VAUGHAN, ETC N EW S L E T T ER
January 1987
EDITOR; Verna Baker Banes
Page 6
MABEL HARP, 401 S. povell. Wagoner, OK 74467 wrote this interesting letter about her search
for ancestors. I thought yo.u would enjoy hearing how she used one clue after another! This .is the
kind of trail that makes family searching so much Fun! I always knew -that my great-grandfather,
William Vaughn and Sarah Ann Fletcher went -to Grayson Co., near Sherman, Tex. in 1890. They
left Douglas Co. Mo. after William killed his brother-in-law, General R. Johnson, whose wife was
Elizabeth Fletcher, sister to Sarah Ann Fletcher. They owned farms joining, each other and some
dispute over the property line and other things led to a fight.; with rocks and pistols, and my great-
grandfather killed General R. Johnson. I am sure that William and Sarah had come from Estill Co.
Ky. to Douglas Co. Mo. because General and Elizabeth were there. Elizabeth had died about five
years before this incident of T.B, She had 12 living children and I think the last one or maybe two
died. I-oor thing, such a hard life. Well this General R. Johnson was a brother to my great-
grandmother, Margaret Johnson Roller, on my mother's line. William was exonerated and went
to Tex. I knew that William died in Tex. and that Sarah Ann lived in Durant, Okla., but that was
all I knew. I didn't know Sarah's maiden name, my mother did not know, nor did my one living
uncle at that time. I got land deeds, marriage licenses and birth records from Grayson Co. on
George Vaughn, brother to my grandmother Malvina who married Ren S. Brummet. So the
Chamber of Commerce in Sherman sent me the pages from the telephone book there which listed
Vaughns, so I started to write to then - one was the son of George Vaughn, who didn't know much
but gave me the name and address of his cousin (Lura's son, she sister to my Malvina). But before
that I wrote to the funeral homes in Durant on the chance they might have a record of Sarah Vaughn's
death, and lo and behold it came back giving her birth and death date, the name of her father and
mother and where she was buried in Cedar Cemetery, Sherman, Tex, So again the Climber of
Commerce gave me the name of the Sec. of Cedar Cemetery and she told me the dates from William
and Sarah's stones there. Of course at this point I knew nothing about who William's father was, but
another of the Yaughns I wrote to in Sherman.answered and gave me the name of his niece, Donna
Hunt, Rt. 1, Box 884, Denison, Tex. 75020, who comes from this George Washington in the
"Souvenir" and she sent it to me, so there was the clue the unusual name Malvina. So, I got the 1850
census of Tenn. and found them there in Hancock Co. with William age 12. So there I had that. So
then by writing to Durant, Okls.. several times, I found the son of Lura,. Malvina's younger sister,
about 18 yrs. I think, without looking it up, and his daughter had done some work on the lines, but
like me and Donna Hunt, she knew no further back than William and Samuel, but she did have the
Church History that someone had written in 1960, and it all fell together. Lura's son had her Bible
which had a lot of dates in it, even the marriage date of William and Sarah. Then to the "Vaughan
Pioneers" which told a lot about John Vaughn and Nancy Callicott, and Lewis Vaughan who wrote
the book helped me on that. Then it was easy to find the Callicotts, someone wrote to me about my
line of them and he published a book on them, but I already had the information on minei he cleared
up for sure who Nancy Callicott's father was. So, I have been so lucky on all the lines I am searching.
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