William "Billy" Butler Lee

LEE FAMILY HISTORY NOTES

William Butler "Billy" Lee was born on the 18th day of September, 1848, in Union County, South Carolina, near a community called Black Rock. He was the son of William Cooper Lee and Lavinia Eubanks Lee. William C. and Lavinia also had another son, Baramon Franklin Lee, who was about five years older than Billy. By the time of the 1860 Census, the family had moved from Union County, South Carolina, to Paulding County, Georgia, and were shown to be living in the Dallas area. Frank had enlisted in the Confederate Army around the beginning of the Civil War, and was killed early on. Frank had received in injury to one of his lungs and died quickly. In stories shared by family members, Billy picked up a rifle and headed out to fight, after he learned of Frank's death.

After the Civil War ended, people began to try to piece their lives back together and make the best of the war-ravaged land. Sherman's march across Georgia had left much destruction in its wake. It was sometime during this difficult period that Billy Lee met Frances Elizabeth "Fannie" Crow, daughter of Elias L. Crow, a Confederate tailor, and Mary Mitchell Crow. Billy and Fannie were married on January 9th, 1868, in Paulding County, Georgia.

Billy and Fannie Lee had their first child, Robert Franklin Lee, while they were still living in Georgia. Robert Franklin Lee was born in Dallas, Georgia, in July of 1869. The loss of property and crops suffered as a result of the Civil War contributed to the family's decision to migrate West, while Robert Franklin was a baby.

The William Butler Lee family traveled by oxcart and steamboat to arrive in Jefferson, Texas, around the end of 1869. They then traveled by conestoga wagon to Bright Star, Arkansas, with the Adcock family wagon train. Bright Star was located along one of the main trails into Texas at that time. This region had gained a bit of a reputation as being the stomping grounds for a well-known area outlaw, Cullen Baker, who had been killed in January of 1869, in the nearby community of Doddridge, Arkansas.

The family lived in the Spring Bank area for a few years. There was a flood during this time that destroyed the family crops. According to family stories, even their horse and Fannie's shoes were washed down river by the flooding. It is possible that the flooding was partly due to continuing problems with the "Great Raft", a huge log jam on the Red River. In April of 1872, a second son, Richard Henry Lee, was born in Bright Star, Arkansas. He was followed a couple of years later by a third son, William Crow Lee, born in April of 1874, also in Bright Star.

By the end of 1876, the William Butler Lee family had moved across the state border, into northeast Texas. A daughter, Minnie Ola Lee was born in Cass County, Texas, in November of 1876. She was their first daughter and their first child to be born in Texas. It was around this time that the city of Queen City, Texas, was established. It is said that Billy Lee liked the area and decided to settle there because it reminded him of Georgia. Both the W. B. Lee family and the E. L. Crow family are shown to be residents of Cass County, Texas, on the 1880 census