Susan [White] Creed's daughter Margarit married Wm LaFayette Nettles
son of John and Samantha [Collins] Nettles, the White's have other connections to
this Collins family, of  Bowie Co Tx, and their story, could well be, the same for others...
We had 'many' other families in our lineage from Bibb County Alabama, some in early 1800's.

THE TEXARKANA PRESS

     Came Here in 1872 Mrs. Nettles, with her husband and nine children, her
father and mother, Mr.and Mrs. Thomas Collins, and several brothers and
sisters with theirfamilies, making a party of 30 emigrated from Bibb County,
Alabama to what is now Texarkana, in 1872. The trip was made to Selma,
Alabama by train, thence by boat to the mouth of the Red River, where another
boat was taken which brought the family to Alexandria, La., and from Alexandria
the trip was made to Texarkana in a covered wagon. "The thing that brought us
to Texas, said Mrs. Nettles, "was the fact that we had a large family, and

     Mr. and Mrs. Nettles, with their family, settled at Akin's Creek, a few miles
farther west. For their family of eleven they had a log house of four rooms,
with a small porch and a shed in the back. "But," added Mrs. Nettles, "we
had all the room we needed, besides room for company". "The thing that
worries me most was the fact that we had no churches nor schools for the
children. Once a month we went to Rock Creek, a distance of 11 miles on
horseback to church, and intermittently we had a subscription school for a
few months of the year."

     "Jefferson, Texas, was our market, and we made the trip twice a year, in the
spring and in the fall in an ox-cart to get our supplies for the next six months.
We had a fine garden from the first year, and meat of all kind was plentiful,
but we had to go to Jefferson for all our staples." Mrs. Nettles said there
was a small store at Old Boston, but it did not handle groceries.

     "Wild cattle were in an abundance in the woods, and we had all the beef we
wanted, and in addition, wild turkeys and wild deer." For pets, the Nettles
children had rabbits, and squirrels, and once they even raised a little deer.
Wolves and other wild animals were often seen by the settlers and could be
heard howling in night as they stalked their prey.

     In the fall of 1873, the railroad came to Texarkana, and then the streets
were laid out, and the town began. It was first planned to build the town at
Nash, but afterwords Texarkana was selected as the site.

     The Nettles had one neighbor a quarter mile from them, and another a half
mile away, but all the others were a mile and farther. With no radio, no
bridge clubs, no golf, no telephone even, her grandchildren wonder how
they amused themselves, but Mrs. Nettles leaves no doubt on that score
that there was plenty of interesting employment for a pioneer family, with the
wresting of a living from the soil, the care of nine children, and a husband,
meat to be cured, gardening, quilting, carding, spinning, and weaving. And
the neighbors visited each other, too, taking their families and their work,
and spending the day with each other.

     "Mosquitoes were bad in those days in Texarkana, before we could get
screens, and the buffalo gnats, which followed an overflow of Sulfur river,
were dreadful pests and killed the cattle in great numbers.

     Mrs. Nettles spoke of the cyclone in which several people who had sought
shelter in the _____ theater building, which was of brick, were killed. Mrs.
Nettles has spent the entire 70 years of her life since she left Alabama
within 20 miles of Texarkana. She is the mother of 12 children, five of whom
are living. She has 73 grandchildren, 106 great-grandchildren, and even
some great-great grandchildren and has been a member of the ( ) Baptist
some great-great grandchildren and has been a member of the ( ) Baptist
church ( ).

     Mrs. Symantha Nettles At 95 Recalls Days Before Twin City Was Founded
There was no Texarkana when Mrs. Symantha Nettles' family settled in the
pines of Bowie-co 61 years ago. There wasn't much of anything, in fact,
except wolves, deer, wild turkeys, wild cattle, and even wild pigeons. And of
course, the pines - "lots of pine and undergrowth," as Mrs. Nettles herself
describes.

     Mrs. Nettles is 95 years old, and has lived in Bowie-co, since
Christmas eve, 1872. Oldest of a dozen children, she has outlived all her
younger brothers and sisters. Two brothers died within a month's time in
1931 - J. M. Collins, superintendent of Texarkana's first mule-drawn car
lines, and Thomas Collins, of New Boston.

     Before moving to Texas, Mrs. Nettles lived in Bibb-co. near Selma, Ala.,
where she experienced all the hardships of the Civil war and Reconstruction
period. Two brothers, two brothers- in - law, and her husband all fought in the
Confederate army, and of these five only one - a brother - in - law was killed.
Late in 1872 they settled near Redwater, on what is known as the Akin place.
Two years later, however, her father, Thomas Collins, Sr., established a store
and began staking out lots in the new village of Texarkana. The family home
was located on the street now called Texas-av.

      "Wild animals were running where the city now stands," she says which
gave rise to Texarkana. Bowie-CO's nearest market place was Jefferson,
although Mrs. Nettles recalls one small store at Old Boston. Trips to
Jefferson for supplies were made in ox wagons.

     "It took about a week to go there and come back," she laughed. The
nearest church to Redwater in the pre-Texarkana days was located at Rock
Creek, according to Mrs. Nettles.

     "Texarkana was surveyed during the winter after we came from Alabama,"
she continued, "and for a while before that, it looked like the town was going
to be put at Nash instead of where it is now."

     One of the most interesting bits of history recalled by the aged pioneer is the
story of how Redwater got it name. When Mrs. Nettles first came to Texas
and settled in the "suburbs" of the community, it wasn't Redwater at all, but
Ingersoll, having been named in honor of the great philosopher.

     But Ingersoll was an infidel, and following a great revival which thoroughly
purged the settlement of all its worldliness, the inhabitants decided they
could not live in a town bearing the name of an Infidel. "Ingersoll" was cast
aside and "Redwater" substituted. A new well had been dug at Ingersoll
about this time and its water was red-hence the new name which still is
being used today.

      But getting back to Mrs. Nettles herself. In five more years she will be 100,
yet she could pass for a woman in her 70's. She has survived seven of her
12 children - four sons and eight daughters. Only five of the daughters are
still living. Her husband, J. J. Nettles, farm overseer, died 41 years ago.
She does not know exactly the number of grandchildren she has, but
estimated it to be about 75. She has grandchildren who are past 50 years of age.

     "But will she live to reach a hundred?" the reader might wonder. Asked if
she expected to do just that, Mrs. Nettles smiled and replied, "I don't think
much about dying. I feel like the Lord will call me when he's ready. I never
had any idea that I, the oldest one, would outlive all of my brothers and
sisters. Yes, I feel my age at times."

     When she was 87, Mrs. Nettles fell and broke her hip. Her doctor told her
she could hardly expect to recover, but recover she did. Her eyesight is
poor, but otherwise she has been able to "turn back" her 95 years in a
surprising manner.

     She attributes her longevity to hard work and regular eating, explaining that
the Civil war taught her how to be busy and enjoy her meals. She eats
plenty of vegetables at noon, but consumes a light breakfast and evening
meal.

     For the past several years Mrs. Nettles has resided with a daughter, Mrs. A.
J. Shelton, Melton-st., Beverly. When a Press reporter visited her two years
ago, the aged lady, then 93, had prepared a meal for herself, her daughter,
and a grandson that day, and she explained it was "little trouble" because
the family was small.

     "I haven't seen any girls smoking cigarettes," she said, "but it they do, it's
disgusting. And the boys and young men, will, they must not be very far
ahead of the girls."

     Mrs. Nettles has never ridden in an airplane and never expects to, but
enjoys automobiling. "Cars are a blessing, but a curse too," she opined.
"They have to be used in the right manner." Then, naturally enough, Mrs.
Nettles was asked to express her opinion about a popular topic of the day -
"hard times." She replied she had seen times as hard as the present, but
never any worse. "In other dull seasons," she explained, "people didn't get
much pay, but they could always find work." She and her husband lived for
three years on $16 per month. "The people themselves, and their ways of
living, brought on the depression," she said. "Why, it has been coming on
for years!"

     Mrs. Nettles joined the Methodist church when she was 18, but affiliated with
the Missionary Baptists a few years later and has remained with that
denominations ever since.

     "Prohibition? I think prohibition is a good thing if carried out right, but it isn't
always carried out right." Bootlegging, she believes, has fewer evils that the
old days of open saloons.

     Mrs. Nettles, a regular voter until 1930, did not vote in the presidential
election of 1928 because she could not support either Herbert Hoover or Al
Smith. She has no idea who would be the next president, but is glad it's
Roosevelt, as she wanted a Democrat.

     "Ma" Ferguson, she thinks, isn't "very much." In fact, Mrs. Nettles is
somewhat disgusted with the part women play in politics. "Woman is trying
to take man's place in politics, and she shouldn't do that," Mrs. Nettles
admonished. "Sometimes I think we ought to go back to the days when
they'd be 'no such thing as women governors."

     She remembers the first trains in this section, and a free excursion which the
railroad ran from Texarkana to Naples. "There was a big crowd, and lots of
excitement, of course, and most of the passengers were young people," she
said.

     The 95-year-old woman's five living children are Mrs. S. B.Schlesinger,
Houston; Mrs. Lou Goodwin, Hornersville, MO; Mrs. M. O. Robinson,
Redwater; Mrs. A. J. Shelton, Texarkana, and Mrs. Geneva Atwood,
Roswell, N.M.

Obituary of Samantha [Collins] Nettles

Obituary
(no date nor name of newspaper - Mrs. S. A. Nettles)

Note of interest: 
Rex White, Pallbearer, son of Thomas Monroe White.
Roy Harland, a grandson of Susan [White] Harlan / Creed marriage to Samuel Harlan.