Published in The Garland Daily News in 1980 as part of a series by Betty Roberts

R. S. PICKET FAMILY

The first Pickett came to America from ENGLAND in 1657.  William Pickett settled in Westmoreland County, Virginia.  In 1853, almost two hundred years later, his descendant Robert Samuel Pickett settled on Duck Creek.

Robert Samuel was the son of John and Mary Pickett.  He was born in Virginia in 1804.  The family moved to Kentucky when he was very small.

Robert Samuel married Margaret Carpenter in 1824.  Margaret died in 1829 leaving two small children.  R. S. married her older sister Permelia; they had five children.

R. S. and Permelia brought their family to Texas in 1853.  Permelia died in 1867.  R. S. married a third time to a widow Mrs. Fereby Jones in 1868.  Pickett died in 1888 at the age of 85.

The two children of R. S. and Margaret were Mary and Thomas Andrew.  Mary and her husband Joseph Puckett stayed in Kentucky when her father moved to Texas.  The Pucketts had seven children.  Mary died in 1856.  Joseph remarried and had three children by his second wife.  He died in 1866.

A letter from Margaret Jane Puckett to her grandfather written in 1867 indicates that at least eight children were taking care of themselves.  Margaret, age 24, was the oldest.  The boys were working; the younger children were in school.

Andrew Thomas came to Texas with his father and family.  In 1859 he was married to Tabitha Epps in Collin County.  They had six children; John, Andrew, Mary, James, Bob Sam, Edna.  A. T. died in 1887; Tabitha died in 1915.

John died at the age of twenty-five; he had never married.  Andrew married Emma Shufflet, and they had one child.  Mary died at the age of twenty; she had never married.  James married Della Flook, daughter of L. M. T. Flook.  (Della’s mother was Mary Bechtol.) Edna married Alvin Williams, and they had two children.

Bob Sam married Onie Williams; their five children were all born on the farm their grandfather, A. T. Pickett, had homesteaded.  The homestead, approximately half a section, was located at the intersection of what is now Shiloh and Beltline Road.

R. S. and Permelia had five children:  John, Robert S., James Henry, Julia, Margaret.  John married Sallie Sishman.  James Henry married Mary Routh, daughter of G. W. Routh; they had two children.  Julia married Pryor Wright, and they had eight children.  Margaret married Sam Leake; they had three children.

Robert Samuel, called Bob Sam, married Clarissa McDaniel; they had four children.  Their children were all born on the farm settled by their father and grandfather.  One son, Jim Sam, was born and died on the farm.  He had lived fifty-four years in the same place.

James Henry was born in Baron County, Kentucky, and came to Texas when he was twelve.  In 1902 he moved to California and died there in 1907.

A history of R. S. Pickett’s family compiled in 1979 lists more than 250 direct descendants.  This covers seven generations since the first Pickett came to the Garland area in 1853.