My 1967 Article On Interpersonal Relationships : 2018

Tuesday, November 6, 2018

The Frank Lloyd Wright Eugene Van Tamalen Pre-Fab House of 1957


The Frank Lloyd Wright Eugene Van Tamalen Pre-Fab House of 1957
Bernard Pyron

Off Rosa Road and at the south end of Crestwood which was a cooperative sub division in the sixties, the Van Tamalen House is at  5817 Anchorage Road,  in Madison, Wisconsin.  The Van Tamalen House was the first pre-fab house constructed from the Marshall Erdman Prefab Design Number One, which Wright and Erdman thought could be built in 1956 for about $20,000. Five Wright houses were built from the basic Number One pre-fab design. The Arnold Jackson House , which was also built in 1956 is on the South Beltline in Madison is one of the five Number One Pre-Fabs, but it is built of rock laid in the Wright style.  I have been in the house but do not remember much about it.

My wife Gail and I were in the Van Tamalen House when it was under construction.  See the photos below. I took the color photo below of the Van Tamalen House in about 1958 after it was completed. 
 
In the early sixties the Van Tamalen House was almost in the woods at the very edge of Madison.  I would take my dog Wolfus from our house at 5710 Bittersweet Place in Crestwood and walk about 75 yards into the farm next door to the west and then walk south maybe a quarter of a mile and come out at the Van Tamalen House, which then sat among some trees and brush.


Below: The  i nterior of almost finished Eugene Van Tamalen House of 1956. In 1956 when it was under construction it was west of Rosa Road and when the photo below was taken, we walked through mud to get to the house .




Below:  Another view of the interior of the Van Tamalen house taken on the same day as the view above.



Wednesday, October 24, 2018

Dispensationalism Disagrees With Several New Testament Scriptures

Dispensationalism Disagrees With Several New Testament Scriptures
Bernard Pyron
   
The founders of dispenationalism start from the postulate  that God has two elect peoples with two different programs.

"Israel is an eternal nation, heir to an eternal land, with an eternal kingdom, on which David rules from an eternal throne so that in eternity, '...never the twain, Israel and church, shall meet." Lewis S. Chafer, Systematic Theology (Dallas, Dallas Seminary Press, 1975), Vol. 4. pp. 315-323..

Lewis S. Chafer said that dispensationalism has "...changed the Bible from being a mass of more or less conflicting
writings into a classified and easily assimilated revelation of both
the earthly and heavenly purposes of God, which reach on into eternity
to come.." Lewis. S. Chafer, ‘Dispensationalism,’ Bibliotheca Sacra, 93 (October 1936), 410, 416, 446-447

Chafer, a founder of Christian Zionism, or dispensationalism ,following John Darby and C.I. Scofield, claimed the Bible is a mass or more or less conflicting writings and that dispensationalism makes the Bible more easily classified and assimilated, or more easily understood.

In his book, Dispensationalism (1966), Charles Ryrie says "The
essence of Dispensationalism, then, is the distinction between Israel
and the church." (page 3, "Dispensationalism")

J. Dwight Pentecost is another dispensationalist theologian who in his
book Things To Come ( 1965) says "The church
and Israel are two distinct groups with whom God has a divine plan.
The church is a mystery, unrevealed in the Old Testament. (page 193,
J. Dwight Pentecost, Things To Come, Zondervan, 1965)

Quoting many New Testament scriptures which disagree with the doctrines of dispensationalism tends to show  show  that dispensationalism is another Gospel (II Corinthians 11: 4, Galatians 1: 6).

"For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you." I Corinthians 11: 19

A heresiarchical doctrine or series of doctrines would be seen as the anti-thesis in the Hegelian dialectic which opposes the thesis of New Testament teaching.

Timothy 6: 20-21 says in the Tyndale New Testament, "O Timothy save that
which is given ye to keep and avoid ungodly vanities of voices and
oppositions of science falsely so called
21 which science while some professed they have erred as concerning the
faith. Grace be with the Amen."

Tyndale translates γνωσεως, or gnosis, as science, but it should be
translated as knowledge.

The key part in Greek says "και αντιθεσεις της ψευδωνυμου γνωσεως,or "and
anti-thesis of falsely called knowledge."

αντιθεσεις, or anti-thesis, is a technical term in the early Greek
philosophy of the διαλεκτική, or dialectic, before the time of Christ.

In the dialectic, there is a direct opposition between the thesis and the
anti-thesis.

Here are a number of New Testament scriptures that can be looked at to see to what extent they disagree with the doctrines of dispensationalism: : John 10: 16, Romans 12: 4-5, Ephesians 4: 4, Romans 10: 12, Galatians 3: 28, Romans 2: 28-29, Romans 9: 6-8, I Corinthians 10: 18, Romans 11: 17-20, II Corinthians 3: 6-11, Hebrews 10: 9, and Hebrews 8: 13, and Galatians 3: 3, 14-17, 27-29,,

John 10: 16, Romans 12: 4-5 and Ephesians 4: 4 deal with the doctrine that God has one group of his elect, not two groups as dispensationalism postulates. Romans 10: 12 and Galatians 3: 28 focus on the doctrine that there is a unity of all who are in faith, regardless of their genetics, that is, that there is a unity between believing Gentiles and believing Jews. This contradicts dispensationalim's postulate that God has two separate peoples Old Covenant Israel and the Church. Romans 2: 28-29 is a little more subtle, but these two verses imply that there is a transformation for Jews who come to faith in Christ, and for them things of the flesh, are no longer important but things of the Spirit are important. This is not in line with the dispensationalist system, which apparently continues to honor the physical bloodline from Abraham.

Romans 9: 6-8 says that not all of those of the physical bloodline are the children of God, that is of the elect, and that the children only of the flesh, that is of the bloodline, are not the children of God. Then I Corinthians 10: 18 affirms again that there is a group under the Old Covenant who are of the Bloodline but are not God's children.

Romans 11: 17-20 says that those of the physical Bloodline who were in unbelief are cut off, contradicting in general the dispensatgionalist attempt to say that all of he Bloodline are of the elect.

II Corinthians 3: 6-11, Hebrews 10: 9, and Hebrews 8: 13 all say that the Old Covenant was done away with, disagreeing with a fundamental assumption of dispensationalism, that the Old Covenant continues with its Old Covenant people, along with the Church/

Galatians 3: 3, 16-17, 27-29 say that God decides who is saved by faith and not by that which is physical, Paul says in Galatians 3: 14 'That the blessings of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. " "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither there is neither male nor female : for ye are all one in Christ Jesus."
   

Monday, October 22, 2018

My Scots-Irish Blackburn Ancestors

My Scots-Irish Blackburn Ancestors
Bernard Pyron

See: https://www.houseofnames.com/blackburn-family-crest
"Further to the north in Scotland, the name was derived from "one or other of several small places so named. Willelmus de Blakeburne was witness in 1243 to the ratification of the gift of the church of Lescelyn to Lundors. Robert de Blakeburne of Berwickshire rendered homage in 1296 [to King Edward I of England]. William de Blakburne appears as Abbot of Cambuskenneth, 1394." 

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Blackburn-759
"Benj. Blackburn, Date: 23 Oct 1765 Location: Augusta Co., VA Property: 79 acres. Notes: This land record was originally published in "Chronicles of the Scotch-Irish Settlement in Virginia, 1745-1800. Extracted from the Original Court Records of Augusta County" by Lyman Chalkley. Remarks: 131. Delivered to Robert Steel, 15 Mar 1813, by order of John Wier. Description: Witness Book: 12-485 Source Information Chalkley, Lyman. Chronicles of the Scotch-Irish Settlement in Virginia, 1745-1800."
Lets look at my grandmother Virginia Blackburn's grandfather, Edward Blackburn,1773-1847.
http://joepayne.org/aol/black.htm

"Robert BLACKBURN, was born in 1742 in Winchester, Virginia. " "He also married on May 9, 1843, Sophia GRAVES."
Among the children of Robert Blackburn and Sophia Graves Blackburn is listed "Edward BLACKBURN... was born May 29, 1775 in Augusta, Va, and on Sep 29, 1803 in Davidson Co., Tennessee, married Martha KEARNEY. Edward died on May 18, 1847 in same."

In 1775 my Blackburns were living in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, and moved to Davidson County, Tennessee in 1803. Edward Blackburn married Martha Kearney in Tennessee, and their children included Gideon Blackburn and John L.D. Blackburn, both of whom went to Texas.

Virginia Blackburn Pyron, 1856-1943, is the daughter of Gideon Blake Blackburn, 1817-1881, who became a citizen of the Republic of Texas between 1836 and 1846. According to http://www.lavacacountyhistory.org/biographies5.htm Gideon Blackburn,"... a native of Tennessee, Mr. Blackburn came to Texas about 1840 or '41, and located on the Mustang Creek, now in Lavaca County. "
Look at the site,https://www.ancestry.com/gen…/records/martha-carney_45865873

https://www.ancestry.com/genea…/records/naomi-knox_124659915
This site is about Martha Carney Blackburn, 1783-1871, mother of Gideon Blake Blackburn and grandmother of my Pyron grandmother, Virginia Blackburn Pyron.
On this Martha Carney site are listed Edward Blackburn, 1773-1847. husband of Martha Carney and their children, including Gideon Blake Blackburn. The dates of great-grandfather Gideon Blackburn are listed at:
https://www.findagrave.com/…/53358672/gideon-blake-blackburn as being 1817 to 1881.

The wife of Gideon Blake Blackburn and mother of Virginia Blackburn, my grandmother, is listed as Mary Ann Duffner Blackburn, 1826-1906, who was a German Catholic and a recent immigrant to this country at that time.
On the Martha Carney site, her mother is said to be Naoma Knox, but no information is given there about this Naomi Knox.

https://www.genealogy.com/forum/surnames/topics/knox/1013/
"Naomi Knox b.abt 1750 m. John Carney By Fred Lindeman April 22, 2000 at 02:07:36 Seeking information on ancestors of Naomi Knox b. abt 1750 NC m. John Carney abt 1770 children Elijah,Vincent,William, Martha, Lucy."

See also: https://www.genealogy.com/forum/surnames/topics/carney/1309/
"Martha Carney, Edward Blackburn By Lavinia Bell March 20, 2001 at 08:03:09 I am the great,great.great granddaughter of Edward Blackburn and Martha Carney, they were married September 29, 1803. Edward Blackburn(brother of Rev. Gideon Blackburn) was born May 29, 1775 in Virginia died May 18, 1847 in Maury County,Tennessee

Martha Carney born April 4, 1783 in Davidson County, Tennessee, died in Lavaca County, Texas. I believe my great, great, great grandmother parents were John Carney and Naomi Knox, and related to President James Knox Polk. I would like to hear from my cousins and anyone researching this family
Sincerely, Lavinia Bell"

That the Naomi Knox who is the mother of Martha Carney is also the sister of Jane Gracy Knox Polk born in Iredell county, N.C in 1776 is a possibility, but not clearly shown by evidence I have seen. Jane Gracy is the mother of President James Knox Polk. She married Samuel Polk in Mecklenburg county, N.C. in 1794. Her father on the site - https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/6659665/jane-gracy-polk - is listed as James Knox, 1752-1794, and one of their children is James Knox Polk, 1795-1849, another Scots-Irish President following Andrew Jackson.

Then, on the site, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/8582171/james-knox
Only one child of Captain James Knox, born in 1752 in Mecklenburg county, N.C. is listed - Jane Gracy Knox Polk 1776-1852. The mother of Jane Gracy Knox Polk is listed here as being Jean Sinclair Gracy Knox, 1708-1772.

Yet the Naomi Knox who is the mother of Martha Carney if not the aunt of President James Knox Polk, may be connected to a Mecklenburg county, N. C. Scots-Irish family and possibly a descendant or relative of John Knox, the Scottish Protestant Reformer.

Wednesday, October 17, 2018

My Texas Credentials




My Texas Credentials 
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/7150233/blake-bernard-pyron

Blake Bernard Pyron- My Father

Birth
Somerset, Bexar County, Texas, USA
Death 22 Sep 1964 (aged 74)
San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas, USA
Burial Somerset, Bexar County, Texas, USA



Parents:
Aureluis Milton PYRON
Virginia BLACKBURN

Blake Bernard Pyron married Mabel May Moote on May 20, 1915 in Bexar County, Texas.

Children:
Harold Pyron 1916-1916
George Edward Pyron 1918-1998
Mary Elizabeth Pyron 1920-2012 maried  Jerry W. Bush
Louise M. Pyron 1923- maried Benjamin Poppe
Bernard Pyron 1931-

Virginia Blackburn Pyron, 1856-1943.  my Pyron grandmother,  was the daughter of Gideon Blake Blackburn, 1817-1881, who became a citizen of the Republic of Texas between 1836 and 1846. According to http://www.lavacacountyhistory.org/biographies5.htm Gideon Blackburn,"... a native of Tennessee, Mr. Blackburn came to Texas about 1840 or '41, and located on the Mustang Creek, now in Lavaca County."

See: http://www.drtinfo.org/ancestors-b
"Blackburn, Gideon 05-02-1817 Williamson Co., TX 12-23-1881 LaVaca Co., TX Dufner, Mary Ann"

This is from: The Daughters of the Republic of Texas list of ancestors who were citizens of the Republic of Texas. Great grandfather Gideon B. Blackburn was born in 1817 - in Tennessee, not in Texas - and died in 1881. He lived in Lavaca county, Texas during the time of the Republic and his wife's name was Mary Ann Dufner.  Yes, Mary Ann Dufner was German and Gideon B. Blackburn was Scots-Irish and originally a Presbyterian.

Grandmother Virginia Pyron's uncle, John L.D. Blackburn is also listed in the Daughters of the Republic of Texas list of ancestors in the Republic. Great-great uncle John L.D. Blackburn was in the Texas Army and was in the Mier Expedition. On December 23, 1842 about 300 members of the Texas Army invaded  and occupied the town of Mier in Mexico. The Texans ran out of supplies and surrendered to a superior force of Mexicans. They were put in prison, but they escaped from the Salado prison on February 11, 1843. All but four of them were recaptured by the Mexicans. Who were the Texans who made it back to Texas?

See: https://books.google.com/books…

Savage Frontier, 1842-1845, by Stephen L. Moore

After the escape of the Texans from the prison at Salado, "Mexican forces pursued and captured most of the Texans during the next two weeks. John Alaxander and Major William Oldham survived a perilous journey through the mountains and across the Rio Grande, arriving in San Antonio in Mid-April. Only two other Texans from this escape party were known to have made it back home alive, Thomas W. Cox and John L.D. Blackburn."

Saturday, October 6, 2018

THE MINT HILL< NORTH CAROLINA PYRONS

A.M. Pyron in About 1886

THE MINT HILL  NORTH CAROLINA PYRONS

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/…/the-scots-irish-as-in…/…
"The Scots-Irish were a major part of this cultural evolution, being as they were generally part of the broad non-slave holding class in the South and Border States. "
There are reasons to suspect that William Calvin Pyron. Revolutionary War Veteran, 1757-1850, who lived in the Mint Hill area of North Carolina, with his son and grand son had traits characteristic of the Scots-Irish. Some of them were Presbyterians, they lived among the Scots-Irish and intermarried with at least one family with a Scots-Irish name, Carlock. Some of the children of William C.Pyron born maybe 1770, son of William C. Pyron, 1757-1850, and Nancy Crowell:are"
Andrew Jackson "Jack" Pyron 1814 - My Great-grandfather -
Matilda Pyron 1815 -
Thomas Russell Pyron 1821 -
.John Calvin Pyron 1824 -
.Andrew Jackson, John Calvin and Martilda and her husband
Camilius Carlock, all went west, while Thomas Russell Pyron stayed in North
Carolina. I found Uncle Thomas through his Presbyterian church in the
Mint Hill area east of Charlotte. He lived to be old, and held what
his church called the Bains Cain, as the oldest member of the
congregation.
See:https://www.ancestry.com/boards/surnames.pyron/87/mb.ashx . Message board which says "... a John Calvin PYRON (b. 1824) marrying a Mary Isabella CARLOCK:"
When Andrew Jackson Pyron and his wife both died of an infectious disease in Louisiana in about 1859. great-grandfafther Andrew Jackson Pyron's brother put the two youngest children, Annie and Angela in an orphanage in New Orleans and took my grandfather Aurelius Milton, born 1846, and his older sister Eugenia.to live with him and his family near Hamburg, Arkansas. I am not sure where Aunt Matilda and her husband Camilius Carlock lived in Arkansas, but maybe also in that southeast corner of the state. The Mary Isabella Carlock that John Calvin Pyron married may have been the sister of Camilis Carlock who married Aunt Matilda Pyron.
There may be descendants of Matilda Pyron Carlock in Arkansas. Matilda was my grandfather's aunt, and would be my great-great aunt.
Andrew Jackson Pyron, born about 1814 and died about 1859, married Sarah C Simmons and their children are:
Eugenia H Pyron
Aurelius Milton Pyron. 1846-1932
Angeline Zuelma Pyron, . 1853-1950
Annie Pyron, Born 1850
Jennie Pyron - I don;t know where this fifth child's name is recorded or if she even existed.
My older sister Mary Pyron Bush "Found some records on our great-grandfather Andrew J. Pyron
from a business partnership between Andrew J. Pyron and John Mitchell
in Berwick City, Louisiana. Mary says that between the 1850 census
and 1857 the date of the Mitchell Company mercantile business
records, Andrew and Sarah had two more daughters, Annie and Angie."
Mary also says " We know that Andrew Jackson and his wife Sarah both died in an
epidemic that passed through Berwick, Louisiana in about 1859, leaving
their four children orphans. A letter ,
by William A. Pyron, son of John Calvin Pyron, grandfather's uncle,
confirms that grandfather was taken to live with Uncle John Calvin and
his family in Arkansas. The letter from William A. Pyron also
mentions that grandfather left for Texas with his sister, one sister
and not three. "
I have seen evidence that Great Aunt Annie married in Lavaca county, Texas, indicating that she was united at some time in the Sweet Home area of Lavaca county with grandfather and her older sister Eugenia, and probably Angeline was also united with them. Because they were probably poor all four of them may have lived together in Lavaca county, Texas at one time. Aunt Annie married the first cousin of the famous Texas rodeo cowboy Clay McGonnagill of Sweet Home in Lavaca county, Texas. Information dug up from www.ancestry. com shows that great aunt Annie Pyron married William Washington McGonagill in Lavaca county, Texas in 1870. They later moved to the northern part of the Texas hill county. She is buried in McCulloch county.
On the U.S. Census reports for the three Pyron families in the Mint Hill area of North Carolina in the years before right 1865 no slaves are listed. Although slaves were not listed by name on the Census. slaves were listed.



William A. Pyron or William Alonza Pyron, who wrote to grandfather after he and his sister west to Teas, was a son of John Calvin Pyron who lived near Hamburg, Arkansas. Grandfather lived with them from about age 13 till he was in the army and for a short time later before he and his sister went to Texas.

William Alonza Pyron Birth 30 Jan 1855 Death 19 May 1949 (aged 94) Burial
Flat Creek Cemetery
Fountain Hill, Ashley County, Arkansas, USA

I did not know he lived so long. Grandfather's uncle
Thomas Russell Pyron also lived a long time, maybe to 90 or more.

William Alonza Pyron
Birth 30 Jan 1855
Death 19 May 1949 (aged 94)
Burial
Flat Creek Cemetery
Fountain Hill, Ashley County, Arkansas, USA...................................................Parents of William Alanza Pyron were:

Father:
John C. Pyron, 1825–1913......................................................................................................Mother:Mary Isabella Carlock Pyron

1834–1924....His mother lived to be 90. .....................See:
https://www.myheritage.com/names/mary_carlock..........."

Mary Isabella Pyron (born Carlock) was born in month 1835, at birth place, North Carolina, to John William Carlock and Isabel Carlock (born Shelby).
John was born on August 12 1785, in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina.
Isabel was born on November 15 1791, in Mecklenburg, North Carolina.
Mary had 20 siblings: Lucinda Jane Sheffield (born Carlock), John Carlock and 18 other siblings.
Mary married John Calvin Pyron on month day 1852, at age 16 at marriage place, Mississippi.
John was born in 1825, in North Carolina, United States...........http://boards.rootsweb.com/surnames.carlock/523/mb.ashx.........."Frederick Cornelius "Cornelius" CARLOCK. b: 1809 Mecklenburg Co., NC d: 28 Dec 1890 Ashley Co., AR
.. +Matilda PYRON b: 1815 Mecklenburg Co., NC m: 05 Oct 1831 Mecklenburg Co., NC d: Abt. 1863 Father: William PYRON Mother: Nancy CROWELL......This site lists Mary Isabelle CARLOCK b: 28 Jun 1834 NC d: 30 May 1924 Burial: Flat Creek (aka Fountain Hill) Cemetery, White Township, Ashley Co., AR, as a possible sister of Frederick Cornelius CARLOCK.who married Matilda Pyron, grandfather's aunt.
............ John Calvin PYRON b: 26 Jan 1825 NC m: 08 Jan 1852 Old Tishamingo Co. (now Alcorn Co.), MS d: 16 Mar 1913 Burial: Flat Creek (aka Fountain Hill) Cemetery, White Township, Ashley Co., AR Father: William PYRON Mother: Nancy CROWEL.....................One of the indications that the Mint Hill, N.C Pyrons were Scot-Irish was their marriage into the Carlock family, which is a Scots-Irish name.Another indication of them being Scots-Irish is that grandfather's uncle, Thomas Russell Pyron, was long a member of the Presbyterian Church in Mint Hill, N.C. . Pyron is not a Scots-Irish name. It is French in origin but some Pyrons, apparently who went to England or Northern Ireland from France were French Huguenots, or Protestants.
........



blogs.dis

Saturday, September 29, 2018

Notes On the Old Bexar Settlement

Notes On the Old Bexar Settelmrnt
Bernard Pyron

One of the topics of local history in the area in and near Somerset, Texas is the Old Bexar settlement, two miles west of Somerset.

My mother, Mabel Moote, was the school teacher at Old Bexar during the early 20th century.  The original County Examination taken by Mabel is dated December 1911. And the original letter of recommendation for Mabel Moote which reads, in part: "I unhesitatingly recommend her to any position to which she may aspire and am sure she will make good."  signed L.L. McDonald, Sutherland Springs, Texas, is dated May 6, 1912.  She and Blake Bernard Pyron were married May 20, 1915 which apparently  ended her career. She probably began teaching at the Old Bexar settlement in the fall of 1912.  Mabel Moote was born on March 12, 1894, and was only 18 when she began teaching at Old Bexar.

Jessie Pyron, sister of Blake Pyron, and daughter of A.M. Pyron, married Will Kenney, son of Patrick Kenney, who once owned the land that became Old Bexar and also the coal mine. Jessie Pyron Kenney is my aunt.  First cousin Nellie Mae Kenney included a list of the main families associated with Bexar in something she wrote in the eighties.  She mentions the McMonagals as being one of these. William McMonagle, the father of James Connell and Shorty, or Kenneth, lived in or near Bexar.  The grandson of  William McMonagle and son of James Connell McMonagle, James Joseph McMonagle, known to me as Joe, was a classmate in the Somerset grade school in the early forties.  Joe is a graduate of Notre Dame and retired as a Marine Corps Major General.

On Google Earth the area between Bexar and Benton City Roads, which apparently was the heart of Old Bexar shows just an empty field. Yet many pioneering families of the Somerset area had roots or associations in Old Bexar. Most of the institutions of Old Bexar began moving to New Somerset after the First Town Site Company began selling lots that became the new town some time after about 1910 to 1912. Mabel Moote was the school teacher in Old Bexar in its last years. In 1905 A.M. Pyron  was a Trustee of the the Old Bexar school.  His son, Blake Pyron, Jessie's Pyron Kenney's brother, married the teacher in 1915 of the school he went to earlier.

Patrick Kenney owned the land that became Old Bexar.  Patrick was the father of Tom and Will Kenney, and Will Kenney married Jessie Pyron, daughter of A.M. Pyron, the older sister of Blake and Milton (Casey) Pyron.  My sister Louise said recently that our mother once lived with aunt Jessie and Will Kenney in the area of Old Bexar when she taught school there. The father of Patrick Kenney was probably John Kenney, age 46 in the 1860 census of Bexar county, Texas.

Online Bexar county land transactions show that on September 28, 1893, Patrick Kenney deeded an acre and a half to John Conoly, out of the Clemente Bustillo survey.  The deed says the land joined "...the Bexar school lot on the west...beginning at a stake on the Benton City Road."  Patrick Kenney deeded on March 22, 1881 a tract of land to Jane Kirkwood, out of the eastern half of Survey No 134, known as the coal mine tract.

One interesting land transaction of Patrick Kenney was a tract of land he sold to the Elm Creek Comet Band on March 29, 1889, from Survey No 348 granted to Clemente Bustillo.

On May 18, 1891 Patrick Kenney deeded land to the Bishop of the Diocese, one acre of the Clemente Bustillo grant.  This land may have been for the purpose of building of the St. Patrick's Catholic Church, a branch  of the first Catholic Church  at the Medina River community, then called Garza's Crossing.  Nellie Mae Kinney's History of Old Bexar, The History of Somerset and the Old Bell at Bexar (1986), says that St Patrick's Catholic Church was built in 1892.

And on August 2, 1883 Patrick Kenney deeded two acres of land out of the Peter (really Petra) Bustillo, widow  of Domingo Bustillo, of Survey No 348, for $37.50, for the purpose of establishing a public school.  The deed is in Book 34, page 6.  This may have been for the school which was built at Old Bexar.

On an October 13, 1905 Bexar county land transaction, the  trustees - like members of a school board -  of the school district number 33 of Bexar county, which was Old Bexar, were H.P. Drought, B. McConnell, A.M. Pyron, and J. C. James, probably Jessie Christopher James, the father of the younger Jessie James (1897-1942).

The Online Handbook of Texas, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hrbdc
, says of Old Bexar that "was first settled by John Kinney (also spelled Kenney), an Irish farmer and rancher, in 1854. In 1868 Kinney and other area residents founded San Patricio de Bexar Catholic Church. By the mid-1880s the Kinney family was operating an open pit coal mine in Bexar. Coal was originally transported to San Antonio by ox-cart. The Bexar post office opened in 1883 in the general store, which was painted bright red. For this reason, the town was known by the Hispanic workers as “La Colorada” or “La Mina de la Colorada.” In 1894 there were thirty to forty-five small houses, a general store owned by John Conoly and Dr. James A Matthews, a doctor’s office, a theater, a post office, a cotton gin, a dance hall, a cantina, and three churches. In 1909 the Artesian Belt Railroad came through the area and bypassed Bexar. The town of Somerset was established two miles to the east on the rail line and most of Bexar moved to Somerset. A spur was eventually constructed to connect the coal mine."

First cousin Nellie Mae Kenney in her article, The History of Somerset and the Old Bell at Bexar (1986), says that the main families living in or associated with Old Bexar were the  "... Connoly's, the Matthew's,
McMonagles, Longs, McCoys, Malones, James's, Scanlons, McConnels,
Pyrons, Kenneys, and the Norris's who owned the land where Somerset is
now located."

I mentioned the McMonagle family above as having lived in and near Old Bexar. Joe McMonagle, son of James Connell McMonagle, and grandson of William McMonagle, was in grade school with me in Somerset during the early forties.  The house and land where Connell McMonagle, wife and Joe, and the grandfather, William (listed in the 1940 census), lived in the thirties and forties was  on Kenney Road just south of Highway 81 (I-35) about four miles north of Bexar.

The James family was another significant Somerset area family with roots in Old Bexar.  In the forties and fifties Luther James lived on Kenney Road just south of the area that was Old Bexar.  Luther James ran hounds after coyotes and often hunted north of the Old Bexar area. Jessie Garfield James. (1897-1942) was the son of Jessie C. James, (1859-1919) .Luther Martin James (1888-1963), cousin of Jessie C. James, was the son of  John William James (1854-1896). There is a very good chance that Clara Muriel McCoy, the wife of the younger Jessie James, who was a student of Mabel Moote at Old Bexar, was part of the McCoy family Nellie Mae Kenney lists as being among the Old Bexar families.

Frank L. James (1909 - 1985) was an older  son of Luther James and brother of Bill James, or William Marshall James ( 1915 - 2004), who was long the superintendent of the Somerset School.

 

Wednesday, September 26, 2018

With San Antonio Newspaper Articles: Kurz Number One, When Carl Kurz Struck Oil And Began the Somerset Oil Field

With San Antonio Newspaper Articles: Kurz Number One, When Carl Kurz Struck Oil And Began the Somerset Oil Field
Bernard Pyron


The New Encyclopedia of Texas, edited by Ellis A. Davis and Edwin H. Grobe, 1929, says in the article on Aurelius Milton Pyron that "In 1909, Mr. Kurtz, whose land adjoined that owned by Mr. Pyron, was drilling for artesian water but struck oil instead. Following this Mr. Pyron and Mr Kurtz organized the Somerset Oil and Gas Company and began active operations in what is now the Somerset Oil Field. They brought their first well at eleven hundred feet, but this well was discarded soon after being put on pump."
The date of 1909 is too early for the discovery of oil by Carl Kurz when he was drilling for artesian water.
According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somerset,_Texas
"In 1913, while drilling for artesian water, Kurz discovered oil. A boom followed. The Somerset oilfield extended from Somerset to below Pleasanton and was the largest known shallow field in the world at that time. Two oil refineries in the field and a pipeline into San Antonio handled the high-gravity crude."
In several articles the date of the discovery of oil by Carl Kurz is reported to have been in 1913.
But 1913 is a year later than sources indicate for the discovery of oil when Carl Kurz drilled for deep water.
http://books.google.com/books?id=7pgtAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA114...
The Oil Weekly, January 21, 1922
"The Somerset, Texas shallow oil pool completed its tenth year with the close of 1921 without a single dry hole in proven territory since the discovery of the field........the field had only eight or ten very small wells and development did not really start until three years ago...the older wells finished around 900 feet with from one to four barrels production."
If ten years went by up to the end of 1921, then the beginning of the Somerset Oil Field would have been in 1912, so the date in the above wikipedia article saying Carl Kurz hit oil in 1913 is too late a date.
This Oil Weekly information on the ten years at the end of 1921 from the start of the Somerset Oil Field supports the earlier date of the discovery of oil by Carl Kurz according to the oil leases that A.M. Pyron contracted in 1912 for the Somerset Oil and Gas Co, seen in online Bexar county land transaction records.
A San Antonio Light February 23, 1913 article on the Kurz oil well discovery says "When Mr Kurz began boring about 12 months ago he was in search of artesian water." So, the first Kurz oil well came in early in 1912. Billy Kenney in his 1988 interview was right that it was a gusher, smaller than Spindle Top but like it. Spindletop was a super gusher oil well which came in on January 10, 1901 near Beaumont, Texas.
Peggy Weyel found the February 23, 1913 San Antonio Light article a day or two ago and a second article in the Light of 1913, shown below.
So, the February 23, 1913 newspaper article clearly says that Carl Kurz was drilling for artesian water 12 months before the date of this article, which was early 1913. It was the well Kurz drilled for deep water that became Kurz Number One, and brought in the Somerset shallow oil field.
Then there is another San Antonio Light article found by Peggy Weyel, Director of the Somerset Historical Society, on the Carl Kurz discovery of oil on his land southeast of Somerset. This article was in the San Antonio Light newspaper or June 8, 1913, with the headlines saying, "A GUSHER OIL WELL IS BROUGHT IN NEAR CITY, Located On Land Near New Somerset, and Spouts To Height of Nearly 150 Feet When Uncapped."
The article begins in saying that "A gusher oil well, the first in this territory, and spouting a five inch stream of water to a height of 130 and 140 feet, has been brought in by the Somerset Oil and Gas Company on a tract of land owned by C. Kurz, about one mile southeast of the town of New Somerset, eighteen miles from San Antonio."
In 1912-1913 the Carl Kurz land was across a dirt road from the A.M. Pyron land which was to the west. Carl Kurz and A.M. Pyron were both cattlemen and used the same creek for water, Mudd Creek, or Mudd Holler, as it was often called, when it had water in it. The Creek once flowed out of the Pyron land into the Kurz place under a small wooden bridge over that dirt road which is now paved Payne Road. The two cattlemen on Mudd Creek also became oil men after 1912-1913. In 1909 they had formed the First Town Site Company which sold lots for what became the town of Somerset, or as it was first called New Somerset.
The San Antonio Light article also says "Papers were taken out in November and December of last year. A.M. Pyron became trustee for the company and yesterday the papers were filed. "
I went to the Bexar County Clerk's on-line land transaction records, then to Search By Name and typed in "Somerset Oil & Gas Co and near the first of many documents a four page 4-page, February 25, 1913 document is shown:
"AGREEMENT
Somerset Oil and Gas company et al, A.M. Pyron, Trustee:
Whereas at various dates during the months of November and
December, A.D. 1912, the following named persons executed what was termed an OIL LEASE with A.M. Pyron, of Bexar County, Texas, Trustee, on certain land owned by said persons as follows:"
A,M, Pyron contracted oil leases for the Somerset Oil and Gas Company with seventeen Somerset area land owners between November 13, 1912 to January 6, 1913.
The Somerset area land owners A.M. Pyron contracted oil leases with were:
R.B. Touchstone, 133 acres
John H, Ellis, 61 acres
J.A. Avant,150 acres
R.H. Robinson,68 acres
C. Kurz, 129 acres
S.S. Wildman, 286 acres
August F. Ernst, 480 acres
Juan Rodriguez, 71 acres
John Eastwood, 234 acres
C.H. Long, 111 acres
J.E. Wright, 134 acres
James B. Wright, 202 acres
W. B. Kilborn, 78 acres
C. Kurz and W.F. Lockwood, 92 acres
William Ebest, 61 acres
Jesus Gonzales 100 acres
Pablo Gonzalez and brothers, 20 acres
Billie Kurz McCord in a phone call of December of 2012 said that the original well was near the Carl Kurz house, which became the Gus Kurz house on Payne Road. Billie said there was a small house over the oil well. Again in a phone call of July 2, 2015 she sad that the first Kurz oil well, which brought in the Somerset Oil Field, was behind the Carl Kurz house, that is, north of it, toward the Refinery. Billie lived on that land and in the house from 1945 to 1949 and afterwards was there many times.
Billy Kenney talked about the first Carl Kurz Oil Well In His Interview For the Oral History Collection, Institute For Texan Cultures in 1988: Billy Kenney was born in February of 1904, so in about 1912 he would have been only about eight.
Below "K" is Billy Kenney, oldest grand child of A.M. Pyron. I am the youngest. "HC" is the Institute for Texan Cultures interviewer.
HC: "At one time Somerset was the largest shallow well in
the country, wasn't it?
K: Largest shallow oil field in the world.
HC: In the world? Now, Kurtz, wasn't Carl Kurtz diggin'
for water?
K: That's right. The way I understand it, he and my
grandfather, of course, - there was just a road separatin'
them.
HC: That's grandfather Pyron.
K: Grandfather put in with him to dig a thousand foot
well.
SC: Water well.
K: See if they could get some water. That would be good
for irrigating, see?
HC: Yeah.
K: And they got that oil and they was the maddest ole men.
I remember that day they were really put out. They didn't
want no damned oil, they wanted a water well. (laughter)."

December 19, 2015: With San Antonio Newspaper Articles: Kurz Number One, When Carl Kurz Struck Oil And Began the Somerset Oil Field


Bernard Pyron

The New Encyclopedia of Texas, edited by Ellis A. Davis and Edwin H. Grobe, 1929, says in the article on Aurelius Milton Pyron that "In 1909, Mr. Kurtz, whose land adjoined that owned by Mr. Pyron, was drilling for artesian water but struck oil instead. Following this Mr. Pyron and Mr Kurtz organized the Somerset Oil and Gas Company and began active operations in what is now the Somerset Oil Field. They brought their first well at eleven hundred feet, but this well was discarded soon after being put on pump."

The date of 1909 is too early for the discovery of oil by Carl Kurz when he was drilling for artesian water.

According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somerset,_Texas
"In 1913, while drilling for artesian water, Kurz discovered oil. A boom followed. The Somerset oilfield extended from Somerset to below Pleasanton and was the largest known shallow field in the world at that time. Two oil refineries in the field and a pipeline into San Antonio handled the high-gravity crude."

In several articles the date of the discovery of oil by Carl Kurz is reported to have been in 1913.
But 1913 is a year later than sources indicate for the discovery of oil when Carl Kurz drilled for deep water.

http://books.google.com/books?id=7pgtAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA114...
The Oil Weekly, January 21, 1922

"The Somerset, Texas shallow oil pool completed its tenth year with the close of 1921 without a single dry hole in proven territory since the discovery of the field........the field had only eight or ten very small wells and development did not really start until three years ago...the older wells finished around 900 feet with from one to four barrels production."

If ten years went by up to the end of 1921, then the beginning of the Somerset Oil Field would have been in 1912, so the date in the above wikipedia article saying Carl Kurz hit oil in 1913 is too late a date.


A San Antonio Light February 23, 1913 article on the Kurz oil well discovery says "When Mr Kurz began boring about 12 months ago he was in search of artesian water." So, the first Kurz oil well came in early in 1912. Billy Kenney in his 1988 interview was right that it was a gusher, smaller than Spindle Top but like it. Spindletop was a super gusher oil well which came in on January 10, 1901 near Beaumont, Texas.

Peggy Weyel found the February 23, 1913 San Antonio Light article a day or two ago and a second article in the Light of 1913, shown below.

So, the February 23, 1913 newspaper article clearly says that Carl Kurz was drilling for artesian water 12 months before the date of this article, which was early 1913. It was the well Kurz drilled for deep water that became Kurz Number One, and brought in the Somerset shallow oil field.
Then there is another San Antonio Light article found by Peggy Weyel, Director of the Somerset Historical Society, on the Carl Kurz discovery of oil on his land southeast of Somerset. This article was in the San Antonio Light newspaper or June 8, 1913, with the headlines saying, "A GUSHER OIL WELL IS BROUGHT IN NEAR CITY, Located On Land Near New Somerset, and Spouts To Height of Nearly 150 Feet When Uncapped."

The article begins in saying that "A gusher oil well, the first in this territory, and spouting a five inch stream of water to a height of 130 and 140 feet, has been brought in by the Somerset Oil and Gas Company on a tract of land owned by C. Kurz, about one mile southeast of the town of New Somerset, eighteen miles from San Antonio."

In 1912-1913 the Carl Kurz land was across a dirt road from the A.M. Pyron land which was to the west. Carl Kurz and A.M. Pyron were both cattlemen and used the same creek for water, Mudd Creek, or Mudd Holler, as it was often called, when it had water in it. The Creek once flowed out of the Pyron land into the Kurz place under a small wooden bridge over that dirt road which is now paved Payne Road. The two cattlemen on Mudd Creek also became oil men after 1912-1913. In 1909 they had formed the First Town Site Company which sold lots for what became the town of Somerset, or as it was first called New Somerset.

The San Antonio Light article also says "Papers were taken out in November and December of last year. A.M. Pyron became trustee for the company and yesterday the papers were filed. "
I went to the Bexar County Clerk's on-line land transaction records, then to Search By Name and typed in "Somerset Oil & Gas Co and near the first of many documents a four page 4-page, February 25, 1913 document is shown:

"AGREEMENT

Somerset Oil and Gas company et al, A.M. Pyron, Trustee:
Whereas at various dates during the months of November and
December, A.D. 1912, the following named persons executed what was termed an OIL LEASE with A.M. Pyron, of Bexar County, Texas, Trustee, on certain land owned by said persons as follows:"

A,M, Pyron contracted oil leases for the Somerset Oil and Gas Company with seventeen Somerset area land owners between November 13, 1912 to January 6, 1913.

The Somerset area land owners A.M. Pyron contracted oil leases with were:
R.B. Touchstone, 133 acres
John H, Ellis, 61 acres
J.A. Avant,150 acres
R.H. Robinson,68 acres
C. Kurz, 129 acres
S.S. Wildman, 286 acres
August F. Ernst, 480 acres
Juan Rodriguez, 71 acres
John Eastwood, 234 acres
C.H. Long, 111 acres
J.E. Wright, 134 acres
James B. Wright, 202 acres
W. B. Kilborn, 78 acres
C. Kurz and W.F. Lockwood, 92 acres
William Ebest, 61 acres
Jesus Gonzales 100 acres
Pablo Gonzalez and brothers, 20 acres

Billie Kurz McCord in a phone call of December of 2012 said that the original well was near the Carl Kurz house, which became the Gus Kurz house on Payne Road. Billie said there was a small house over the oil well. Again in a phone call of July 2, 2015 she sad that the first Kurz oil well, which brought in the Somerset Oil Field, was behind the Carl Kurz house, that is, north of it, toward the Refinery. Billie lived on that land and in the house from 1945 to 1949 and afterwards was there many times.

Billy Kenney talked about the first Carl Kurz Oil Well In His Interview For the Oral History Collection, Institute For Texan Cultures in 1988: Billy Kenney was born in February of 1904, so in about 1912 he would have been only about eight.
Below "K" is Billy Kenney, oldest grand child of A.M. Pyron. I am the youngest. "HC" is the Institute for Texan Cultures interviewer.

HC: "At one time Somerset was the largest shallow well in
the country, wasn't it?
K: Largest shallow oil field in the world.
HC: In the world? Now, Kurtz, wasn't Carl Kurtz diggin'
for water?
K: That's right. The way I understand it, he and my
grandfather, of course, - there was just a road separatin'
them.
HC: That's grandfather Pyron.
K: Grandfather put in with him to dig a thousand foot
well.
SC: Water well.
K: See if they could get some water. That would be good
for irrigating, see?
HC: Yeah.
K: And they got that oil and they was the maddest ole men.
I remember that day they were really put out. They didn't
want no damned oil, they wanted a water well. (laughter)."

ANCESTORS OF A.M. PYRON AND HIS DESCENDANTS TO 1930

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Pyron Family History

 ANCESTORS OF A.M. PYRON AND HIS DESCENDANTS TO 1930
Bernard Pyron

Link:     http://www.mybloop.com/halfback/A._M._Pyron_Ancestors_ONE_txt
The above link is no longer active. my Bloop apparently went kaput.

William Pyron the Elder, whose dates are
 generally
said to be 1757 to 1850 is the father of William
 Pyron, the Younger, listed below, who
died in 1843.
 William Pyron the Younger (died 1843) is the
 father of Andrew Jackson Pyron also listed
below.  Andrew Jackson Pyron (1814 to about
 1860) is the father of our A.M. Pyron, 1846
to 1932. The 1840 census for Mecklenburg
 county, North Carolina shows
William Pyron, 1757-1850, the Revolutionary
 War Soldier, his son, William Pyron the
 Younger (died 1843) and Andrew Jackson
 Pyron (born 1814) all living near each
 other east of Charlotte, North Carolina.
 The area where they lived is called
 Mint Hill. British General Cornwallis
 during the American Revolution called
this the "Hornet's Nest," because the
Scotch-Irish there shot many of his
 soldiers from
behind trees with their rifles.

Some descendants of William Pyron,
1757-1850, list his father as a James Pyron,
 but I have never seen a source for this information.

The family information below is from:
http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/c/o/s/Richard-A-Coscia/GENE2-0011.html


 232. William C. Pyron, born Abt. 1756 in Ashland, Hanover
County, Virginia; died January 27, 1850 in Goose Creek Township,
Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. He was the son of 464. James
Pyron. He married 233. Mary Jane Powell 1769 in Mecklenburg County,
North Carolina.

   233. Mary Jane Powell, born Abt. 1756 in Wake County, North
Carolina; died May 2, 1825 in Oglethorpe, Georgia. She was the
daughter of 466. Moses Powell and 467. Prudence Garner.

Children of William Pyron and Mary Powell are:
 116 i.   Dr. William Pyron, born February 10, 1770 in Mecklenberg
County, North Carolina; died 1844 in Mecklenburg County, North
Carolina; married Nancy Crowell March 5, 1812 in Rowan County, North
Caolina.
 ii.   Sarah Pyron, born 1773; died Aft. 1850; married Joel Helms;
born Abt. 1794.
 iii.   Mary Pyron, born Abt. 1775; died Aft. 1850; married Emanuel
Helms; born 1792; died 1874.
 iv.   James Pyron, born May 25, 1776; died December 11, 1820 in ,
Jackson Co., Ga.
 v.   Emelia Pyron, born Abt. 1780 in Mecklenburg County, North
Carolina; died Aft. 1852 in Tennessee; married Abram Secrist September
15, 1825 in Mecklenberg County, Virginia; born Abt. 1780.
 vi.   Nancy Pyron, born Abt. 1787.
 vii.   Jane Pyron, born June 4, 1798; died March 3, 1887 in Union
County, North Carolina; married Michael Crowell; born November 3,
1795; died March 24, 1865.
 viii.   Drewry Pyron, born August 17, 1799 in Greene County,
Georgia; died July 1872 in , Greene Co., Ga.
 ix.   Malehijah Pyron, born Abt. 1805 in Tennessee; married
Lucinda; born Abt. 1810 in Kentucky.
 x.   Thomas N. Pyron, born Abt. 1805 in Mecklenberg County, North
Carolina; died March 12, 1907; married Margaret C. McCall February 22,
1843; born Abt. 1820.
 xi.   Elizabeth Pyron, born 1810 in Greene County, Georgia.
 xii.   Martha Pyron, born Abt. 1814 in Greene County, Georgia.

We are descended from "Dr William Pyron" above, son of William Pyron,
1757-1850.  His dates of 1770-1844 are not right.  He was born later
than 1770 and died in 1843.

Below are the children of Dr. William Pyron Junior, 1790 about to 1843.

The info below is from:  http://www.paynedaniel.com/johangrua/d5.htm

 ii. Nancy CROWELL was born in 1784 and died in 1830, at age 46.

Nancy married William PYRON . William was born in 1794(?) and died in
1843, at age 49.

General Notes: There are three children that may be the correct
children of this pair?

1.  Samuel born 1810, 2. John Calvin, 3. Eleanor "Lena" Elizabeth
Pyron, 1830-1902
......+John Cullen Williams 1827 - 1864

The rest of this line up are shown as the children of a William C.
Pyron born 1770 and a Nancy Crowell:

7 Mary Ann "Polly" Pyron
7 Son Pyron 1810 -
7 Andrew Jackson "Jack" Pyron 1814 -
7 Clorinda Pyron 1814 -
7 Matilda Pyron 1815 -
7 Thomas Russell Pyron 1821 -
.....+Jane Lizzie // 1858 -
......*2nd Wife of Thomas Russell Pyron:
.....+Margaret Caroline McCall 1820 - 1860
.....*3rd Wife of Thomas Russell Pyron:
.....+Sarah A. Robinson 1828 -
7 John Calvin Pyron 1824 -
7 Daughter Pyron 1825 -
7
7 Nancy A. Pyron 1833 -
7 Son Pyron 1830 -
7 Mahala Pyron 1836 -
.....+W.C. Query
.....*2nd Husband of Mahala Pyron:
.....+Elijah Robert Phifer 1843 - 1868

 Andrew Jackson Pyron listed above as being born in 1814 is my
great-grandfather.  His son, A.M. Pyron, 1846-1932, was my
grandfather, and my father was Blake Bernard Pyron 1889-1964. A. M.
Pyron was in the 2nd Arkansas Cavalry and after the war, he, the son
of his aunt Matilda, Jackson Carlock, and grandfather's three sisters
went from SE Arkansas to Texas.  I grew up on what was left of his
section of land in the brush country SW of San Antonio.

I only know about Andrew Jackson, John Calvin, Matilda and Thomas
Russell.  Andrew Jackson, John Calvin and Martilda and her husband
Camilius Carlock, all went west, while Thomas Russell Pyron stayed in North
Carolina. I found Uncle Thomas through his Presbyterian church in the
Mint Hill area east of Charlotte.  He lived to be old, and held what
his church called the Bains Cain, as the oldest member of the
congregation.  I don't have the line going from Thomas Russell, born
1821 or 1822 in Mecklenburg county, N.C. to
Darden Asbury Pyron, professor at a Florida university. I think I may
have that in a book by him.   Southern Daughter: The Life of Margaret
Mitchell  by Darden Asbury Pyron.

Andrew J. Pyron in the 1850 Marshall county, Mississippi census

http://www.rootsweb.com/~msmarsha/census/1850s2.html

Puckett, Jane M.  235
Pulliam, M_____  223
Pyron, Andrew J.  251B
Pyron, Josiah 257B
Ragland, Saml. E. 242B
Ragsdale, Frances

Andrew J. Pyron's number on the 1850 census of Marshall county,
Mississippi is 251B.  This may be the "Dwelling-houses numbered in the
order of visitation" on the Census Form.

I made zerox copies of the census data at the University of  Texas
Library in 1979 or 1980.  But even when I first made the copies, it
was very difficult to read the information,  Now, after 26 years, the
copies are almost totally unreadable. I cannot find a Pyron name on
the copies.

My sister Mary Pyron Bush says  in her write-up on the Pyrons that in
this 1850 census Andrew Jackson Pyron is age 35, meaning he was born
in about 1815.  His wife is listed on the census (though I cannot find
either of them) as Sarah Simons Pyron, ten years younger than A. J.,
meaning she was born in about 1825.  Our grandfather, Aurelius Milton,
or A. M. is listed as about age three. Listed above our grandfather is
his older sister, Eugenia.

Mary also found some records on our great-grandfather Andrew J. Pyron
from a business partnership between Andrew J. Pyron and John Mitchell
in Berwick City, Louisiana.  Mary says that between the 1850 census
and 1857  the date of the Mitchell Company mercantile business
records, Andrew and Sarah had two more daughters, Annie and Angie.
Mary thinks that Annie Pyron married a man named McGonagill in Texas.
They are the parents of Clay McGonagill,  A. M. Pyron's nephew and my
father's first cousin, a figure in the early rodeo.

Below is from the 1930 census for Bexar county, Texas

Image source: Year: 1930; Census Place: Precinct 5, Bexar, Texas;
Roll: 2299; Page: 4A; Enumeration District: 170; Image: 263.0.

Name: Aurelius M Pyron Age: 83 Estimated birth year: abt 1847
Birthplace: Mississippi Relation to head-of-house: Head Spouse's Name:
Virginia Pyron Race: White Home in 1930: Precinct 5, Bexar, Texas
Family and neighbors: View Results

Name: Virginia Pyron Age: 74 Estimated birth year: abt 1856 Relation
to head-of-house: Wife Spouse's Name:
Aurelius M Pyron Home in 1930:
Precinct 5, Bexar, Texas Family and neighbors: View Results

Name: Mary G Pyron Age: 50 Estimated birth year: abt 1880 Relation to
head-of-house: Daughter Father's Name: Aurelius M Pyron Mother's Name:
Virginia Pyron Home in 1930: Precinct 5, Bexar, Texas Family and
neighbors: View Results

Name: Ida Holder Age: 62 Estimated birth year: abt 1868 Birthplace:
Texas Relation to head-of-house: Servant; Nurse Race: White Home in
1930: Precinct 5, Bexar, Texas Family and neighbors: View Results

-------

Name: Blake B Pyron Age: 40 Estimated birth year: abt 1890 Birthplace:
Texas Relation to head-of-house: Head Spouse's Name: Mabel M Pyron
Race: White Home in 1930: Precinct 5, Bexar, Texas Family and
neighbors: View Results
Occupation:
Education:
Military service:
Rent/home value:
Age at first marriage:
Parents' birthplace:
View Image

Name: Mabel M Pyron Age: 36 Estimated birth year: abt 1894 Relation to
head-of-house: Wife Spouse's Name: Blake B Pyron Home in 1930:
Precinct 5, Bexar, Texas Family and neighbors: View Results


View Record  Blake B Pyron Mabel M Pyron Precinct 5, Bexar, TX abt
1890 Texas Head
View Record  Mabel M Pyron Blake B Pyron Precinct 5, Bexar, TX abt 1894 Wife

View Record  George E Pyron Blake B Pyron,
Mabel M Pyron Precinct 5, Bexar, TX abt 1918 Son
View Record  Mary E Pyron Blake B Pyron,
Mabel M Pyron Precinct 5, Bexar, TX abt 1921 Daughter
View Record  Louise M Pyron Blake B Pyron,
Mabel M Pyron Precinct 5, Bexar, TX abt 1923 Daughter
(George E., Mary E. and Louise M. are my older
siblings. I am not listed here).

Andrew Jackson Pyron and Their Four Children

Andrew Jackson Pyron and Sarah had four children.  The two oldest, Eugenia and Aurelius Milton, my grandfather, were born in Mississippi.  We know that Andrew Jackson and his wife Sarah both died in an epidemic that passed through Berwick, Louisiana in about 1859, leaving their four children orphans. A letter, including in this collection, by William A. Pyron, son of John Calvin Pyron, grandfather's uncle, confirms that grandfather was taken to live with Uncle John Calvin and his family in Arkansas.  The letter from William A. Pyron also mentions that grandfather left for Texas with his sister, one sister and not three.  Descendants of Aurelius Milton Pyron have not known where the two youngest orphan sisters were during the time that grandfather and probably Eugenia were living with the family of Uncle John Calvin in Arkansas.

Here is a letter I wrote about his death and what happened then to his
children: He was in business with  John Mitchell when he and his
wife died in about 1859.

Louisiana Historical Society:

I couldn't find a  Berwick or St Mary Parish  historical society.

My great-grandfather, Andrew
Jackson Pyron, and his wife died both in Berwick
in one of the epidemics apparently in about 1859, leaving four
orphans. My grandfather was one of the orphans. But his descendants
have never known the story of the deaths of grandfather's parents and
where all the children were in the 1860's. Andrew Jackson Pyron was in
partnership with a John Mitchell in Berwick in the 1850's.

There may be information on the deaths of my great grandparents in St
Mary Parish probate records, which probably are not online.  In
addition, its quite possible that the two youngest children, born 1850
and 1853, were placed in an orphanage in New Orleans. They were
Protestants.  My grandfather and the oldest sister were taken by their
uncle to live with him in Arkansas in 1859 or 1860, and the 1860
census does show both of them in Arkansas with their uncle.

I've looked online for 1860 census records of New Orleans orphanages,
but have not found anything extensive or providing search buttons for
names of orphans.

I would appreciate any suggestions.

Thanks
Bernard Pyron 

Andrew Jackson Pyron and Sarah Simons had three daughters, and one was
slightly older than grandfather, but Annie and Angeline were younger,
born I think in 1850 and 1853.

A descendant of Annie says she was in an orphanage in New Orleans.
Angeline may have been with here there.  I have photos of both these
younger sisters of A.M. Pyron.  Annie lived  in McCulloch
county, Texas, almost the frontier then, after their first son was
born in Lavaca county.  Family stories say she was blinded when she was
running away once from the Indians.  Mary, my sister, confirms she was
blind.  Annie married a first cousin of the famous Texas rodeo man,
Clay McGonagill.

Its also a mystery how the four Pyrons, or why,  got together
after grandfather and
his oldest sister Eugenia went to Lavaca county, Texas.  Census
records, a descendant of Angeline says, show all .four of them living
together in Lavaca county, Texas in 1870.  They all married there I
believe.

The oldest sister was:

 EUGENIA H (JENNIE)7 PYRON, b. WFT Est. 1838-1866; d. WFT Est. 1845-1949.
Notes for EUGENIA H (JENNIE) PYRON:
Married a Flewellen. Was in San Antonio for some time.
Was listed as Eugeno H on 1850 Census."

One of her sons, Sid Flewellen, came to see us often in Somerset in
the thirties.  Eugenia and Flewellin lived in San Antonio.

A.M. PYRON CONFEDERATE PENSION APPLICATION

  These links may  not be  live here.   The links may have to be copied to an E Mail page and sent to become live. Or, you can highlight, copy and paste them into your browser.

Links:  A.M. Pyron Confederate Pension Application
http://halfback.aminus3.com/image/2010-06-22.html        Part One

http://halfback.aminus3.com/image/2010-06-23.html        Part Two

http://halfback.aminus3.com/image/2010-06-28.html         Part Three J.W. Deal testimony

http://halfback.aminus3.com/image/2010-06-26.html          Part Four Bexar county letter

http://halfback.aminus3.com/image/2010-06-27.html           Part Five Approval of A.M. Pyron pension

FIRST TOWNSHIP COMPANY AND A.M. PYRON

Mary:

I found a copy of "Old Somerset and the Caruthers
 Family," by Beth Walker and Judy Barker.

It says "Knowing the coming of the railroad would create
prosperity, the First Townsite Company was organized by A.M. Pyron, Carl Kurz, Dr. R. B. Touchstone, Jim Dixon and George Caruthers.  They bought the E.S. Norris farm in order to get land for the depot and laid out the Townsite of New Somerset."

Below there is a land transaction record for Eugene S. Norris.  This is probably the E. S. Norris they mentioned.

But I found no evidence in the Bexar county land transactions that A.M. Pyron, Carl Kurz or R. B. Touchstone bought land belonging to a Eugene S. Norris, which the Caruthers Family article above  said was 150 acres.

I did find many transactions for the First Townsite Company mostly as the grantor of deeds. I did not find clear indication of transactions from the Somerset founders of
land deeded to the Townsite Company or bought by the founders from Norris.  I think the names in this list are the first families who owned lots or land
in what became Somerset.  I do not recognize most of these names.  Here are the last names i did reconize from the list, plus a J. M. Herrera, about whom I am curious.  I wonder if he is a descendant of Blas Herrera? Its also the only Hispanic name in the list. Here is my short list of names of early owners of lots or land in
New Somerset:

1. W. Kinney  1911  (Probably Will Kinney)
2. W. R. Miller  1919 ( I don't remember the first name of the father of Lamar and Cecil Miller; this might be him)
3. J.M. Herrera  1913
4. D. E. Hilton  1921  (This might be Aunt Ida's husband)
5. Somerset Independent School District 1922
6. R. B. Touchstone  1921
7. Aug F. Ernst  1919
8. Virginia Pyron  1919  I don't know what  lot or land was granted to grandmother Pyron in 1919
9. Woodman of the World  1911 (Thats probably the lot on
which the Woodman of the World building was on when I was in high school and Uncle Casey was the grand dragon or whatever they called the head)
10. Eastwood Ernest  1920
11. Morrison, L. S.  1919  (this might be the lot for the Morrison store)

Here are some land transactions I found involving Carl
Kurz, E.S. Norris, Eugene S. Norris, and R. B. Touchstone. These transactions do not seem to deal
with buying a Norris farm which was supposedly in 1909 for
the Townsite Company to create Somerset.
.
Document Number:   Book Type:  DEED RECORDS
Book Number:  310 Page Number:  92
Filed Date:  4/30/1909 Filing Time: 
Instrument Type:  DEED  Instrument Date:  4/30/1909
Consideration Amt:  $0.00 Market Source:   

An Easement  

Grantor
DEAN, B E 
MORRIS, A CC MRS
MORRIS, E S 
NORRIS, A C 
NORRIS, E S

Grantee
KUNZ, CARL  
KURG, CARL  
KURZ, CARL  
MANESS, A B

 General Information

Document Number:   Book Type:  DEED RECORDS
Book Number:  420 Page Number:  137
Filed Date:  6/19/1913 Filing Time: 
Instrument Type:  DEED  Instrument Date:  3/17/1913
Consideration Amt:  $0.00 Market Source: 

Release  

Grantor
KURZ, CARL  
PRICE, W H 
TUCKER, O T

Grentee
FIRST TOWNSITE CO
HOCKER, W A 
PRICE, M E 
PRICE, MARVIN E 

Document Number:   Book Type:  DEED RECORDS
Book Number:  307 Page Number:  252
Filed Date:  4/16/1909 Filing Time: 
Instrument Type:  TRANSFER  Instrument Date:  4/13/1909
Consideration Amt:  $0.00 Market Source: 
Release     

Grantor 
KURZ, CARL

Grantee
NORRIS, EUGENE S.

General Information

Document Number:   Book Type:  DEED RECORDS
Book Number:  310 Page Number:  93
Filed Date:  5/1/1909 Filing Time: 
Instrument Type:  DEED  Instrument Date:  4/15/1909
Consideration Amt:  $0.00 Market Source: 
Deed     

Grantor 
KURZ, A  
KURZ, CARL

Grantee 
FIRST TOWNSITE COMPANY
FROST TOWN SITE COMPANY

Close Window  View Image  << Prev  Next >> 
General Information

Document Number:   Book Type:  DEED RECORDS
Book Number:  315 Page Number:  286
Filed Date:  9/28/1909 Filing Time: 
Instrument Type:  DEED  Instrument Date:  9/28/1909
Consideration Amt:  $0.00 Market Source: 
Deed  

Grantor 
KUIRZ, A  
KUIRZ, C  
KURZ, A  
KURZ, C  
RUIZ, A  
RUIZ, C

Grantee
CARUTHERS, GEO W 
DIXON, J N 
PYRON , A M 
TOUCHSTONE, R B 

This is a deed from Carl Kurz to R.B. Touchstone
in 1909.

General Information

Document Number:   Book Type:  DEED RECORDS
Book Number:  310 Page Number:  93
Filed Date:  5/1/1909 Filing Time: 
Instrument Type:  DEED  Instrument Date:  4/15/1909
Consideration Amt:  $0.00 Market Source: 
Comment:     

Grantor 
KURZ, A  
KURZ, CARL

Grantee 
FIRST TOWNSITE COMPANY
FROST TOWN SITE COMPANY

A. Kurz might be Author Kurz, son of Carl Kurz, but I am
not sure.  As I said I found many deeds given by First
Townsite Company to names i recognize as Somerset people.
I found only one transaction involveing Frost Town Site Company, and that was not land granted. The 1909 date
of the transaction here agrees with the 1909 date of the
establishment of the First Townsite Company.
J. M. Herrera is listed  on a deed granted to him for a lot
in Somerset
by the First Townsite Company and A.M. Pyron's name
is on the deed as president of that company. The deed is dated 1913.   J.M. Herrera might be a descendant of Blase Herrera who was one of the Hispanics who fought on the side of  the army of the Republic of Texas.  Blase Herrera and his descendants lived on land at the Somerset Road-Medina River crossing.

THE KILLING OF THE LEAD DOG PEP


http://www.mybloop.com/di/TQvbOt/Killing%20of%20Pep,%20the%20Lead%20Dog.txt

FINED FOR FOR  SHOOTING   DOG
Accused of killing a  hound,   C.   L. Kight, Von   Ormy   farmer,
was   found  guilty of malicious mischief Tuesday by Judge Charles J.
Matthews, County-Court -at-Law No. 2.    Fine of $10 and costs, all
amounting to about $95, were assessed    against   him.     Kight
filed  a motion for a new trial.

 The   case   had   been    appealed    from a conviction and a $10
fine and costs before Justice of the Peace Charles A. Fischer of
Precinct No 5.    Kight was tried in in justice court Dec. 16.

 At the  county  court  hearing  B.   B.  Pyron of Somerset testified
two of his hounds were   shot  last  Dec.   10  while Pyron  and
some  friends were   hunting  wolves near Kight's farm.    Pyron
testified he knew they were on a wolf trail the time they were shot,
because of the sound  of their barking.

Kight admitted he shot them, but explained   he   had   tried   to
shoot   them because  the dogs got into his hog pasture and were
chewing  on his hogs.  At the time he fired, according to his
testimony. two dogs were chasing a hog, one on one side and the other
on the other side.  He said he killed both of them and crippled a
third hound that was bringing up the rear.

Pyron was convinced that the dogs had not left the wolf trail and gone
after hogs because, according to him, they had not "changed their
tune." - San Antonio Express

The Hunter's Horn, April , 1936, page 16
B. B. Pyron  above is Blake Bernard Pyron, 1889-1964
They called coyotes "wolves."

SEVERAL PYRON FAMILY DOCUMENTS

Below is the  William Pyron 1757-1850 Pension Application.  Claudine
Morgan thinks he was in the North Carolina Militia, but he mentions
generals, captains, drawing money and being furlowed, suggesting the
Continental Army.  I am not sure.


 North Carolina                                      PYRON WILLIAM, SR.
>                S8675
>
>
> STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA – Mecklenburg County – On this day of April,
> 1837 personally appeared before me the undersigned Justice of the
> Peace  for the County of Mecklenburg in the State of aforesaid,
> William Pyron, a resident of the County of Mecklenburg of State
> aforesaid aged eighty years, who being duly sworn upon the holy bible,
> doth on his oath make the following statement or declaration, in order
> to obtain the benefit of the Act of Congress passed June 7, 1832.
> That he was born in the year 1757.  In the State of Virginia, either
> in the county of Hanover or Louisa, which he does  not remember, as he
> was removed from there by his parents when a child, and was brought to
> N.C. and from Virginia into county of Caswell, was Orange, now called,
> where he remained until the Revolutionary War:  that he had a record
> of his age taken from the record kept by his father.  That in the
> spring of the year 1778, in the county of Caswell, he volunteered as a
> private soldier, and was in the company commanded by Captain Robert
> Moore (Dixon was the major, and Lytle was the Colonel) for the term of
> nine months.  That he was immediately marched into the State of
> Virginia to Halifax Old Court House, expecting to go to the North, but
> after remaining there some two or three weeks by orders they were
> marched back again to the County of Caswell, North Carolina to Moons
> Creek, was then  furloughed.  In a short time there after he was
> called into service and marched through Salisbury and Charlotte into
> the state of South Carolina, there he was encamped at the Ten Mile
> Spring, North of Charleston during the Christmas holidays of the same
> year he entered the service, from there he was marched to Purgsburg,
> and joined the main army under the command of General Lincoln.  From
> Purgsburg he was marched to near Augusta.  From there he was marched
> towards the City of Charlston, through crossing the river and marched
> through the State of Georgia some distance and crossed back again the
> Savannah River: that he encamped seven miles (he thinks) from Stone
> River where the battle was fought.  That he was not in Battle of
> Stone, but was within hearing.  That himself and a few other soldiers
> were left to guard a few prisoners which had been taken a few days
> before.  That after the battle and while the army was encamped he lost
> the use of  his person so much so, that he was unable to walk,  That
> he was sent together with several others who were sick to the hospital
> in Charleston, South Carolina.   That there he recovered the use of
> himself, and was furloughed home by General Lincoln, that was in July
> he believes.  The weather was very hot and the country becoming
> sickly.  That this was in July, 1779.  And he well remembered the
> grand parade of the army on the 4th of July that year while encamped
> near the Stone river, that sometime after his return home he was
> discharged in writing by Col. Lytle.  That the time, the month he was
> ordered into service he can't with certainty tell, but the weather was
> cold.  That a portion of the soldiers waded through Stone River, that
> he waded the river that the water was cold.  That on Nine march south,
> the army encamped a few days in Salisbury and Charlotte North Carolina
> each on  our march south that he was not left more too months in
> service when he went to Halifax in Virginia in spring of 1778 but how
> much longer he can't say with certainty, that he put his discharge in
> the hands of one Pogue to draw the amount of money coming to him for
> depreciation in the money with which he had been paid off.  That he
> paid him ten dollars and paid me half for getting it.  That he never
> afterwards received this discharge  That it was not less that eight
> months from the time he entered actual service  to proceed to South
> Carolina
> until he was furloughed in the City of Charleston..  That he knows of
> no one by whom he can know his services, except one  James Sandford,
> who now he understands resides in Pickens District South Carolina.
> That  he was the sargant of the company which he was.  He hereby
> religues all claim whatever to a pension or anuity, except the
> presant, and he declares that his name is not on the pension roll of
> any agency in any state.
>
> Sworn to and subscribed this day and year aforesaid.
>

> Hugh Stewart
>       W. Pyron
>
>
>                  Mark
>
>
> Witnessed By:     Jacob Helems, Clergyman

>                             John Simpson


DEED FROM WILLIAM PYRON THE ELDER TO WILLIAM PYRON THE YOUNGER

Below is a transcribed copy of a deed from William Pyron Senior to
William Pyron Junior which Claudine morghan used to get into the DAR,
proving that William Pyron Junior is a son of William Senior.

No. 11
.,,.THIS INDENTURE made January 25, 1814 between William Pyron Senior
of Mecklenburg county in North Carolina of the one part and William
Pyron Junior of the same place of the other part, ? WITNESSETH;
that for the sum of One Hundred Dollars- in hand paid by the Mr.. William
Pyron Junior to the said William Pyron Senior the receipt whereof
Is hereby acknowledged and therefore doth give grant bragain sell
convey and confirm unto the said William Pyron Junior his heirs
assign forever a certain tract of land in said county on the waters of
Crooked Creek bounded as follows..BEGINNING at a small Black Oak
and west 150 Pole crossing a branch to a Post Oak then North 25
degrees west 1000 poles- near John  line to a Black Oak North 55
degrees- East or 2 pole to -two small Post Oaks on his own line.  Then
West his own line South 24 Degrees East 36 pole to a Black Oak
his own old corner.  The South 70  degrees East 70 pole crossing
th.e branch and passing a pine marked as a corner to a stake and then
to the beginning containing 119 acres of land more or less.  To
have to hold these 119 acres more or less with all houses woods
ways (?) and all priviledges to the same belonging unto the said
William Pyron Junior his hiers to assign forever and also that
the said William Pyron how at this line in )    of good
and titles to said granted land premises and has a good  in
to convey- or  and the William Pyron Junior for himself his hiers
and assign to  and defend the grand :ed land and premises from the
legal claim of all persons  whatever   whereby the land and premises
may be effected or incumbered contrary to the true Intent and meaning
of these presents - unto him the William Pyron Junior his heirs
and assign forever In Witness whereof the William Pyron Senior
has hereto set his, hand  and seal
This- day and year first above written. -  -  ?      His
        seal
Signed sealed and delivered in the presence of   wttttam pyron
George Cowles Davidson

Mark

Because William Pyron Senior, the Revolutionary Soldier, signed with
his mark, this may suggest he was illiterate and why he sometimes
spelled his name Piron and sometimes Pyron.  From July 1790 until
April 1827 William Pyron Senior sold off about 915 acres of land near
Rocky River or Crooked Creek in then the eastern part of Mecklenburg
county, North Carolina.

UNCLE THOMAS PYRON STAYED IN THE MINT HILL AREA OF NORTH CAROLINA

Thomas R. Pyron is the uncle of A.M. Pyron who stayed in North Carolina. Grandfaher's father, Andrew Jackson Pyron, his uncle John Calvin Pyron and his aunt, Matilda Pyron Carlock all went southwest.  When grandfather's mother and father both died in Louisiana in about 1860, he and his three sisters went to live with Uncle John Calvin Pyron in SE Arkansas.  Matilda Pyron Carlock also lived in Arkansas then.  Carlock the husband of Aunt Matilda is just one of several people with Scotch-Irish names who married into the Pyron family in the 19th century.

416 Wilgrove Mint Hill Road
                      Charlotte, N. C. 28212
                       September 19, 1986


Dear Mr.  Pyron,
Our church was organized in 1770, but, the first records that we have
is for the year 1837.  There is no record of a William, Sr, or Jr. at
that time, or since. 1 am enclosing a list of every Pyron that we have
in our Sessional records. I hope it will be helpful to you.

I think you will be interested in the history of the John Bain Cane,
which is a special part of our church history, since T. R.  Pyron was
the third man to have the honor of carrying it. (1901-1907) One of the
goals of our historical committee is to obtain a brief history of each
man whose name is engraved on the cane. We would be most grateful to
you for any additional information that you have on T. R.  Pyron, such
as the complete names of his father and mother and his wife. Were
there children other than those listed under Baptisms? What was his
occupation?

The other information enclosed is from Mrs, C. W. (Gloria) Cook, She
is the sister of a neighbor of mine; they are descendants through the
Crowell line. I understand she has done extensive research. You may
want to contact her. The address is:  1483 Jefferson Avenue, S. W.
East Point, Ga. 30344.

We would like very much to have a copy of your completed work, for our
historical room. I wish you well in this endeavor.


Sincerely yours,

Mrs. Howard L. Ford, Chairman/Historical  Committee
 Philadelphia Presbyterian Church
Mint Hill, North Carolina

LETTERS FROM JOHN CALVIN PYRON AND WILLIAM ALANZA PYRON TO A.M. PYRON

John Calvin Pyron was the uncle that grandfather and his three sisters went to live with in Arkansas.  Here is a transcribed letter from Uncle John to grandfather.  One descendant of William Pyron, 1757-1850 thinks that William and John were cousins rather than brothers as John Calvin Pyron says below in his letter.  I have seen no evidence of this yet.

October 14, 1902

Fountain Hill  Ashely Co, Ark.  A.M. Pyron  Bexar, Texas

Dear Nephew  Your vary welcome letter to hand contents noted was glad
to learn your address that I might correspond with you as I am old 78
years old next January  I do not expect to correspond with any one
much longer was truly glad to hear that you were prospers in life my
Children are All married and scattered my wife and my self are living
a lone
2
We are living 4 miles east Fountain Hill we have 4 daughtors 2 sons,
second girl at Harison Oaklamen married man by the name of Raker
daughter at Dewitt Ark 1 daughter and 1 son in Dreue Co Ark  my oldest
son and daughter lives near by me they are all getting along tolerbel
well we had 2 dry summers in succession therfore the crops have been
short the 2 last years especially grain crops.
.
3
I live  10 miles North of Hamburg There is a Rail Rode running from
the Mississippi  river to Hamburg crossing the valley road at Montrose
in Ashley county  I hope that you will make your contemplated visit to
us in the near future you said you wanted a byogrufy  (biography) of
the Pyron family  I will give you the starting point and wen you visit
us I will tell you all I now  about them a man by our name was in the
colony that settled in same town in verginey he had 3 sons named John
William and Charles

John Pyron followed  Chocktou Indians and died a mong them in Alabama.
 William my Grandfather settled in North Carolina Charles Pyron
located in what is now the state of Tennessee all the Pyrons that I
have any knowledge of came from the Pyron that setteled with Colony
of Jamestown, Verginia; I will close this letter bv saying my wife
joins me in love to you and family hoping to hear from you soon that
you will visit in the near future yours as ever.
J.C. Pyron

Here is a transcribed copy of a letter from William Alanza Pyron to A.M. Pyron.  Alanza was a son of Uncle John Calvin Pyron.  Remember that grandfather and his sisters lived with the John Calvin Pyron family and with his first cousin Alanza.  In this letter, which is not dated, Alanza mentions the time when grandfather and his sisters came to live with them.

My sister Mary typed this letter from the original handwritten copy which Aunt Clara had inherited when grandmother Virginia Pyron died in about 1943.

Mr. A. M. Pyron
Dear  Sir:

Meeting up with young Roberts, a brother of Will Roberts, a Baptist
preacher who went from here out there a few years ago and who  I am
told is the Pastor of your church out there and learning definitely
that Somerset was your Post Office address, have decided to write you
a letter to see if I could review  an almost forgotten acquaintance of
a long time  ago.  Do you remember our first meeting near Falcon,
Nevada County, Arkansas, away back in 1859 or 60 when Father brought
you home with him after the death of your Father in New Orleans?  I
remember very distinctly of your arrival and of our association from
then on until you, with your sister, all left  Ashley County,
Arkansas, with Jack  Carlock and Others for Texas and  remember that I
 have never seen you since and do not remember how you looked.  0f
course, I was quite young at the time of our first meeting, but, as
one grows old their mind reverts back to their childhood times and
recollections,  Of course, I remember the very pleasant correspondence
I had a few years ago with your dear departed daughter.  But have
never seen any member of your family or in fact any one of Fathers
family except the Carlocks in my life.  1 corresponded with several of
Uncle Thomas boys for a few years when they all lived * in North
Carolina, but later I understand that Uncle Thomas died and all his
boys moved to Texas. Have you ever met any of them? David, Tinsley and
John were the names of three of them.  Well Father died in March,
1914, and Mother died in June, 1924.  I am the only one or Fathers
children left in Arkansas.  Brother James is in Brownwood, Texas.  One
sister In Colorado and one in Oklahoma.  The others are dead.  I have
four living Children,  one daughter in Memphis, Tennessee, two sons in
Louisiana and one in Arkansas, ' Well you may remember that: I was
born in Mississippi but have about  lived out my days in Ashley
County, Arkansas.  I have net been a great success in life, but have
educated my children and have started them off in life honored and
respected as good citizens and so feel like 1 have gotten by with the
average.  I am now going on, to seventy-two years old and still able
to do a lot Of work, but do not have to.  I am living in Hamburg just
myself and  wife  and she is sixty-five years old,  We have only three
grandchildren,  One, a young man just grown who has been in the U.S.
Navy for two years.  The others, two small girls.  So you see the name
of Pyron is not likely to become very numerous here ln Arkansas.

Well perhaps I had better close for this time with an earnest request
that you write me soon,

Your Cousin,

Alonza Pyron

William Alonza Pyron was a son of John Calvin Pyron, grandfather's
uncle, and first cousin to grandfather.

There seems to be no date on this letter. But he says his mother died
in 1924, so its sometime after 1924.

He says in this letter that grandfather, Jack Carlock, grandfather's
sister and others left Ashley county, Arkansas for Texas.  I think
this should be sisters rather than sister, for grandfather had three
sisters.  Unfortunately, Alonza does not tell us when they left
Arkansas for Texas.

Here is another letter from William Alanza Pyron, this one to Aunt  Mary on the death of Aunt Lucille:

Copy of a letter written by:
William Alonza Pyron
B- 30 Jan. 1855
D- 19 May 1949
Married: Mary Elizabeth LOCKE


Miss Mary Pyron
Von.Ormy. Tex.

My Dear Cousin:
I received your very Sad letter more than a week ago and the account
of Luciles death was certainly a Shock to me. To think and to know
that one So young and Strong should be a victim to that awful monster
death and yet of course it is the final destiny of all, but our
glorious hope is in the resurrection from the Grave or from death to a
life that will be everlasting where partings will be more and where we
can praise God forevermore
We have had a very bad crop Season here this year but better than
last.  We  are having Some very warm weather here now and quite a lot
of Sickness around and Several deaths lately.  I suppose you read My
letters written to Lucile and are acquainted with some of our family
history and So will Send you a county paper with the announcement and
picture of Hogan Oliver my nephew for State Auditor of Ark.  I have no
pictures of other members of my family  other than those already Sent.
 Would be glad to have any of yours in return.  My boys are still in
Iowa.

I shall carefully preserve the pictures that you Sent to me and
remember her as one of ray own beloved ones for I had learned to love
her for the nice letters she had written to me the past year.  I hope
to meet her  some  time in that great beyond. Now I hope that I nay
meet you in this life, also hope I nay meet your dear father once more
in life as also other members of your family at sone early future
time.  Would be glad to have you or any of the family visit us this
winter.  He are all well at this time My Mother has about regained her
usual health and Strength Since her Severe attack of lumbago last
winter
Our daughter and grandson are with us now but will return to Little
Rock this week perhaps.  John Our oldest Son visited us this Summer.
So we three, Mother wife, and I will be left lonesome for a while.
So hoping to hear from and see you eer long.  I am
Your Cousin

W. A. Pyron
R.2. Hamburg, Ark. This Sep. the 19th 1915

Lucille was one of my father's sisters who died young. Mary, to whom
Alonza Pyron wrote  this letter, was another of his sisters.

William Alonza Pyron was grandfather's first cousin and son of his
uncle, John Calvin Pyron. There were also Aunt Ida and Aunt Jesse and Aunt Clara. Milton Pyron, often called Casey, apparently after the song Casey At the Bat, was Blake Pyron's younger brother, born about 1898.

PYRONS WHO WENT TO ENGLAND AND IRELAND WERE FRENCH HUGUENOTS

http://www.huguenotsociety.org.uk/history/

About 200,000 Huguenots left France, settling in non-Catholic Europe -
the Netherlands, Germany, especially Prussia, Switzerland,
Scandinavia, and even as far as Russia where Huguenot craftsmen could
find customers at the court of the Czars. The Dutch East India Company
sent a few hundred to the Cape to develop the vineyards in southern
Africa. About 50,000 came to England, perhaps about 10,000 moving on
to Ireland. So there are many inhabitants of these islands who have
Huguenot blood in their veins, whether or not they still bear one of
the hundreds of French names of those who took refuge here - thus
bringing the word 'refugee' into the English language.

Because of the political climate of the time, in a Britain strongly
suspicious of the aims of Louis XIV's France, and in fact about to
begin a series of wars to curb those ambitions, the Huguenots were on
the whole welcomed here.

The list of Huguenot Surnames below is from:

http://www.huguenotstreet.net/library_archives/collections/surname_list4.html

Huguenot Historical Society Library Surnames and Genealogy Files

"Putnam
Putney
Pyeatt
Pyron"

The Huguenot List of Names below is From:

http://www.rootsweb.com/~fianna/surname/hug3.html

Table III
This Table contains the names of Huguenot families Naturalized in
Great Britain and Ireland; commencing A.D., 1681, in the reign of King
Charles II., and ending in 1712, in the reign of Queen Anne. But in
the reign of William and Mary, the largest number of foreign refugees
were Naturalized in these countries, from 1689 to the 3rd July, 1701.
In Queen Anne's reign we do not find any long lists of "Naturalized
Foreign Protestants"; because, during the prosecution by England of
the war with France, they were recognized as British subjects. At
length, how- ever, on the 23rd March, 1709, an Act was passed for
their Naturalization; but on the 9th of February, 1712, that Act was
repealed. In England the refugee might obtain his Naturalization
Certificate on taking the oaths prescribed for that purpose, in the
Court of Queen's Bench, or in the Court of Common Pleas, or in the
Court of Exchequer; but in Ireland, on taking the prescribed oaths
before the Lord Chancellor, the refugee immediately obtained his
Certificate of Naturalization. So far as we have yet ascertained, the
following are the names of the refugee families which were Naturalized
in Great Britain and Ireland

"Puech
Puisancour Puitard Pujolas
Pulley Pusey Puxen
Pyron Quache Quarante
Quenis"

I could not find Pyron as a Huguenot name in 17th or 18th century Virginia.

The following is from:

http://manakin.addr.com/

"The Huguenot Society of the Founders of Manakin In the Colony of Virginia
Huguenots began coming to Virginia as early as 1620. In 1700, four
ships arrived at the mouth of the James River and the Rappahannock,
east of present-day Richmond, Virginia. French Huguenots, having fled
religious persecution, had lived in England and done services for the
king. They were granted lands in the New World for a permanent home
where they had the freedom to worship as they pleased. West of
Richmond, many founded a colony on the site of a village deserted by
the Monacan Indians. This is a society of the descendants of that
colony and French Protestants who came to Virginia before 1786 [see
history of the society].
The society headquarters and library are located beside the Manakin
Episcopal Church on the original glebe lands in Manakintown."

Claudine Pyron Morgan, a descendant of Thomas Russell Pyron, brother
of my Andrew Jackson Pyron, claims there were Pyrons in the sinkhole
area of Jamestown, Virginia in the 17th century.  But I don't know
what evidence she has for that yet.

The St. Bartholomew's Massacre of Huguenots in which tens of thousands
were murdered by Catholics in France was in 1572. Apparently severe
persecution of Huguenots began again under King Louis XIV in about
1685 when 400,000 of them left France.  We don't know when the Pyrons
left.

PYRON CENSUS RECORDS FROM MECKLENBERG COUNTY, N.C.

Again, to make this link live, copy it to an E Mail page and sent it to yourself.

Links:   Pyron Census Records,

http://www.mybloop.com/halfback/1840_Mecklenburg_County,_N.C._Census_-
_Pyrons_jpg

THE A.M. PYRON SECTION OF LAND

THE FRANCISCO ROLEN SPANISH LAND  GRANT, whose north boundary is
the Medina River and may have extended south to the Somerset area. I am not sure where its southern boundary was.

County: Bexar Abstract Number: 617,File Number: 000021
Original Grantee: Rolen, Francisco, Patentee: Smith, E Jones and Smith, J W
Patent Date: 13 Aug 1844,Patent No: 185,Patent Vol: 2
Certificate: 13,Acres: 4605.50

http://wwwdb.glo.state.tx.us/central/Land

Apparently the Land Office in Austin has a Bexar county Spanish Land Grant Map which may show the exact southern boundary of the Francisco Rolen grant. It would be interesting to see how close this grant came to the A.M. Pyron section of 640 acres, whose northern boundary was the south edge of Somerset, or Morrison Road.

All land was originally passed into private hands by Land Patents. In Texas
the Republic of Texas passed down land ownership to individuals by Texas Land Patents. When Texas became a state in 1845-46 it kept ownership of its
public lands and continued to issue Texas Land Patents as it had done when it was the Republic of Texas.

BELOW IS THE GEORGE W. MUDD 320 ACRES DEEDED TO A.M.PYRON IN 1882

County: Bexar,Abstract Number: 514
File Number: 003280,Original Grantee: Mudd, George W

Patentee: Mudd, George W, Patent Date: 17 Oct 1859
Patent No: 136,Patent Vol: 28,Certificate: Pre 2

Acres: 320

http://wwwdb.glo.state.tx.us/central/LandGrants/LandGrants.cfm?intID=148298

 THE GEORGE W. HAYDEN 320 ACRES, DEEDED
TO  A.M. PYRON IN 1882.

 The 320 acres of the A.M. Pyron 640 acres  out of the George W. Mudd survey,  has a different abstract number.

County: Bexar,Abstract Number: 326
District/Class: Bexar 3rd,File Number: 003282
Original Grantee: Hayden, George W
Patentee: Hayden, George W
Patent Date: 24 Apr 1862,Patent No: 126
Patent Vol: 36,Certificate: 980
Acres: 320

http://wwwdb.glo.state.tx.us/central/LandGrants/LandGrants.cfm?intID=148586

The November 24, 1934 deed from Virginia Pyron, widow of A.M. Pyron, to my father Blake B. Pyron for 63 acres lists both the Mudd Survey Number 273 and the Hayden Survey Number 274. A January 17, 1948 deed  from Blake B. and Mabel Pyron to W.P. Kinney - for the same 63 acres - lists only the G. W. Mudd
Survey Number 273. The deed also says that this 63 acres, known as tract six, is part of a 349.2 acre tract of the A.M. Pyron lands.

A.M. Pyron owned 349 acres at his death in 1932 out of his original 640 acres.

At some time when W. P. Kinney died, the 63 acres was inherited by William Pyron Kinney, (Billy Kinney), and at his death in the nineties, his daughte Patricia Kinney Anderson inherited the 63 acres along with the 63 acres that had belonged to her grandmother, my aunt, Jessie Pyron Kinney. So a good part of the original A. M. Pyron section of land has stayed in one family.