John Bowden and Anna Lee (Pepper) Brown were the first of our family to settle in Coleman County.  John had four brothers, Bennett, Mack, George Washington, and William Pinkney, and one sister, Patsie. Anna was the daughter of William Pinkney and Margaret E. (Crafford) Pepper, born November 4, 1876 in Albertville, Alabama; sister of Joseph (see Pricer), E. J., Walker Crafford, and William Pinkney. (See Jim Skelton).  She married John Brown, May 23, 1894, at Gunterville, Alabama.  They moved to Little River, Texas, where two sons, Charles and D. C., died September 21 and 28, 1900 at the ages of four and five.  Two more children, Louie C. and Nellie Elizabeth, were born there.  They moved to Oklahoma Indian Territory.  An infant son (who died), Raymond Lee, 1907, and William Adolfus, March 24, 1911, were born there.  Due to trouble with the Indians, the family moved to Valera, where Anna's brother, William Pinkney Pepper, lived. J ohn went to Mexico, working in the oil fields and on the international railroad.  Anna, Louis, Nellie, Raymond, and William continued to live in Valera.  1912 was a time of revolution and violent overthrow of the Mexican government.  John's letters told about the beautiful country, as well as the war; the letters stopped abruptly, nothing was heard of John Brown again.

     Anna worked as a seamstress and telephone operator in Valera.  In 1919, she married James Nealy Forehand.  Earlier that year, her daughter, Nellie, October 17, 1903 December 27, 1970, had married his son, William Pinkney Forehand, May 6, 1898-August 26, 1972, both buried Voss.  J. N., a widower and father of two sons and one daughter, operated the Valera general store.  His daughter, Rosa, married Johnny Kerbow, they had one son, Roy (see Abner Calvin Sparks).  J. N.'s son, Monroe, married Maggie Kerbow (see John Sanders).  J. N. and Anna moved to Coleman in the early 1950's.  She died June 23, 1953; J. N., February 4, 1956; both buried at Voss.

     Louis married and had several children, including Raymond and W. E. of San Diego.  In 1945, Louis married Velma Croft, who had daughters, June and Minnie Grace, and a son, Clyde.  Two more daughters were born, Lee and Louise.

     Nellie and Pink were a ranching family, and worked on the McKnight Ranch.  Their only daughter died at birth, but their son, Fred Richard, born in 1925, grew up on the ranch.  He died in World War II action, December 1944, at the age of 19.  Pink was a dump truck driver, working all over Texas; Nellie was a well known cook in the Coleman area.  They celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniversary, June 4, 1969; she died in 1970, Pink, in 1972.

     Raymond Lee, truck driver and railroad employee, married Kate Mulanax in Ballinger in 1928 (see Stephen Mulanax).  He died in 1963, buried at Voss.  They had four sons (1) Davy Lee, born in 1929 at Valera, attended Centennial School.  He worked at Martin Brick and served as a police officer at Coleman.  He married Gwen Barnett in Coleman, 1950.  Their son, Rickey Lee, born December 13, 1950, died the next day.  Their daughter, Carla, was born in 1954, married Jim Garret, lives in Midland.  Davy Lee and Gwen live in Abilene, where he is employed by Permian Oil Company.  (2) Weldon "Brownie," April 6, 1933 in Valera, graduated from Centennial in 1951.  He was employed by Martin Brick, served as patrolman and police chief at Coleman and deputy sheriff for Coleman County, presently employed by Amistad. vIn 1955, he married Betty Gassiot of Valera, had two sons (see Gassiot).  Terry Kent, born January 4, 1958, graduated from Coleman High in 1976, employed by the First Coleman National Bank, married Rene Callaway, June 11, 1983.  Todd Allan, born in Santa Anna, March 4, 1961, graduated from Coleman High in 1979 and Hardin-Simmons in 1983 with a degree in geology.  (3) Winfred "Porky" was born in Valera in 1936.  He and his wife, Herta, manage an apartment complex in Abilene, have three daughters, Elke, Doris, and Monika. (4) Lynn "Pig" was born in 1939 in Valera; attended Centennial. In 1962, he married Sandra Goode in Coleman; had children, Jeff, Kirk and Jamie Lee.  They reside in Abilene, where Lynn is a supervisor at General Dynamics. (See William Henry Cagle).

     William Adolfus attended Valera Grammar School and worked as a truck driver before joining the Air Force in World War II.  After his discharge, he visited his Uncle George Brown in Georgia, and met Mattie Allene Yarbrough.  They were married March 4, 1945.  Their daughter, Georgia Nell, was born January 5, 1946.  In 1956, they moved to Coleman from Crystal City.  William "Snort'' was a farmer and rancher until his health forced him to retire.  He died in Albuquerque, in the V. A. Hospital, in 1971, buried at Voss.  Nell graduated in 1965 from Coleman High.  Majoring in chemistry at McMurry, she left to marry Raymond A. Habiger, March 22, 1966, born in Waite Park, Minnesota, August 20, 1941, son of George Andrew and Hilegard (Forester) Habiger.  Ray was in the Navy, serving on the U.S.S. Kitty Hawk, his best friend was Jerry Graves, Nell's cousin.  After being pen pals for four years, they married.  In April, 1966, Ray went to Viet Nam to command a river patrol boat.  In April, 1967, he came home to meet his daughter, Carol LeAnn, born December 22, 1966 in Santa Anna.  At his new duty station in Kingsville, William Allen was born, February 21, 1968.  The family moved to Japan, where Ray patrolled the coast off Viet Nam and Red China; Nell worked at the military hospital.  The family transferred to California, then to Corpus Christi in 1975; Ray retired with over twenty years service in 1979.  In August, 1980, the Habigers moved to Coleman.  LeAnn and Bill are students at Coleman High; they are Church of Christ members.