The Atkinson Family
1 Lewis Atkinson Abt 1779-1850
b. Pittsylvania Co., Virginia
m. Sally Taylor 1770-1840
2 Stephen C. Atkinson 1805-1860 b. Pittsylvania Co., VA
m. Frances 1807-Bef 1865
3 Obediah B. Atkinson 1831-1904 b. Marion Co., IL
m. Dolly Jane Powers 1832-1918
4 James Riley Atkinson Abt 1854-Aft 1907 b. Osage Co., MO
m. Nancy Ann Gould
4 Stephen A. Atkinson 1855-1897 b. Cooke Co., TX
m. Sarah A. Woodall 1857-1887
4 Frances Martha Atkinson 1857-1953 b. Cooke Co., TX
m. David Allen Martin 1856-1932
4 Nancy J. Atkinson 1859-1931 b. Cooke Co., TX
m. Jesse Andrew Newby Abt 1860-abt 1952
4 Lewis Monroe Atkinson 1862-1918 b. Cooke Co., TX
m. Fredonia Elizabeth Hamilton 1866-1914
3 Polly Atkinson Abt 1834-
3 Emily Atkinson Abt 1836-
3 Newton Atkinson Abt 1840-
3 John Bowlin Atkinson Abt 1847-
3 Lucinda Atkinson Abt 1849-</FONT>
Obediah Atkinson, my mother's great-grandfather, was a colorful character in North Texas. He married Dolly Jane Powers, daughter of Alexander Powers, Jr., in Missouri, and they moved to Cooke County, Texas, probably in the winter of 1853-54. Obediah's original land grant document, with his signature, is in the files of the General Land Office of Texas. Obediah was a farmer and also a musician who was called upon to play fiddle at his communities' dances and other get-togethers.
During the Civil War, Obediah was one of the organizers of a large group of pro-Union sympathizers in North Texas. Although most of the Union League men apparently just wanted to be left alone, the Confederate leaders of the northern part of the state feared that they might initiate an armed uprising. In October 1862 the Confederates began rounding up many men they suspected of being involved in the League, and late in that month more than forty (including Dolly Jane's brother James Powers) were tried for treason and executed in what is called the Great Hanging at Gainesville, Texas. The full story of the Great Hanging is told by Richard McCaslin in his book Tainted Breeze, published by LSU Press.
Obediah escaped Cooke County, possibly with a friend, but about April 1863 they were captured in Arkansas, and it is very likely that they spent the rest of the war in Confederate prisons. Obediah didn't talk about his experiences. When my mother was young, she was told by her great-grandmother Dolly Jane that Obediah was captured by Federal troops and that he had avoided being shot by a firing squad by giving the Masonic sign of distress. The officer in charge of the firing squad, also a Mason, recognized the sign and stayed the execution.
There is also a possibility that Obediah escaped or was released from prison, perhaps when the Union army retook Little Rock in September 1863, and managed to find refuge among his cousins in Miller County, Missouri. Records of the Masonic Lodge of Missouri show that he was manumitted (that is, released or excused) from membership in the chapter at Olean, Miller County, in April 1865, at the end of the Civil War. It is possible that he had been a member of that lodge since well before moving to Texas and that he wrote to the lodge and asked to be released, but it is also interesting to think that he might have been in Miller County and an active member of the lodge there for the final two years of the war, and only asked for manumission when he was preparing to return to Texas.
We do know that after the war Obediah returned to Cooke County and became county tax assessor-collector, but about 1872-73 he moved to Comanche County, where he became a rancher and farmer. He was later the organizer of the Masonic chapter at Dublin in adjoining Erath County, Texas, and its first Worshipful Master.
Obediah and Dolly Jane's youngest child was Lewis Monroe Atkinson, my great-grandfather. My mother, Leora Atkinson Parsons, writes in her book Limbs, Branches, and Twigs: A Tree of Hamiltons, Barrs, and Atkinsons that Lewis and my great-grandmother Fredonia Elizabeth Hamilton were both musicians and music teachers. Fredonia played accordion, and Lewis taught singing by round notes only. He also played violin (not fiddle, as he was proud to point out).
Obediah Atkinson (far right) and Dolly Jane Powers Atkinson (second from right)
at the home of their son and daughter-in-law Lewis Monroe Atkinson and
Fredonia Elizabeth Hamilton Atkinson in Comanche County, Texas,
about 1900. Left to right: James Barton Atkinson (b. 1887), with his dog;
Cora Naomi Atkinson (b. 1891); Lewis; and Fredonia with baby
Lola Rae Atkinson (b. October 10, 1898). My grandfather, the
young boy in the picture, always commented that this photograph
was taken on a windy day, so Grandpa had his long, white beard
tucked inside his coat to prevent it from flying in the breeze.