Caring For Our Past…

A Spiritual and Moral Obligation

The Old Thompson Cemetery

Bullard, Texas

When your Great, Great, Great, Grandfather and Grandmother (John A. & Elizabeth Thompson) moved from Tennessee to Texas, they, the Smiths, Roddys, and Boaz families settled near a small community called Bullard. Bullard is between Tyler and Jacksonville in Smith County, East Texas.

This was at the time when Texas was a colony of Mexico, which had just recently obtained its independence; the period of Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie, Sam Houston, and Steven F. Austin, preceding the Alamo, San Jacinto and Texas Independence. The land was free. The soil was rich and the wild game was plentiful. They lived, farmed and hunted the land, married and some of them died there. They buried their dead; men, women, and children in a small private cemetery in back of the house about a half mile across an area over a small brook and to the top of a wooded knoll. At one time, there were as many as 12 marked graves there, now only 7 of the graves has any type of a headstone remaining.

Today, the area is a cow pasture, overgrown with scrub oaks, squirrel briars and covered with leaves, dead limbs and worse. The cattle roam freely over the graves and have knocked down the tombstones and broken them. There was once a barbed wire fence around the area, but it has long since gone. The owner of the land is very cooperative, but really has no responsibility according to Texas ordinances.

The State of Texas, the County of Smith and the City of Bullard (the farm is really outside the city limits) have courteously refused any responsibility for fencing or care of the area. The Texas Historical Society is considering placement of a historical marker, but the problem of fencing is that of an organization, family or otherwise. The area is really pitiful. Imagine, if you can, an area where cows, perhaps thirty-five are free to trample over the graves, knocking down the markers and breaking the stones.

Should we, and can we do something? The answer to that question is YES!

Two of our Aunts, along with their husbands (Kenneth & Roberta [Thompson] Ferris and J.L. & Nelda [Thompson] Worth have had a cable fence built to enclose one section of the graves; there are two more sections that still need fencing.

If you are interested in joining in on our efforts to enclose the other graves; please contact the Thompson Forum Administrator at

Please click here: Sandy Thompson

BURIED AT THE OLD THOMPSON CEMETERY:
(Located on the Miller farm about 1½ miles east of Bullard)
 
THOMPSON, Maggie – 19 Jan 1851 – 19 Oct 1873 – wife of T. G. Thompson
THOMPSON, Emmet M. – 14 Oct 1873 – 24 Jun 1874 – son of T. G. & Maggie
RODDY, R. R. – 9 May 1820 – 19 Mar 1880 – Mason
RODDY, B. F. – 22 Sept 1849 – 28 Sept 1887 – son of R. R. & M. T. Roddy
BOAZ, Jessie – 16 Apr 1870 – 2 May 1870 – dau of Ellis R. & Susane Boaz
(1983 copier read this as dau of E. L. M. and Susane Boaz)
*SMITH, Susannah – 9 Apr 1815 – 9 Jan 1867 – wife of J. W. Smith
*SMITH, Sarena – dau of J. W. & S. – d. at about 20 years
 
· *Sarena & Susannah are both named on the same headstone, it is a 4 sided stone about 4’ tall and Sarena’s information is on the opposite of the stone.
 
There are three graves, close together, near the Roddy marker, made of
homemade bricks. Trees have grown up through these graves and no markings
could be found. The other graves are at the other end of this small cemetery.
 
It is also believed that the following people are also buried in this cemetery. The information below comes from letters from Annie Stovall Metcalf Smith and Rosalie Thompson Curry.
 
THOMPSON, John Anderson– 1 JUL 1781 – 18 NOV 1858
THOMPSON, Elizabeth Edmonds – d. 1875 – wife of John A. Thompson
THOMPSON, William B. – 1804 – 1879 – son of John A. Thompson
THOMPSON, Mollie M. Flynt – d. abt. 1867 – wife of William Henderson Thompson – died during childbirth
THOMPSON, Infant – d. abt. 1867 – died during childbirth and is buried in the same grave with mother, Mollie M. Flynt Thompson
*HARGROVE, Mary Louise Lann (Land) – d. 1866
*HARGROVE, Newell Adams Hargrove
 
· Newell & mary Hargrove were the parents of Mary Elizabeth [Hargrove] Thompson, wife of James Patterson Thompson.
 
 

***********************************************************
 
Letter from Sarah (Sally) Roddy Thurman
born 18 APR 1862 and died 11 DEC 1948
She was married to Joe W. Thurmon
 
Great Grandfather and mother, John and Elizabeth Thompson, came to Texas from the State of Mississippi in an early day when Texas was very thinly settled. They moved in covered wagons and was one month on the road, camping out at night and traveling every day except Sunday. Most of their large family of boys and girls came with them, most of whom were married and had families of their own. They all settled in Smith County, not very far from where the town of Tyler is now situated. They underwent many hardships owing to the unsettled conditions of the country, but most of them became successful farmers. Later some of the younger ones went into business and became merchants. John Quiller Thompson was a famous hunter, mostly hunted deer, of which there was a plentiful supply. He hunted a lot at night, what they called fire hunting. They fastened a light on their heads and located the deer by shining (it in) their eyes. He sometimes walked in his sleep and was considerable surprised to awake one night and find himself pointing his gun at a star. His father was Tull Thompson, son of John and Elizabeth. My own grandfather Stephen was the eldest one of the children of John and Elizabeth. He married Eliza Goldson (Gholson), and to this union was born three boys; John, Henry, and James, and three girls; Minerva, Elizabeth, and Rena. All three of the boys enlisted in the Civil War. Neither one survived; one was killed in action, one was drowned while swimming horses across the Arkansas River, and one died of measles. My mother, Minerva, married Robert Riley (Rial) Roddy. He was Irish, his father having come from Ireland. I do not know anything about any of the Roddy family except my father and one brother, Benson Roddy, who married my mother’s youngest sister, Rena, who is still living at the ripe old age of 94 years. Robert Rial and Minervie was the parents of either children – 6 boys and 2 girls. The boys were: William Christopher Roddy, Benjamin Franklin Roddy, who was a cripple and never was married. Stephen Gavan Roddy, James Benson Roddy, Robert Tolliafer Roddy, and Thomas Gideon Roddy.
 
William, or Bill, married Fannie Stephens. To them were born ten or eleven children.
 
Steve married Bell Clements. To them were born seven children.
 
James married Nannie Clements, sister of Bell. They were parents of ten children.
 
Tolliafer, or Tull, married Eliza Flowers, and to them were born ten children.
 
And Tom was first married to Rook Harper, and to that union was born one child, Vera. After Rook died he married Olevia Morris, and to this union was born two children; Edith and Russell.
 
Eliza Roddy married W.E. Tarrant, and to this union was born ten children, and
 
Sarah Elizabeth Roddy married Joe Willie Thurmond, and to this union were born nine children, seven of who are still living. I don’t know if you can get any sense out of this mess. I don’t know the dates on which anything happened and I don’t believe I told you that my Grandfather was married the second time. His last wife’s name was Ann Baylers (Bayless), and there were five of the last children – 4 boys and 1 girl. The boys were Sam, Steve, Rube, and Dave, and my mother’s sister Elizabeth, or Betty as she was called, married Mit Baylers (Bayless), brother of her stepmother.
 
Uncle Benson and Aunt Rena Roddy had five children both to them – three boys, and two girls. After his death, she married Sam Curry, and she had three children by him.
 

Left to right:
J. L. & Nelda Worth
Roberta & Ken Ferris