{"id":104251,"date":"2025-09-15T10:01:37","date_gmt":"2025-09-15T14:01:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/?p=104251"},"modified":"2025-10-30T14:28:06","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T18:28:06","slug":"fearless-frontiers-it-reads-like-fiction-but-all-so-true-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/fearless-frontiers-it-reads-like-fiction-but-all-so-true-part-1.html","title":{"rendered":"Fearless Frontiers: \u2018It Reads like Fiction \u2013 But All So True\u2019 (part 1)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction:<\/em><\/strong> In this article, James Pylant writes about the extraordinary life and adventures of a relative on his family tree, Harry Wham. James is an editor at GenealogyMagazine.com and author for JacobusBooks.com, is an award-winning historical true-crime writer, and authorized celebrity biographer.<\/em><\/p>\n

Editor\u2019s Note:<\/em><\/strong> In researching his family tree, James Pylant has uncovered many interesting ancestors and relatives \u2013 perhaps none more so than Harry Wham, who had so many adventures that one family member commented his life \u201creads like fiction \u2013 but all so true.\u201d James has written a three-part article to tell the tale of Harry\u2019s life. In today\u2019s Part 1 article, James provides context by filling in details of the family background. In tomorrow\u2019s Part 2 article, James focuses directly on Harry and his many adventures, with a Part 3 conclusion to follow next week.<\/p>\n

In late summer 1855, a wagon train from Pope County, Arkansas, arrived in north-central Texas and settled in what would soon become Erath County. Among these settlers were siblings Chesley Turnbow and Nancy (Turnbow) Gilbreath with their spouses and children. (1)<\/p>\n

\"Illustration:
Illustration: a covered wagon train.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There were several other Turnbow siblings, but \u201cno contacts were maintained between them and those remaining in Arkansas,\u201d said family historian J. H. Hurley<\/a>. According to Hurley, one of the brothers, Joe Turnbow, was \u201cmurdered by a nephew after they had moved to Pope County.\u201d No other details are known about Joe\u2019s demise \u2013 only that it happened in November 1854<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Photos:
Photos: retouched tintypes of Chesley Turnbow and Nancy (Turnbow) Gilbreath. Credit: James Pylant.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Family lore says their widowed mother, Gracy Coffee Turnbow, came to Texas from Arkansas to reunite with her children and grandchildren and persuade them to \u201creturn to a more civilized area.\u201d (2) If that story is true, she failed in her mission. Kidney disease claimed Gracy\u2019s life in Erath County, Texas, on 13 January 1860<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Photo:
Photo: Gracy Turnbow\u2019s grave marker in Barbee Cemetery, near Dublin, Texas. Credit: James Pylant.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cBy blood or marriage, the Turnbows gave Erath four sheriffs and three deputies,\u201d I wrote in Sins of the Pioneers: Crimes & Scandals in a Small Texas Town<\/em><\/a>. \u201cBut then there were members of this large family who stood on the other side of the law,\u201d with arrests for vigilantism, train robbery, and horse theft. One relative, Andy Turnbow, was the accused chieftain of \u201cThe Mob,\u201d an organization mentioned only in whispers. What began as citizens uniting to patrol a wild, lawless frontier morphed into a corrupt, much-feared band that punished its critics.<\/p>\n

Generations would pass before descendants of the Arkansas and Texas branches of the Turnbow family reconnected.<\/p>\n

One of Gracy Coffee Turnbow\u2019s daughters, Feliciana Turnbow (as her name appears in family records), was born about 1820 in Tennessee. (3) There, she married Henry J. Johnson, a cabinetmaker. Feliciana is also how her name was reported in the 1850 federal census;\u00a0 however, an 1846 deed referred to \u201cHenry J. Johnson and Phelicia Emeline Johnson his wife, formerly Phelicia Emeline Turnbow<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Their son, Henry Clay Johnson, married his cousin, Mary Jane Johnston, granddaughter of James Turnbow and Felicia (Coffee) Turnbow, on 18 July 1869 in Lamar County, Texas<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Family lore says Mary Jane was a triplet; the other two were stillborn and described as having a \u201cstone-like\u201d appearance. The attending physician asked the parents if he could keep the remains and consult with other doctors to determine the cause of their unusual appearance. (4)<\/p>\n

Henry Clay and Mary Jane moved southwest to Wise County, Texas, where he farmed. There, in Aurora<\/a>, a trading community for county farmers, Mary Jane gave birth to Georgia Ann (known as Annie), on 4 April 1878.<\/p>\n

Annie married John Wiley Woolever in 1897. The couple farmed in Jefferson County, Oklahoma, and they had five children. Annie was widowed in her 35th year. She survived daughter Lena<\/a>, who died at 41 after a long illness. Annie moved to Torrance, where she died nine years later at 70 of a cerebral hemorrhage<\/a> on 6 May 1948.<\/p>\n

Annie was known as a straight shooter, whether spitting out an opinion or a chaw of snuff. (5) \u201cTo say she was stern was putting it mildly,\u201d said granddaughter Pat Bennett. Annie was not too keen on daughter Minnie\u2019s marrying Marion Huffman. \u201cOh, how she despised \u2018them damned-blamed Huffmans,\u2019\u201d Pat said. (6)<\/p>\n

Another Woolever daughter, Mary Iva, was born on 6 February 1902. At 16, she married 20-year-old William P. Wham on 20 August 1918 in Pontotoc County, Oklahoma, with the bride\u2019s mother giving consent. (7) The couple moved to Wilson, in Carter County<\/a>, where William worked as an oilwell driller, and lived next door to Iva\u2019s sister and brother-in-law, Minnie and Marion Huffman. The Whams had two children, Harry and Louise.<\/p>\n

In 1924, William sued for divorce<\/a> and the children\u2019s custody. He alleged that since the beginning of their marriage, his wife had a habit of leaving home \u201cwithout any cause or provocation\u201d and staying away for \u201cvarious lengths of time.\u201d Iva would \u201cfail to attend her household duties\u201d and drop off their children with other people without informing her husband of their whereabouts. Will complained that Iva\u2019s nightlife involved shows, carnivals, dances, and questionable characters, over her husband\u2019s objections. Will claimed that Iva verbally and physically abused him, describing incidents in which she fired a pistol in his direction, jabbed him with a pocketknife, and threw objects at him \u2013 once with a knife and another time with a gun that broke his rib.<\/p>\n

Iva remarried 24-year-old Herbert Simpson<\/a> in Carter County, Oklahoma, on 12 April 1925. She filed for divorce<\/a> fifteen months later. Iva\u2019s whereabouts following her second divorce are unknown, but her children<\/a> were placed in the care of her mother, Annie, from at least 1926<\/a> to 1930<\/a>. \u201cShe never talked about those years,\u201d said Iva\u2019s granddaughter. (8)<\/p>\n

Iva had reunited with her children by 1935 and lived in Orange County, California<\/a>. In 1940, her 20-year-old son Harry was an orchestra director. He would continue his musical career while also fearlessly chasing new frontiers \u2013 experiences few dared approach.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe led one of the most exciting lives I have ever witnessed,\u201d said his first cousin, Pat Bennett. \u201cIt reads like fiction \u2013 but all so true.\u201d (9)<\/p>\n

Tomorrow\u2019s Part 2 article will describe some of Harry\u2019s many adventures including a near-death experience.<\/p>\n

Note:<\/em><\/strong> The accounts in this article are drawn from archival materials and family testimony. Just as genealogists research extraordinary stories like Harry Wham\u2019s adventures, others trace famous historical events through records like those documenting Titanic survivors<\/a> and their families.<\/p>\n

Create a free account<\/a> at GenealogyBank for 7 days to start your journey and discover the stories your ancestors left behind.<\/p>\n

Note on the header image:<\/em><\/strong> covered wagon. Credit: Gary Halvorson, Oregon State Archives; Wikimedia Commons.<\/p>\n

___________________<\/p>\n

(1) Delma Turnbow Freeman, Our Kin: Past and Present (Austin, Texas: the author, 1979), pp. 1-2.
\n(2) Delma Turnbow Freeman, \u201cA Brief Sketch of the Chesley Turnbow Family,\u201d in Raymond Hancock, Purves, Erath County, Texas (Dublin, Texas: the author, 1975), p. 192.
\n(3) Freeman, Our Kin: Past and Present, p. 140.
\n(4) Pat Bennett, Anaheim, Calif., to the writer, 14 September 1984.
\n(5) Pat Bennett to the writer, 7 June 1984.
\n(6) Pat Bennett to the writer, December 1986.
\n(7) William P. Wham\/Miss Iva Woolever license (1918), \u201cOklahoma, U.S., County Marriage Records, 1890-1995,\u201d online database with images, Ancestry (www.ancestry.com<\/a>: 18 June 2025).
\n(8) Donna Lynn Wham to the writer, Ancestry.com message, 19 June 2025.
\n(9) Pat Bennett to the writer, 4 May 1984.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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