TAKEN FROM OLD NORTHWEST TEXAS, HISTORICAL-STATISTICAL-BIOGRAPHICAL, VOLUME I-B, 1846-1860, NAVARRO COUNTY COMPILED BY NANCY SAMUELS AND BARBARA KNOX, PUBLISHED BY THE FORT WORTH HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

"320 acres of Grisham Lee's land certificate was patented in Navarro County, Texas in October 27, 1859 by Lott Strange. He and his second wife Elizabeth (Eliza) lived in Brown County in 1860."

FROM FREEMASONRY IN BROWNWOOD-A CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF BROWNWOOD LODGE NO. 279, A.F. & A.M., BROWNWOOD, TEXAS BY DONAVON DUNCAN TIDWELL, 1966, DEPARTMENT OF PRINTING, MASONIC HOME AND SCHOOL, FORT WORTH TEXAS

CHAPTER 1-IN A WESTERLY DIRECTION Grisham Lee, an older brother of Brooks W. Lee, Sr., was another Mason who came to Brown County prior to the 1860 census, possibly in the late fifties. He was a native of Tennessee, born August 29, 1819. From the census records, it appears that he married in Missouri, where his oldest son, George, was born. The other children were all born in Texas. His fourth child was born about 1853 and his first wife must have died about this time or soon afterwards, for the 1860 Brown County census reveals that his wife Eliza was only 21 (and more likely 19 in keeping with the 1970 census report that she was then 29). George, the oldest son, was 12 in 1860-clearly not the son of a 19 (or even 21) year old wife! The 1860 census shows Grisham Lee with a 5th child two years old, probably the child of his second wife. His 3rd child (and second son) Brooks W. Lee, Jr., was born in Navarro County, Texas in 1851 and named for his uncle (the "Junior" and "Senior" distinguishing the nephew and uncle was oftimes customary then). Brooks Lee, Jr., was to receive his Masonic Degrees later in Brownwood Lodge and serve Midland Lodge No. 623 of Midland as Master in 1900.

Grisham Lee became a Mason the same year that Brooks W. Lee, Sr., did and in the same Lodge, Bosque (now Waco) No. 92....He served much of the time from 1862 to 1873 as the sheriff of Brown County. He died January 22, 1883 and is buried in the Connell Cemetery.

CHAPTER 3-A FRONTIER LODGE Grisham Lee was the first Mason to be elected to office in Brown County. He served from 1862 to 1864 as sheriff, then again from 1866 to 1868, a third time from 1869 to 1871, and a final time from July to December 1873.

CHAPTER 5-DARK IN THE WEST On the 19th of August there was a pitched battle in Brownwood. According to the repot of the radical Reconstructionists, "A gang of some 10 or 15 heavily armed ruffians, among whom was the sheriff, G. Lee, a conspicuous scoundrel, rode up to the house of Mr. More (sic), the District Clerk, where the police force (consisting of one State policeman and four specials) were assembled, and after a lavish use of the most opprobrious and obscene language, poured in a general volley. The police were driven into the house, and after a sharp engagement, repulsed the villains, the leader of whom, a fellow named Adams, who loudly announced himself with horrid oaths, as 'one of Morgan's guerillas', was shot dead as he was forcing an entrance into the store door. Another of the gang by the name of Perry was shot through the body and mortally wounded." Sheriff Lee received a slight wound. On the other side, one of the police received a flesh wound in the head and J.H. McMillion, the deputy of Mr. Moore, "was severely wounded in the hip."

Greenleaf Fisk, one of Brown County's most honorable and upright citizens, gives an entirely different version of this encounter. He states that "...Moore and six policemen, without previous notice or warning, fired on some 5 or 6 citizens, who had been trading in Brownwood that day, and were just in the act of starting home, wounding four of them, one mortally."

Fisk continued his account, stating: "A man named Scott J. Adams had started to the Bayou to bathe, taking his gun with him to kill a turkey; on hearing the firing, he returned and as he approached within gunshot distance of Moore and his policemen, they fired on him. He drove them from the picket fence into Moore's house. He fell dead near the store in which Moore had killed George Lee. The policemen forbade the citizens to touch the dead body of Adams, saying they would scalp him and send the scalp to the Governor and Adjutant General Davidson..."

...A petition was circulated requesting the dismissal of Irving Moore and forwarded to the Governor. The result-the sheriff Grisham Lee, whose son had been murdered by Irving Moore, "was removed from the office (of sheriff) on September 18, 1871 by order of the district judge." It requires no profound deduction to know the reasoning behind such an act!

...Brownwood Lodge had its first case of disciplinary action in 1872. At the regular meeting on the second Saturday in September, Isaac Mullins, Worshipful Master pro tem, charged Grisham Lee with unmasonic conduct, that on or about August 5, 1872, he struck "Bro. G.H. Adams to the effusion of blood." He also charged George H. Adams, the Junior Warden, with striking "Bro. G. Lee to the effusion of blood." The nature of the difference between these two Brethren is not known. George Adams was at this time in command of a company of rangers of the Frontier Battalion. Grisham Lee had been removed as sheriff of Brown County the previous year. Perhaps the conflict resulted from personal or political differences. The ensuing trial on December 16, 1872, resulted in the suspension of Grisham Lee for unmasonic conduct.

CHAPTER 6-A PERIOD OF PROGRESS ...During 1875 nine were raised, nine affiliated and Grisham Lee was reinstated.

FROM DESCENDANT LARRY RODERICK

Grisham Lee was born in Jackson County, Tennessee on 20 August 1819. The Lee family moved to Newton County, Missouri in 1835. He married Annie Estes there in 1842. Ephraim's brother, George, moved to Washington County, Illinois between the years of 1827 and 1832. Ephraim's mother, Catherine Wilson Lee, died in Illinois in 1834.

Grisham Lee, Ephraim Lee, L.K. Lee and Hiram Estes moved to Navarro County, Texas by 1847 and settled on the Techuacana Creek in 1852. Grisham's brother, Brooks Williams Lee, came to Texas in 1846 on horseback. Ephraim died in Navarro County, Texas about 1852. In February 1857, the Lee family moved to McLennan County after many deaths in the 1850s. In 1859, the Lee family moved to Brown County.

Connell Cemetery in Brown County, Texas were Grisham Lee was buried is on private land owned by a Mr. Scott. The cemetery is close to the intersection of FM 2525 and FM 2126, about 3 miles from Brownwood. It is at the end of a country road. The graves are about 100 yards to the left of the end of the road of the fenced property. The site is grown over with vegetation and most of the graves have been vandalized. Grisham's grave marker is broken at the base and laying over his burial site.

FROM THEN AND NOW-LEA COUNTY FAMILIES, VOL. I  COMPILED BY THE LEA COUNTY GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY, 1979

The story of the Lee family and its exodus to west Texas by the Brooks Williams Lee branch in 1885, and later the move from west Texas to what is now Lea County, New Mexico, by Richard David Lee, Sr., and his family in 1925, will begin in Brown County, Texas.

Gresham (Dude) Lee was born in Tennessee in 1819, the son of Ephraim Lee, of Virginia, a cousin of R.E. Lee Listed in the census records as a stockman, he also served several times as sheriff of Brown County, Texas. He was married three times; the second wife was a full-blood Cherokee Indian named Aurie Williams (NOTE: this is in error, her name was Awry Estes and no Indian blood connection has been established. It is thought by this compiler that perhaps the Estes/Williams families and their origins through the years had become mixed up as information was handed down through the generations.) and mother of Brooks Williams Lee, II, born in 1851 from this marriage.

A brother of Gresham Lee is worthy of mention here. Brooks Williams Lee, Sr. was a Texas Ranger, stockman, and prominent citizen of Texas. At the close of the Civil War, when the long trail drives were on the move, he made one of the longest cattle drives on record. They started the herd from San Antonio in 1867, and some two years later arrived in San Bernardino, California. His nephew, Brooks Williams Lee, II, made this trip at 16 years of age.

As were most of his elders before him, Brooks Williams Lee, II, was a stockman. Following this trade in Brown County for a number of years, he had several brushes with the Comanches and was listed and recognized on the Texas Ranger roles as an Indian fighter and temporary Ranger. He married Nancy Jenny Millican in 1873, and to this union 13 children were born. The four older boys, James, Richard, George, and Young and the oldest girl Molly, were born in Brown County.

In 1885 Brooks Lee, his wife Jenny, and five children left Brown County for Midland, Texas. Another daughter, Aurie, was born in the wagon on this trip. The family spent some time in Midland and then moved on west of the present town of Seminole, settling in a dugout on Seminole Draw. They were located on what was later the M.S. Doss Ranch. Owning and leasing ranches in the West Texas area for several years, they eventually located in the city of Midland and built a home. Through these years, seven more children were born to them, four girls and three boys.

The oldest son of Brooks Lee, Jim, left Texas as a young man and was on a ranch in South Dakota until his death in 1926. Brooks Lee, III, served in the Army in World War I and was killed while in Russia after the war. Other than these two sons and Richard David Lee, who moved to New Mexico, the other children of Brooks Lee, II, settled permanently in the Midland area.

Richard David Lee, Sr., left the Midland area in 1898 and worked for a time on the Hat Ranch at Monument Springs. Returning to Texas, he married Sarah Viola Forrester in 1900. They spent the first few months of their marriage in Indian Territory, Oklahoma, on a steer ranch owned by Wilson Connell. Returning to the Midland area in 1900, their first child was born, a daughter Brookie Wanda Lee. Two years later, a son was born, Roy Raymond Lee. The next child, a son, born 5 years later, was Richard David Lee, Jr. In 1922, the last child, a son, Giles Milton Lee, was born.

From 1900 to 1925 Richard David (Dick) Lee was engaged in the cow business in the Midland area, working as wagon boss for the C Ranch and later for himself on ranches owned and leased.

In 1925, he entered into a partnership with Scharbauer Cattle Company of Midland, Texas, as part owner and manager of ranching interests located in Lea County, New Mexico, moving to the Swamp Angel Ranch, southwest of Lovington in the fall of 1925. This ranch was formerly owned by Rom Holt.

From 1925 until his death in 1940, Dick Lee was actively engaged in the cow business in Lea County. The three sons and daughter of Dick and Viola Lee all settled in Lea County and are, or have been, ranchers. Brookie Anderson and husband W.A. Anderson, Sr., were in the registered cattle business for many years and are now retired. Roy Lee owned and operated the Hi Lonesome Ranch east of Lovington and later owned a ranch near Claunch, New Mexico. He is now retired. R.D. Lee and son, Bill Lee, own and operate ranches in this area and near Caprock, New Mexico. Bill is now serving his second term as a State Senator from this area. Giles Lee is in the cow business and lives on the Swamp Angel Ranch southwest of Lovington.

BY GILES M. LEE