DUANE
Duane's take
The official marker tells it this way, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, every family's got a story that starts somewhere far away and ends somewhere that feels like it was always meant to be. The Myers family story starts in Virginia, moves to Kentucky, drifts through Indiana, puts down roots in Illinois — and then one cold December night, it crosses a river into a place that would change everything.
Let me take you back. William Myers, born in 1753, and his wife Flora had ten children together, and David was the last of them — born on October 15, 1797, somewhere in Kentucky. Ten children.
William and Flora were not people who did things halfway. David grew up a Kentuckian, and in 1820 he married one — Letitia Reddish, born in 1801, and by every account a woman of considerable endurance, as you'll come to understand. Together they moved to Indiana in 1829, then to Illinois in 1831, and it was there in Illinois that something took hold of David Myers.
He became a well-established Baptist preacher. The kind of man a community builds itself around. In 1843, he was ordained at Taylor's Creek Church in Jersey County, Illinois — official, confirmed, called.
But here's where the story shifts. Word was traveling in those days about free land down in Texas. Free land has a way of making a man look south, and David Myers looked south.
So he and Letitia gathered up their children and their grandchildren, and they started moving. On Christmas Eve, 1845 — Christmas Eve, now — they crossed the Red River into Texas. There is something almost storybook about that, arriving on the longest night before Christmas, stepping into a place most folks had only heard rumors about.
They settled on a land grant in Peters Colony, twelve miles northwest of what is now the city of Dallas. And David Myers did not wait around to see how things would shake out. By May 10, 1846 — barely five months after crossing that river — he had organized the Union Baptist Church.
The earliest continuing Baptist congregation in Dallas County. Five months. He served Union Baptist Church until the very end, and beyond that he was instrumental in establishing Bethel, Rowlett Creek, Liberty, and Lonesome Dove churches across the area.
He was building something that would outlast him, and he seemed to know it. David Myers died on March 9, 1853, of pneumonia — resulting from exposure to cold rain on his way home after delivering a sermon in Collin County. He died doing exactly what he had crossed a river on Christmas Eve to do.
Letitia, who was born in 1801, lived on until 1885. She outlasted him by more than thirty years — which, when you consider everything this family crossed to get here, feels about right.
What the marker says
(October 15, 1797 - March 9, 1853) William Myers (b. 1753) and his wife Flora moved from Virginia to Kentucky, where the last of their ten children, David Myers, was born. David married fellow Kentuckian Letitia Reddish (1801 - 1885) in 1820. They moved to Indiana in 1829 and to Illinois in 1831, where David became a well-established Baptist Preacher. In 1843 he was ordained at Taylor's Creek Church in Jersey County, Illinois. Inspired by the prospect of free land in Texas, David and Letitia traveled south with their children and grandchildren, and on Christmas Eve, 1845, they crossed the Red River into Texas. They settled on a land grant in Peters Colony located 12 miles northwest of the present-day city of Dallas. Myers quickly established himself as a religious leader of the pioneer settlements in this area and on May 10, 1846, organized the Union Baptist Church, the earliest continuing Baptist congregation in Dallas County. He served Union Baptist Church until his death and was instrumental in the establishment of other churches in the area including Bethel, Rowlett Creek, Liberty, and Lonesome Dove. Myers died of pneumonia resulting from exposure to cold rain on his return home after delivering a sermon in Collin County.