B.J. Quillin's wife, Polly Sprowls

Polly Sprowls Remains A Dead End For Me

 I've been fortunate with my research to not have many dead ends. But the Sprowls line is one of them. I believe her name was Mary "Polly" Ann Sprowls sp? and that she was most likely born in Bristol, Sullivan County Tennessee.  The only thing that I can go on is that B.M. Quillin, "Buster", always said that Polly's mother was Millie Wright. And that she moved to Texas once Polly settled here. I have searched high and low to connect Polly with a Millie Wright. This would make her maiden name, Wright. I have found a Millie Wright in Fort Worth but can't make the connection hold. 

I have a copy of Polly's death certificate, and it was signed by Mrs. Tom Bagby, which would be her daughter, Cathleen "Corintha" Melvina Quillin. Though death certificates are legal documents and hold much weight, I find that sometimes the informant truly does not know the background information. 

The name on the death certificate is Mrs. Polly Ann Quillin. Her father's name and birthplace are listed as "don't know". Her mother's name is listed as Millie Wright, born in Tennessee.  

A Social Security application for Millie's son is as follows. I do know that there were couple of Sprowls families lived in Seymour but I have not been able to contact them. James Matthew Sprowls was one of them. 

Name	Millie Wright
Gender	Female
Spouse	William D Sprowls
Child	James Mathewmoore Sprowls

It feels as though William D Sprowls may be connected with a Solomon or a Susannah. Sprowls has many spelling variations, and this line has just been impossible for me to connect to the past generations. 

Chipping Away

 Mother often spoke to me about how it feels when someone whom you love just keeps doing/saying things that are hurtful. (oh, how I loved that wise, common-sense person I called Mother), and they seem unwilling to help you understand or to bring you into the fold. Time and time again, you are left either in the dark or not being heard or valued...and soon you become numb to the fact that you feel you don't matter. You don't want to accept that...but you must.

Mother called it, CHIP, CHIP, CHIPPING AWAY" AT THE BRICKS IN THE WALL, UNTIL IT COMES CRUBLING DOWN, yes, I see it Mother, my best friend, ever so clearly now. There's not much more I can do...not many more hands that I can extend....as I always still walk away in the dark with no communication or anyone who calls and says Hey how are you doing today. So I pick up the pieces and stitch the cup together" and move on.

                                    

I've spent years giving it my all to my side of the family, what's left of it. And when they needed me the most, I had my "hands chopped off" when I was trying to help my sister with memory loss....and was actually told, I'm not part of the family. And then came the revelation that I was making everyone uncomfortable because they couldn't do what they want to do, i.e. imbibe in the drink. I will never back down from my stance of not using alcohol. And then it was turned on me, as if it was my fault. I've seen it time and again affect lives, and how families fall apart because of it. I most recently conducted a memorial service for my best friend's husband who lost his life at age 62 because of alcoholism. It was brutal. 

I never wanted to give up.....

MEB Jones Bank Statements

 MEB's son, Burwell Jones, did well for himself. Burwell became a lawyer and settled in Marietta Oklahoma. Martin Ervin Brooks Jones would go to visit him occasionally. A few banks statements were found in his old trunk. 

Martin Ewin Brooks Jones loved Mission Work

MEB settled in Vernon for a short time, and Martin Frank (my uncle) told me that MEB (my grandfather's great-grandfather) knew my Papa McNair (my grandmother's father).  Papa was the District Missionary for Foard and Hardeman Counties. I think that MEB was associated with Mission work in Quanah, Texas and Marietta, Okla.

In his belongings, I found a letter from the chairwoman of Circle no. 4 from the First Baptist Church in McKinney, Texas. They were remembering MEB in the Baptist Standard in the month of March. I have scoured the online Baylor University collection of the Baptist Standard for this article to no avail. 

https://digitalcollections-baylor.quartexcollections.com/religious-collections/the-baptist-standard

 
As a child I remember the Baptist Standard being mailed to us and always visible somewhere in the house.
 
The physical archive is accessible in two places—Baylor University Libraries and the Texas Baptist Historical Collection—both in Waco, Texas, with the Texas Baptist Historical Collection holding the only complete record.
 
The beginning of the Baptist Standard dates back to about 1888, though it was published under that masthead for the first time on March 3, 1892. J.B. Cranfill, who once ran as a Prohibition Party candidate for vice president of the United States, was editor of the privately-owned paper. The Standard was to be a “peace paper” to further the work of Texas Baptists, namely the Baptist General Convention.
 
Prior to 1915, when the Baptist General Convention of Texas incorporated the Baptist Standard as a nonprofit, various owners consisted of individuals and groups—one of which included George W. Truett. During its first 100 years, editors included persons of note in Baptist history, such as J.B. Gambrell, J. Frank Norris, J.M. Dawson, and E.S. James.
 
The printed paper ceased in December 2012, at which time the Standard became fully digital and Baptist Standard Publishing began CommonCall Magazine, a publication carrying special features and human-interest stories.

 

Part of a SCAM-Alpine, Brewster County, Texas

I have no idea why MEB Jones would have purchased property for a place that would have been called Progress City. The location was near Alpine, Texas...way out west. Did he have dreams of building there? I know that in his notes, he was researching the proper grasses that would grow in that environment. This venture was to scam people of their money. It was taken to court. Unfortunately, MEB was part of this scam.

Below are postcards from the past...of what Alpine, Texas, looked like in 1920. 

Alpine Street Scene 1920s

https://www.txgenweb.org/postcards/Towns/Alpine/AlpineTxStreetScene.jpg

Looking west from Alpine.

https://historicalpine.org/historic-photos-of-alpine/

https://www.txgenweb.org/postcards/Towns/Alpine/AlpineWestView.jpg

MEB Paid Taxes in Brewster County, TX

Brewster County Taxes for Proper City  

Lot 7 Block 123

Property assesed at $10 

9 Mar 1911

County Taxes for 1910 

Alpine Independent School District

Progress City

3 March 1911

MEB Jones Swindled in 1909

                                 M.E.B. Jones Is Swindled Dec. 1909

Compiled by Nancy Quillin Long

Feb 2016

Paper work was located in an old trunk that belonged to M.E.B. Jones.

These papers were giving to Nancy Quillin Long by Martin Frank Jones. M.E.B. was Martin Frank Jones's great-grandfather.   M.E.B. Jones is my g-great grandfather.

Found among the papers was an old abstract of title to lots in Progress City, being part of THE WM. POOLE SURVEY of 1280 acres in Brewster Co., Texas.  Also found among these papers were two receipts of tax payments to Brewster County in 1911.

It didn't take long with a Google search to find that Progress City was a nonexistent town in Brewster County, Texas.  M.E.B. had been scammed, along with others.

M.E.B. Jones was forever taking notes in small memo books.  An interesting find among the pages that I have, M.E.B. wrote down the words,  "Alfilerea, Ariz., good for grazing."  When I googled Alfilerea, my best guess would be that he misspelled Alfilaria defined as a weed grown for forage in the dry regions of the southwestern U.S. —called also pin grass. This makes sense because he was planning and hoping to use this desolate land in far west Texas.

 

Brewster County, Texas - Wikipedia

Texas History, Genealogy, Old Photos, Postcards, Maps, and Information.

Progress City, Texas     Brewster County

Here is the article found at: http://www.historictexas.net/brewster-county/progress-city-texas

Progress City, a nonexistent town in Brewster County, was invented by swindlers to dupe residents of other parts of Texas into buying town lots. On February 8, 1910, the Brewster County grand jury, with Joseph D. Jackson as foreman, called the plot to the attention of Judge W. C. Douglas of the Brewster County District Court in Alpine. The grand jury reported "with deep regret" the presence of an outfit called Progress City Town Site Company, "which seems to be an organization having for its purpose the swindling of unsuspecting citizens of the State by a sale of so-called town lots in an imaginary town in our county." The putative site of Progress City was on "San Diego" (Santiago) Mountain, forty miles southeast of Alpine. It would have been, according to the grand jury, "accessible only by horseback and then along a difficult and little used trail," and was "totally uninhabited and uninhabitable, and wholly unfit for the situs of a town. In fact, the land is susceptible of no use whatever except that of grazing livestock."

The Progress City Town Site Company consisted of John L. Mauk as president and Lee R. Davis of Waco, who had acquired the title to the land from the original grantee, William Poole, as owner and secretary, respectively. By the time of the grand jury report, the three had already sold more than 1,000 lots, usually for $1.50 apiece. Though the price was of little concern to an individual buyer, the grand jury pointed out, in the aggregate it could add up to a substantial amount; "but even this is small in comparison with the great injury that will result to this section of Texas from the perpetration of such swindles upon the people when those who have been duped discover the fraud." The report admitted that prosecution of Mauk and Davis was probably pointless, because each swindle constituted a separate offense and because the perpetrators almost certainly acted through agents to avoid legal entanglements. The grand jury did, however, recommend making clear to the public the innocence of the people of Brewster County in the matter and sending a copy of its report to each district court in McLennan County, in which Waco is located.

https://historicalpine.org/historic-photos-of-alpine/

https://www.txgenweb.org/postcards/Towns/Alpine/AlpineTxStreetScene.jpg