General Notes

Of the four children born to Robert Patton and Matilda (Porter) Crockettin Texas, Ashley Wilson Crockett was the second. He was born with anopaque film over one eye and since proper medical care was not available,he lived with only the use of one eye. His mother died when he was only 7years old. He learned to read and write at home, attending school forless than a year when he was 12 years old.

When he was 13 years old, having been told by his father and step-motherthat he was not cut out to be a farmer, he went to Weatherford, Texas andobtained a job as a "printers devil" at the Weathewrford Democrat, theonly newspaper in the area at the time. He lived in a small buildingbehind the printing office and slept under Buffalo robes to keep warm.

When he was 18, Ashley moved to the then newly established town ofGrandby and went to work for the first newspaper in Hood County, Texas,The Grandbury Vidette. He did so well that in a few years he owned thepaper outright. He changed its name to the Grandby Graphic whichultimately became the Hood County News. He went on to establish papers inTolar and Glen Rose, Texas.

Ashley was a very modest and gentle man, but accurate and meticulousabout everything he did.
He was a lifelong member of the Methodist Church, singing in the choiruntil he was 85 years old.

He did have one major setback in his life when his first wife, OnaldaHaynes, decided to "run off" with a railroad engineer to Denison, Texas.His two sons Chester and Clarence left  him and went to live with theirmother a year later. His daughter Ada Clara had died at an early age.

Ashley was 30 years old when he began courting Anna Marie Walkup, a 21year old school teacher. She was the grandniece of Sam Houston and thedaughter of a schoolteacher in Clarksville, Texas.

SOURCE: "Remember the Crocketts" Hood County Texas Genealogical Society2000.