March 1, 1006

My files of Aubrey history and family events over the past 150 years are scattered and filed in different places, so when I try to look for something by subject, date or family, I have to go through many files. As I am going through the files finding what I am looking for, I find myself getting distracted and interested in something completely different from what I was looking for. It seems that I can spend up to three or four hours reading about something else and then I have something totally different to share with you in The Town Charter.

As I am reading the articles in the old newspapers that were published around a hundred years ago, I feel really close to the people because they were the ancestors of people who are still living in the area.

In fact, every day I come in contact with some of the very ancestors that settled this area back in 1828, which was when our Cherokee ancestors were attracted to this region. I don’t really know all of their reasons for stopping here, but I have some good ideas.

The following is an excerpt from The Aubrey Herald, volume 6, January 27, 1911, Number 46:

Our Churches section:

The following is an excerpt from The Aubrey Argus, volume 12, April 27, 1928

J.A. Mohon, age 86, one of the few remaining pioneer citizens of Aubrey, died at the home of his son W.R. Mohon, Wednesday night at about 10 o’clock. He had been a helpless invalid for a long time, requiring every services that is given a helpless infant, which service was willingly, gently and faithfully performed by the son with whom he spent his last years and at whose home he died.

The above obituary appeared in The Aubrey Argus some sixty-eight years ago. This family lived in the Rock Hill Community. The survivors of J.A. Mohon went to school at the Rock Hill School. James Alexander Mohon was born in Cherokee County, Alabama.

Ida Mae (Mohon) Kirby’s father was one of the survivors listed in the above obituary. She told me that all of her family members went to school at Rock Hill.

The building currently used by the Rock Hill Baptist Church was a 20 ft. by 36 ft. frame structure covered with native rocks. The building was used for a community school. It had been moved to this location from the Key Settlement Cemetery. The date of the movement of this building is unknown and perhaps all of those who remember this event are gone.

That frame building then in all likelihood, was the first frame structure that served as a school for Aubrey, and was built as a replacement of the log house that served the early days of Onega.

A large frame structure was built in 1874, and served as the second school for Aubrey. It was located on the land that is presently used for the new high school.

The photo I have for this week is of James Alexander Mohon and his wife Mary Susan Caddell. Mary was born March 8, 1846.

J.A. Mohon was nineteen years old when the Civil War broke out. His resting place is marked with a Civil War Veterans marker. He was buried at Belew Cemetery.

Next week, I will share a photo of J.A. and Mary’s family of ten boys and one girl. One of their sons, James Thomas was born September 5, 1867.

This family has lived in the Onega and Aubrey area since just after the Civil War. They are one of the families that L.N. Edwards attracted to Onega as he gathered up his friends and relatives for the journey to Texas. If the families didn’t come with him at the time he left, they eventually followed in a few short years. Man of the families stopped at a settlement near Farmers Branch that was used as a stopping place for settlers coming into the area.

This family was typical of others in the area. They claimed their heritage as Black Dutch. This was the nationality that was used to disguise their Indian heritage as they arrived in Texas. Black Dutch was an accepted nationality during this time period.

The old saying that we are all related to each other in Aubrey is actually factual, since there were a few founding families that we are all descendants of. It is very rewarding to be a part of such historical families.

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