Purley as I Remember It
Waymon Carl Newsome was born January 20, 1911, the son of Thomas Arch and Elvira Elizabeth (Betty) Hildreth Newsome. His object was to record the families of Purley during his early years, roughly 1915 to 1930, while also preserving some of the earlier history of the community.
Purley was established in the early 1850s. William Henry Cannaday named it for his former town in Tennessee, Puryear. Purley stood at the crossroads of Mount Vernon and Winnsboro and the Greenwood and Lone Star roads. Lone Star was just west of where Panther Creek enters Cypress Creek. This was a thriving community until about 1915 to 1920. Lone Star was about nine miles due south of Mount Vernon and three miles south of Majors.
Purley had neither church nor school until about 1885 or 1886. The Methodists went either to Liberty, one mile east, or Pleasant Hill, two miles west. The Baptists went either north to Glade Springs, established in 1858, or south to Cypress Church, established in 1851. A post office was established in 1879, and William Henry Cannaday was appointed postmaster. Uncle Caleb Jordan became postmaster in 1883, and William Long in 1891. He served until 1906, when the post office was closed.
Squire Mann was the first Justice of the Peace in Purley, followed by Jim King, then Uncle J. S. “Stant” Davis. Others followed in order: W. S. Beavers, W. W. Long, R. J. Beall, J. W. Day, B. F. “Tobe” Majors, D. M. Garner, W. H. Spence, W. R. Irby, A. S. Bradley, K. M. Ferguson, Jim King, Uncle Cale Jordan, D. M. “Hose” Holley, Baker Stinson, John Blackman, C. L. Jones, C. F. Newsome, J. L. Williams, Mack King, Weaver Morris, T. E. Cannaday, and W. W. Hightower.
The Baptist Church was organized in 1886 and had a successful history on the same spot of ground for more than a century. The Methodist Church was moved from Liberty to Purley in 1904 or 1905. The church disbanded in 1952 and most of the members moved to Mount Vernon Methodist Church.
Newsome’s first recollections of Purley included a large blacksmith shop on the southeast side of town, a large grocery and dry goods store thought to be Uncle Cale Jordan’s, another store run by M. L. Davis, and later an automobile service station built by Jim Davis. On the west side of the road stood the telephone office, a barber shop run by Roy Hightower, a grocery store run by Lee Hightower, a dry goods store run by Will McBrayer, another grocery run by W. W. Long, a small café, and a public water well.
On the south side of the Greenwood Road stood the Baptist Church and, in 1885, the schoolhouse. The cemetery lay west of the school, with the oldest grave marker dated 1889. Farther west stood the gin owned by Uncle Ector Meek. About 1905, the school was moved from the cemetery to a location west of the gin, about a quarter mile west of Purley. That was where Carl Newsome attended school.
Purley in Youthful Memory
Going north on the Mount Vernon-Winnsboro road from the Greenwood-Lone Star road, the first house was that of William Hardy “Bill” Newsome, Carl’s grandfather. Grandpa bought this two-story house and four acres in 1899 from Ben Roundtree. He also owned hundreds of acres on Panther Creek and north of Purley. Born in Pike County, Alabama, in 1852, he came to Titus County, Texas, in 1870 with his parents, Alford and Sarah Elizabeth Newsome. He was remembered as a small, handsome man of strict morals, a staunch Democrat and prohibitionist, and a member of the Methodist Church.
The next house belonged to Dr. P. N. (Perry Nixon) Davis, a respected doctor and honored citizen of Purley. Nearby lived M. M. Barrett, who came from Tennessee and owned a good farm in Panther Creek bottom, though he lived in town. Across the road on the west side was W. W. Long’s large two-story house, noted for its fancy iron fence. On the east side lived Uncle Miles (M. L.) Davis, a successful farmer and merchant who owned several hundred acres north and west of Purley.
Other nearby homes included those of Guy Ward, Lucian Long, the Methodist Protestant Church parsonage, Tommy Coe, Jeff Caudle, Uncle John Newsome, Dr. Davis’s walnut-tree house, and Uncle Colonel Davis on the old Nixon Davis homestead. Farther north lived the Payne family, the Drapers, Lee King, Kitt Hester, Stanford Gandy, Uncle Will Newsome, the Hegler place, Wilson Hightower, Oma Day, Troy Cannaday, and Charley and Johnnie Newsome.
West of Purley
Going west from Purley, Newsome remembered Jeff Williams and his family, Dean Peterson, Cye Davis, Dave Garner the blacksmith and Methodist preacher, and the family of John Becton Meek, who had come from Tennessee in the 1840s and fought in the Civil War. Along the Stringtown road were the Thompson family, the Jim King family, Baker Stinson and Sarah Elizabeth King, Stanton Davis and Amanda Newsome, Miles Davis and his descendants, Albert Cowser, Claud Davis, Jack King, the Mint Huggins place, Bill Hughes, George Shoat, Charley White, and Riley Pitts.
South of Purley
South of Purley were the places of Ector Meek and Alice Newsome Meek, Jack Ferguson and his large family, the Raneys, H. E. Solomon, the McGees, the Morris family, J. C. Carroll, the Beavers family, the Tittles, the Brannons on Cypress Creek, J. J. Morris, the Tullis place, Uncle Cale and Aunt Kizzie Jordan, the Majors road and Uncle Frank Newsome’s place, Albert Newsome, Uncle Joe Hightower, and the Barrons.
Additional Families
Newsome added later recollections of Aunt Huldy Self and her four sons, Wes Blalock and Ida, the Connelly family, Brother H. C. Solomon, Jim Parker, the Knotts family, Bob Hunt, the Peterson family, the Wiley family, the Pitts family, Captain Hastings, John Chaffin, the Hough family, the Irbys, the Baileys, and many other families who lived in Purley for a short or long time.
He also remembered boyhood friends, local girls, schoolteachers, and the hard realities of farming life. Cotton dominated Franklin County agriculture, and daily life was marked by hard work, limited clothing, barefoot summers, and thrift in every part of life. Social life revolved around the Baptist and Methodist churches, parties, school, and community gatherings.
Newsome closed by reflecting that Purley had very high morals. It had no bootlegger, no feuds, little serious crime, few divorces, and strong habits of honesty and truthfulness. People loved one another, and that spirit of neighborliness defined the community.