Cullom

Cullom

Cullom Lyhugh HILLIS was born 07 Aug 1888 in Pulaski, TN. His middle name was from his maternal grandfather, Daniel Francis Lihue / Elihue MARBUT. My father said he chose to use a different spelling, so he spelled it "Lyhugh", but he mostly just went by "C.L."

He was the oldest of James & Mary HILLIS children, and the family removed to Bowie County, Texas sometime after 1892. They eventually went up into Oklahoma for a short while, and then back to Texas... to Crosby County, Texas.

My father also told me once, that his father told him that the HILLIS name used to be spelled differently, but he couldn't remember what it was... we have come across a couple of instances where it said HILLHOUSE, but it has not been proven to date. We don't know who Cullom's great-grandparents were! 

C.L. met his first wife [my grandmother] Gertrude Louisa WARD, in Lawton, Oklahoma., where he worked on a threshing crew for her father.When the HILLIS' moved back to Texas, Gertrude eloped with Cullom in December 1908, lying about their ages, and they married in Altus, Oklahoma before traveling into Texas.  He was 20, and she was 15. It took me years to find their marriage record!

Cullom & Gertrude lost their first child, a son, who died the day after he was born, in July 1909. They then had 4 more children... Alvin, Jesse, Warren, and "Irene"... between 1910 and 1915. Gertrude left Cullom about 1920, taking only Irene, and they divorced in May 1923.

Apparently he went to Lubbock, Texas, where he met and married Wreatha Lee WELLS TRIBBLE ADAMS, who already had 2 children from previous marriages [Hazel and "Bill"], and they married in Oct 1923. Together they had 5 more children... Orvel, Bruster, Earnest, Edna Mary, and Jackie Ray. They moved to Roscoe, Texas sometime after March of 1925, where they had a sizeable farm in the countryside.

Gertrude married at least 3 times, but never had any other children, and is buried in the Elsinore District Cemetery in Bakersfield, California.

 Cullom & "Wreathy" are buried in the Sweetwater Cemetery in Sweetwater, Texas. Cullom