From "Family Tree Legends"
You may have seen this already but it is a nice bit of history. We're talking about land that was part of the chisum trail...remember John Wayne played in a movie on the Chisum trail?
Anyway here is the excerpt:
Individual:
John WALLING Jr, son of John WALLING Sr and Ann CHISUM, was born 19 May
1804 in Barren Co, KY. John's spouse, Rhoda CHISUM, was born 1 Sep 1808in TN. (The ancestors of Rhoda have yet to be proven, but is probably thedaughter of Isham Russell Chisum and Permelia Roberts.) John WALLING Jrdied 18 Jan 1887 in Era, Cooke Co, TX.
Obituary of John Walling Jr, son of John Walling Sr.
"John Walling Jr. died at his home near Era, Cook county at 11 A. M. Tuesday, January 18, 1887. John Walling, was one of Texas grandest oldVeterans and noblest citizens. John Walling was born in Barren County,Kentucky, May 19, 1804. The father and family moved form thence toTennessee in 1806. There John Walling married Rhoda Chisum, in 1824, whostill survives him and is a resident of our county. A veteran of thehardships, trials, and triumphs of 50 years life in all the changes seenin frontier life in Texas.
In 1833 Mr. and Mrs. Walling came to Texas locating in Nacogdoches County. They moved in 1836 to Rusk County where Mr. Walling established aFerry on Sabine River on the Road from Henderson to Marshall and is yetknown as "Walling Ferry." The family then in 1853, moved to Limestonecounty, thence to Cook county in 1870, where they have ever sinceresided, loved and respected by all who knew them.
Mr. Walling served in the War of Independence and engaged in many a conflict with the Red Man during his frontier life.
Peace to his ashes."
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Camden, Gregg County, Texas, also known as Walling's Ferry, was on the south bank of the Sabine River, just north of the site of what is nowEaston in the extreme southeastern corner of Gregg County. It was amongthe earliest settlements in the county. The community grew up around aSabine ferry crossing operated by John Walling, who moved to the areaduring the late 1820's or early 1830's. The site was known for many yearsboth as Walling's Ferry and as Camden. Walling's ferry operation, whichwas on the road between Port Caddo and Henderson County, was licensed bythe Mexican government in the early 1830's, and Camden reportedly servedas a stopping point for Sam Houston on his first trip to Texas in 1832.In 1844 the settlement was formally established as a townsite, and thesame year Enoch Hays built a two-story, eight-room log tavern and hotel.A post office under the name Walling's Ferry operated thereintermittently from 1847 to 1872; in 1861 its name was briefly changed toCamden.
During the 1850's, steamboats came up the Sabine as far as Camden. By the Civil War, however, the settlement had begun to decline. A Confederatecolonel who visited the community in 1863 found it unimpressive, andshortly after the war another visitor wrote that the townspeople seemed"notably inert and melancholy." Disease, particularly malaria, which wasrampant along low-lying riverbottoms, and the rise of nearby Iron Bridgeeventually doomed the town. By the late 1860's most of Camden's remainingresidents had moved away, and in the 1870's the town was no longer shownon maps. Camden cemetery was still in use in the 1990's.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Eugene W. McWhorter, "Traditions of the Land: The History of Gregg County" (Longview, Texas: Gregg County Historical Foundation,1989).
Recommended Citation: "Camden, Texas." The Handbook of Texas Online.
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John WALLING Jr fought in Mexican War 1845
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Other info: Married Rhoda Chisum 1824 in Tennessee.
In Connection with farming, John Walling II, operated a grist mill inMilville, TX, Near Henderson, TX. His son James, and grandson Vanceassisted him in the operation of the mill. For five years John enjoyedthe pleassures of life as a pioneer in texas. He met the hardships whichcame to him in those days with a determination becoming a man of hiscalibre. He died in or near Nacogdockes, TX in 1841, with the knowledgeof having raised a family of credible citizens.
1806: Father and family moved to Tennessee
1824: Married Rhoda Chisum
1834: Moved to Nacogdoches Co., TX
1835: Moved to Rusk Co., TX
1835: Served in War of Independence in the Army
1836: Established a ferry on the Savine River
1853: Moved to Limestone Co., TX
1870: Moved to Cooke Co., TX
On the road from Henderson to Marshall, TX set up a ferry.
EAST TEXAS HERITAGE, Sunday July 23, 1989, Longview News-Journal
by Nancy Ruff - Nancy Ruff is a member Council of eEnealogy Columnists, East Texas Heritage, Longview News-Journal, PO Box 1792, Longview, TX75606.
As early as the late 1820's John Walling arrived in what is now Rusk County, seeking a personal homestead and "to prepare a place . belovedrelations from the east." The Tennesseean purchased a leageu of land fromthe Spanishgovernment headquarter at Nacogdoches. It was a transactioninvolving 4,000 acres of land "on both sides of the Great Sabine River."
He first received a licnse to charge a toll for his ferry operations from the Republic of Mexico. He later bonded himsel to the Commissioners Courtof rusk County to "use a good and safe boat with proper safetyequipment," an interesting precaution for that early date. In return, theWalling Ferry rates were established by the first commissioners of RuskCounty:
? Road Wagon - 1 dollar
? Small Wagon - 50 cents
? Man and Horse - 65 cents
? Cattle and Hogs - 3 cents
? Loose horses - 6 cents each
? Footman - 25 cents each
Such early records provide the early modes of transportation the early Texans used. But the "footman" captures a particular attention in oneearly essay.
Only one footman ever asked for passage on the Walling Ferry witout the 25 cents, and the Ferryman promptly answered him sayng, "If you haven'tgot the 25 cents, it doesn't matter a damn which side of the river youareon anyway!"
By 1844, Walling's Ferry in Rusk County had assumed a "town appearance," according to family records, and at this renamed town of Camden, atavern, consisting of four large rooms on each of two floors, assignedfour beds to each room.
It was not uncommon for beds to be shared" by impromptu bedfellows, not uncommon to the moving frontier society projected by such proprietors astavern keeper Enos Hayes.
Sam Houston cross the Sabine at Camden's Ferry, operated during 1832 by John Walling. On his way to settle disputes and join Gen. ZacharyTaylor's troops along the Mexican border, Robert E. Lee stayed overnightat the Hayes Inn, after crossing the ferry.
By 1840, Jesse Walling, brother of the original Camden town proprietor, moved to the SAbine River townsite to assume the ferry operation. Wallinghad pariticpated in the Battle of san Jacinto, and the veteran hadestablished a settlement near Nacogdoches known as Wallings Settlement.
During 1840, Radford Berry, formerly alcaide of Nacogdoches, served as postmaster for Walling's town.
Could this be the same Berry, thatsupposedly defrauded the Walling Heirs out of land left to John WallingI?Some early sources indicate Walling's Ferry on the Sabine River, was named for Jesse, not John Walling. Jesse Walling is known to have livedat Millville, a neighboring town of Camden in Rusk County, the the 1850Census of Rusk County lists only P. M. Walling, a 3rd brother.
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Walling, JohnState: TX
County: Rusk Co.
Location: Rusk Dist.
Year: 1850
Page #: 287b
John WALLING 47 mFarmerKY
Rhoda 44 fTenn (Rhoda Chisum)
William A. 12 mTX
Rhoda 9 f "
John 7 m "
By the way...where did everybody go?
