Born in Carroll County, Georgia, John Green McFarlin (1824-1917) was brought to Red River County, Texas, by his parents, William Angus and Nancy (Dunnam) McFarlin, when he was less than a year old. His father served in the Texas Revolution, and the family relocated to Llano County in 1841. Later that year, McFarlin joined the Texas Rangers and served for a year in the campaign against the Caddo Indians near present-day Dallas. He also took part in the Prairie Fight between Bonham and Sherman. After biting off a man’s finger in San Marcos, McFarlin returned to Llano County, where he established a stock ranch in 1853. That same year, McFarlin married Tennessee native Nancy Frances Jones. During the Civil War, McFarlin reentered ranger service and was stationed at Camp San Saba, a target of frequent Indian raids, causing McFarlin to move his family to Bertram.
Born in a log house near Llano, Martha Nettie McFarlin (1858-1951) was the McFarlins’ second daughter. In 1877, she married Loderick R. Gray. In addition to caring for their children, Martha fed and boarded the hired hands for Gray’s gristmill and cotton gin near Bertram.
Source:
Cutrer, Thomas W. “
Comprised of a typed biography and autobiography, the Martha Nettie McFarlin Gray Papers, 1931, document the lives of Gray and her father, John Green McFarlin. “Adventures of John Green McFarlin” describes his life as a Texas Ranger and pioneer of Llano County. Gray’s autobiography, “Sketch of my Life,” primarily concerns her frontier childhood, including frequent Indian attacks, though it also notes Gray’s marriage and the death of one of her children.
This collection is open for research use.
Martha Nettie McFarlin Gray Papers, 1931, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin.
Basic processing and cataloging of this collection was supported with funds from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) for the Briscoe Center’s