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Craven: A family with 153 years of Williamson County history

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Written by Karen R. Thompson Saturday, 07 July 2007

The Craven family of Bagdad and Leander has contributed to the schools, churches and community for 153 years.

They still play an important role in the development of Leander and the area. Ken Craven, president of the Bagdad Cemetery Association is a prominent figure today in the Leander library. His brother Charles is rehabilitation specialist for the UT athletic department, and their cousin Anna Ray Craven Borho who turned 99 July 12 still plays piano for her church each Sunday. Ms. Borho was a source of information for this article.

On the western prairie of Williamson County in 1854, the arrival of an English couple to Bagdad would have certainly caused a stir. After arriving in America, George Craven, 48, wife Jane, 41, and their children ranging in age from 19 to two years traveled by wagon to Texas.
Land was a major draw, and in 1862 George received a Third Class headright for 320 acres from the state.

Martha Nelson Craven (1854-1927) outlived her husband Wesley Craven (1850-1906) by more than two decades. Her oldest grandchild, Anna Ray, has fond memories of her. Martha had relatives in Georgetown and she enjoyed making the trip on the dirt road in her horse-drawn buggy. Anna Ray would often accompany her grandmother on these trips. Martha’s gray horse was named “Charlie” and when they left Georgetown to return home to Leander, it was not necessary to take the reins. “Charlie” knew the way home.

According to the 1860 U.S. Census for Williamson County, only three other people listed their birth place as England. The most noted was Samuel Mather, who settled on the north San Gabriel River in 1849, where he built one of the first water-powered grist mills in the county. One of his early customers was Comanche Chief Yellow Wolf.

George Craven was born in the Leeds, Berkshire area of England Oct. 18, 1808, and died July 1, 1894. His wife, Jane Hodson, was also born in England Aug. 13, 1813, and died Feb. 19, 1888. They are both buried in the Bagdad Cemetery.

A few years before coming to Bagdad, the family lived in Ohio and Indiana. Their first children, John, Rachel, Mary Ann, George, Charles, Henry, Wesley and Elizabeth were born in Ohio and Indiana between 1835 and 1852. Their last two children, Newton and Madison, were born in Texas. Seven of their children and their families are buried in Bagdad Cemetery.

George Craven was a wheelwright or wagon maker by trade, and his son George followed in his footsteps. The Craven sons John and Wesley built one of the first cotton gins in Leander. John Hobson Craven married Missouri Rowland from Round Rock in 1869. They had seven children, Earl, Eulah, Lavonia, Eunice, Rose, Charles and Ursula.

Mary Ann Craven married Sylvestor Hamilton (his second marriage) and they had four children.

Wesley Eldridge Craven married Martha Ann Nelson in Travis County in 1878. They had five children, all born in Leander, although the first lived only a day.

Next born was Henry Roscoe who married Eula Giddens in 1904. The third child Ella married Henry Bryson. The last son, Thomas, married Beulah Upchurch and last child, Ethel, married Arthur Faubion.

Ethel was an accomplished pianist and piano teacher. Someone said she taught half of the Leander children how to play. She also played piano for the Leander Presbyterian Church for many years.

Thompson is manager of archives for Williamson County.

In 1921, her thirteen-year-old niece, Anna Ray Craven (Borho), started helping her play for the church, and at age 99, Anna Ray is still playing piano every Sunday at the First Presbyterian Church in Leander.

Roscoe and Eula Craven had three children, including Anna Ray (born July 12, 1908) who married Edwin Barho in 1935, son, Eugene (1913-2000) married Ina Dale Mason in 1938, and Geraldine (1916-1997) married Sam Miller. Roscoe was a mail carrier for many years.

Roscoe Craven delivered mail on horseback and motorcycle, but with his new automobile, he was at last protected from inclement weather. Roscoe is shown with wife Eula and daughter Anna Ray. Anna Ray also remembers when the first automobile and airplane came to Leander. She graduated from Leander High School in 1925 when it had ten grades. The next year, Anna Ray and four other Leander girls attended Liberty Hill Normal College, where Anna Ray graduated second in the class. They usually traveled to Liberty Hill in an open top Model T Ford, but occasionally they took the train. The dog was named Trixie.