STORIES MY FATHER NEVER TOLD ME
A Memorable Train Trip, or Lucy Ann Babb's "Pike's Peak" Farm

Time and again, history demonstrates that the direction of peoples' lives is changed by entirely unanticipated circumstances. The story of Lucy Ann Babb's "Pike's Peak" farm, which explains why and how the Babb and Butler families came to live at Denison in Grayson County, Texas is a typical case in point. What happened in the end also serves as a reminder that things don't always work out the way that people hope.

PART ONE: WHERE THERE'S A WILL, THERE'S A WAY

The story actually begins in 1878, when Mary F. Butler, the middle-aged widow of Mexican War veteran Alfred Butler, began sending letters to her sixty-four-year-old bachelor uncle, L. E. (Lysander Edward) Stanley, asking if she come could to visit him at his home in La Grange, Fayette County, Tennessee. In late July, after his health "got very bad," he invited her. When she replied by telegram that she would need some money to make the trip, he generously supplied it. Unfortunately, what Mary's uncle presumably hoped would be a pleasant visit from an affectionate niece apparently turned out to be something completely different. In a diary entry dated September 30, 1879, he wrote:

Mrs. M. F. Butler wrote me repeatedly that she wanted to visit me. It had [been] so long she said since she had seen me. My health got very bad and I concluded to write to her, and did, asking her to come, on Thursday the 25th of July last. I wrote this letter to her, asking her to write as soon as she received it, and hoped she could start as soon as it came to hand &c. In a few days I received a telegram saying that if I would send her money she would come or start right away, as soon as received, or the money came to hand. I sent a Post Office money order for Fifty dollars which was twice as much as was needed. I thought that she could fix up a little, perhaps she would want to and not spend the money, but instead of doing that, she brought her son with her, whose railroad fare and expenses took the other half of the fifty dollars, and both of them came in a very common garb, and hints to me were often dropped that I ought to buy them some shoes and other things. The Son did not forget to bring a large six shooter in an old carpet bag, and that was all he had in it. I found out by a letter wrote to me that he is a married man and ought not to have left his wife as he did, but his m other and he wanted to keep it a secret. What their motive can be in that, I cannot learn. I think something is wrong in Denmark by their actions in several things. I am led to believe that their object was or is to get what little I have. Mrs. Butler often says she is pleased to see me improved so, that my health is good &c. but often on the other hand says or intimates that I ought to die, that I am old enough to died. She does this in rather a joking way to me, but whenever she speaks of others and asks their age, she always says they ought to die, they ought to be out of the way of the younger ones, and the young people could take what they had and enjoy it, for what they had did them no good, the were too old &c., nearly as old as I was. I can see in her very actions and countenance that she means what she says. She has a very tender feeling for her son, she dotes on him, and I believe would to any length for him, and he minds every word of hers, whether right or wrong, and her religion is that if any person does wrong, they can't help it, that God has made them so &c. For certain reasons and her actions in one case, I have lost all confidence in her and her son too. Should I die while they are here, I want Dr. J. J. Pulliam to take charge of what little I have and give them enough to take them to their home (Bryan, Texas) and not a cent more, for they have got enough for their share. I have a little over Four Thousand in money, and owe Dr. Pulliam a Medical Bill, which is every cent I owe. I have a number of relatives in Texas, if they are no better than these, I don't want them to have a cent neither. I have a namesake, L. E. Stanley, living now in Weatherford, Parker County, Texas, if he is all right he could have it all, if not, none. Old Aunt Lucy Freeman Col. [colored], I want her to have One Hundred and fifty dollars. She is honest and has protected my interest more than any one else ever has done, and can live in the room she now occupies, as long as she lives, if she wants to do so, and no one is to molest her in her right, and she has a cow and calf which I gave her a few years ago, when the cow was a little calf, because she saved its life.

I have not finished my wishes yet, but I am interrupted and must stop, but it is as good as I can say now, and I want what I have said above carried out by all means if I have any friends.

L. E. Stanley

I will write more if I can at some future time, but parties will tear up or destroy this if they got the chance.

Reading the foregoing entry, one cannot help but wonder: Was L. E. Stanley simply a senile, paranoid old man with a persecution complex or did Mary F. Butler, believing that her uncle had only a short time to live, visit him only for the purpose of getting what she could from him, just as he suspected? No one alive today knows the answer but unfortunately, by their choice of words and deeds, it is quite clear that Mary and son James made themselves unwelcome. Regrettably, we do not have Mary's version of the visit. Was she really the grasping opportunist that her uncle believed her to be? It is not hard to imagine that being unfamiliar with her uncle and his personality she may have inadvertently said things that caused him distress. Perhaps her only actual offense was a lack of tact, in which case the whole situation was nothing more than a regrettable misunderstanding, to which L. E.'s apparently suspicious mind may have been a contributing factor. A man who never married and therefore had no children of his own might have found it hard to understand the bond of affection between parent and child, hence his disapproval of the obviously close relationship between Mary and her son. His niece's flippant remarks about old people dying are a little more difficult to excuse or explain. Certainly, it is not hard to see how an old man in ill health would have found such comments distressing no matter how humorously they might have been couched.

In an entry dated October 3, 1878, apparently written after Mary and her son had returned to Texas, L. E. wrote that in the event of his death he had charged his housekeeper, Lucy Freeman, to tell his doctor, J. J. Pulliam "what I have told her" and that he was placing his diary in her care as well. He added that Pulliam could "do as he thinks best" in regard to his property and also that he wanted his "grave lots" to be "put in good condition." After all, he remarked, "I have plenty to do it with." In conclusion, he added: "All my kindred is distant, and they care nothing for me."

It seems likely that L. E. might have remained estranged from his kinfolk in Texas for the remainder of what was left of his life if Mary F. Butler's sister, Lucy Ann Babb, had not decided to write to their uncle as well. In another diary entry, dated February 28, 1879, he explained:

Rec'd a letter from Mrs. L. A. [Lucy Ann] Babb, the first I ever received from her. She is my second cousin [it is believed that like Mary F. Butler, she was actually his niece]. They all hear that my health is bad and it makes them write. But if I have anything to leave to any of my relatives in Texas, I had rather Lucy Ann Babb, who resides at Wortham, Freestone County, Texas and L.E. Stanley, my namesake, who lives at or near Weatherford, Parker County, to have what I have than any of the rest. I do not want Mary F. Butler or her son J. A. Butler to ever have one cent of my Estate, should I leave anything. They got their share before hand in a way I did not like.

The reason why L. E. Stanley decided to favor these two particular relatives in preference to any others is unknown. There is no evidence that either Lysander or his sister Lucy Ann was any better acquainted with their uncle than any of their other eight siblings (with the unfortunate exception of sister Mary). There is also no record of either one going to visit him. Be that as it may, after L. E. Stanley passed away at his residence in Lagrange on the morning of Friday, November 28, 1879 (while drinking a cup of coffee according to a newspaper obituary), five journal entries that he made regarding the disposition of his estate were deemed by the circuit court of Fayette County to constitute his will. It was noted that at the time of his death, he was "about sixty-five years of age, a bachelor, living alone and keeping house with one servant, an old negro woman named Lucy Freeman." It was also recollected that L. E. "was a justice of the peace, the treasurer of the town corporation, and also treasurer of one or more lodges of secret societies." It was estimated that his personal estate was worth "about $4,000" and that he owed "realty of nearly equal value," which was the equivalent of more than $95,000 today (2015). But that was not the end of it. When Mary F. Butler discovered that she was not an heir to her uncle's estate, she and at least one other sister, Elizabeth, who was married to Judge William Reason Reagan (brother of Senator John H. Reagan), decided to contest the will, with husband William acting as their attorney. It is possible, but not known, that there were other plaintiffs.

In 1882, while waiting for the legal process to slowly wind its way through the courts, Lucy Ann Babb separated from her reportedly hard-drinking husband, Isaac L. Babb, and took her two youngest children—Annie and Hugh-to live in Denison, Texas with her daughter Ella, whose husband, Charlie Heason, was an English immigrant employed by the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad. At that time, Charlie and Ella Heason lived on the north side of Morton Street, in the third house from the corner of Morton and At the same time, Lucy Ann's teenage son Arthur, along with his younger sister Ione, went to live with half-sister Virginia Alice (Lucy Ann's daughter by her first marriage to Madison Owen), who was married to their cousin Will Butler (Mary F. Butler's son and James Butler's younger brother), which also made him their brother-in-law. Ione later went to live with another sister, Josie.

One can easily imagine that having two of Lucy Ann's children living with Mary's son, who also happened to be married to another one of Lucy's children, created an awkward situation, but if the lawsuit caused any ill-feeling among the various relatives, any record of it has been lost to history.

In April 1883, the case was taken up by the Tennessee Supreme Court, which sustained the decision of the circuit court. However, it was not until two years later, on April 30, 1885, that Lucy Ann finally received her inheritance, which after lawyers' fee and other costs were deducted, came to exactly $1,501.73.

Read Part Two: A Memorable Train Trip