My Blanton Family Reunion is at the Bethel Baptist Church at "Lickskillet" (Pilot Grove,TX) every year. The church is located on SH-160, about a mile north of the Desert Community.
From 1858 to 1868, my great,grandfather worked for "Irish Jack" Dixon's Freight Company at Pilot Grove as a teamster. He made many ten-day round-trips to Jefferson Texas hauling freight from Grayson-Fannin County area to Jefferson,TX, except during the war years.
My great grandparents left Fannin county in 1879 and settled on the frontier in Coleman County Texas as soon as Gov. Oran Milo Roberts was elected and Texas school land became available again. My great grandfather was in the Capt. W.B. Crocker's Company, Fannin County Texas State Troops (1861-1863), Col.Peter C.Hardeman's 1st Texas Cavalry-Arizona Brigade(1863-1864) and finally in Diamond's Brush Battalion (1864-1865). He never talked about his activities during and after the war. The Texas State Troops (Home Guard) was similar to a "Confederate Gestapo" with the authority of unlimited search and seizure. My great grandfather had many enemies in The Corners after the war.