DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about a Jasper County homestead that carried one of the finest names in East Texas. Pull up a chair — or just keep drivin' — this one's worth the listen. Back in 1859, a Jasper County pioneer by the name of Ehud Norsworthy made a decision that would plant roots deep into East Texas soil.
He purchased four hundred and five acres of land right at this site. Four hundred and five acres. That's not a farm — that's a statement.
And Ehud made sure the place said something. He and his wife Sara, along with their children, built out a proper homestead: house, barn, smokehouse, well, tool shed, and outhouse. Everything a family needed, standing right here where you're passing now.
Then 1864 came, and Ehud Norsworthy did not. After his death, Sara carried on — and before long she married a man named Edwin Irwin Kellie, a Confederate veteran who apparently could not sit still for long. The family kept living on the homestead, which was already something, but Kellie was just getting warmed up.
This is where the story gets interesting. Edwin Irwin Kellie founded a newspaper called the Jasper News-Boy. A newspaper.
And if that weren't enough range for one man, he later became a riverboat captain. Ink and river water — not the combination you see every day, but then again, not every man gets to name a homestead either. And what a name he chose.
Kellie called the place Glorianna. Say it out loud — Glorianna. That name has got loft to it.
It doesn't whisper; it announces. But Glorianna's story has a quiet ending. Around 1900, the family abandoned the homestead.
All that building, all that living, all those names attached to this particular patch of Jasper County earth — and then, silence. Just the trees growing back over it. Glorianna.
Four hundred and five acres, two families, a newspaper, a riverboat, and a name too grand to forget — even now.
What the marker says
Jasper County pioneer Ehud Norsworthy purchased 405 acres of land at this site in 1859. With his wife, Sara, and children, he established a homestead which included a house, barn, smokehouse, well, tool shed, and outhouse. After Norsworthy's death in 1864, Sara married Confederate veteran Edwin Irwin Kellie, and they continued to live on the homestead with their family. Kellie founded the "Jasper News-Boy" newspaper and later became a riverboat captain. the homestead, named "Glorianna" by Kellie, was abandoned by the family about 1900.