A little family history from Ladonia, Texas, USA
(photo captions not guaranteed accurate)

My great-great-great grandfather
James (Jimmie) McFarland, with
his half-Cherokee wife Jane Jackson
McFarland, brought the clan (10 children)
to northeast Texas in 1836.



  With land this house was built on
  years later, my McFarland ancestors
  ensured that their descendents could
  forever lay claim to citizenship in
  the Republic of Texas during its
  brief secession from the United States.

My great-great grandmother Artemissa,
standing in front of her
"mother-in-law" cabin on the farm.

 

  First home of Jim (Jimmie & Jane's grandson)
  and Mary Jane McFarland.
  The handwritten note is a little
  misleading; it was not the first
  McFarland home in Texas.

A shot of the west side of the Ladonia town square some time in the distant past. The saloon-burning Happy Jack was not a McFarland (not that I know of, anyway) ...

The house in town on Mill Street where my
grandmother grew up and lost her trousseau
to fire shortly before her wedding.

The family business, circa 1900, featuring my great-grandfather.

The latest incarnation of the farmhouse,
which still stands (alas, no longer in the family).

 

 
 Historical markers for the city (left) and the Ladonia Cemetery. The most ... um, popular grave in the cemetery is the Stranger's Tomb, which holds the remains of a man who stumbled into town on death's door, delerious with scarlet fever and devoid of identification, who died without revealing his name.
 

First Christian Church, which has several McFarland names on the walls and cornerstone.


 

Fry's Drug Store and other businesses on the
town square's south side on a Saturday in 1946
South side of Ladonia's town square, circa 1991
photo by Sue Scudder Mayes

Read more about Ladonia at http://www.rootsweb.com/~txfannin/ladonia.html

 

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