You can see the book, the Rachel Family by Ray and Ann Hall at the New Boston Public Library.  It has quite a few pictures of family members and family sheets for all of the descendants up to the publishing date, 1991.  They include some recipes.  There's a recipe for Muscadine wine on the very last page and this is about the right time of the year for that.  No, I'm not going to put that in here.  You will just have to go to the New Boston Library and read the book.

Nathaniel James Rachel and his wife Sarah Ann Fleenor came to Corley and later Maud, Texas from their birthplace in Washington County, Virginia by way of Indiana.  Nathaniel, 1848-1932, was the son of James Vaughan Rachel and Martha Vaughan.  Sarah Ann Fleenor, 1849-1923, was the daughter of Allen Fleenor and Sarah Wood.  Nathaniel was a farmer and a Baptist minister.  In 1882 he was the first pastor of the new Center Ridge Baptist Church in Maud which was also used for the school.  That church was moved in 1907 and eventually became the First Baptist Church of Maud.

The Rachel name may have come from French Protestants, Huguenots, that settled near Richmond, Virginia in the 1600's.  Members of this family are listed in the Albemarle Parish Register of Surrey and Sussex Counties, Virginia as early as 1741.

Fleenor is German in origin.  The earliest known ancestor was Johannes Fleenor or Flinner and his wife Anna and seven children who arrived from Germany at Philadelphia, Pa in 1754 on a ship named John and Elizabeth.  It is very hard to follow the names when you are in the 1700's because so few people could read and write.  The person that recorded the names did it by sound and was not a member of the family.

Washington County, Virginia is next to the southern boundary of the state of Virginia.  The next county on the south is Sullivan County, Tennessee.  When Nathan J Rachel and Sarah Ann Fleenor married, they eloped.  They rode one mule to Blountville, Tennessee and were married in June of 1867.  Later they moved to Washington County, Indiana where Sarah's Uncle John B Fleenor had moved.  Then they moved to Texas in about 1881.  After building a log cabin near Corley, they bought some land near Maud and built the home where they raised their children.  The children of Nathan and Sarah Rachel were:
 1. Mare E "Mollie", 1868-1921, born in Virginia, married W A Caudle
 2. William Jackson, 1870-1947, born in Virginia, married Ida Lee Bonham
 3. Cyrus King "Joe", 1872-1966, born in Virginia, married Mary M Morrow
 4. Caldonna E "Donna", 1874-1926, born in Virginia, married Robert A Minton
 5. Henry Allen, 1877-1932, born in Indiana, married Meranda Cosby Pardue
 6. Eddie Hugh, 1879-1884, born in Indiana
 7. Pearl Jane, 1881-1938, born in Indiana, married Lee Roy Fomby
 8. Willis Berry, 1884-1960, born in Bowie County, Texas, married Martha Ellen Fountain
 9. Omer Oliver, 1886-1948, born in Texas, married Elma Naomi Fowler
10. Virgie G, 1889-1945, born in Texas, married R Maxie Fomby
11. John Lester, 1892-1959, born in Texas, married Tommie Ann Bigbee