In the later years of her life Mary Chisholm was known by all in the Chisholm Community as "Aunt Mary". Everyone knew her and of the struggles she had endured as an early Pioneer to the county, and she would share her stories with anyone who would sit and listen.
Her life began in Montgomery Co TN on 26 Jul 1822, born to Samuel Billingsley and Ruth Hale. She was raised in Tennessee and lived there until after her marriage circa 1840.
She married in Tennessee to William King Williams (1820 - 1844), son of Ezekial Williams and Lydia Murray. In 1842 they had a son, Miles Lemuel Williams (1 Aug 1842 TN - 1922 Snyder, Scurry Co TX).
By 1843 the young couple had relocated with Mary's father and brothers to Izard Co AR, and there William Williams died, before the birth of their second son, Reuben Anderson Williams
(9 Jan 1845 AR - 20 Jun 1890 Rockwall Co TX).
Mary Williams was a Widow at age 21, and with only hopes for a good life for her children, she decided to relocate to Texas, and traveled by wagon to Collin County Texas with her two small sons, making the trip with her brother and a cousin of William's. According to the journal of her grandson, William, Mary was in Texas while it was still a Republic.
Mary was a religious person and attended church regularly. It was in the year 1845 that she met Rev. Marcus Cicero Dupuy (1817 - 1852), a widower with a small daughter named Elizabeth, known as "Eliza".
The couple married circa 1847 and settled near the community of Nevada, now modern-day Lavon. On March 21, 1849, Marcus C. Dupuy bought 320 acres for his family to make their home. The land was situated on the T. F. Roberts survey, the deed listed in Vol B, Pg #277 of Collin Co Deed Records.
The family was enumerated in Collin Co TX Census - 27 Nov 1850
HH# 220/220
M C Dupuy 33 Farmer $160.00 TN
Mary Dupuy 28 TN
Miles L Dupuy 8 -male- TN (actually Miles Williams)
R Dupuy 5 -male- AR (actually Reuben Williams)
E G Dupuy 6 -female- AR
Slave 18 black female AR
Cicero Dupuy died 8 Dec 1852, and was buried 10 Dec 1852, the first interment in a place originally called the Dupuy Graveyard, near where Cicero and Mary had their home. The place is now known as the Abston Family Cemetery. His death made Mary a widow for the second time in seven years. They had no children in their marriage.
The land that was bought buy Cicero Dupuy and was inherited by Mary and his daughter - Mary gave her portion, in two parts, to her sons.
Just as it had previously, Mary's religion would once again provide for her. In their community, situated in the southern part of Collin County near the Kaufman County border, there regularly came a circuit-riding Methodist preacher named Enoch Parsons Chisholm. He made the rounds to oversee the "appointments", or sermons, on a monthly basis in the area where Mary worshipped. They two became acquainted and by 1853 Chisholm was himself widowed. A common bond brought the two together - Enoch needed a wife and mother for his children and Mary needed a husband and father for her sons.
Chisholm's home was in Kaufman County, about twelve miles from Mary's. In 1847 he had been made the regular minister of a Methodist Church at Kingsborough - later the town of Kaufman. Besides his duties as a minister, he owned the land where he farmed and raised cattle. The two married in Collin County on 2 March 1854, and the families were joined when Mary moved to his prairie home, southeast of the town of Rockwall.
