“… We made up a wagon train of six wagons with a group of relatives and moved to Lockhart Texas … I rode horseback”

The Shamrock Texan, 6 June 1957: W. B. Franks relating the family move from Arkansas to near Austin, Texas in 1900 when he was age 12. They returned to Arkansas after a time.

Welcome to this research portal exploring the ancestors of Zela (Franks) Balkcom and her parents William Barrett Franks and Flora (Carder) Franks. W. B. and Flora were born near Newburg in northern Arkansas, W. B. in 1887 and Flora in 1888.  They met as schoolmates in Pleasant Grove, Arkansas, and married in 1907 when Barrett was age 20 and Flora 18.  In 1912 they moved with other family to north Texas by horseback and wagons, where in earlier years there they variously farmed, owned a cafe, a furniture store, and a radio shop.  W. B. then spent 26 years with the Shamrock Co-op Cotton Gin, as bookkeeper and later manager.

Daughters Zela and twin Zella were their firstborn, in 1908, while the family lived in Arkansas. The Franks went on to have 11 children.  Eight survived to adulthood, with Zella dying as an infant, Jewel at age 4, and Lola at age 2.

Barrett descended from Jeremiah Franks (born about 1791) and Morning Fisher (born 1785) of the Caney Forks River area of White County, Tennessee. Their descendants are traced from Tennessee to Marion County, Alabama, to Itawamba County, Mississippi, and then to Arkansas, Texas, and Oklahoma. Flora descended from John and Elizabeth Carder in the early 1700s Culpepper County, Virginia.

This researcher is the youngest son of Zela (Franks) Balkcom and Euel Balkcom.