August 23, 2006

Billie McCauley, my dear beloved Cherokee cousin who lives on Galveston island has been my storekeeper of local history. Billie has kept stored since her mother died, a huge collection of artifacts from her mother’s collection. Much of this collection goes back to the Blackjack settlement of our family ancestors.

I have an original map of Denton County that was made during the 1890's. It was produced on a piece of paper four foot by four foot. It indicates with small black dots about 3/64 inch in size where buildings or homes were located. The map shows a few early day homes of Aubrey. I don’t know the exact date that the map was made, but it was after 1877 and before 1890.

I shows where a log house existed on the Karnes Farm about one mile west of town. The road to Denton didn’t exist when this log house was constructed.

My Cousin Billie sent me a copy of a map this past week from her collection. It shows only Alton in Denton County. The map of 1853 was only a little over ten years before John B. Denton, the former Indian teacher of the Choctaw tribe of Fort Gibson in the Oklahoma Indian Territory came to the area. Denton taught the Choctaw school during 1832 before he settled in the area that became his namesake.

The map of 1853 does not include any roads going west. The area west of Denton County didn’t show Wise County or much activity west of Denton County. Cooke County was established but the area to the west was no man’s land at that time.

My cousin Billie also sent me a copy of anther map that was dated 1871. I cannot find the village of Onega on this map, however, I discovered that there was15,000 acres of this area from the D. Cowan and Fisher Surveys to the east and towards Cross Roads. At this time, the only thing showing in that area was Oak Grove Community on a road from Denton to Navo. The Bates family settled in Oak Grove in 1851. This family became a very prominent family in this area. Very little is showing on this map where Aubrey exists now. But Aubrey did not come into existence until after the railroad came through. This map shows the road from Denton to Gainesville. Gainesville was in existence at that time.

My Cousin Billie lived in Aubrey with her mother and father, Lillian and Horace McKinney. Mrs. John Brumley, I call her Grannie Brumley, told me that she remembered Billie so well because she used to babysit her for Aunt Sis when they lived out on Blackjack Road. Mrs. Brumley said that she remembers Billie having long Shirley Temple curls. Billie is working on helping me write a book about Aubrey history.

I will only share a portion of the 1853 map with you, because to reduce it causes it to be unreadable.

While I was studying the old map, the editor to the Prosper paper and his wife came by. She is a Creek and Seminole Indian. They were discussing her Indian ancestry. They are both very interested in our Native American community.

Should anyone like to look at the old 1853 map, just let me know.

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