Tankersley (Tankersly), also known as MacGrath, is on U.S. Hwy. 67, Farm Road 2335, and the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe line in west central Tom Green County. It was named for R. F. Tankersley, one of the first white settlers on the Concho River in 1864 and donor of land for the townsite. A post office, established in 1910 as Tankersly, was discontinued in 1963. In 1914 the community had a population of forty, a general store, and two grocers. The local school had eighty-three pupils and three teachers in 1933. The 1936 county highway map showed the school, a church, a post office, a business, and scattered dwellings at the townsite. The population reached a high of seventy-five in 1946, when Tankersley had three businesses, but by 1953 the community had twenty residents and one business. In the 1980s, a cemetery, the Tankersly-Twin Mountain school, the abandoned railroad station, and the West Texas Boys Ranch remained in the area. The estimated population of the community was twenty in 1990.

Bibliography: Clarence George Parsons, Proposed Plan for the Reorganization of the Schools in Tom Green County, Texas (M.A. thesis, University of Texas, 1939). Diana J. Kleiner

        Annie Ellen (Allen) Tankersley, Concho Valley pioneer, daughter of Ellen (Ellender) Allen, was born at Aberdeen, MS, on March 16, 1828. She was the only child of a wealthy Louisiana family. In 1848, Annie Allen married Richard Franklin Tankersley of Jackson, MS. With their infant daughter Elizabeth, they moved to Texas, in 1853. After a short stay in Round Rock, the Tankersleys stopped in Cherokee Co., before settling in San Saba Co. Richard Tankersley served briefly as a Texas Ranger, and while a Ranger he may have located a new homestead in Brown Co. By 1859, the Tankersleys were living south of Brownwood. Five years later, the family, which by then included six children, moved to the headwaters of the South Concho River, making the Tankersleys the first Anglo American family to settle in the Concho River basin. For the rest of her life Annie Tankersley lived in and around what became San Angelo and played an active role in the history of the region.
        On January 8, 1865, Texas Rangers and volunteer Confederate troops attacked a band of Kickapoo Indians encamped on Dove Creek near the Tankersley home. After the battle the Tankersleys helped tend the injured Texans and bury the dead. In 1869, Richard Tankersley drove a herd of cattle to California, leaving Annie to protect her children at a time of increasing Indian hostilities. Upon the urging of Major John P. Hatch, Commander of the recently established Fort Concho, Annie moved her family to safety at the post. When Richard returned from California, the Tankersleys acquired several lots near the fort and settled in the small community of San Angelo. In 1876, Annie filed for divorce, and after a lengthy proceeding she gained a settlement that included the San Angelo property. On one of the parcels she established the Concho House Hotel. Fire destroyed it in 1879, but she rebuilt it, this time out of adobe.
        In Jan. 1881, the county sheriff used the hotel to house a man suspected of killing a trooper from Fort Concho. When a mob of soldiers came looking for the culprit, Annie prevented them from entering long enough for the sheriff to escape out the back door with his prisoner. In August 1882, extensive flooding severely damaged the Concho House; it was eventually repaired, but was completely destroyed by another fire in 1894, marking the end of one of San Angelo's earliest landmarks. Annie joined the First Christian Church of San Angelo in 1884, and she participated in church affairs and in private philanthropy. She had borne seven children, one of whom died in infancy in Mississippi. Two of her sons, George Washington and Lafayette, became influential cattle operators and businessmen in the Concho River region, and Lafayette played an important role in the development of Irion County. After a brief illness, Annie Tankersley died at her home in San Angelo on Feb 12, 1902.

Bibliography: Grace Bitner, "R. F. Tankersley and Family, Pioneers of the Concho Country," West Texas Historical Association Year Book 20 (1944). William C. Pool, "The Battle of Dove Creek," Southwestern Historical Quarterly 53 (April 1950). Tankersley Family File, Fort Concho Museum and Library, San Angelo, Texas. Marvin E. Schultz.

        "About January 1st, we were visited by a band of Kickapoo Indians who were going to Mexico and had stopped at Dove Creek to spend a few days. We had at first thought they were hostile Indians and my father had drawn his gun on the leader, who waved a white cloth and called out,"me no fight." There were about fifty men and two women in the party. They were very friendly and in scouting some days later, found some of our horses which had strayed off and brought them home. On January 8th, they were overtaken by a Company of Texas Rangers under Captain Gillentine, and a fight was forced on the Indians. A number of white men were killed and my father helped bury them. While living at the head of the Concho, he gathered a herd of cattle with the intention of trailing them to New Mexico, but he sold them to John Chisum, and the Indians took them from him on the plains. In June, 1869, my father trailed a herd of twenty-five hundred cattle to Los Angeles, California, being on the trail about eight months. On the way home, two men who camped with him for the night, cut open a saddle bag and stole five hundred dollars. In the pair of saddle bags there was twenty-five thousand dollars in gold, and why they did not take it all is a mystery. At that time and for many years afterwards there were no banks in this part of the state, so all the money we had was buried under the house.

        "Increasing depredations by the Indians caused us to move to Fort Concho in 1869. Many times every horse and mule on the ranch was taken. All the salt we used was hauled by wagon from Pecos. On one of these trips my father and a hired man were run into by Indians near the head of the main Concho. They got into the river under bushes and fought the Indians off. My father was shot in the ankle and the bullet was never extracted. In February, 1870, we were living in San Angelo, about where the American Legion opera house now stands, and Indians came trying to get horses out of the corral back of the house. About 10 o'clock that night the late Judge Preusser came to our door and said he had dreamed of seeing Indians and looking out saw them in fact. About that time they began yelling and shooting. They did not get the horses and it was thought that an Indian was wounded as a bloody war bonnet was found the next day. In this fight a Mexican was shot through one ear.

        "A kind and all-wise Providence guarded us through all the dangers and hardships of pioneer life and will be with us to the end. Father passed away December 11, 1912, leaving three sons, G. W., Fayette, and H. M. Tankersley, and four daughters, Mrs. Elizabeth Emerick, Mrs. Clarissa Frary, Mrs. Sallie Phelan and Mrs. Mary Lewis. Since his death, the oldest son and youngest daughter have "crossed over the river," and are resting with him "'neath the shade of the trees."

        Prof. Samuel F. Goddard of Scott County, Ark., is a son of C. E. and N. T. (Smedley) Goddard, both of whom were born in this State, the former being reared in Washington County on a farm. At the age of eighteen years he went to California and after remaining in that State for several years he returned to Arkansas, and settled in Sebastian County. His wife was a daughter of Joseph R. Smedley, a native of England, who was sent as a missionary to this county by the Missionary Baptist Church, his field of labor being principally in the Indian Territory. The immediate subject of this sketch is the second son in a family of eight children born to his parents, and although his opportunities for acquiring an education, up to age of eighteen years, were very limited, he, at that time entered a very good school at Hartford, in which he took an academic course. He supplemented this by an attendance at Buckner College, where he remained for three years, at the end of which time he started out for himself as a school teacher, to which calling he has since given attention. He became an instructor in the graded school of Waldron in September, 1890 with the end in view of bringing the school to a higher state of perfection, and preparing the students for college work, and has, in conjunction with Prof. Henderson, established a normal class, which he hopes will be well patronized, and profitable to the school and an honor to the county. He was born in Sebastian County, Ark., September 23, 1864, and was married October 8, 1890, to Miss Johnnie Tankersley, a daughter of Dr. O. D. and M. E. Tankersley, of Clarksville, Johnson County, Ark. She was given the advantage of the Clarksville school, and is a well-educated lady. She has three sisters, one of who is the wife of Dr. C. E. Frost, of Salem, Ark., the other two being at home attending school. Her father has been a practicing physician for many years, but is now retired. Mr. Goddard met his wife while taking a three years' course in Hendricks College, at Atlus, which is one of the leading educational institutions of the State. He and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, of which they have been members since they were fifteen and twelve years of age respectively. Mr. Goddard is a licensed minister of the church, and socially is a member of Mansfield Lodge of the A. F. & A. M. He is highly esteemed by the people of Waldron and vicinity, and has the reputation of being one of the leading educators of the western part of the State.

        Mrs. Johnie Tankersley Goddard was born May 21, 1870, near Clarksville, AR. She died after a protracted illness at her parsonage home in Mena, AR, October 14, 1927. She was married to the Rev. Samuel F. Goddard on October 8, 1890, who with one son, Oscar Felix, a certified public accountant and now director of the Hawaii Bureau of Governmental Research, survives her. Mrs. Goddard was converted at the age of ten years and united with the Methodist Church, thus giving to the Church the whole of her loyal and devoted life. She glorified all the relations of life which she sustained to the world about her. She had many friends in all the charges served by her husband, but she doubtless had a larger place in the hearts of the people of Mena, than in any previous pastorate. Her place in the life of the young people, their love for her, and their grief at her going, was touching beyond expression.
        Her funeral was held at 4:00 Saturday afternoon by F. N. Brewer, the presiding elder. Despite the fact that it was held at the busiest hour of the busiest day of the week, it was attended by a throng of people. After the service, her body was laid to rest in the Odd Fellows Cemetery.

        I like to read old history, especially I like to read about the people who came here when our country was young. These early settlers were our ancestors. I love to hunt up old records to see where they came from, who they were, and where they were put when they had finished with this world. While we did not know them, we have come to respect their memory. I am sure that if they had stayed around long enough, we would of come to love them, old as they were.
        Take the notes that come my way about a Texas family, and a girl named Reba Dale. She came with her mother to Arkansas as a child, went to school in Prairie Grove and Farmington, and grew up to marry, of all persons, me!
        More than two hundred sixty five years ago, a gentleman named Reuben Tankersley rode into King County, Virginia. With him was his wife, who had been Sarah Ann Beverly, and their son Richard, who was born in 1676.
        One day Richard was old enough to marry, and he went over into Carolina to claim the hand of Margaret Rowland. The year was 1712. Richard died in 1748, but there was a son. They named him Richard the Second.
        In time, this Richard lad also grew up and found himself to be a man grown, so he chose for a bride, one Tabitha Bennett. The young couple honored a grandmother and named their son Rowland.
        So it came to be that Rowland Tankersley also discovered that he too, ought to marry and raise a family. There was a Miss Clarissa Wade, Alabama born, from Wilkes County. They moved over into Georgia.
        We leave the Tankersleys, the Rowlands and Wade families for a moment to look in on a daughter of Rowland and Clarissa, who had become the bride of one William Neill.
        Restless eyes were turning from the Carolinas, the Georgia and Alabama country, to the ever beckoning open spaces across the mighty Mississippi River. From over there came reports of free and untilled land. Included in the great migration was a son of Lucinda Wade and William Neill, named George Wade Neill, who showed up one day in Carause, Arkansas. He obtained a license to web on October 26, 1848, a lass named Mary Ann Munn, whom her friends called Polly...

        Whereas, the many friends, former associates and all citizens of Terry County were shocked at the untimely passing of E. S. "Red" Tankersley, and
        Whereas, E. S. "Red" Tankersley has served Terry County and Precinct No. 1 as Commissioner for many years in an efficient and commendable manner, and
        Whereas, the Commissioner's Court of Terry County in deep sorrow and respect for his memory and in sympathy with his wife, children, relatives and friends, wish to express to his loved ones our sincere appreciation for what he was and did for Terry County, and also express our sorrow at his untimely passing.
        Now therefore, be it resolved, that the Commissioner's Court of Terry County, at a regular meeting express and extend to his widow, Mrs. E. S. Tankersley, and his entire family our most sincere sympathy, and also our appreciation for what he did for Terry County as Commissioner of Precinct No. 1, Terry County, Texas.
        Adopted this the 25th day of November, 1968.
Commissioner's Court of Terry County, Texas
W. L. McKinney, County Judge
Wayne Mullins, Jr., Commissioner Precinct No. 2
H. B. Settle, Commissioner Precinct No. 3
Herald Bevers, Commissioner Precinct No. 4