Mugg Cemetery

Thompson and Abigail (Kendall) Helms were a young married couple who migrated to North Texas to become Peter’s Colonists in the 1840s when Texas was a republic. This is the story of the trials, tribulations and sorrows that they and their children faced in settling on the Texas frontier. Documented with original court documents as well as other pertinent sources.

This book follows some descendants of the Reverend Guy Smith, an Anglican minister in colonial Virginia, as they settle Virginia, moving from the Tidewater counties to the Piedmont to southern and southwestern Virginia. In the opening years of the 19th century great grandson Bird Smith and his family left Virginia migrating to middle Tennessee where Bird Smith became a member of the state legislature and a brigadier general in the west Tennessee militia. Several of Bird Smith’s children moved to Texas and two particular branches are followed into the middle of the 20th century. Smith correspondence and documents, including letters from the colonial era as well as letters dealing with the Tennessee militia and documents from the Battle of New Orleans, are included in appendices. Other documents concern the activities of the Smith descendants during the era of the Republic of Texas as well as early Texas statehood. Major surnames include Birkhead, Bowker/Booker, Callaway, Christian, Draper, Dunn, Gilliland, Goodson, Hayley, Hennigan, Hicks, Hogsett, Hopkins, Howe, Ingles, Jones, Kerr, King, McCain, McClellan, Parks, Patrick, Patterson, Pullen, Ratliff, Smith, Stokes, Trigg and Withers.