JAMES MERRELL was born February 24, 1825 in Tennessee, and died before 1859 probably in Jasper County, Texas.  He married MARY ANN SEALE September 21, 1854 in Jasper County, Texas-from 100 years of Marriages in Jasper Co, TX.   Mary later married Benjamin Shepherd.  She married a third time to James Highnet and had three additional children.  She is on 1860 Jasper County, Texas census, Newton PO, p. 44, household 286-286 with 2nd husband Benjamin Shepherd.

SYNTHA MERRELL was born March 12, 1827 in Tennessee, and died August 04, 1871 in Irene, Hill County, Texas.  She is buried in the Salem Irene Cemetery, Irene, Hill County, Texas.  She is the 2nd burial there.  She married THOCE HARRISON GREEN August 08, 1844 in Shelby County, Alabama-Vol. I, p. 197, son of HUSBAND GREEN and LEACY.  He was born May 25, 1821 in Alabama-on 1900 census hh 373-380-listed as a landlord, and died January 23, 1905 in Irene, Hill County, Texas.  He is buried in the Salem Irene Cemetery, Irene, Hill County, Texas.  Harrison served in the Civil War, and 1884, he had a store in Irene that sold fancy groceries.

 FROM "A HISTORY OF HILL COUNTY, TEXAS, 1853-1980" PUBLISHED BY THE HILL COUNTY HISTORICAL COMMISSION, 1980.

On the 1870 census of Hill County, Precinct 5, the Greens are household #32, the Reeds are h.h. #31, the Sheets h.h. #33 and William Merrell h.h. #36.   Listed in the household of the Greens was also George Black (probably a brother or cousin to Sarah Elizabeth Black Merrell), age 16, born in Texas.

On the 1850 census of Union Parish, Louisiana, they lived in household #199.  At that time, Syntha is listed as Sarah and the eldest child listed is Amanda.  Robert and Levi may have died prior?  On the 1860 census of Jasper County, Texas he is listed with wife Syntha and also his mother, Leacy and siblings John and Caroline (household #250).

Marriage date of Harrison (listed Hanson in book) and Syntha is from Early Shelby County, Alabama Marriages by Nell Motes Goggans, Willo Publishing Company, P.O. Box 284, Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

WILLIAM B. MERRELL was born February 11, 1829 in Tennessee-on 1900 census hh 377-385-landlord, and died February 03, 1912 in Irene, Hill County, Texas.  He is buried at Salem Irene Cemetery, Irene, Hill County, Texas.  He married MARY AMANDA about 1859.  She was born February 19, 1835 in Mississippi or Alabama-parents born Georgia, and died February 06, 1918 in Irene, Hill County, Texas.  She is buried at Salem Irene Cemetery, Irene, Hill County, Texas.

 FROM  "A HISTORY OF HILL COUNTY, TEXAS 1853-1980" PUBLISHED BY THE HILL COUNTY HISTORICAL COMMISSION, 1980.

 "In the early 1870s, three Armstrong brothers, J.T., Everette and Ramsey, all Methodist preachers, came to Irene by way of Jasper, Texas, from Alabama.  These three brothers and C.C. Kyle, William Merrell, T. S. Thomas, and A. A. Green bought adjoining blocks of land which almost filled the area that lay between the land already settled by the early pioneers.  Homes were were built and a village took shape.   Irene businesses in 1896 included the Merrell-Shirley corn mill and gin.  Later businesses included a drug store and barber shop owned by Ben Merrell and Bruce Merrell (Lemma's husband).  By 1930 there was also a Hawkins and Merrell Gin as well as the Irene Grain Company owned by Hawkins, Greer and Merrell.  In addition, William B. Merrell was a Confederate veteran."

There is also a William Merrill, born Tennessee, listed on the 1860 Angelina County census, 4th district, Homer with wife Mary E., born Alabama, child Elmira (born Louisiana) and James Merrill, age 8, born Texas.  I believe it could be this William Merrill as his household is 80 and in the next household #81 is listed probably his mother, Sarah, 58, farmer, born Georgia and probable brother Richmond, age 21, farmer, born Alabama.

 William Merrill served in Company G, 13th Texas Cavalry - Burnett's Regiment, 13th Texas Mounted Volunteers.  Mustered in Crockett, Houston County, Texas or Jasper County, Texas for 12 months in 1862.  Served under Capt. Elias T. Seale's Company.  Actually served through at least February 1864.

 On the 1870 census (Aug. 2) of Precinct 5, Hill County, William B. and Amanda Merrell are found in household #36.  Also listed in this household is James Merrell, age 18, born Louisiana.

JANE MERRELL was born December 20, 1835 in Tennessee, and died July 04, 1916 in Tolar/Lipan, Hood County, Texas.  She is buried in the Antioch Cemetery near Tolar, Hood County, Texas.  She married AUSTIN MUSICK November 29, 1850 in Union Parish, Louisiana, son of JAMES MUSICK and HARRIET SEALE.  He was born April 15, 1826 in Shelby County, Alabama, and died December 21, 1897 in Tolar/Lipan, Hood County, Texas.  He is buried in the Antioch Cemetery near Tolar, Hood County, Texas.  He is found on the 1850 census of Union Parish, Louisiana living in the household of Jane's sister, Synthia Merrell and her husband Harrison Green (household #199).

 Additional information on this line from Hood County, Texas 1880 census, Precinct 2, lineage chart from Central Alabama Genealogical Society of Myrna Musick Wells, September 1979,  and also from descendant Myrna Musick Wells of 830 Wysteria Way, Richardson, Texas 75080, (214) 231-2190.

 FROM HOOD COUNTY GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN, NOVEMBER 1993

 ANTIOCH CEMETERY

 This small cemetery is in Hood County near Tolar, Texas.  It is fenced and has the name on a metal archway above the entrance gate.  Each time we have visited, the area has been well kept.

This small cemetery is in Hood County near Tolar, Texas.  It is fenced and has the name on a metal archway above the entrance gate.  Each time we have visited, the area has been well kept.

 To travel to Antioch Cemetery from Granbury, go to the second blinking traffic light in Tolar.  Turn right onto State Highway 56 North.  Travel on the highway for approximately 4.6 miles.  The cemetery will be on the right side and very near to the roadway.  It is easily seen.  Jo Ann and Dustin Massey and I catalogued the graves on a cold, windy day in early March 1990.  Mary Kate Durham.

 Burials:

 Brown, Lottie E., Musick, Austin, Musick, Eliza, Musick, Henry, Musick, Henry A. (son of Henry), Musick, Infant, Musick, J.A., Musick, Jane, Presgroves, Infant, Tiner, Charles Leonard .   Three or more graves marked with stones but no identification.

 NOTE:  I visited this cemetery October 28, 1995.  We found it right on the side of the road after going thru Tolar and turning on HWY 56 North.  There is a sign stating cemetery with an arrow and the cemetery is a few yards beyond that on the right hand side of the road.  It appears kept up, but still some graves were pretty overgrown with weeds and grass.  The Tiner and Brown markers were off to the side closest to the fence and more grassy than the rest.  There are indeed foot type markers unidentified.  The area containing the Musick graves is basically gravel with a curb and also a plot MUSICK marker, still there were a few patches of grass and weeds within this gravel area.  I did not see the 4 graves covered with concrete unless they are beneath the gravel.  Per the county map, the two roads surrounding the cemetery are Musick Road and O'Neal Road.

Also, prior to reaching the Antioch Cemetery, there is another, Stroud's Creek Cemetery also well marked and entranced from the right side of the road on a hill visible from the highway.  Although it appears on private land, the gate is open (but watch the cows!) and we were able to view this cemetery.  It also contains many Musick burials, most later than the Antioch.

 FROM "HISTORY OF TEXAS, BOSQUE, COMANCHE, ERATH, HAMILTON & HOOD, FAMILIES OF CENTRAL TEXAS"  LEWIS PUBLISHING CO., CHICAGO, 1896

 Austin Musick has been identified with the interests of Hood county, Texas since the fall of 1882, and figures as one of its most respected farmers and stock-men.  As such, a review of his life is appropriate in this work, and is as follows:

 Austin Musick was born in Shelby county, Alabama, April 15, 1826, son of James and Harriet (Seale) Musick, the former a native of North Carolina and the latter of South Carolina.  Early in life his parents settled in Alabama, where they passed their lives on a farm.  Austin therefore was reared to farm pursuits and he received his education in the common schools.  His mother died when he was 16.  At the age of 19, he left home and started out in the world on his own responsibility.  He rented a piece of land on the shares in Alabama and made one crop there, and then in the following December went to Louisiana, where for four years he worked for wages and cultivated rented land.  While there he married and afterward he settled on a farm in Union parish and followed farming there and in Moorehouse parish until his coming to Texas, which was in June 1857, his first settlement here being in Jasper county.  That year he rented a farm and the next year he purchased a tract of unimproved land.  This he partially improved and sold, then bought and improved another tract, and ws living on the latter place at the opening of the civil war.  During the war he sold out and purchased a smaller place, to which he moved his family, and soon after he entered the Confederate army, going out as a member of Company G, 13th dismounted Cavalry.  His service was chiefly in southern Louisiana.  He was in the engagements at Ashton, Mansfield, Pleasant Hill and Jenkins Ferry, the last named in Arkansas, and from there he returned to Louisiana and thence to Texas, remaining in the service until the war closed.

Mr. Musick continued to reside in Jasper county until September 1867, when he removed to Hill county and purchased a tract of wild land, to the improvement and cultivation of which he devoted his energies and where he resided until his removal to Hood county in the fall of 1882.  The first year of his residence in Hood county he lived on rented land near Lipan.  Then he bought 300 acres of timber land, wholly unimproved and at once set about the work of clearing away the forest and making a home.  On this place he has since resided.  Now he has 50 acres under cultivation, and in his farming and stock raising is metting with that success which his earnest efforts merits.

 Mr. Musick was married November 29, 1850 to Miss Jane Merrell, a native of Lincoln county, Tennesee, and a daughter of Benjamin Merrell, who settled in Louisiana when Mrs. Musick was a girl of 12 years.  They have six children, four of whom are still living:  Henry a farmer of Hood county, Malissa, wife of N.C. Addison of this county, Sarah Ann, wife of Johnathan Brown of Hill county and J.A. of this county.

 Politically, Mr. Musick affiliates with the People's party.  He is a man of broad views and keeps himself well posted on the issues of the day, and especially is he well informed on all matters pertaining to the interest of the farmer.  For years he has maintained a membership in the Farmers' Alliance.  Mrs. Musick is a member of the Missionary Baptist church.

Wiley was born December 22, 1837 in Tennessee.  He died April 3, 1864 at Camp Morton, Indianapolis, Indiana.  He is buried in the Crown Hill Cemetery in the Confederate mound there.

FROM WILEY'S CONFEDERATE SERVICE RECORD

 Served in Companies D-E, 27th Texas Cavalry-Whitfield's Legion/1st Texas Legion.  Served as a private.

Appears on a report of casualties in the 1st Cavalry Corps, commanded by Major General Van Dorn, at the battle of Thompson's Station, Tennessee, March 5, 1863.  He was wounded.

While in company D, he enlisted August 29, 1861 at Jasper, Texas.  Was enrolled by B.H. Norsworthy for a period of 12 months. After the muster rolls of March and April 1862, is the statement he was transferred to Company E on March 29, 1862. At that time, he was absent-sent to Texas with horses from Des Arc on April 14.  While on this duty he was given the title of 2nd Corporal.  He was back on Company E muster rolls for July and August of 1862 was again a private.

On March 5, 1863 he was wounded at Thompson's Station and on July and August 1863 muster rolls was absent still from the wound.  His record states he appears on a roll of Confederate prisoners of war sent from Vicksburg, Mississippi to Cairo, Illinois to be forwarded to Depot for prisoners of war, November 26, 1863.  Roll dated Headquarters 17th Army Corps, Pro-Mar Office, Vicksburg, MS, November 26, 1863, captured on the Mississippi River.  He appears on a roll of prisoners of war at Camp Morton, Indianapolis, Indiana, having been received December 7, 1863 after capture on November 5, 1863.  He died April 3, 1864 of pneumonia and is buried in grave 864, Green Lawn Cemetery.  Camp Morton Register No. 2, page 17.

NOTE:  At some time during the 1920s or 1930s, the powers that be decided to "disinter" all of the supposedly unknown Confederate prisoners buried at Green Lawn as "they" had a better use for the land.  At the time, these graves were said to have been unidentifiable (despite their service records stating grave numbers) and all the soldiers' bones were piled in a mass grave in the Crown Hill Cemetery.  In the early 1990s, a cry of outrage rose up from descendants of these men and the cemetery erected plaques bearing the men's names by state.

Richmond Merrell was born December 12, 1839 in Alabama.  He is listed on the 1860 Angelina County, Texas census, 4th district, Homer, in household 81 with his widowed mother Sarah.  He is listed on the 1850 Union Parish, Louisiana census with his parents as Reuben, age 11.  He is unlocated after 1860.