texas” and often implied leaving behind debts and other obligations. Texas being a relative latecomer to the civilized world, many of its citizens can tell you interesting stories about when their ancestors arrived and where they came from. Occasionally the “why” they left home is the best part.
Take Joe Roman, who came to Gordonville, Texas, in 1885. The family has two versions of his sudden departure from Tennessee, both of which involve his shooting a man and thinking he escaped a murder charge. The wounded man recovered, however, and Joe’s father Bob paid him $300.
Bob’s will specified that the $300 settlement should be deducted from his son Joe’s portion of the estate. However, about six years after the boy’s arrival in Texas, his father visited Joe and his family. While he didn’t change his will, he wrote the following to the two men named to serve as executors of his will: “Do not charge Joe the $300 I specified, because he is one of the poorest men I have ever seen.”
Going even farther, when Bob Roman got back home to Tennessee he shipped his son a good horse, a jack, a jenny, and two sacks of oats. Joe began breeding these animals and was soon making a good living for his family.
In another case of GTT, my mother’s father, C.D. Jones, also came to Texas from Tennessee. Our family legend is that his older half-brother (same father, different mother), Robert W. Jones, came first to central Texas and began the practice of medicine in the Oletha community (Limestone County).
Dr. Jones, some months after getting settled, overheard two school board members lamenting in June the fact that the local school they supervised had no teacher for the upcoming fall term.
He said, “Gentlemen, I have a brother in Tennessee who is qualified to teach.”
“Send for him!” was their response, and he wrote the letter that brought his younger brother to join him in Oletha. Shifting now from legend to documented fact, C.D. Jones turned 21 on July 1, 1892, while on the train to Texas.
One more GTT story. Because my great-great-great grandfather Gideon Lincecum came to this state in 1835 and then moved his entire family here from Mississippi, I am a sixth-generation Texan and proud of it. A man who wanted to shield his children from the damages of civilized life, Gid fell in love with the abundance of natural wonders and the sparseness of population he found in Texas.
When Gid’s grandson George W. Lincecum married in 1871, he and his bride moved into Robertson County. And in 1940, G.W.’s grandson Jack courted the daughter of C.D. Jones, in the next county over. Two years later, I was born in Texas.
What are your family stories about coming to Texas? I’d enjoy receiving them and might work them into a future column: jlincecum@me.com
Jerry Lincecum is a retired English professor who now teaches classes for older adults who want to write their life stories. He would like to read your reminiscences on any subject.