Elias Briggs Family - Family Histories

      Elias Briggs, son of Elias and Jane Reddick Briggs, was born in Beardstown, Illinois in 1839. He came to Coleman County in the early 1860's, and settled on 160 acres on Hog Creek, about 4½ miles northwest of Camp Colorado. About 1864, he married a young widow, Eliza Jane (Jones) Williams, born in Little Rock, Arkansas, February, 1840, daughter of Jacob and Mary Jones.

     Elias joined Captain J. J. Callan's Company of Minutemen, July 27, 1861, when Camp Colorado was abandoned at the beginning of the Civil War. The Minutemen were settlers who banded together to protect themselves from Comanches, Kiowas, and renegade white men. In 1863, he joined Captain I. Mullins Company of Local Defense. During the early formation of the county, he served as Justice of Precinct Five. He engaged driving cattle to Kansas, and despite the great drought of 1884, he kept his family together. Elias is remembered in later years as a smaller man with a long white beard, a kindly and upstanding citizen. Eliza died November 11, 1908; Elias, Noverber, 1926; both buried at Camp Colorado. A hip high wall, constructed by Elias, surrounds the family plot, in which can be seen at least eight unmarked graves of small children. Despite the high mortality rate, Elias and Eliza raised several children:

     (1) Emily J., born 1865;

     (2) Sarah Gertrude "Gertie," born 1867, married J. W. Watson in 1880 in Coleman County;

   (3) Francis Marion, born April 11, 1869, married Margaret Evelyn Sylvester (see Francis Marion Briggs);

     (4) Elias, Jr., born April 9, 1871, married Ader Cone, September 3, 1890 (recent research indicates that her name was Mandy "Manda' Ada Coin, daughter of Samuel and Nancy J. Coin, born in Texas. Samuel, born March 4, 1834, in Tennessee, settled south of Weatherford in 1864. He died in 1876, and the children were moved from relative to relative.) Children: Amanda (April, 1891), Thomas A. (July, 1892), Charlie L. (December, 1894), Arthur M. (July, 1895), Lemuel Elias (May, 1898), Gertrude (April, 1900), Hattie 1902), Ruth, William Preston 1907), Luther (August 15, 1909), and George, died young in Crockett County; (5) Aaron, born November, 1875, married Vitulah Y. Morris in 1898, children: William A. (January, 1899), Joseph Preston (December 12, 1900), Claude Elias (December 7, 1901- January 30, 1984, buried Coleman), George Thomas, (March 4, 1903), Henry Lee (October 17, 1904), Jay Coleman (September 6, 1906), Fred Steven (March 25, 1908), Cora Jewell (November 15, 1915), and Lena Bell (May 15, 1920); (6) Thomas Adam, born February, 1878, married Jewell Popnoe, then Toni ?, children: Edalee, Lela, and Bertha; (7) Ia C., February, 1880, married Maggie Baker, Ozona, in 1902, children: Evalyn (born 1914, married a Brimberry and lives in Big Spring), 3 boys, and one other girl.

     Around 1880, Elias and family moved to Crockett County, but in the early 1900's returned to Coleman County, settling around Leaday. Elias, Jr. moved with his father, even though married and with family, and was engaged in ranching. They lived in the Ozona area until 1916 when a disease struck his herd, which caused him to return to Coleman County for a fresh start. He lived and worked here for the balance of his life. He died April 27, 1947, buried in Coleman. Manda Ada died in Bernardino County, California, September 24, 1955, buried there.

     Lemuel Elias Briggs was born in Coleman County and met Alta E. Slack in 1916 when their parents lived on adjoining farms. They married December 13, 1919. "Lias" and Alta took up a farm north of Echo, where they lived for the next 25 years. Lemuel Elias died May 12, 1971; Alta still lives in Coleman. Alta was the daughter of John J. and Ida Lee (Neely) Slack, long-time members of the Burkett area. She was born November 11, 1900 in Grayson County, and moved with her family to Coleman in 1916. Her father was the son of John I. and Rebecca (Munnel) Slack, both natives of Ohio. Ida Lee was born in 1878 in Grayson County, the daughter of W. J. F. and Hannah Jane (Cornelison) Neely. John J. died in 1949, his wife in 1980, both buried at Burkett. The children of Lemuel Elias and Alta were Junior Lemuel (1925), Harvey (1928), and Betty Marie 1931). Junior Lemuel married Eureta Mountain, May 18, 1946 in Abilene. (See W. B Mountain). They had two children, Gary Rex, born May 11, 1950 in Cisco, now living in San Angelo, with their two children; Lana Kay, born October 31, 1952 in Coleman, married Hugh Ketchum, now living in Midkiff with their two sons, Jason and Randy. Harvey married Jean Smith and had two sons, Don and Michael, they live in the Dallas area. Betty Marie married T. J. Coats, June 11, 1948 in Abilene, and for many years, owned and operated a dry cleaning business in Coleman. In 1966, they moved to Abilene, where their two children, Larry D. and Pamela graduated from Cooper High School. Larry is, at present on active duty in the Army with the rank of Captain. He married August 16, 1974, Mary Helen Robertson of Aspermont, has one daughter, Ann-Marie. Pamela married Joe B. Lucke, Jr. of Anson; they live in Bryan with their two sons, Thomas Joe and Geoffrey Brent.