Pioneers of Ellis County Peter Apperson   Peter Apperson was an early settler in Ellis County.  Born in Surry County, North Carolina, he  moved westward in 1810 - first to Cumberland County, Ky., and then to Barren County where he married Nov. 18, 1817, Elizabeth Petty, daughter of Rev. Ralph Petty, a Baptist minister.  After a stay in Tennessee, the family was in Springfield, Mo. by 1831 and in 1845 he sent his son, James, to Texas to locate land. James arrived at the little village of Dallas on December 1st, but decided to move on because he did not consider the land suitable for farming.  The party located a spring of water about 30 miles south of Dallas, on the south side of Waxahachie Creek.  They settled there and made at least two crops before Peter arrived in 1848 with his family and more slaves.  Peter was then sixty-four years old. The Apperson family is enumerated in the Ellis County 1860 census: Peter (66); Eliza (55); James P. (21); Mary (18) and John T. (8)..  By 1860 James (born in Tennessee) had married M. C.and had children: F. F. (6 m); A. P. (4m); A. E. (2f) and E. B. (5/12 f). they lived in Waxahachie as did  Peter's widow, Eliza, listed as head of household with son John, (14) and two Ward children, E. E. 10 and N. J. 8 - both girls. [daughters of  Mary Apperson?) His years in Texas were only a few since he died in 1853.  He was buried in the cemetery on his home place, which is on Howard Road .8 of a mile east of the intersection of Hwy 77 and Howard.  There is a rock wall around three of the graves with a group of trees growing in the center.  One broken stone was found on the outside and the top of the knoll is surrounded with field stones.  No doubt there were several other graves on the outside of the wall, but only one stone was found,  This cemetery is located on private property and is not maintained. Family Cemetery Name Date Birth/Death Additional Data Lula Glass May 3, 1879 - Apr 22, 1907 Broken stone outside the east side of the wall. Peter Apperson Elizabeth Apperson Willie A. Apperson Mar 23 1784 - Mar 31 1853 May 15, 1797 - Jan 23, 1865 June 21 1852 - Aug 23 1852 Triple marble stone set on inside of south stone wall which encircles the three graves   Copyright © 2002-2016, Ellis County TXGenWeb. All Rights Reserved. This page was last modified: Thursday, 01-Jul-2021 13:29:47 MDT