Lewis Green and Mary Elizabeth (Phillips) Caddell came to Aubrey when the village was called Onega. Brother Franklin Maabaz and his wife Rebecca Minerva (Phillips) Caddell came with them. The wives were twin sisters.

They came by way of the recently completed new railroad from Gadsden in Etowah County, Alabama to Dallas, Texas. They were met by their cousins, Jim Coffey and L.N. Edwards who had previously traveled by wagon to Onega.

Lewis Green Caddell was living in the Etowah County, Alabama area during the years of the Civil War of 1865. Sharon Owens had recorded in the Caddell family history that Lewis Green was always saying "Old Lincoln and Grant are in hell today, because they allowed Sherman’s Army to burn the crops, shoot the horses and dump them into the wells and rape the women."

My personal observation while reading these comments, is that old Lewis Green Caddell would have made a demanding first sergeant for the training of our soldiers today in what they are charged with in this War on Terror.

Sharon further comments, "Lewis Green and Mary Elizabeth’s children were James Riley, Clem Hugh, Minnie Letha, Alvin A., Lewis Hiram, Della Mae, and Bazzie Levi ‘Jack.’ Lewis Green built them a house and barn out of walnut wood. He always kept a muzzle loading rifle hung over the kitchen door.

"The Caddell family farm was destroyed by a tornado twice. The last tornado on April 1918, destroyed the large house and barn. He rebuilt the house and barn and two story house, but never finished off the second floor. It was only used for a storage area. The Aubrey Argus newspaper recorded the event as ‘among the houses that were completely wrecked were L.G. Caddell’s large house and barn (he had two rooms left), a tenant house on Mr. Caddell’s place and occupied by Robert Sims, the house that stood on the Henderson old place and was occupied by Frank Caddell.’ The Caddell’s were Baptist. They are buried at Belew Cemetery at Aubrey."

Sharon emailed the photo of the Lewis Green Caddell Family in the front yard of the Victorian designed home. The large home was located on Caddell street and was destroyed by the tornado of 1918.

I shared the photos with Clem Caddell’s son, Curtis M. Caddell and his son Michael K. Caddell and Curtis’s grandson, Timothy (another Caddell). All three generations of this Caddell family were present at the same time last week as we were discussing past events. We had a good time with "Caddell talk." Curtis is the son of Clem Caddell who was born in Onega just five years before it became Aubrey. Michael very quickly and nearly wrote the three generations and their off spring. The Caddell family is here to stay and are becoming more prolific.

I told the ninety-year old Caddell that I was almost related to them, since my Aunt Mae Caddell was married to Jack Caddell, the local barber, and that I have a lot of Caddell cousins.

Curtis reminded me that many families in Aubrey are from the same family tree, because the Lanfords, Coffeys, Loopers, Kellys, Hendersons, Tidmores, Dyches, Hodges, Phillips, Harmons, McNatts, Rogers, Hollars, Edwards and many more are all related.

Most of the families came to this area from the Cherokee country back east before the railroads were established in the area. One further thought occurred to me, if all the mentioned families came together today for a family picnic, there would be more than 2000 members of Cherokee descent.

Michael is a builder in the High Meadows. He commented that the Caddells were home builders back in the 1870's and now four generations later they are building again in Aubrey. Michael and his father currently live at Granbury.