During the unrest in Fannin County after the war, my great grandfather armed himself and he and his family went to church on Sunday morning in single file, 50 paces apart in case of an attack by Lewis Peacock's bushwhackers.

On May 25,1869, Henry Boren led the bushwhackers when they and killed Bob Lee and by 1871, every able bodied man in the Dixon family was dead. On June 13,1871, Lewis Peacock was shot and killed by Dick Johnson, Jack Dixon's half-brother, as Peacock went outside his home to get firewood. In 1877, Daniel Lee, Bob Lee's father, was bushwhacked and killed while on his way to Bonham. That ended the Lee-Peacock Feud but there are ghosts of the Lee-Peacock Feud in The Corners today.

In 1855, my great grandfather and his older brother moved from Smith County Tennessee and settled near Blanton Creek in the community of Orangeville, TX. He went to work for Irish Jack Dixon in 1858 and is listed as a teamster in the 1860 Fannin County Federal Census. Irish Jack Dixson's sister, Elizabeth, was married to Rev. James G.Hardin, and were the parents of John Wesley Hardin. The Hardin family lived near what later became Randolph, TX in Fannin County.

In 1861, my great grandfather joined Capt. William B.Crocker's Company, Pricinct 3, 14th Brigade, Fannin County Home Guard at Orangeville. In 1863, he enlisted in Lt.Col. Peter C. Hardeman's 1st Texas Cavalry-Arizona Brigade at the Warren Supply Depot (Old Fort Warren) north of Savoy, TX. While in the 1st Texas Cavalry, he spent six months on detached picket duty at Colbert's Ferry on the Red River.The 1st Texas Cavalry was moved to Arkansas and my great grandfather was placed in Maj. J.R. Diamond's Brush Battalion, Col.James G. Bourland's Border Regiment in June, 1864. While in the Brush Battalion, he was a forager and built shelters at the camp at Oxford Lake, 3 miles NE of Farmersville.Due to the poverty and continued unrest in Fannin County, my great grandfather moved his family to the West Texas frontier in Coleman County in 1879 and purchased 160 acres of hard scrabble Texas school land but he continued to haul freight.

Many thanks to Patti Rochette's Book, "Col. James G. Bourland in North Texas During the Civil War" for clearing up many questions.