The Combs family left watumpka, Elmore County, Alabama  around 1870, heading for Texas.  They boarded the M.K.T. Railroad Train.  Being dissatisfied with the living conditions on farms and plantations decided to move to a new location to better their conditions, and to rear their family.

 

Alfred and Harriet were very proud people , they did not let the white people break their spirit.

 

After a long train ride, the first stop was Pilot Point, where they lived for a short period of time.  They made their living by picking cotton  in the near town of Sanger, Texas.  Alfred and Harriet had lots of children.  The 1900 census stated they were married 36 years and had nineteen children, but only nine were living.  one of their daughters was named abbie.  abbie was blind.  The story I always heard was that the slave master  heard there was a beautiful baby girl on the plantation and he wanted to see her, so her mother was on her way to see the master.  They said it was winter time and that the snow was so bright that it made her go blind.  Even being blind she picked her fare share of cotton.  Of course her parents didn't want her to, but she always insisted upon it.

 

Around 1875 they heard about 27 families from Dallas County in the settlment of White Rock moving to Denton County.  They settled Two and ahalf miles from the county site.  They named this new settlement "Freedman Town."

 

Some of the people in the group had faith, courage, and determination to live christian lives,  so they met from house to house, and held weekly prayer and class meetings.  The group got larger so they built a church and named it Saint James African Methodist Episcopal Church.  The ladies raised money for missionary society assessments, for Sundy School Convention, and for other things that they wanted to do for the church or the parsonage, by having fried fish suppers and selling homemade ice cream and pies.

 

By the 1880 they began buying property on a new location.  They named the new location Quakertown in honor of the Nothern Abolitionist, Who had help runaway slaves.

 

A handful of the settlers managed to overcome some of the limitations faced by blacks in the south and established businesses.  They had a grocery store,  flower shop, mortuary, drug store, confectionary, restaurant, tailor shop, three barber shops,  a church and a school.  These were exceptions, however.  Most residents worked in low paying service jobs.

 

By the 1900's they had moved to the Indian Territory County  Chicasaw Nation.  At this time Alfred was 70 yrs old and Harriet was 60.  Both were living with their oldest son Pink.  Alford was born in N. Carolina in 1830, and Harriet was born in Alabama in 1830.

 

In 1910 Harriet was staying with her daughter, Racheal.  Alfred was deceased.  They both are barried in Ryan Oklahoma, outside of  marrietta Oklahoma.