Picture taken 3/7/2008

Picture taken by C.M. Raulston, Jr. from inside his house looking toward the road.

Keep scrolling!

The Raulston Homestead Defined 

Situated in Red River County, seven miles North and 15 degrees West from Clarksville, is an 1840 acre tract of land known as The James M. Ritchie Headright. Mr. Ritchie obtained this tract by land patent granted to him by Sam Houston. Surveyed 1838, recorded 1861 in The General Land Office, Patent Records, vol. 15, page 274. Filed deed records Red River County, Deed Book 155, page 260, 9 Dec. 1941. Filed at Vol. J, page 397, Deed Records, Red River County, 2 June 1854, a deed from James M. Ritchie to William Raulston   -  For Two Hundred Forty (240) acres of land out of the above tract. At Deed Book 52, page 105, J. C. Raulston & wife, Laura F. Raulston, a deed to W. G. Raulston, dated 11 April 1895, selling their interest in the East 1/2 of the 240 acre tract. 

This East 120 acres contained the home house and many outbuildings which had belonged to The Old Tennesseeian, William M. Raulston and his wife, Fannie Ousley Raulston, who were the parents of John C. and William G. In time this tract, with man),- of the original buildings came to be called The Raulston Homestead. The public road (Called The Old Jonesboro Road) entered this tract near the Northwest corner of the original 240 acre plat and followed a Southeasterly course for about 1/4 mile, then curved to a Southerly course through Cherry to Clarksville, thence Southwesterly to a crossing on the Sulphur near the present site of the State Highway 37 crossing. The old road then turned East to Hughes Springs, then South through Jefferson to Nacogdoches and San Antonio. 

I read in a reference about the old pioneer traces the Jonesboro Road was called the Jonesboro/Nacogdoches Trace. The above mentioned curve in the road, and the fact that Tuggle's Road joined the Jonesboro about 100 feet west of the curve, was probably why Mr. Ritchie chose that site for his home and attendant out buildings. 

Among all our family legends, the reason Mr. Ritchie was willing to sell all this to William M. - For One dollar per acre was never disclosed. I suspect they sat on neighboring stumps and whittled an agreement wherein William M. paid Mr. Ritchie a separate amount in cash for the improvements. 

When Fannie and William M. Moved from a leased farm in Cherry to their new home in what would someday become Dimple, they had five daughters age 3, to age 13. They were, from the eldest to the youngest, Elvina 1841, Jane 1842, Mahala 1844, Adeline 1846, Mary 1848, all born in Tennessee. Julia 1850, was born in Texas. (For birth dates and marriage dates of all of William M. and Fannie's children see, The Raulstons of Red River County, page 22.) 

The log cabin they moved into was approximately 16 feet wide by 24 feet front to back. It faced North and had a wide porch on the front and on the East side and a fireplace which ran all the way across the south end of the kitchen. The front room enclosed a large sleeping loft for the kids. The front porch of this cabin was about where my patio is today. With another baby on the way, William had to busy himself right away in the expansion of the living quarters. 

Two things you should know. First, William M. had banked a lot of money growing cotton on the rich land in Cherry and he retained the lease on that land for many years after moving to his new place. This meant he was under no great pressure to carve tillable acres out of the surrounding forest. When cotton was harvested it was ginned and stored at Jones' Gin and cotton platform in Cherry. At the proper time, William M. formed up his own caravan of ox -drawn Conestoga style wagons and hauled his cotton to the boat docks in Jefferson. The wagon masters were eager to make money going both ways so the growers bought merchandise which could be unloaded at a profit in Red River County. That is how William M. got the building material for the expansion of his house. 

He added two sixteen by eighteen foot rooms separated by a ten foot wide hallway, plus an eight foot wide front porch which ran the entire forty-six foot length of the new addition, to the front of the log house. The front porch of the log house was modified and used as a coupler to tie the two structures together. The new part of the house was mounted on twenty-four inch piers which made the floor levels of the two parts of the domicile some 30 to 32 inches different in floor elevation. This small inconvenience was dealt with by erecting a set of steps going from the new living room down to the floor of the narrow hall that was once the porch of the log house. The reason for the 24 inch whiteoak piers was William M. was a federally licensed distiller of wine, brandy, and hard cider who needed storage for the products from his still. He dug a 16 by 22 foot pit under the living room of the new house which became his wine cellar, the entry to which was through the lower part of a very large chimney. My father told me the entry to the cellar was large enough for a wagon loaded with full kegs to be backed into the cellar. This new addition to the house was not completed in time for the birth of their first son.

Last Updated:  2 March 2008

E-mail Paula Duchesne

Left to right:  Nannie Bess, Sue, Kent, Chris, and Clarence, Sr.

C.M. Raulston, Jr. took this picture before the 1991 tornado destroyed the old barn.

Hub, Sue, and Kent

1946.  Side view of old house.  Evidence of wind damage?  Note old smokehouse on left.  Horses clockwise:  Chock, Emma, and Tinsey.  Behind the horses (good luck with this!) Clarence is chopping wood and Sue is standing on his right.

Arial view of the Raulston homestead in 1985.  According to C.M. Raulston, Jr., after the 1991 tornado, and the damage to the barn, Kent Raulston redid the barn and that was the last of the oak barns in Red River County.

Left to right, Far left is Clarence, Garland at the bowl, Linda, James, Jeanie, Nannie Bess, and Mary Evelyn.

Left to right above: Herbert (Hub) Raulston, Grandma (Nannie Bess) sitting on bench, Sandra holding the porch pillar, Clarence, Sr. holding Paula, Donald and James holding fish.

Sue with the chickens.

Buncha kids.  Kent is on far left and Hub is the one with the scowl on his face.

Clarence on the home place in 1956.

Below is 1960 with "Old Dick."

Clarence & Cora Sue

Nannie Bess Yarbrough Raulston

Kent & Clarence with Dick and Cat.

Above:  Nannie Bess is on far left and Clarence, Sr. is on far right.  In the middle are???

Above:  Nannie Bess Raulston.  Must have been wash day.  Note the old black washpot and tub.  Also the snow on the roof of the house indicates it was probably the first day of sunshine for a while.

Clarence Raulston on the porch in his later years.

A leaning tree @ Christmas.

This was Michael Boone's first Christmas.  Larry David Smith is barely in the picture on the far right.

Oak barn.  Rumered to be the last oak barn to stand in Red River County.  Was damaged beyond repair in the tornado of 1991 and rebuilt.

Sue and Chris - took a walk around the property in about 2001.  It was a blast.  We went to all the deer stands and it was a beautiful November day!