Joel Baggett, shown as ("Jr.") on his military records, was drafted at Milledgeville, GA in Baldwin's Company during the War of 1812. Joel Baggett, Jr. was born in North Carolina and married [first] Jane Beland on 6 April 1815 in Jones County, GA. He married [second] Nancy Brewster in October of 1841 in Sumpter County, AL. In the year of 1841, Judge Baggett brought his family to Texas to that part of Nacogdoches, which eventually became Gregg County, from Sumpter County, AL. Two years later Joel Baggett died in Tatum, Nacogdoches (became in 1846 Rusk) County, TX, just after being elected Justice of the Peace for a period of two years. In his will Judge Baggett named twelve children born to him by his first wife, Jane Beland.
Some report Joel Baggett II as having sixteen children. We have a list of only thirteen. John was the eldest son, and what happened to his family is almost unimaginable in one's mind. One of the writers characterized this horrible event, the murdering of his son Joel, as equal to a Spanish Inquisition!
Perhaps the most tragic event told about the whole family in the United States is the one which took place at the home of John Baggett, son of Joel, where savage Indians murdered his son Joel and almost murdered his daughter Elizabeth. There are several recordings of this event. All these recordings have different dates; one as 1857, another 1860, and the other 1862. The 1800s were very dangerous times in the State of Texas.
The story is in J. W. Wilbarger's
book, Indian Depredations in Texas, published in 1889 on page 456
under Attack on Baggett's House, by James T. DeShields. This story is similar
to the record given in Old West Magazine. The only differences in
the stories are the date of the event and the gun. Old West Magazine
states that she had two guns ready should the Indians try to come into
the house. DeShield's story states that she had no gun. Which story is
true, we do not know. In any case, it was a horrible event. The magazine
gives the date at 1862, after the Civil War began, but DeShield's article
gives the date at 1857. Wilbarger's book was written in 1889, about thirty
years after these Indian depredations took place. The date was probably
about 1860:
The Indian Raid story given by Mrs. Baggett said that John and his brother Joel had gone to Bosqueville, to mill; the trip took three days. They returned about ten o'clock that night, after the raid. The next morning, as soon as it was light, Joel Baggett went to Old Cora to report the crime. About noon there came twelve Texas Rangers and five other men to trail the Indians.
This is not the only tragedy of this family. According to a book, Early Days in Central Texas, written by F. M. Cross, published in 1910, James Baggett, eldest son of John and Elizabeth, had joined the militia in the beginning of the Civil War there in Comanche County, and while he was on a scout he got after a wild turkey. Baggett ran up to the turkey and the horse he was riding got to pitching and threw him off and his gun, which had been hanging to the horn of his saddle, went off, sending a bullet through his head, killing him instantly. This writer, writing from memory, said that a man named Bud Tatum was tried for the murder of Wylie Baggett and that he was a witness in the case, but that Bud Tatum was acquitted during the trial.
Other than the Joel and James
Baggett tragedies was the hideous scene their sister Nancy witnessed later
in Comanche (at that time Hamilton County)–an Indian raid at the schoolhouse.
Apparently Old West Magazine got its story from the book, Indian
Fights on the Texas Frontier, by E. L. Deaton, published in 1895. E.
L. Deaton's tells the story of how a gang of Indians attacked a schoolhouse.
This was another tragic event, killing the teacher and kidnapping little
John Kuykendall. It gives the date as 1866. Most of the children got away;
some getting under the schoolhouse and others escaping by running away.
It also tells the story of how the Indians attacked a family by the name
of Stangeline, killing the father:
The Baggett Community was located about five miles north of Gustine in South Central Comanche County on Baggett Creek and near the Leon River. The community was named for John Baggett, a pioneer in that part of the county.
Baggett, a thriving community in a rich farming area, boasted a school and a medical doctor. Rev. William Robinson, a pioneer preacher, and others organized the Baggett Creek Baptist Church on February 3rd, 1863. A recent picture of the church and its sign, Baggett Creek Baptist Church, is shown in a book written by W. S. Caffey.
John William Baggett (“Uncle Bill”) was the only surviving son of John and Elizabeth Baggett. John William Baggett married Mary Hester Onstott. Their children: son John Franklin; daughters Eula Arizona and Nona Baggett; and son Joe Duncan Baggett.
LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT
OF JOEL BAGGETT, SR. (II)
Rusk County, Texas–Volume A,
Page 15
Be it known to whom it may concern that I, Joel Baggett, am now in my right mind and make this my last Will and Testament in the presence of God, Amen.
I wish my body to be laid away in decency and upon my own premises at the little grave yard, and all expenses to be paid out of my property. I will that all my outstanding debts to be paid out of my perishable property, and all the residue to be divided as follows, viz:
I have given to my son John Baggett previously $250. I have also given to my daughter Nancy Robertson $250, to my daughter Martha Pyles $250, and to my son Silas Baggett $200.
I make John Walling my lawful executor to do and perform all that is required concerning the residue of my property.
I give and bequeath unto my well beloved wife Nancy Baggett one-third part of the appraised value of the land and Negroes during her life time and widowhood, and at her death or marriage her part to be divided between William and Joel and Elescandria [Alexander] and Wyla [Wylie] and Burrel and Clarasa Jane and Mary and Susanna. Also the two-thirds of the appraised value of the land and Negroes is to be divided between the above named children from William down.
I empower the above named executor to pay to my son Silas Baggett fifty dollars to make him have $250 out of the perishable property, and the residue of the money is to be put to the use of educating the children. Dated this 10th day of October, 1843.
The early Probate Record date of the will is unknown. The early records are presumed burned in the fire of 1878 which destroyed the Court House of Rusk County. However, Executor John Walling made a report of the money collected by him in 1845, so Joel II died sometime between October, 1843 and August, 1845. Silas Baggett was appointed legal Guardian for the minor children. The administration continued for several years, until 1858, when the remainder of the 873.5 acres in Rusk County and an additional 640 acres in Wood County were distributed to the rightful heirs.
John William Baggett was three years old when the census was taken in 1860. In 1870 they are found in Hamilton County (county lines changed). The Cora community was in the southern end of Comanche County near the present boundary with Hamilton County.
In 1878 Uncle Bill accompanied his sister Mollie and her husband, Jim Patten, to the Indian Territory. Uncle Bill apparently returned to Comanche County in order to marry Miss Mary Hester Onstott, however they returned to Indian Territory (Oklahoma) and stayed for several years, where their first child, John Franklin Baggett, was born. It is uncertain when they returned to Texas, but was probably in 1892, since it is believed that the family farm where they lived was purchased in Comanche County at that time.
Carol McCarty, in interviews with Lauda McCarty Cooper and her sister, Clarice McCarty Arledge, wrote about things these two sisters revealed while reminiscing about experiences past and gone. She writes: “Yes, this high knoll was the location of the house, the Leon River behind it, and in memory, a creek in front of it.” Looking past an abandoned mobile home, the old barn and the windmill were still standing.
Following that same road down to the river brought back recollections of the “picnics hosted by Grandma Het and Grandpa Bill. Long tables were set up under the shade of the huge oak trees along the river bottom. All the neighbors were invited and the day was spent catching up with the news of friends and family. The children ran and played tag, waded the river, and the more adventurous children jumped from the trees to swim in the Leon River.”
The two sisters' minds and lips
seemed completely flooded with memories . . . including those of the “Ice
Cream
Truck!” . . . a truck bearing
several cans of ice cream. What an impression those things of days past
and gone made on the minds of these long-ago children! The Leon River with
its accompanying forest was so beautiful–dark and shady, and seemed to
its visitors to be the only part of that place that was unchanged by time.
The two sisters, along with brothers Hank, Dubby, and Billy James McCarty, remembered many nights sitting by the fireplace listening to (“Grandpa Bill”) telling his “Indian Stories.” He would tell them how the Indians chased him and how he and his horse would outrun the Indians, crossing over creeks and rivers, almost as if he were daring the would-be assailants to catch him.
During the summer of 1944, Grandpa Bill had a terrible accident and died soon thereafter. He was attempting to burn out a broken hoe handle, when the kerosene can he was holding caught fire and he was badly burned. He died July 10, 1944, and was buried in the Siloam Cemetery in Comanche County, TX. John William Baggett was 87 years old. He and Mary Hester had been married for 64 years.
The sisters’ story continues: “Martin Winston McCarty had moved into the Baggett household. Martin was very ill, suffering from malaria. How long it took him to recover from this illness we do not remember, however, we know that Eula and her mother, (‘Aunt Het’), nursed him back to health. It was on 1 October 1905 that Eula Arizona Baggett married Martin Winston McCarty at her Parents’ farm (three miles east of Lamkin, between Gustine and Lamkin). Martin was twenty-three and Eula was seventeen years old.”
After the birth of their first four children, Billy James McCarty was born in Brownwood. Billy James McCarty is the husband of Carol Ann Foster McCarty. She sent all the material on the John William Baggett family.
Silas Baggett,
second son of Joel Baggett, Jr. (II), was born in Conecuh County, AL, and
came with his father to Rusk County in 1841. He married Ellen Warren in
1845. Her family had migrated to the State of Texas in 1840. In 1846 they
purchased a farm in Rusk County. Silas and Ellen and her parents, the Warrens,
along with some of Silas' brothers and their families, decided to move
to Bell County in about 1852. They traveled through Dallas County, TX and
Silas was offered land there. He passed it up for a promise of better land
in Bell County. He purchased a farm four miles north of Pepper's Creek,
northeast of Belton. He helped to establish the town of Howard and lived
there until 1886. His farm included 500 acres of well-improved land, and
in 1875 he built a house there, but it was destroyed by fire in 1886. In
that same year he came to Belton and there erected one of the most attractive
dwellings in that town. The renowned Silas Baggett House is situated on
a hill in the eastern part of that town. The new owners, The Balls, of
the Historical Silas Baggett House have opened the house as The Morning
Glory Inn situated in downtown Belton, Texas. (Some beautiful pictures
can be found here):
Silas Baggett served in 1864 in the Confederate Army as a sergeant in Company C, Baird's Regiment, Texas Cavalry. He was later promoted to Lieutenant in the George W. Graves Company, 4th Texas Cavalry. Silas eventually became Captain.
Silas Baggett was well loved in the community and became very successful in business. His house that he built in 1886 is still standing and has been restored. It is a historic home in that town. Silas Baggett died 12 July 1897 at this residence, and we have a copy of his obituary.
Silas Baggett was a very important citizen in that part of Texas. There is a life-size statue of Silas Baggett at the Belton Cemetery there in Belton, Texas. His family probably thought that he deserved the respect of a life-size monument at his gravesite. One reason he was so important is because of his help in establishing the town of Howard and being a pioneer in this part of Texas. We present here a biographacal sketch of Silas Baggett. A picture of the tombstone of Silas Baggett and his wife Ellen Warren is shown here.
A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
OF SILAS BAGGETT
Mr. Silas Baggett, one of the wealthiest and most influential citizens of Bell County, was born in Alabama in 1822, the fourth in a family of sixteen children. His parents, Joel Baggett and Jane Beland, migrated to Alabama in 1821 from Georgia, their native State. They were members of the Baptist Church. Silas' mother had died and in the latter part of 1841 his father and his stepmother came to Texas and settled in what became Rusk County (and eventually Gregg County), where his father, Joel Baggett, a farmer by occupation, opened a large plantation and died there in 1843. Silas' paternal and maternal ancestors were pioneers of Georgia.
Mr. Baggett had received his education in the Alabama public schools, and at the age of nineteen he accompanied his father to Texas. At the death of his father, seven minor children were left and Silas was appointed their guardian. He reared and educated them.
In 1845 Silas was married to Miss Ellen Warren, a daughter of Eli B. Warren, who came to Texas in 1840. In 1846 Silas purchased a farm in Rusk (cut from Nacogdoches) County. In 1853 he came to Bell County and purchased a farm near Howard and continued his agricultural pursuits. Silas owned 500 acres of well-improved land, and in 1875 he erected a handsome residence, which was destroyed by fire in 1886. In the year last mentioned he came to Belton and there erected one of the most attractive dwellings in the City of Belton. The house was in the eastern portion of the town, beautifully situated on a hill, and the place was the center of the most generous hospitality.
Mr. Baggett has been associated with many of the most important business enterprises of Belton. He helped in the organization of the Belton Compress Company, and was its president for some time. He was president of the Belton Waterworks Company, which he aided to a permanent organization. He was president and part of the Belton Oil Mills Company.
For six years Mr. Baggett ably filled the position of Commissioner of Bell County, but refused to allow his name to be presented for a higher office.
In January 1864, Silas enlisted in the Confederate Army and joined in Company G, Showalter's Regiment of Cavalry. He was in the engagements along the Rio Grande River and was promoted to Lieutenant and later Captain before the close of the Civil War. He was a member of the Masonic fraternity, having joined the order in 1847.
Mr. and Mrs. Baggett were the proud parents of ten children. They were both held in admiration and high esteem by their neighbors and friends. Mr. Baggett died in 1897 and his wife died in 1905. They are buried in Belton Cemetery in Bell County, Texas.
(Ele)Eli Bright Baggett was four years old when the family of Silas moved to their home at Howard, TX. The Baggett home served as the Post Office, the Stage Stand, and as a hotel for travelers. Later on, Ele served as Postmaster at Howard. A biographical sketch of Ele Bright Baggett is shown below.
Ele was a long-time member of a group, Texas Cattle Raisers’ Association. When a group of the members who were part of the old trail drivers decided to form their own group, the Old Trail Drivers’ Association, the very first order of business that came to mind was to define the Chisholm Trail. George Saunders, the one that organized the group of men, commented, “Now, this Chisholm Trail–where it started, where it ended, and when it was blazed–we are not sure of it, an’ I'd like to find someone who is.” A voice from the floor said, “Put it up to old Ele Baggett over in San Angelo. He'll know.” So by vote of the house, it was decided that Mr. Baggett of San Angelo should be asked to fix the Chisholm Trail.
Their destination was usually Kansas, but the last couple of years they had a government contract to furnish cattle to Red Cloud and his Sioux Indians in Wyoming. Ele went “up the trail” eight times before quitting in 1875. He was proud to say that he never lost a money belt on the trail.
When the Baggetts left the trail in 1875, Silas built his new home at Howard. Ele bought a farm just south of his father’s farm and married the schoolteacher, Miss (“Carrie”) Butts, at Howard on April 7, 1875. She had come from Georgia to Texas with her parents. She had attended the Wesleyan College in Macon, GA, the oldest womens’ college in the United States.
Ele and Carrie Baggett had six children, three girls and three boys with interesting names: the girls were Mamie, Winnie, and Rebe; the boys were Eloe, Bright, and Early. The old story goes that Ele Baggett would call to his three sons in the mornings, “Eloe, wake up Bright and Early!” (Beulah Baggett article.)
The family was of the Methodist faith, and Carrie was very active in the Women's Missionary Society. The children attended school at Cuckle Burr Flat in a white frame building with a little brook running close by.
Ele B. Baggett raised cattle, farmed, traded in land and owned a “string of cotton gins.” He was a partner in the firm of Baggett and Greathouse and was director of the First National Bank of Temple. Ele and his brother Monroe had joint interests in cottonseed milling. James Monroe’s first wife Rebecca Jones died, and in 1878 Monroe married Kate Goode. Several years later, Monroe and Kate and their two sons, Monroe and Will (it is not known if James Monroe’s son Silas went at that time), moved down to Mexico to manage the 240-section Otinappi Ranch in which they had bought an interest. It was located near Durango, Mexico. Three years later, they asked Ele and Carrie to come to Mexico to invest in a cottonseed oil mill and soap factory.
They had been there only a few months when they were called home because their daughter Mamie was quite ill. Monroe's elder son, Silas Lafayette, was there at the time. In 1887, soon after Ele and Carrie left Mexico, James Monroe Baggett was robbed of the payroll he carried and was murdered. It was later said that had Ele still been there, he likely would have been killed also. Kate Baggett, her two sons, and Silas Lafayette were protected by a Methodist missionary who provided help for them to escape from Mexico to Laredo, TX by traveling at night.
Ele and Carrie were back at Howard on their farm. Silas’ new home had burned and he had built another home in Belton on North Main Street. Ele sold his real estate and gin properties in Temple and bought a town lot directly across the street from his father. In 1893 Ele Baggett built a mirror image of his father’s house just across the street from his father’s house on North Main Street. The Ele Baggett house has also been restored and has a marker as an historical monument in that town. These houses are beautifully built and are really valuable landmarks in the City of Belton, TX.
Their grandson, Fred B. Hagelstein, married Miss Hazel Nell Robison. She provided much of the history of this family, although some of the above was collected from a speech from Rebekah Simmons Farrar, a descendant of Ele and Carrie, in ceremonies when the Ele Baggett house received the Texas State Historical Marker.
Mister Ele Bright Baggett was born 9 September 1847 in Rusk County, Texas near the present town of Kilgore. In 1852 his father, Silas Baggett, moved his family to Bell County, TX where he bought land at Howard, five miles northwest of Temple, TX. Some historians have given Silas Baggett credit for being the founder of Howard, TX. His ranch became the stage stop and his home doubled as a hotel for travelers on the Chisholm Trail. Ele Bright Baggett once served as Postmaster at Howard.
In January of 1864, Silas Baggett joined George W. Graves' Company in the 4th Texas Cavalry as a lieutenant, and his two older sons, James Monroe and Ele Bright, joined the same company as privates. Ele was 16 years old at that time. The company was assigned to the Rio Grande frontier for the remainder of the Civil War.
After the Civil War, the Baggett family organized cattle drives for their own cattle and those of others to Kansas and Montana. They had government contracts to furnish cattle to Red Cloud and his Sioux Indians of Wyoming before they quit the trail in 1875.
Ele Baggett was named for his grandfather, Eli Bright Warren. The Family Bible records Ele, and that's the spelling used today by his descendants who bear his name. No one knows when it was changed.
On 7 April 1875, Ele Baggett married Mary Carolyn Butts, a native of Georgia. (“Carrie”) taught school at Howard and met Ele there. They lived on a farm a short-distance from his father's land and had seven children. Ele and his brother, James Monroe, were partners in business and bought an interest in the Otinappi Ranch in Durango, Mexico. Moving to Mexico in the 1880s, the Baggett brothers later invested in a cottonseed oil mill and soap factory.
Their daughter being ill, Ele and Carrie visited their home in Howard in 1887. While they were gone, James Monroe was murdered by his ranch foreman and robbed of the payroll. His family then left Mexico, and Ele and his family moved back to their farm at Howard the next year. They later moved to Belton to provide the children with the benefits of a better education, building the house on North Main Street in Belton in 1893.
Ele Baggett sold his land in Bell County and bought forty-five sections in Crockett County. The family lived in Ozona for a short while and moved to Quanah in 1908.
Mary Carolyn Baggett died in San Angelo on 17 May 1918 at the age of seventy-two. Ele Bright Baggett died in December of 1934 and both are buried in Tom Green County at San Angelo, Texas.
Apparently it was Wylie Baggett, son of Joel Baggett and Jane Beland, who was allegedly murdered by Bud Tatum. As you may recall, the writer of an article, F. M. Cross, said that he was a witness at the trial. Evidently there was not enough evidence to convict him, since he was acquitted during the trial and set free. I don't know if they ever found who did the murder. We have no information on his family (if he ever had a family). No doubt, several of this family is scattered over Texas, but at the present no information is available.
William Baggett, the third son of Joel and Jane, served in the Mexican War in 1847 as a private in Company G, 2nd Texas Mounted Volunteers. His brother, Abraham Baggett, served during the Mexican War in 1847 in the same company and regiment as William, and later served in the Confederate Army during the Civil War as Private in Good's Battalion, Texas Cavalry. He was conscripted into the armed forces in 1864 while living in Lamar County.
Abram Baggett's physical description shown at age thirty-seven was five feet and ten inches tall, dark complexion, gray eyes, black hair, and was by occupation a farmer. Joel Baggett II also had a son named Burrel, but I have no information on him.
The family of Joel Baggett II is now living in several regions in Texas. Some of the members of this family we don't know much about. Joel Baggett III was killed some time in the 1860s, but nothing revealed how he was killed. We don't yet know anything about his son Alexander and not very much about any of the daughters of Joel Baggett, Jr. (II). There are many descendants living in several regions in Texas and in regions north and west of Texas.
Joel Baggett II was very successful in life. He is shown owning several hundred (more than 1,500) acres of land at his death. The "little grave yard" Joel mentioned in his will is now in the center of Cherokee Lake, according to oral history given by a Negro man who owned land on Cherokee Creek.
The Ele Baggett House received a Historical Marker. The Ele Baggett house received its Historical Marker on 18 December 1983 at a ceremony held at 1019 North Main Street in Belton, TX.
This concludes the history portion of the family of Nicholas Baggett, Sr. (II). All the researchers, including myself, worked hard and went to great lengths to come up with this tremendous amount of information. The ancient history to me is extraordinarily interesting. The early American history is interesting as well. The ones who did the research on the history portion of Nicholas Baggett III also did a great job.
There are several more lines from the old Nicholas II that are living in Texas. The family of his great-grandson Uzziel Baggett, son of Allen, is found living there. I have limited information on the family of Uzziel. I also mentioned that several sons of John Baggett, son of Barton Baggett (Nicholas II's grandson) migrated to Texas, but I don't yet know where in Texas this family settled. My knowledge of them is very limited.
Many who are mentioned that migrated West settled in Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee. Most of these families who are mentioned as going out West settled in Texas and Tennessee. Looking back at the history of this family all the way back to the first Nicholas, it is apparent that very many were rewarded with prosperity. Each time the new territory was opened, this family of Baggetts took advantage of the new opportunities.
