By Stephen D. Bowling

It took a few days for the news of Granville Back’s death in Texas to reach Breathitt County. A relative on Quicksand Creek received a small missive with a newspaper clipping from The Greenville Evening Banner enclosed announcing his death.

Granville Boyd Back was born on March 4, 1870, in Breathitt County, Kentucky, to Henry C. Hitch” and Catherine (Back) Back. He was raised on Quicksand Creek in what is now the Noctor community.

He married Sallie E. Graham (1868 – 1903) about 1893. She was the daughter of Joseph Douglas and Jane (Little) Graham of Campton. Granville and Sallie Back moved to the community of Moody in Cherokee County, Oklahoma, where she served as Postmaster until she died in 1903. The couple had one son, Edgar, who survived his mother. 

Granville moved to Lone Oak in Hunt County, Texas, in 1906 and soon remarried. He married Susan Ellen Wheelus (1866 – 1946). Born in Georgia, Susan and her family relocated to Texas when she was young. She and Granville had one son, George Lee Back.

Granville died on June 22, 1940, in Lone Oak, Texas. Once word reached Breathitt County of his passing, The Jackson Times ran the following article on the front page of its July 11, 1940 edition:

Granville Back Died June 22

Granville B. Back, 70, a prominent farmer of the Lone Oak Community, died at 10 o’clock Saturday night, June 22, in Lone Oak, Texas, after an illness of only two weeks duration.

Mr. Back was born on March 4, 1870, in Breathitt County, Kentucky, and was reared to manhood in that state.  He came to Texas in 1906 and had since been a resident of the Lone Oak community, where he was a progressive farmer.

During his residence in this section of the state he had been an outstanding community leader and one of Hunt County’s most highly respected citizens.

He is survived by his widow and two sons, Edgar Back, of Dallas, and George Back, of Lone Oak, and two sisters, Mrs. Ellen Bryant, of Lexington, Ky., and Mrs. Orlean Hayes of Duquesne, Pa.

– Greenville, Texas News.

Susan Ellen (Wheelus) Back died in 1946. She was buried in the Forest Park Cemetery in Greenville in Hunt County, Texas, next to Granville Boyd Back.

© 2024 Stephen D. Bowling