HACKLER, John Wesley (1835-1911)
John Wesley Hackler was born in Tennessee on December 18, 1835. He moved to Texas about 1851 and married Ava Jane Davidson in 1854. She was the daughter of Allen Davidson (who is listed in the 1850 census of the county).

JWH enlisted in the 18th Texas Infantry (Company H) on June 26, 1862. He served in the Confederate Army until 1865 and served as a nurse from November 1-22, 1862. The is was a time when disease was killing many Texas soldiers, including JWH's brother, William Hackler, who was in the same unit.

After his service as a nurse, JWH was made sergeant and eventually was promoted Junior Second Lieutenant on December 14, 1863. He is mentioned in a manuscript written by John C. Porter, who wrote about his experience in the Civil War, where he also served in Company H. In the manuscript, Porter describes the November 3, 1863 battle of Bayou Bourbeaux, LA. Porter states:
"We went into the fight that day, with twenty-seven men in the Company; we had six wounded, to wit: A. Johnson, mortally, T. P. Ails, W. L. Montgomery, T. S. McCurdy, W. Lilly and Jesse Steelman, all slightly. We came out with only seven besides the officers, whoso names, I think, should be recorded in this book to wit: Joe and David Bailey, W. H. H. Cope, John Johnson, John Freeman, Jonas Ervin amd myself (J. C. Porter). the officers were Lieut. T. L. Skeen and Serg't Hackler. The remainder of the Company, I am ashamed to confess, played out."

After serving as Sheriff, JWH became Judge of Upshur County. He died on September 18, 1911.

HARLESS, Richard Fielding  (1905-1970)
HARLESS, Richard Fielding, a Representative from Arizona; born in Kelsey, Upshur County, Tex., August 6, 1905; moved to Thatcher, Ariz., in 1917 and attended the grade and high schools; was graduated from University of Arizona at Tucson in 1928; taught school at Marana, Ariz., 1928-1930; was graduated from the law school of the University of Arizona in 1933; was admitted to the bar the same year and commenced practice in Phoenix, Ariz.; assistant city attorney of Phoenix, Ariz., in 1935; assistant attorney general of Arizona in 1936; county attorney of Maricopa County, Ariz., 1938-1942; elected as a Democrat to the Seventy-eighth, Seventy-ninth, and Eightieth Congresses (January 3, 1943-January 3, 1949); did not seek renomination in 1948 but was unsuccessful for the gubernatorial nomination; unsuccessful for the Democratic nomination in 1954 for the Eighty-fourth Congress; Democratic nominee in 1960 for the Eighty-seventh Congress; resumed the practice of law; died in Phoenix, Ariz., November 24, 1970; interment in Greenwood Memorial Park.

HARPER, Nancy Ann (1836-1917)   (Thanks to Eunice Hoover Mitchell for this information!)

PICTURE
HARPER, Nancy Ann Decker Hoover, born 1836, not sure where. One census lists Miss. another Lousiana. Died Feburary 28, 1917 and is buried in Hoover Cemetery of Upshur County. Her father was John Decker. It is believed that her mother was Susan Ivey Decker but John has possibly three wives and there is some confusion as to when he and Susan Ivey married.

Nancy Ann married Abraham Hoover Jr. Febuary 3,1853 in Upshur County. To this union was born ten children; John (Little John), Mary Jane, Margaret Ann, Andrew Savana, Sara Adaline, William Robinson, Elizabeth America, George Jefferson, Medy, and Nancy Ella.

Nancy Ann married David Harry Harper January 6, 1880 and they had one son, Jesse Hughes Harper. David is also buried in Hoover Cemetery.

Nancy Ann's husbands were buried side by side at her feet. The following verse is on her stone.
Remember friends as you go by,
As you are now, so once was I.
As I am now, so must you be.
Prepare for death and follow me.

HAWKINS, JOHN MUNSON & TENNESSEE HOLT EDWARDS

http://kelseytx.com/stories/f55johnmumsonhawkins.htm

HELMS, Wylie - submitted by Ronald E Wade
In the year 1849, Wylie and Margaret Helms lived east of the Mississippi River, a territory very well settled up at that time. To introduce people to move west and settle, the Federal government would deed you a section of land 640 acres, with the agreement that you live on some portion of it for a period of three years. It did not make any difference what kind of place or a house it was. All they wanted was you to reside on it for that period of time and you got an abstract deed to it. The Helms under this agreement with the government started west looking for a suitable location. In doing this the most of them (not all) would look for a building place near or close to a spring of water with the idea that it was better than a well. The results of this search was a settling in the northeast part of what is now known as Upshur County, Texas. With no money or material with which to building, no material to buy if you had the money, no neighbors –the closest one 15 or 20 miles, no roads, no schools, no churches, no towns or cities because it take people to constitute them. A great adventure with a family and nothing but your old cap and ball rifle, a dog, a chop axe and a yoke of oxen and covered wagon. In this covered wagon was spent most of the time of three years in securing the title to the land. This land was covered with large virgin pine timber and all kinds of wild animals, when food was in need in the way of meats the old rifle was the only weapon to bring it down so he could carry it in. When in need of building material the old chop axe was all he had to cut down the huge trees, work them into material that would be suitable for a building. In this building was two rooms, 18 x 20 feet, with a 12 foot hallway that connect them together, a huge rock chimney built at both ends of the building with a pot rack placed in it so as to swing them large iron pots of food to cook. Since some might not know what a pot rack is – it is a large iron bar that extends from one side of the chimney to the other, straight across the center about a foot one half up from the opening. Rods were generally used with a hook on both ends to hang over the pot rack then on the bail of the pot of food that was cooking to keep it from turning over. The opening of the fire place was generally about four feet, the hearth was about the same four feet square so as to accommodate the cooking with hot coals, the old iron skillet with a lid that would fire on top of it. The walls of the house was heart pine, no sap on them at all, six inches thick perpendicular, eighteen inches, thus taking eight of them to make the wall twelve feet high. The ends were carefully notched to fit into each other so that the weight of the timber made it pull together.

Wyle was a short man. He weighted somewhere about 110 lbs. Margaret, his wife, was a tall woman. She was one-fourth Cherokee Indian. They had a horse, Buttons, a buggy that they used to visit their children.

HENLEY, DON

HOLLOWAY, ROBERT FANNING (1867-1939)

Robert Fanning Holloway, educational administrator, son of John T. and Mary (Reid) Holloway, was born at Pritchett in Upshur County, Texas, on February 24, 1867. He graduated from Add-Ran Christian University (now Texas Christian University) in 1892. Shortly thereafter he became principal of Oak Cliff High School in Dallas. In 1896 he married Lou Ella Clark, daughter of Randolph Clark. They had two children. He taught mathematics at Add-Ran Christian University, Add-Ran Jarvis College at Thorp Spring, and John Tarleton College (now Tarleton State University) at Stephenville. He was superintendent of schools at Comanche, 1911-19; president of Randolph College at Cisco, 1922-25; and superintendent of schools at Ranger, 1925-34. From 1934 until his death, Holloway was manager and secretary-treasurer of National Educators Finance Corporation, an investment company owned and operated by and for teachers. He helped organize the University Interscholastic League and the Texas State Teachers Association; he served the latter as director and vice president. He was a board member, Sunday school teacher and superintendent, and director of music in the Christian Church. He died on December 19, 1939, in Fort Worth and was buried in Stephenville.

HOOVER, Abraham Sr. (Thanks to Eunice Hoover Mitchell for this information!)

Abraham Hoover Sr., born 1790 in Pennsylvania, son of Revolutionary War soldier, John Hoover, moved to Kentucky, with his family, before Kentucky was a state. They lived there eight years. After Kentucky became a state and legalized slavery, this being contrary to their convictions, they moved to the free state of Ohio.

The family sold their Kentucky farm, bought some cattle and horses and made their way to Franklin County, Ohio, where some Kentucky friends had settled. They bought 200 acres of land and later discovered that the man they bought it from did not own it, so had to pay for it again.

On the way to Ohio the cattle and horses got away and only one horse was found and that one was in the possession of an Indian.

A two-room log cabin was built was built for the family (and until 1961 was still ocupied but was then swallowed by a building project). A round log (unhewed) school house was built on the farm. where the younger children received their education.  Abraham's mother and father are buried on the farm, which is on Hoover Road inside  Grove City, Ohio.

In 1811 Abraham married Nancy Robinson in Jackson Township,Franklin County, Ohio.  Five (or possibly six) children were born to this couple in Ohio, Margaret, John, David, Nicholas, Rachel and Joe. By 1822 when Willam was born they were in Edwardsport, Indiana. Six more children were born to them in Indiana - Abraham Jr., Nancy, Mary Ann, George Jefferson, Jane and James.

In Indiana,  they met the Caffey family, who would play a big part in the Hoover Family history. Three of Abraham Sr's children, Nicholas, Rachel and Mary Ann married into the Caffey family. And these Caffeys came to Upshur county when the family move there in about 1846. Other families united to the Hoover family, by marriage and found in Upshur County census records, are Haney, Johnson, Willis, Gage, Osborn, Harper, Ellison, Marsh, Bauman, Stegall, Baird, Reed, Williams, Hitt, Wells, Stephenson, and Cosslet.

Abraham was a farmer, as were most of his children. The family owned over a thousand acres of land in Upshur County at one time and though no slaves are found, there was an "overseer, D. W. Been" listed in Abraham's house on the 1860 census. Two of his sons  had water powered  mills on Big Sandy Creek at Old Seago crossing. One mill was used by nearly all of Upshur County as a grist mill and flour mill and at one time they had a large saw mill. Boards from the saw mill were used to build one of the early courthouses.

Abraham and Nancy and several of their children are buried in Hoover Cemetery on the banks of Big Sandy Creek. The cemetery was named for this family and is believed to have been located on Abraham Sr.'s farm.

HOOVER, Nancy Ann Decker Hoover Harper  (See Harper)
 

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