Matthew Simeon Greer

Matthew Simeon Greer — last child of Nathaniel and Nancy Greer, thus nicknamed “Babe” — was born April, 15, 1845, on the family farm in Washington County, Texas. The farm along East Mill Creek, on land bought in 1841 from the noted Philip Haddox Coe (father of gunfighter Phil Coe) was 6 miles SW of the hamlet of Brenham (renamed from Hickory Grove in 1843). In 1844, Brenham had been made the county seat and began to grow.

Babe's early schooling was at Port Sullivan, Texas, where in 1853, his entire family converted to Mormonism. In the spring of 1855, he migrated with his family to the booming Salt Lake City. The trek suffered and outbreak of cholera which claimed many victims including two of Babe's brothers and their father. The following spring, after a harsh winter, Babe accompanied that part of the family which opted to return to Texas.

Babe served in the Civil War as a Ranger on militia duty along the western frontier. On 5 Jul 1866, he wed Susan V. Phelps who soon died childless of unknown causes. On 25 Mar 1871, he wed Sophia Lane, one of 3 Lane sisters who wed Greer brothers. Their union produced 9 children.

In Kimball, Bosque County, Babe acquired a general store which served the community and the Chisholm Trail men who drove their cattle down Main Street to the Brazos River ford. He was also one of several men who, each in turn, ran the Kimball ferry (his father ran a ferry in Alabama).

On March 15, 1867, Babe acquired half of his late father’s Hill County land from his mother for just $1.00 (apparently because he was the youngest, least established of her sons). He later sold that property and made his lifelong home along Plowman Creek in Bosque County where in 1871 he co-purchased, with his brother Bill, the site from their brother Gil.

In the late 1870s, Babe sold his Kimball store and moved his family to Arizona near brothers Thomas Lacy and Americus Vespucius. But he was unhappy with the land acquired, site-unseen, and abruptly returned to Texas. For a while he taught school just across the Brazos River at a rural site in Hill County and he would often speculate in cotton and livestock futures.

After the Bosque County town of Kopperl was founded in 1881, he opened another store there and operated it until he died from a stroke at his home a few hundred yards north of the center of Kopperl on June 21, 1915. On June 23, he was buried in the Kopperl Cemetery.