Friend, Dave Wallis, and I were looking to take a road trip on friday, and I talked him into traveling to Hutto, Texas to see what had become of my grandfather's farm on Brushy Creek. The farm was sold in the 1950s and I was curious as to what was being done with the property today. It turns out that the old 200 acre cotton/corn farm is now a Dog Ranch/Spa complete with dog swimming pool and over a mile of exercise trails with obstacles. We found that the house and barns have been torn down. On our way back, we visited the Hutto Cemetery so I could get some pictures at the Evans Family Plot.
This is the headstone of my great grandparents, Alfonso Butler Evans and Mary Francis Holiday Evans. Alfonso was born in Simpson County, Kentucky in 1839. Sometime before 1860, he moved with his parents to Copiah Co, Mississippi. He fought in the Civil War where he was a First Lieutenant with the 6th Regiment of the Mississippi Volunteers. He is mentioned in the book, "Going to Meet the Yankees" by Grady Howell. After the Civil War, he married Mary Frances Holliday on May 22, 1867. They moved to Williamson County, Texas around 1880 where he farmed land on Brushy Creek (near Hutto) until his death in 1907. Mary Frances Holiday was born 1849 in Copiah County, Mississippi. She married Alfonso at the age of 18 and bore him 7 children with the fourth child being my grandfather.
My great grandmother on my Grandmother Lola Ham's side of the family was Alice L. Merris. She was born in 1855 in Pike Co, Illinois and married John H. Ham on April 26, 1874. She had six children but lost two of them in their childhood years. My grandmother was her youngest child. Grandmother Merris was married three times. She came to live with my grandparents in Hutto in her later years and died there in 1943 at the age of 88.
Alice Lydia Conner Ham (great grandmother Merris)
Alfonso Hackett Evans was born in Copiah County, Mississippi and it was soon after his birth that his family migrated to Texas. His family followed other Evans relatives that had written back to Copiah County about the good black farmland available around Hutto, Texas.. Alfonso Hackett had no plan to be a farmer and left the farm as soon as he was old enough to go to work for the Southern Pacific Railroad. He was working for Southern Pacific out of Tucson, Arizona when he met Lola Almeda Ham about 1906 . In 1907, with a wife and new baby girl to support, Alfonso was crushed between two boxcars and was lucky to escape with his life. It was about this time that his father became gravely ill and they traveled to Hutto where his father pleaded with him to take over the farm which he ended up doing. The man that wasn't going to be a farmer thus ended up being a farmer for the next 45 years. My only memory of my grandfather Al was of me sitting on his knee and smelling the smoke from his pipe while he was playing dominoes. They say that after he sold the farm, he played dominoes every day.
Grandfather, Alfonso Hackett Evans and grandmother, Lola Almeda Ham Evans with daughters Francis Arbuckle and Aldean Anderson.
Grandmother Lola Almeda Ham was born Jan 25, 1888 in Pittsfield, Ill. She left home at age of fifteen and went west where she found work as a Harvey Girl. She met and married Alfonso Hackett Evans in Tucson, Arizona on Dec 16, 1906. They traveled to Hutto and ended up staying and working the farm. She had four children with my father being the youngest. Grandmother said that she never liked the farm life and longed for the conveniences of the city. Grandmother moved to Austin a few years after her husband died. She spent the rest of her life in a house on Ave H near 38 1/2 St. She was involved in many civic organizations such as Grandmother's Club of Austin where she served in many capacities including President. She loved to fish and she loved to play dominoes. She loved to write and tried several times to have a story published in Reader's Digest.
The grave marker reflects that late in her life she married her distant cousin, Wells Ham, and became Lola Almeda Ham Evans Ham.
I have many fond memories of grandmother Lola. Much of this around our games of dominoes that we would play at every holiday. I feel that she used to let me win every once in a awhile when I was a kid and I returned the favor a few times when her memory started slipping. Even today the thought of her makes me get a little teary eyed.
Grandmother Lola Almeda Ham on left - Pittsfield, Ill
Lola Almeda Ham as Harvey Girl - about 1905
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