The James Priestly Family

Facts by Miss Harvey Watkins

In 1865, James Priestly (1817-1884) and eleven of twelve children born to him and Ann Eliza Ragsdale (1817-1860), who he married in 1838 in Tennessee, moved to Jacksonville. He and four sons served in the Confederate Army, all but one son surviving the Civil War. James Priestly, born in York District, South Carolina, had first come to Texas to Sabine and Dewitt counties. Near Jacksonville, in a community known to old-timers as "The Cuby Community," the Priestly family settled. He married Sally Jones, a daughter of Austin Jones, and five children were born to them, making the family total sixteen children.

Basically these people were engaged in farming and ranching. Some became merchants, ministers, teachers, business men and public officials. They were John Nimrod, William P., Edward Leonidas, James Polk (married Catherine Davis), Samuel Baxter (Mary Goodson), Francis Montgomery (Julia Allen), Ann (Jim) Goodson, Mary (Hardy) White, Martha (Jim) Scurlock, Phenia (Sandy) Matkin, and Harriet (Dave) Winters, all of his first marriage. Of the second marriage children born were Austin, Laura (Tom) Cole, David, Finis and Belle (Whitten, Fuller).

Two children of James Polk Priestly (1844-1926) and Catherine Davis (1857-1925) survive, of sixteen born to them. They are Rosa M. Priestly Choate and Peter Ragsdale Priestly. Twelve reached adulthood, however. James P. Priestly bought the home of his stepmother and some 200 acres of land, this site later becoming the town of Turney.

Many of Jacksonville's residents, both past and present, are descendants of members of the Priestly family.

James Polk Priestly (1844-1926), veteran of the Confederate Army, Mason and Presbyterian. He attended U.C.V. reunions in New Orleans and Fort Worth alone after he was 80.