EMANUEL EVERHART

1818 - 1892

 

Emanuel Everheart was born April 11, 1818[1], in Hawkins County Tennessee, the tenth child of Jacob and Catherine Everhart.  The family lived on a farm south of the Holston River on Dodson’s Creek until after 1833.[2] Of the Everhart children that were living in 1844, Emanuel was the next to youngest.  His brother Thomas was about four years younger than Emanuel.[3] 

By 1836, Jacob had died, all of the family’s property in Hawkins County had been sold, and they had moved to Greene County Tennessee which joined Hawkins on the east. Emanuel’s older brother, David was living in Greene County with his wife and children.  Catherine Everhart and her three sons, Jacob, Emanuel, and Thomas probably moved there to be near David.  By 1840, young Jacob had married, and Catherine and young Thomas were living in his household.

Emanuel went to Benton County, Alabama in 1839, and remained there until 1848 when he came to Grayson County, Texas.[4] The 1844 Tax Assessment for Benton County, Alabama lists Emanuel Everheart as a white male between 21 and 45 years with no property.[5]  On November 10th 1846, Emanuel married Miss Rachel M. Montgomery in Benton County.  The rites of matrimony were performed by C. R. Smith.[6]

On August 3, 1848, Emanuel and Rachel’s first child was born and they named him William Calvin after Rachel’s father, William Montgomery.  Later that year they moved to Grayson County, Texas where Emanuel’s brother, James had settled in 1845.[7]  Some accounts of their journey to Texas state that Rachel’s mother and eleven of her children accompanied Emanuel and Rachel to Texas.  However, the tax records do not confirm the presence of the Montgomery family in Grayson County until 1852, when Thomas E. and George Montgomery first appear and Lucian P. Montgomery in 1853.[8] 

Usually a tax payer’s name will appear on the tax rolls the year after their arrival, so the Montgomery family did not arrive in Grayson County until about three years after Emanuel and Rachel did.  It is possible that Rachel’s mother, Sarah Steele Montgomery came to Texas with them.  If she did, she was not living with Emanuel and Rachel in 1850.

Emanuel Everheart was listed on the 1849 Grayson County Tax roll owning four slaves valued at $1200, and one white pole.  His state taxes for the year were $3.40.  He had probably just arrived in Grayson County when the tax assessor found him since he did not even own a horse.  One year later in 1850, he had acquired 3,346 acres of land valued at $3250.  He was also taxed for three slaves valued at $1700, three horses at $175, twenty cattle at $90, and one white pole.  The state tax in 1850 was $8.27 and the county tax $4.36.

In only six years – 1844 Benton County tax list until 1850 Grayson County tax list – Emanuel’s property had increased from nothing to $5,315.  Records to prove how he accumulated so much property in such a short period of time have not been located.  His younger brother, Thomas, told his children that Emanuel became a very wealthy man in the “slave trade” in Texas.  [9]  Emanuel did return to Hawkins County over the years and visit his brother there.  Thomas was pro-union during the Civil War, and they probably discussed and disagreed over the issues relating to the war.  However, there are no records to support their belief that Emanuel made his fortune in trading slaves. 

Rachel’s father died in 1843, and she was twenty-one in 1845.  She probably inherited something from his estate, and it is more likely that Emanuel and Rachel accumulated their assets from wise management of her inheritance than from selling slaves.

On January 6, 1849, Emanuel purchased four tracts of land from Montgomery B. Shackelford totaling 1806 acres.  The 610 acre tract described as situated on the “waters of Mill and Caney Creeks known as Caleb A. Carpenter’s bounty claim…land patented to William T. Gray as assignee Patent No. 45, Vol 3rd….” [10] became the home place.[11] Lumber was hauled by wagon from Jefferson, Texas and a big two story house was built.  Emanuel and Rachel reared their children and spent the remainder of their lives there.

Emanuel and Rachel Everheart were the parents of six children, all except William Calvin born in Grayson County:

William Calvin Everheart born  August 3, 1848, died November 17, 1910.

Jacob Floyd Everheart born December 11, 1851, died August 13, 1854

James P. Everheart born February 10, 1855, died August 26, 1878.

Thomas Emerson Everheart born June 10, 1857, died April 16, 1918.

Jack Montgomery Everheart born March 26, 1862, died 1913.

Kate Everheart born December 12, 1863.

In November 1854, Emanuel petitioned Grayson County Court for Letter of Administration and was appointed administrator of the estate of his brother, James B. Everheart who had died earlier that year.

The deed books of Grayson County are filled with deeds where Emanuel bought and sold land.  The number of slaves that he owned ranged from 3 (1850 through 1855) to 12 in 1864.  The three horses that he owned in 1850 gradually increased to an all-time high of 306 horses in 1876.  Emanuel was well known in North Texas for raising and selling horses and mules.  He often had twenty or so head of cattle, a few hogs, sheep and goats.  In 1864, Emanuel had 20,000 Confederate notes, but they were only worth $200.  Some years he would have a few thousand dollars “out on interest.”

Emanuel was a Master Mason, and he and Rachel were members of the Methodist Church.[12]  The Cumberland Presbyterians and the Methodist seem to have always shared a church building.  The Cumberland Presbyterians first organized on October 30, 1853, as the Pilot Grove Congregation.  Rachel’s mother Sarah Steele Montgomery and her brother Thomas Emerson Montgomery were charter members.   Some accounts have them organizing at Kentucky Town others at Pilot Grove. 

The Presbyterians and Methodist shared an old school house on Bois D’Arc creek east of where Whitewright is now located as early as 1852 or 1853 until Sears Chapel was built nearby.[13]   There was also a congregation of Methodist two miles north of Kentucky Town as early as 1852, that worshiped at Pittman Chapel later know as Batsell Methodist Church and Cemetery.[14]  In 1854, the Kentucky Town Baptist discussed erecting a building with the Cumberland Presbyterians.[15]   So there were Presbyterians and Methodist southeast of where Emanuel and Rachel lived as well as west near Kentucky Town. They could have belonged to either congregation.

In 1862, the name of the church was changed to Canaan Presbyterian – Methodist and it was moved about three miles east of Kentucky Town to the Canaan Community.  Emanuel Everheart gave land for the building in either 1862 or 1864.[16]

The Canaan Presbyterians and Methodist shared a building until sometime after 1897 when the Methodist moved out and built Everheart Chapel across the road from the original Emanuel Everheart home and near the Canaan/Everheart Cemetery.

On April 20, 1876, the Trustees of the Canaan Church purchased two acres from James King for the cemetery.  They paid him 33and 1/3rd dollars for the two acres.  The trustees were C. C. Montgomery, J. M. McMurray, E. Everhart, J. R. Carr, and B. M. Carr.[17]  The cemetery was originally called the Canaan Cemetery.  When the name was changed to Everheart has not been established, but several people remember when there was a metal drive-through gate with EVERHEART across the top. 

Rachel Everheart died on November 22, 1890 and was buried in the Canaan Cemetery near their son, James P. Everheart.  Emanuel died July 18, 1892, and was buried next to her side.  The inventory of his personal property filed in Grayson County Texas Probate records values the property at over $57,000.  After Rachel died Emanuel changed his will such that their youngest son, Jack Montgomery Everheart, got the home place after Emanuel’s death.  He had already given Jack 357 acres that joined it on the east.  Their house was destroyed by a tornado in 1918. 

 

 

 

Return to Jacob Everheart.

Return to Homepage.


[1] Tombstone, Everheart Cemetery, Grayson County, Texas & Emanuel Everheart family bible.

[2] Hawkins County Deed Book 15, p. 389, Jacob Everhart to Henry Loudback, 15 February 1833.

[3] Will of Katherine Everhart, Greene County, TN Will Book, p.525, 9 September 1844.

[4] Biographical Souvenir of the State of Texas (Chicago, 1889), p. 287.

[5] Mrs. Robert N. Mann, editor, “1844 Tax Assessment Benton County, Alabama,” Settlers of Northeast Alabama, Vo. XI, No.2 (October 1972), p. 63.

[6] Benton County, Alabama (now Calhoun County) Marriage Book 34.50, p. 114.

[7] Biographical Souvenir, p. 287.

[8] Grayson County Texas Tax Rolls 1846-1871, reel # 1019-01, Grayson County Library, Sherman, TX.

[9] Veda Pearl Jones Malayer (1907-2000), granddaughter of Thomas Everhart in phone conversation with Mike Everheart, 1998.

[10] Grayson County Texas Deed Book Vol. A, pp. 199-200, deed dated 6 January 1849, recorded 11 April 1849, Sherman, Texas.

[11] Emanuel Everheart’s will, Grayson County Texas Probate Court, Sept. Term A. D. 1892.

[12] Biographical Souvenir. P. 287.

[13]“Scrapbook” of  Rev. John W. Connelly.  1896.

[14] Joe W. Chumbley, Kentucky Town and Its Baptist Church (Houston, 1975), p. 16.

[15] Ibid.  p.14

[16] According to notes found in the old Canaan Minute Book.  Some of them made by S. P. Sears.  A deed for the property has not been located.

[17] Grayson County Texas Deed Book Vol. 32, p. 445.