A Joint Project of the Sam Rayburn House Historic Site and the Fannin County Historical Commission
Celebrating America 250 with Spotlights of Fannin County Citizens Who Participated In or Witnessed Historical Events
Fannin County, Texas -- Joseph Deupree was born in Pickens County, Alabama on November 22, 1840. His grandfather Nathan Smith brought him to Texas in 1847, settling first in Harrison County. He moved with his uncles, Gideon Smith and Dr. J. C. Smith, to Fannin County in 1853. A good part of his youth was spent on the Smith farms on Red River.
Mr. Deupree wrote in an article in the Dallas Morning News on April 14. 1927 that said that during “the four years of my college life in Baylor University . . . I saw much of Gen. Sam Houston, Judge Baylor, Dr. Asa Hoxie, Col. W. P. Rodgers, Gen. G. W. Crawford and other noted Texans of that vicinity. In fact, it seemed that the grand old county of Washington was largely filled with pioneer patriots of the Texas revolution and of the Mexican War periods.”
“And it was then and there that I had the great pleasure of seeing and hearing Gen. Houston on all sorts of occasions. I have heard and seen him when talking to his old neighbors, in the stores and on the streets. I have heard him on great political occasions.”
Mr. Deupree passed the first bar exam offered after the Civil War and became the lawyer for the Red River District for ten years. In 1869 he married Amelia Wofford, and they had one son and three daughters. One of the daughters, Grace, was just five years old when Amelia died in 1883. [More about Grace will be in a separate article.] He married Annie Erwin in 1888. Dr. John Cunningham in 1921 described her as “a beautiful young lady with a large landed estate on Red River (near Tulip)” and moved to his farm.
Joseph Deupree for many years wrote a weekly column for the Bonham News under the name “Ajaz.”
J. E. Deupree is buried in Willow Wild Cemetery.
Information from the Fannin County GenWeb site and from the book Washington’s Golden Age by Joseph Dalton.
