HCGS May 17, 2012, Meeting

Sarah Clark Stevens, a descendant of the Hargrave family, spoke at the Hopkins County Genealogical Society meeting Thursday, May 17.  The Hargrave family played a significant role in the early Hopkins County history.  The family can be traced to Hezekiah Hargrave who served with General George Washington in the Revolutionary War.  Hezekiah married Susannah McMurtry in 1785.  The family migrated from North Carolina to Kentucky and to Indiana.

The first caravan of Hargrave brothers left from Warrick Indiana and arrived in the Red River District of the Republic of Texas in December 1842.  Selen Stout guided the caravan to Sulphur River Bluff.  The second caravan arrived in 1843.  At this very early date the county was a wild and unbroken wilderness infested with wolves, panthers, bears, deer and other wild animals.

Sarah now lives on the land where her ancestors settled many years ago.  She and her family are constantly finding relics to remind them of their past.  She displayed the bear trap she accidentally found buried in the dirt on the family farm.  The trap had been listed among the possessions in her great grandfather’s will.  The corncrib still stands near the original “bluff” at Sulphur Bluff.  The crib is constructed of logs and was used to store crops.

Sarah has spent years in the hobby of genealogy and family history.  She has completed a novel about the Hargrave family and the secret they kept for over two hundred and twenty years.  The secret has now been revealed.   Susannah McMurty had an illegitimate child before her marriage to Hezekiah.  “Our ancestors made the same mistakes just as we make mistakes today,” Sarah said.  Genealogy is a trail that never ends.

Betty Holden has presented the society with a set of large display flags for the United States and Texas.  The flags are on beautiful eight-foot standards and are on display at the library.  They frame the memorial tree where leaves honoring contributors to the building fund are located.

Those attending the meeting were Frank Rettmann, Ron Rasure, Laura Ardis, Barbara McCarley, Joe Mills, Katie Sinclair, Jo McCain, Mike and LaVerna Hipp, Lavyn Sisco, Jerry Gregg, Carroll Gregg, W. G. White, Jr., John Bradberry, Cynthia Loftis, Johnny Parker, Don and Marilyn Smith, Linda B. Johnson, Don Fausett, David and Deanna Blair, Virginia Davis, Marynell Bryant, Ronny and Anita Glossup, Sandra Glenn, John Sellers, Bobby McDonald, Ruth Sheer and Gary and Sarah Stevens.