Samuel Houston Story, son of John and Polly Burgess Story, was born in Dickson County, Tennesse, April 7, 1837. Samuel later related that before his parent’s marriage, John would go back to Kentucky for weeks-long visits, rolling his clothes into a ball which he tied around his neck before swimming the rivers. During Samuel’s seventh year, he became known as “Polk”. It seems that he traveled about 30 miles to Nashville, Tennesse, accompanying his father to hear a presidential candidate by the name of James Knox Polk speak. Upon their return home to Dickson County, the young Samuel got upon his soap box and proceeded to give the presidential hopeful’s speech almost verbatim, hence the nickname “Polk”. As a Confederate soldier in Company B. 49th Regiment from Tennessee, Samuel served in the Civil War from 1861-1865. While in the war he was captured twice by Union soldiers—both times being sent back to the Confederate Army in a prisoner exchange program. On one of those trips, the Confederate soldiers, not knowing the purpose of the travel, blew up the railroad tracks in front of the on-coming troop train, causing a compound fracture of Samuel’s thigh. This injury put him in the hospital for six months, after which time he returned to fighting Union soldiers. Rebecca Ann Waller, daughter of William Thomas Waller and Mary Willey, was born in Dickson County on August 5, 1851. Rebecca and Samuel were married on July 22, 1869 and moved to Wesley Chapel Community inHouston County, Texas in 1880. Issue from this marriage was eleven children including: 1. Charlie Allen, born November 22, 1870, married Molly Herod; 2. Sallie, born November 17, 1872, married G.W. Hudson; 3. Nellie, born July 11, 1874, died in 1875; 4. Angeline, born July 13, 1876 and died 1919 unmarried; 5. Elizabeth, born November 26, 1878, married Tom Spence; twins 6. Louis, born March 20, 1881 in Texas, Houston County, married Pallie Green and 7. Susie, born March 20, 1881, married Jessie McGee; twins 8. Elic, born January 27, 1884 and died October 9, 1887; and 9. Finas, born January 27, 1884 and married Susie Yelvington; 10. Emma, born February 17, 1887, married Andrew Ewing; and 11. Edward Story, born January 13, 1889, married Emma Jewel Brashear. Rebecca and Samuel adopted and reared Thomas Yates, Rebecca’s nephew, after his mother’s death when he was only a few months old. Three of the above children married Grapeland area residents and reared families in and around Grapeland. Charlie Story (sometimes spelled Storey) and Molly Herod, born September 26, 1874, settled on a farm in Hays Spring Community and had one daughter, Edna Mae, who died at the age of twenty eight years in 1926. Charlie served as a public employee in Houston County – as jailor and then for several years as commissioner of Precint 2. On May 23, 1909, Louis Story married Pallie Green, born May 17, 1889. They lived at Wesley Chapel until 1918 when they bought a farm in the Sunset Community where they reared their family composed of: 1 Frazer Louis, born May 5, 1911; Sam Houston, born October 5, 1914; 3. Mary Rebecca born October 16, 1916; 4. Calvin Stokes, born October 15, 1918; 5. Eula Lois, born June 6, 1921; and 6. Charles Daniel Story, born May 28, 1924. Louis Story served as Sunday School superintendent of the Methodist Church while in Wesley Chapel and on the Board of Trustees at Enon School. Pallie Green Story was a long-time Sunday School teacher at Sunset Christian Church. (1) Frazer Story married Violet Baker and when he died in 1951, he was a dispatcher for Missouri and Pacific Railroad in Galveston. Frazer and Violet have one daughter, Patricia, who lives with her husband, Rick Atchison, and children John Louis and Carol, in League City. (2) Sam married Melba Brimberry and they are now retired from the chemical industry in Houston and reside in the Sunset Community. They have five children: Kenneth Wayne, Barbara Sue Lynch, Rebecca Jean Tolbert, Louis Frank, and John Calvin Story. (3) Mary Rebecca (Reba) married John Franklin Childs from Stockman, Texas (near Timpson) and they have three children, John Howell, Rebecca Jane Williams, and Samuel Houston Childs. (4) Calvin Stokes (Bill) is written up in another article in this book. (5) Eula Lois married Claude Mason and they are now retired and living in Sunset Community. They have four children: Tommie Louis, Harriet Lois Harper, Michael Lee and Phillip Lyn. Louis and Pallie’s youngest child, (6) Charles Daniel (Pete) graduated from T.C.U. and served as a missionary in Mexico. He has one daughter, Mary Elizabeth Willenborg, and two adopted daughters, Dianne and Debbie. By his second wife, Betty Pflug Story, he has eight step-children: Dayna, Grant, Sheree, Jeannie, Jill, Lisa, Amy and James.

Charles is presently pastor of the First United Methodist Church In Karnes City, Texas. Samual Houston and Rebecca Waller Story’s youngest child, Edward Story, married Emma Jewel Brashear, born December 28, 1888, on December 27, 1915. Issue from this marriage was: Emma Sue who married B.A. Underwood and had two sons, David Edward, who died as an infant and Patrick Joseph; Jack Denton who married Vivian Shaver and had Linda Cole, Brenda Robinson, and Glenda Story; Charles Edward who married Joyce Whiddon and had Charles Edward II, Mark Anthony and Jack Denton Story; and Mary Elizabeth who married Julian Stroud and had Sharon Stroud and Susan Washburn. Edward Story reared his family on a farm in the Dailey Cornunity and in later years, was caretarker of the Grapeland Club Lake. Samuel Houston and Rebecca Story are buried at Wesley Chapel Cemetery; Charlie and family at Hays Spring; Louis and his family at Davis Cemetery; and Edward and family at Grapeland City Cemetery.