A 350+ Year Journey from the Carolinas to Texas

I wouldn’t say that I’m an avid family history buff, but I recently had full access to an Ancestry account so I took the opportunity to download as much family info as I could, including some facts my brother had documented several years ago. I was curious to see when my family first arrived in the United States and how long it took them to make their way to Texas. Here’s what I found.

The Patricks

My mother, Shirley Ann Patrick, was born in Rusk County Texas, as was I. The first Patrick in our lineage to arrive in Texas seems to be John Thomas Campbell Patrick, who was born on January 25, 1814 in York County, South Carolina. He came to Texas in the mid-1800s with his brothers, James and Marion. According to the Texas State Historical Association, they led a wagon train of Scotch-Irish Cumberland Presbyterians to Texas from South Carolina and stopped to rest at Pine Grove Presbyterian Church in Rusk County. The church community and piney woods so appealed to the Carolinians that they remained there instead of settling further west as originally planned.

There is an historical marker in an area that is known as Patrick Community that says,

"In 1854 the Patrick brothers, James Moore (1795-1867), John Thomas Campbell (1814-68), and Minor Leander (b. 1818), led Presbyterian families from South Carolina to Rusk County. John built a six-room log house on the Shreveport-Douglass Road. The brothers' nearby homes formed the hub of this community. Originally called Pleasant Springs, after the Civil War it boasted a church house and school, cotton gin, grist mill, store, and post office. By 1925 businesses closed but the school remained active until World War II. The church is all that remains of the once thriving village."

I have attended a handful of family reunions at that church.

In 1845 John had a son named Robert Daniel Patrick. Robert had a son in 1876 named John Clinton Patrick. John had a son in 1904 named Sam Houston Patrick. Sam was my grandfather. I spent much of my childhood with my grandparents, Carrie and Sam Patrick, at their home located just a few miles from where the Patrick family first settled.

Thanks to online resources, I’m able to trace my Patrick lineage back to the 1400s in Scotland. The first Patrick born in North America was William Patrick who was born in North Carolina in 1734.

The Harveys

My father, Jimmy Eugene Harvey, was born in Nacogdoches in 1936 and died in San Augustine in 2007. It seems that he is the ninth generation of Harveys to be born in the United States. My family arrived just 30 years after the Mayflower landed in 1620!

The first Harvey in my lineage to arrive in Texas was Blassingame W. Harvey. He was born in 1792 in Laurens County, South Carolina and moved to what is now San Augustine County, Texas, in 1826. Texas was still part of Mexico at that time.

Blassingame received a grant for a league of land in Lorenzo de Zavala’s colony (Zavala later became the first vice president of the Republic of Texas) on the Angelina River in 1835. Almost 100 years later my father was born to James LaRue Harvey. He met my mother in Nacogdoches and was married at Old Shiloh Church in Rusk County in 1960. I was born six years later.

British Ties

My father’s side of the family first came to “British America” in in the mid 1600s and settled in North Carolina.

Thomas Harvey, who was born in England in 1643, served as governor of North Carolina from 1694-1699, under the reign of King William III. Thomas was the son of John and Mary Harvey of Snitterfield Parish in Warwickshire, England. Thomas settled at what became know as Harveys Neck, NC, a peninsula formed by the Perquimans and Yeopim Rivers. He is brother to my eighth great-grandfather, Richard Harvey, who was born in England in 1648.

Richard Harvey came to the Virginia Colony some time in the 1660s but died in London at age 42. His son John was born in 1680 in Perquimans County, NC and died in Virginia in 1746. John’s son Charles was born in 1715 in Virginia and died in 1782. Charles’ son Littleberry was born in 1750 in Virginia and died in Louisiana in 1820. The Harveys seem to be making their way to Texas!

Blassingame, mentioned previously, had a son named Charles Calvin who was born in 1825 in Louisiana. Charles had a son named Napoleon who was born in San Augustine County Texas in 1847. Finally, the first Harvey in my family to be born in Texas! My grandfather, James LaRue Harvey, was born in San Augustine County in 1894 and my father was born when James was 42 and his wife, Pearl Markham, was only 16. She died shortly after my dad was born.

Strong Texas Roots

I’m not sure other states inspire as much loyalty in its people as does Texas. When I was in the Marine Corps I was due to give birth to my first child while stationed in North Carolina. I was very unhappy about this. Eventually, all three of our children were born in North Carolina, but after doing the work for this blog I’m not quite as upset about it. It seems North Carolina was a the starting place for both the Patricks and the Harveys. It’s no wonder I have always felt that if I could not live in Texas I’d head to North Carolina. It’s in my DNA! Ha! One thing is for sure though, there aren’t any yankee skeletons in my closet!