Frances
America and her twin, Chris, were born
September 3, 1848. They were
children 12 and 13 in the family.
January
4, 187I Frances *Fannie' married Franklin
Jefferson Etter in McMinn
County, Tennessee. Frank was the son of
Jefferson and Anna Etter from
neighboring Monroe County. After the birth
of their son, Columbus
Walter, the Etters traveled north to
Sangamon County, Illinois to see
what it might hold in store for them. The
family welcomed daughter Anna
Gertrude into the family in 1876. However,
Frank and Fannie decided
that Illinois was not what they were looking
for and about 1877/1878
they were traveling once more. Texas
presented a contrast to life in
Illinois. It was still the "wild west".
Grayson County was experiencing
both an economic and population boom which
provided more land
availability and had half the population of
Sangamon County. The Etter
family soon set about establishing
themselves on a small 30 acre farm
near Pottsboro where William Franklin was
born in 1880 and Cleopatra
about 1885.
In the early 1890s Frank and his family
moved into
Sherman where they resided at 620 S.
Montgomery Street. Frank
temporarily laid aside his plow and took up
the badge in 1895. He
served as a police officer for the town of
Sherman through 1899. Then,
for a few years, he was in partnership in
"Bond & Etter"
dealing in
real estate.
The
children:
Columbus
Walter - born November 23, 1873 Tennessee;
worked in the cotton
processing industry starting with the Birge,
Forbes Co. in 1896;
married Frances Kirschner - December 27,
1905 at Sherman Baptist
Church, Grayson County; no children.
Anna Gertrude "Gertie" -
born July 2, 1876 Illinois; married
William Wheat Collins -
March
5, 1895 at Sherman Baptist Church, Grayson
County; 1 child; lived in
Howe, Grayson County, Texas; died July 11,
1908 from typhoid fever
while visiting her parents in Ada, Pontotoc
County, Oklahoma; buried Hall Cemetery,
Howe, Texas.
William Franklin - born February 2, 1880
Texas; went to Waxahachie,
Ellis County, Texas in 1900
Cleopatra (aka "Cleo P.") - born 1885 Texas;
school teacher at Howe,
Grayson County, Texas 1905/1906
Franklin
and Frances Etter moved north into
Oklahoma/Indian Territory in 1904.
Children Walt, Will and Cleo all left Texas
for the new state of
Oklahoma by 1910.
C. A. Parsons
January 16, 2021
