This is the only page in this photo album featuring an individual whose name and heritage is known, but there is no apparent direct link between the individual and the Childress lineage in my files, though I have considerable data on his career and service as a Texas Ranger and Confederate soldier.  The photograph is of Rufus Green Childress (b. 1838) and it is featured here because I because I continue to attempt to tie his Rufus' Childress lineage into mine, given certain circumstantial evidence.  Perhaps a male descendent of Rufus, or a descendent of his patriarchal line of Childress, will step forward in the future and confirm my speculation by submitting a DNA sample to the Childress/Childers DNA Project.

Rufus was born in Marshall County, Alabama to James C. Childress (b. 1802) and Sarah Parker Childress (b. ca. 1807), but moved to Rusk County, Texas (living within 10 miles or so of this writer's childhood home in Turnertown, Texas) around 1845 and spent the remainder of his childhood there.  He was a Texas Ranger and served in the Confederate Army, later becoming a Deputy Sheriff, Rusk County, 1860, Justice of the Peace, Meridian, Texas, County Judge of Bosque County, Mayor of Meridian, Texas, Calendar Clerk for the Texas Senate and was admitted to the Texas Bar in 1887.  He was an Attorney at Law in Nolan County, Texas from 1890 until 1908 when his obituary was published in the Roscoe Times.

The photograph on the right, above, hangs in the Bosque County Courthouse in Meridian, Texas.  The photo on the left was part of an article written about Rufus Green Childress around the turn of the century.

He was the type of man that personified the true "Pioneer" spirit of early Texas.  Please let this editor hear from you if you have any more information on Rufus or his descendents.

Click here to go to the Childress/Mathis Family Tree data on Roots Web for notes on the above individual.

For additions, corrections or comments, please send an e-mail to Patrick Childress