ROBERT'S FAMILY HISTORY
In the early 1800's, Liberty Hill Community, Milam County Texas, located approximately sixty miles eat of Austin, a wealthy Anglo plantation, land and slave owner fathered a son and named him Author Scott.

Author lives with his parents until he became an adult. It was at this time that he noticed and admired Ellen, a slave woman's daughter. Author Scott's admiration and love for Ellen grew stronger to the extent that he fathered three sons by her and named them Henry, Sam & Megruder Scott. There is no recollection of what Henry looked like, however, Sam looked like an Anglo man, much like Author with straight hair and white skin. Megruder on the other hand looked more African American with light tanned skin and wavy hair.

Uncle Sam used to ask Robert's children, "Where did you get your hair from? Bessie has straight long hair and Robert doesn't have any hair." HE would tease the children by saying "your hair should be like mine, if a fly lands on my hair, it would slide off." This became a trademark topic with Uncle Sam.

Arthur Scott loved his sones so much that, when they became adults and took a wife, he gave each of them a section of land as wedding gifts. Same married Carrie Davis and to them he gave a plantation ranch, ell stocked with white faced cattle and some horses. HE gave Henry and Megruder a plantation farm each.

Megruder met and married Molly Wilson, the daughter of a Dutch woman and an African American man. Megruder and Molly seemingly lived the Bible. He loved her and she was submissive to him. He referred to her as Molly and she addressed him as Mr. Scott. Megruder and Molly had ten children, five sons and five daughters. Their son's were Robert Author, Willie, George, Roscoe and James. Their daughters were Bertha, Ima, Geneva, Cora and Vera.

Robert, Bertha and Ima earned degrees from Tillotson College in Austin. Robert's degree was in Agriculture. Bertha and Ima were school teachers. While attending college, Robert met a beautiful young woman, from Runge, TX, named Bessie Lena Smith. Robert and Bessie graduated from college at the same time. Robert and Bessie married to this union were born ten children, eight sons and two daughters. They named their children: Robert Lawrence, James Wheeler, Maurice Homerbre, Ella Marie, Sylvester, Alvin Bert, Edwin Nathan, Beno Andrew, Myrtle Ester and Leo Franklin.


BESSIE'S FAMILY HISTORY
James Porter Smith (Bessie's paternal grandfather) was the 8th child of James Porter Smyth and Sarah Fields. James Smyth, an Irish immigrant purchased Sarah and her son John in Kentucky. James moved Sarah and her son to Flaccus, Texas located between Austin and San Antonio where he took her as his wife. She bore him ten children: Charlie, Mary, Sidney, Thomas, Cora Eliza, Clarissa, James Jr., Minerva and Lolla. Sarah and James lived on a 30 acres parcel of land with their children.

James Smyth joined the Confederate Army in 1851. As a member of the 3rd Calvary he was seriously wounded at the second battle of Newtonia, Missouri. While it is unsettling, that a man with a black wife and children would join, it is widely speculated that local authorities pressured residents to fight for the South. James returned home and joined the Texas Rangers in 1864. No records exist for James, Sarah or the children until the 1880 census where Sarah is listed as a widow living on the land with her children and their families.

Sarah was featured in a short story titled "A Rural Agricultural Negro Colony in Texas," by Cesar Ledbetter. The story was published January, 1910 in the American Missionary, Volume 64, and the Southern Workman, Volume 39.

Sarah's son James, Jr. met a young woman named Ella Mary Davis and they had a daughter: Bessie Lena Smith. James Jr. had two more wives: Nazarene and Fannie. He and Fannie had four children: Major, Milton "Kingsley," Laura and Grace. Fannie died at the tender age of 32. James married Nazarene, they did not have children.

Susan " Sue" Sullivan, Bessie's maternal grandmother, is the daughter of Phillip and Julia, slaves owned by the Mayfield family. Shortly after slavery ended, Phillip and Julie changed their last name from Mayfield to Phillips. Sue met and married Zach Davis, a light-skinned mand with red hair. they had one child, Ella Mary. Sue later married Henry Sullivan around 1880. Although they didn't have any children, they raised Sue's niece and nephew: Lillie and Ivory Perryman, after their mother died in 1887. Henry and Sue also raised their grandchildren, Bessie Smith, Alberta Ray, Robert Ray and Wheeler Lott.

Flaccus "The Colony" Texas
Flaccus, five miles east of Helena in Karnes County, was the center of a colony of blacks who lived along McTennel Creek. The settlement dates back to Reconstruction, when area slaveholders released their slaves, many of whom retained the surnames of their former masters. The name Flaccus was chosen for a post office established there in 1903 with Lorenzo Perryman as postmaster. The post office was discontinued, and its records were moved to Runge, Texas in 1906. A school, referred to as Brieger school in the 1930s, was built there. In 1990, only a few wooden houses and some graves remained at the site. Sarah's son Charlie along with two other men paid $10 for the land where the cemetery sits.