FRANCES ADAMS HANCOCK
Submitted by Frank Butcher, updated
May 28, 2007
| As is the case with most marriages, Franky Adams’ marriage to
Lewis Hancock began propitiously enough, and the couple had 10 children
together. In addition to her natural children, Franky raised the six youngest
children of Lewis’ parents, Benjamin and Nancy Corn Hancock. Nancy died while
she and her husband were visiting family in Indiana, and Benjamin died less than
30 miles from the home of Franky and Lewis on a journey from Indiana to see his
sons in Tennessee. Unfortunately, Franky’s marriage to Lewis disintegrated. Her husband was apparently both a drunkard and a philanderer, flaunting his widow woman mistress living on the hill above the family home in Wilson County, Tennessee. When the last of the Hancock children left home, Franky went with them. Traveling with sons Charles and Blueford, and Charles’ wife, the group went first to stay with Franky’s son John Hancock, who lived near Springfield, Missouri. They remained there for about a year, then with their wagons and six slaves, their livestock and chickens, the family headed south for Texas. One of the tales of this journey was written down by Robert Benjamin Hancock as told to him by his aunt, Cora Estelle Hancock Tull, and is worth retelling. “By the time the caravan reached the Red River, the family was low on cash. In those days (1854) the trails of the emigrants converged at the river crossings. These fords became intermediate destinations where the travelers camped for a few days. They used this time to repair their wagons, shoes, and harnesses. They did the family wash, filled the water barrels, attended camp meetings and then spent a day or two trading among themselves. Priority was always given to the lame horses, the balky mules, and oxen. If you were good, you would improve your livestock. This time it was different. My great grandfather, Charles, needed cash. He took careful stock and to everyone’s surprise he told his wife, Archasia, to clean up her twelve year-old negro boy. These negroes had been born into the family back in Tennessee. None of them had ever been sold. It must have been quite an event, because many times I have heard my grandfather and his brothers and sisters retell this story as it was told to them by their father and mother and their grandmother, Francis. (Great) Grandfather Charles called everyone together, including the slaves, and everyone prayed and everyone cried and they said that little negro boy threw a fit. But in spite of prayers, tears and fits, Grandpa sold him for $700. We still wonder what became of that little boy.” On October 26, 1854, the family group pitched their tents a few miles west of Mexia in Limestone County, Texas. A few days later, they found an old abandoned log house that had no floor, door, or chimney. It was there that the family spent their first winter in Texas. Franky Adams Hancock eventually moved in with her daughter, Matilda Hancock Thomason, who had moved with her husband to Texas in 1848. Franky died on April 23, 1865, and is buried in the Hancock Family Cemetery, west of Mexia on U.S. Highway 84, not far from where the family camped when they first arrived in the area. Frank Butcher 2007 |