John William Prewett, born June 8,
1845, and his wife, Laura Dennis Prewett and their five children came from Franklin, Simpson
County, Kentucky to
Keller in the early 1880’s. The trip was
made by train.
They established their first home
in Keller and became members of the Mt.
Gilead Baptist
Church. Among their many friends, they were closely
associated with the Dave Price family.
The husbands said jokingly that whatever one wife served for supper, the
other was sure to serve for breakfast.
During their residence in the
Keller Community, two more children were born to the Prewetts, a daughter,
Helen, on March 22, 1883 and a son Jesse G. on February 21, 1885.
When the youngest child was
eighteen months old, the father sold his land west of Keller and bought a farm
in the Azle Community. This became
their permanent home. Laura Dennis
Prewett passed away in 1917 and Jesse G. in 1921. Both are buried in the Ash Creek Cemetery at Azle.
Their children married as follows:
1)
Maggie married Bob Farmer.
2)
Mollie married J.W. Beard.
3)
Will married Stella ------.
4)
Florence
married Clarence Alford.
5)
Walter’s first wife is unknown and his second marriage
was to Grace Prather.
6)
Helen married Ross Edwards.
7)
Jesse was married first to Minnie Echlund, second to
Eunice Tannahill and his third marriage was to Jessie Rogers.
In 1904, when Jesse was nineteen
years of age, he borrowed fifty dollars from a brother to make a down payment
on eighty-two acres of land in the Azle Community. The purchase price was $7.00 per acre. His first cotton crop netted eight bales,
which he sold for eight cents per pound.
With good management and hard work, he paid for the farm and
improvements in three years.
In 1905, he was married to Minnie
Echlund. Their first child, a girl, died
in infancy. The second child was a son,
Otho Wayne. The mother died in
childbirth and was buried at Azle.
The father was married a second time
to Eunice Tannahill, born January 28, 1880.
She was the daughter of William and Sarah Tannahill and the
granddaughter of R.W. and Mary C. Tannahill, who settled in Texas about 1852.
To this union, three children were
born.
1)
Aleene was born April 30, 1909.
2)
Lloyd was born June 16, 1910.
3)
Horace was born October 3, 1911 and died October 11,
1929.
Jesse Prewett returned with his
family to the Keller Community in 1914.
He leased the T.B. White farm, owned now by J. Ray White and conducted
five years of successful farming. In
1917, he bought a nearby farm of 173 acres from Sylvester and Neeta Brown
Rowland for $10,000. Soon he expanded
his operations to additional farming east of Roanoke, but returned to his Keller farm in
1923 and purchased an adjoining two hundred and fifty acres from S.B. Penny for
$20,000, making a total of 423 acres, which he still owns.
Otho Wayne, the son of the first
marriage, died in April 1923. He was
buried beside his mother at Azle.
The family was affiliated with the First Baptist
Church at Keller. The children attend elementary school at
Watauga and high school at Keller.
Aleene was a student at Texas Woman’s University at Denton
and later at the University
of Texas where she was
graduated in 1931. Lloyd attended North Texas University in Denton.
Tragedy took the life of Horace,
October 11, 1929, when he and his good friend, Woodrow Satterwhite, were
fatally injured in a train car collision in North Fort
Worth. He was buried in Mt. Olivet
Cemetery.
Aleene was married March 20, 1938 to
Ernest Amasa Callaway Jr. and lives now at 3420 Denton Highway, Fort Worth. Their children are:
1)
Sarah Jean, born June 29, 1940. She is married to Richard G. Williams.
2)
Robert Ernest, born November 16, 1942. He married Tommie Jane Davis.
3)
Susan Kay, born September 7, 1943. She is married to Willis A. (Bill) Baker Jr.
Lloyd, born June 16, 1910 was
married in 1939 to Eleanor Roberts.
Their children are Richard Graham, who is married to Patricia Ruth
Echols and a daughter, Ann.
The mother, Eunice Tannahill
Prewett died March 5, 1945 and was buried at Mt. Olivet Cemetery.
The father, Jesse G. Prewett,
established residence in Fort Worth
and engaged in the buying and selling of real estate. Now eighty four years of age and still a
farmer at heart, Mr. Prewett maintains his real estate office at 1501 Sinclair Building.
He was married April 5, 1952 to Mrs.
Jessie Rogers of Cleburne. Since then, he and his wife have spent
considerable time in world travel. They
reside at 2320 Tremont in Fort Worth.
Sources:
Mr. and Mrs. J.G. Prewett
Mrs. Ernest A. Callaway, Jr.
