AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES, Wiley M. Crook

            I am not able to trace the ancestry of the mother of my children. However, I personally knew both her grandfathers. James Hendrix, her paternal grandfather, was reared in South Carolina, and migrated to Tennessee just after our government bought out the Indians of that country. He was a minister of the Gospel. I have heard him preach many times at Clark’s Creek and Middle Fork churches. He was a staunch supporter of the Confederate cause. He lived to a ripe old age and died after his granddaughter and I were married. In the last years of his life he was in the home of his son, R. L. Hendrix, the father of my wife. I very much enjoyed his advice to young men and his interesting conversation while giving my attentions to his granddaughter. He and my grandfather Crook were good friends and members of the same church, knew each other in South Carolina and lived near each other in the new country of Tennessee for many years. Grandfather was a leading man and a useful citizen of the country. The maternal grandfather of my wife was Silas Grider, also of South Carolina. He and my father were members of the same local Baptist church, and were intimate friends. He lived to be an old man and has told me a great deal about my father. We were delighted to have him visit us. Ellen and I always felt an especial interest in listening to his interesting conversation. I had the opportunity and pleasure of attending the bedside of this great and good man in his last sickness. He died at the home of his son, Ervin Grider.

            Richard L. Hendrix, the father of my wife, and my father were reared together, were about the same age, and were good friends. Father Hendrix had seven children, four daughters and three sons. James Hendrix, the eldest son, was in the army with me. He married Elizabeth Meadows before the war. Martha, the eldest daughter, married R. M. Arnold. Elizabeth, the second daughter, married W. M. Seaton. Both of these daughters also married before the war, and their husbands were in the army. Tabitha, the third daughter, married John Newsom after the Civil war. He was also a Confederate soldier. Henry, the second son, was killed in time of the war by the Federals while yet a mere boy. John P. Hendrix, the third son and youngest child, married in Jackson, Tenn., after we moved to Texas. I do not remember her name. Father Hendrix, though over age, volunteered in the Confederate army and served until the surrender.

            It will be seen from the foregoing that two sons and four sons-in-law of Father Hendrix were Confederate soldiers. I will here state the second daughter, Elizabeth Seaton, John Newsom and myself, are all that are now living of this interesting family.

            I have taken great pains to tell of the family of Father Hendrix for the benefit of my two sons yet living, and the widow and five children of my deceased son.

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