Linson Franklin Brewer was born in 1847 in Alabama.  His parents were Walter Claude Brewer and Alcy Evins who moved to Leake County, Mississippi.  Martha was the daughter of Orwin Graham and Lizzie Parker.  Martha was born in 1850 at Newton Station, Mississippi.

When Linson F Brewer was 17 years old, he enlisted to fight in the Confederate Army.  He was a member of Company E, 1st Regiment, Mississippi Calvary Reserve and was honorably discharged at the close of the war.

Linson Franklin Brewer and his wife, Martha, lived on a farm in High Hill, Leake County, Mississippi.  Their first six children were born there.  The last four were born at Malta in Bowie County, Texas.  Linson died in 1887 when he was only forty years old, and their tenth child had not yet been born.  The oldest child was twenty when Linson died.  Martha and the older children had to support the family by working the farm.  The family had come to Texas in January 1879 and had only been in Texas for eight years.  Linson was buried in the Old Salem Cemetery.  They were in the same wagon train with the Terrall family that crossed the frozen Red River to get here on a bitterly cold day.

The ten children of Linson and Martha Brewer were:
 1. Alcy Elizabeth "Dolly", 1867-1932, married Joseph Thomas Terrall
 2. William Lawson "Billy", 1869-1944, married Lois Landers, later his cousin, Genava Armetta Graham Collins, the widow of Billy Collins
 3. Willard Winston "Dick", 1871-1950, married Maggie Creal, later to Mary Ann Darres
 4. Fannie, born and died in 1873
 5. Martha "Mattie", 1875-1950, married William Bryant Wright
 6. Royal Merat "Pete", 1878-1952, married Julie Addams, and later to Mattie J Shirley
 7. Alma, 1880-1930, married Mathew Capps
 8. Oscar, born 1882
 9. Robert "Bob", 1884-1906, did not marry
10. Walter Columbus "Lum", 1887-1942, married Bessie Atkinson.  Bessie Brewer was still living in Texarkana when she was in her 90's

When a family like this one came to Texas, they had to buy a piece of land and have it surveyed.  Even if they received a land grant from the state, it was not easy.  Bowie County was not a grassland, the trees had to be cleared before a crop could be planted.  They built their frame or log house near a spring of water if possible.  They would dig a well or build a cistern for drinking and washing later.  Houses were covered with hand-hewn wooden shingles.

They brought livestock with them, chickens, horses to ride, hogs for meat, geese for feather beds, pillows, and eating the grass out of the cotton.  Oxen were used to pull the wagons.

Some families raised sheep for their wool and made wool yarn for weaving or knitting into blankets and sweaters.  Milk cows were essential.  There was no refrigeration and so you had to cook fresh food everyday with no leftovers.  Some foods could be dried like peaches, apples, peanuts, and beans.  There was plenty of wild game and so they ate squirrels, venison, quail and doves.  Wild Turkeys were still here.  People sent their cotton to Jefferson by wagon train and bought supplies there like cotton cloth, buttons and needles.  Furniture was made at home.

Every one had to have a smoke house for preserving their meat.  The ladies made lye soap with ashes and animal fat.  The cotton clothes could be boiled in a wash pot to clean them and an ironed white cotton shirt was a luxury.  Yes, those were the good old days.  No social security check, not very much government interference in your life.  My grandchildren would have died from starvation, no junk food.