Thomas Pascal Scarborough (1869 - 1952)

Ernest had several recollections of traveling to New Mexico, even though he was only about three at the time. There were several in their party: Ernest’s parents, his mother’s brother, her father, Silas, and Aunt Lou Latham . Through the 1910 US Census, we know Bessie’s brother was Thomas Pascal Scarborough (see p 8). With him were his wife, Cora, and his three children, Mary, Herbert, and Harley, so Ernest had no lack of cousins for playmates.

They headed for Union County, which forms the Northeast corner of New Mexico. On average, wagons covered from 8 to 20 miles per day. The 400-plus mile trip took about a month, and Ernest told of Aunt Lou spreading her bedroll over prairie dog holes, because of the possibility of rattlesnakes being in them. This way, she kept them from crawling into camp while the people slept. Lou Latham was a family friend, not a blood relative. Interestingly, she had a patch on her shoulder for carrying a parrot (though there is no mention of a bird traveling with them).

Union County consists of semi-arid plains and has its own dormant volcano, Mt. Capulin. (In later years, Ernest took family members and me at various times to see the volcano.) The level land and fertile soil made farming a viable livelihood. Water was scarce, though, and farms depended on Mother Nature’s whim to rain or not to rain.

The Homestead Act of 1862 required that a person had to be over 21. They could claim 160 acres, but had to build a house, plant a crop, improve the land, and live on it for five years. People first filled out a Land Entry file when they arrived. When all the conditions were met, they were issued a Land Patent from the Bureau of Land Management. Thomas filed his Land Entry file on January 24, 1908. On Feb 19, 1909, an expanded Homestead Act allowed people to file for up to 320 acres. Thomas filed on March 29, 1909 for his second 160 acres.

Both families lived in Malpaiz, Union County, New Mexico for the 1910 U.S. Census. It showed Seth owning his own farm. He was listed as a farmer, not a druggist. Ernest was six years old. Lou Latham was also shown in Union County for that census as LV Latham, but she resided in Des Moines, NM. From that we know she was a 62, white, single female working as a chambermaid in a boarding house. Silas Scarborough had returned to Texas by 1910 and was living with a friend, Rufus H. Stewart, in Eastland. Silas’s occupation was minister. He was eighty-one years old.

Seth built a small two-room house, with a front and back door. In a story Ernest told his youngest daughter, Jane, one day Bessie found a coiled up rattlesnake just outside one of the doors. She ran, got her iron, and threw at it. Seth had bought Ernest a goat and built a little house for it. The snake went into the goat’s house. They heard the goat bleating, so Seth shot the snake. The reptile had a skinned place on it, proving Bessie had good aim with the iron.

On Thomas’s 1912 affidavit for proving the land, he lists his 1908 crop of millet, corn, and sorghum as fair. His 1909 crop of millet, corn, sorghum, and beans was also fair. 1910 yielded a good crop, and 1911 a “very good” crop.

Seth, however, quit farming, moved to Des Moines, NM, and got a job as a druggist, and also possibly at the post office. Because of Thomas’s results, Seth’s reasons for giving up the homestead don’t seem to be drought-driven, though in later years, Ernest told Jane the land was too arid.

Ernest remembered an incident involving his father’s occupation as druggist. Seth had sold a man strychnine poisoning for some wolves. When it was discovered that the man’s wife had died of strychnine poisoning, Seth had to testify that he’d sold it to the man.

Thomas met the homestead requirements, and received his land patent 352968 for 320 acres on Aug 27, 1913. Louisa V. Latham received her patent 413535 for 160 acres on June 12, 1914.

Silas Scarborough's History and Family

^[2]In the Brushy Creek Community is one of the earlier Churches of Christ in East Texas. While proof of the beginning of the church at Brushy Creek is not known, we know the church was meeting or began to meet early 1850, when Silas Scarborough's family moved into the country from Union County, Arkansas.

In the book, "GOSPEL PREACHERS WHO BLAZED THE TRAIL", is a write-up on Silas Scarborough. "Silas Scarborough was born in Arkansas, November 10, 1829. Obeyed the Gospel at the age of sixteen. At the age of twenty he married Miss F.A. Blackshear. To them five children were born - one now living (in 1911).

At the age of twenty-one he moved to Anderson County, Texas. In 1850, he moved to what is now Hood County, Texas. His first wife died in 1859.

The day Texas seceded from the Union, he married Mrs. M.DHeart. To them five children were born."

The children of Silas Scarborough and Frances Angelina (Blackshear) Scarborough were:

1. L.W. Scarborough, born 7 Aug. 1851 in Anderson County and died, 6 Nov. 1853 in Anderson County, Texas.
2. Victoria Texas Scarborough, born 28 Dec. 1852 in Anderson County, Texas and died 26 Feb. 1875.
3. Louella C. Scarborough, born 15 Dec. 1854, married 7 July 1871 to _______Hightower, and moved to Seattle, Washington.
4. Sarah F. Scarborough, born 5 Aug. 1857 in Anderson County, Texas, married in August 1872 to _____Eaker. (I think this is might be in error. William Eaker married the widow Sarah ANN Scarborough Smith in 1866. Source: "Daughters of Republic of Texas", pg 48)
5. John Franklin Scarborough, born 10 Dec. 1859 in Hood County, Texas, married 14 Dec 1884 to Miss Mary Amazona Perry. (Daughter of Doc Cornelius and Izabel Jane Abercrombie Perry.)The children of John Franklin and Mary Amazona Scarborough were

1. William Calvin Scarborough, born 1886 in Hood County, Texas;
2. Thomas Daniel Scarborough, born 1888 in Hood County;
3. Ollie, born 1890 and died 1891;
4. Mayme Scarborough, born 1892 in Quannah, Hardeman County, Texas;
5. John Franklin Scarborough, born 1894; and
6. L.A. (Dick) Scarborough born 1900.
   

Silas Scarborough's children by his second marriage to Mrs. Mary Heart were:

1. King,
2. Jim (James Daniel)
3. Paschael (Thomas P.)
4. Ida (Mary Ida)
5. Bessie

At the time of his death in 1921 in Mineral Wells, Texas, Silas Scarborough, has preached the gospel for over seventy years.

Silas Scarborough was the eldest son of John Scarborough and Sarah Conn (Cane/Caine?).

Both families can be found in the 1850 census of Union County, Arkansas.

Silas appears in the home of his parents with brothers and sisters, James, age 18; Sarah, age 13; Louisa J., age 10; John, age 8; Samantha, age 6; Cornelia, age 6 and Lewis, age 2, all born in Arkansas. Yet he was counted again after he married as he appears as head of household at the age of 21, wife Frances, age 16.

It is not known if Silas Scarborough came to Anderson County, Texas, at the same time as his father and mother. John and Sarah Scarborough bought land from P. O. Lumpkin from the P. O. Lumpkin Survey on 27 Jan. 1853 for $800.00. John and Sarah Scarborough sold this tract of land on 27 Mar. 1854 for $5,000 to M. Wren.

On 28 Apr. 1855, John and Sarah Scarborough bought the north half of the John G. Legg Survey from Mrs. Elizabeth Tannehill, wife of Benjamin F. Tannehill for $600.00. (Deed Book F, Page 66)