PVT. VAN S. DOUGHTY,
CO. B, 10TH TEXAS INFANTRY

TALKS TO THE BOYS OF 60'S

     Will you please allow me a little space to come in and talk to the boys of the 60's?    I am an old Texas ex-Confederate soldier, though I was born in Coles County, Illinois in 1840.   Moved to Texas in 1852.   Father settled in Limestone County, which was then very sparsely settled.   Our nearest neighbor lived three miles from us.   Springfield was then the County seat, near where Groesbeck stands.   There used to be a lone elm tree that stood in the prairie, to which I could go of mornings and climb into its branches and look for the work oxen that I was to plow that day.   Fifteen or twenty acres was a good size crop those days in Texas.   Deer, antelope, wild turkey, and in the Navasota bottoms, boar were plentiful.

     Out of the 114 in our company that started from Limestone County, Texas, only nine as I remember got back home after the war.   After the war was over, I came back home but finding the country so changed, I soon became dissatisfied.   I worked me out a horse and a saddle with the two six shooters that I managed to bring back with me from the War.   I started to rambling about over Texas, stopping now and then to work some and then go on.

     After getting tired of the prairies of Texas I started to Arkansas, got back down in Anderson County and stopped to do some work for a man by the name of Cook and finding him to be an agreeable and fair-minded old fellow I decided to stay with him through the crop season.   When my time was out I did not go on to Arkansas but married his oldest daughter, Betty in 1867.

     My best days were spent in Texas.   Indeed, it seems like home. The War disqualified me to accept any opportunities that Texas offered in the way of getting a home.   I was too restless and indifferent and never gave a serious thought as to what my condition might be in old age, and now I am over here in Oklahoma, an old man without a home of my own.   Betty is still with me.   Our two children, one son, and one daughter are living near me.

     It is my sincere wish that if any of my old soldier mates see this letter in the good old News, they will please sit down and write me a little letter, for the boys who wore the gray I love yet.   Some may remember me as little "Dote."   Success to the News and all who read it.

     Van Swearington Doughty was born on January 20, 1840 in Coles County, Illinois, and died on February 20, 1922 at Graham, Carter County, Oklahoma; he is buried in the Milo Cemetery of that location.   My great grandfather Van married Sarah Ann Elizabeth Cook on November 29, 1868.

     Van said in his letter above that he was restless after the war. I have followed his journey across Texas and into Oklahoma.   He lived in the following places: 1868 - Anderson County, Texas (marriage licensee); 1870 - Meilan County , Texas (U. S. Census); 1880 - Stephens County, Texas (U. S. Census); 1885 - Wheeler County, Texas (son, George was born there; 1887 - Palo Pinto, Texas (daughter's marriage license and a letter from the younger daughter to her Uncle Aspley Cook); by 1900 he was in Chickasaw Indian Nation, Oklahoma Territory (U. S. Census).   As you probably know, the 1890 census was destroyed and I have no way to trace Van between 1887 and 1900.   However, his oldest daughter died in 1899 and is buried in Carter County, Oklahoma.   I am reasonably sure that Van was in the Territory then, because he and Betty too her sons and raised them.   It is hard to imagine all of these moves, with a family, in a covered wagon.   Van was a farmer.   He owned no land according to the census, but was a tenemant farmer.

     Van and his brother John, enlisted first on August 23, 1861 in Capt. L. J. Farrar's 4th Texas Cavalry, at Camp Tarrant, Ellis County, Texas.   The company was disbanded after about 20 days and the men left.   No reason was given.

     The only information I have on Van's brother, John P. Doughty is from the 1860 Limestone County, U.S. Census.   John was born about 1833 in Coles County, Illinois.   He died on July 2, 1862 in Little Rock, Arkansas of disease.   He was not married and was the oldest child.

     Here is a story about Van's death.   My father, Latha George, was the oldest son of Van's only son George Luther.   Dad was born in 1912 and lived very near his Grandparent's and spent a lot of time with them.   The story as told to me by my dad and several others, goes: Dad was nine years old. He and his grandpa were doing evening chores when Betty called them to dinner.   Van, then 82 years old, challenged my dad to a "foot race" from the barn to the house. Van died of a heart attack either during the race or at the finish.   My dad blamed himself for the death of his grandfather for many years and rarely spoke of him.