Comments on: Kimball Texas, Ghost Town and Chisholm Trail Cattle Crossing

By: CMR

CMR — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 19:02:58 +0000

Ron, I only have small info on the family history, except for what my Nanny and her siblings have told me; however, I do have photos of them with wagons traveling from AR, OK, and TX. Don’t know just where these pics were taken, only that they were in mostly of TX and family. My cousin is a Kimball and her grandmother and my great grandmather were sisters. The Bailey, Johnson, Kimball, and Bush family is what I know about, but mostly the Johnson family since my grandpa was Lee Johnson and his wife was Mollie Charlotte Bailey-Johnson.

My my mother’s father was Gaylord Morris (or Morrison) who was from OK and TX. We have very little on his family or him. He lived in Fredericks, OK in 1930.

By: Sam

Sam — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 14:35:58 +0000

Ron From an article in the Handbook of Texas Online the trail is compared to the roots of a tree. So, this far south the trail was not a straight line. In this article they describe the trail as going from Austin to Fort Worth and on to Decatur. The river crossings were better defined. Waco and Kimball Bend were river crossings. This page on the Texas Historical Commission web site lists towns on the trail. Also have a look at this brochure from the commission. The Chisholm Trail cattle drives occurred very early in Texas history. The THC brochure claims the drives had shifted west by the second half of the 1870's with the bulk of the cattle having passed north before that. Meridian was not incorporated as a town until 1874. As I looked around I could find no info to suggest that Meridian was on the trail. But the history is so dodgy on this subject that we are free to debate this point as we wish. Thank you for the great question.

By: Ron Rieke

Ron Rieke — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 22:09:09 +0000

Do you have any evidence of a cattle drive ( Chisholm ) going through Meridian, Texas before the crossing at Kimball bend?

By: Charlotte Marcum-Rush

Charlotte Marcum-Rush — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 21:51:47 +0000

This town was founded by my great grandmother and her sister Nellie Bailey-Kimball, and Lee Johnson, Mollie Bailey’s husband, all worked and crossed the river, and lived in this town. I have some pics of the family with their wagons. Also, Jennie Bailey-Bush is my great aunt and my grandmother’s sister.