John Franklin McLendon

Submitted by Paul Jauch

John Franklin McLendon was born July 18, 1839 in Louisville Barbor Co. Alabama. His father was Martin Maxwell Mclendon Who died in Alabama. His mother was Catherine Carolina Campbell. She is buried at the Mount Pasgah Cemetery in Pine Mills in Wood Co Texas. John Franklin's grandfather was Josiah McLendon and his Grandmother was Mary Geanberry. Her brother is who Granberry Texas is named for or so I am told. The McLendon family arrived in the United States in Jan. 1696 John Franklin is the Great Great Great Grandson of Dennis the Emigrant.

John Franklin joined the Baptist church where he lived at the age of 14 years, and reportedly resolved at that time to enter the Baptist Ministry. He was subsequently ordained to the ministry by the Antioch Baptist church on November 5, 1860. He asked the Lord to spare him to preach the gospel for fifty years, a prayer which was granted, with eight extra years over, most of which were spent pastoring  many different churches. This does not take into account five other years he was a licensed preacher, having preached his first sermon about 1855, at the age of 16. Bro. McLendon served for a time as a chaplain in the Confederate Army.

He moved his family to Carthage Texas in Nov. 1868 to become the Pastor of the First Baptist Church. Personel note this must have beeen one heck of a trip, as my Grandfather Henry Martin McLendon was born Oct. 21, 1868 in Alabama, so he was an infant during that trip. John Franklin ministered in several of the churches in Panola and Rusk counties. John Franklin McLendon was married to Josephine Holmes, Dec. 17, 1863. She died July 6, 1901, they had gone to Rosebrough Springs and she drank some mineral water from a new spring. She became ill and died that night she is buried next to John Franklin in Clayton. His second wife Mary is buried on beside him also.

In 1909 the children of John Franklin McLendon decided to do something special for his 70th birthday. So they arranged to have a birthday party and family reunion at the Bethel Baptist Church. This became an anual event until sometime in the 1980's. I attended the reunion in 1957, and remember we had a service in the church and a great picnic under the trees just outside.

Henry Martin McLendon had several successful bussiness including a General Store and a Saw Mill in Mt. Enterprise. The mill burned down in 1919, and he lost everything he had. His first wife Melinda Caroline Heath died in child birth in 1905. He had a small son Jesse Heath McLendon who was born in 1901 she was his true love. John Franklin was ministring at several churches at the time one being Zion Hill in Minden Texas. One of the Deacons was Benjamin N. Welch who had an old maid daughter. So the fathers arranged for a meeting. On June 3, 1906 Henry Martin married Lula Annie Welch they had 3 children the last one was my mother Ida Mae McLendon. Lula Annie lived with us in San Francisco for half the year and with my Aunt Adele and Uncle Steve Cavazos on the King Ranch the other half of the year. She passed March 30, 1955 in San Francisco. We brought her body back to Clayton by train.

Just a few notes about a couple of my aunts and uncles buried there at Clayton.

Mina McLendon never married. She had a Hair Lip, but went on to teach English and Math at a college in East Texas.

Walter L. McLendon Was married 2 times,and had several children. The inscription on his headstone is very true. He apparently always said he wanted to die by the hand of God. While my mother and her family were at his farm on a visit a storm blew in. He asked my mom and her brother to take 2 of the mules to the barn, so they rode them into the barn, he thought he could get one more row plowed, but lightning hit the mule he still had on the nose and the charge went through the mule , plow and Uncle Walter killing them both.