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Peek into Panola - Adam and Christina LaGrone
By Vina Lee
They stood, stately and tall, their branches spread over the land reaching to embrace endurance, skeletal fingers grasping at the moon in winter. Then clothed with green leaves uncurling, they open in shelter for birds, squirrels and small children perched on wooden seats suspended from ropes tied tightly around their lower limbs for swings. Until last week, the giant Oak keepers of LaGrone history, marked the spot of the old LaGrone homestead in Deadwood, Texas...the spot where Adam and Christina LaGrone forged out the first American settlement east of the Sabine River in 1837 in a tree bound cove. Both trees lived well even though several years ago, one was damaged during a severe storm and drought and flood wrote their stories in the lifeline circles. In late November 2013, the trees met their deaths, not by blow of Nature, but by the wisdom of man when they were knocked down for safety's sake.
*Adam LaGrone was born in 1781 and moved from South Carolina to Tennessee, Alabama and eventually to Panola County. His great-grandfather, Laurence LeCrown owned 450 acres of bounty grant land in South Carolina and willed part of it to John Adam Sr. Some of the land was sold and he married Mary Magdaline Houseal in 1814 in Tennessee. Laurence's son, Tobias LaCrown received 250 acres on Crims Creek in Newberry District, South Carolina.
According to the records, Laurence's family and Tobias's family arrived in South Carolina in 1752 both coming on the Upton from the village of Schoenau in the Neckar River region of Germany near Heidelburg. Laurence LeCrown's German name was Lorentz Gromme, born in 1698, the son of Hans Peter Gromme and his wife, Anna Margaretha Scheid who married in 1692.
John Adam Jr. brought his bride, Christinana Dominick to Texas (1837). She was born about 1780 In Newberry County, South Carolina, the daughter of John Dominick, Sr. and Elizabeth.
Now, not even the shadow of the two guards darkens the site, but I believe the pioneer spirit of the LaGrone family lingers to forge new memories on the old homestead land and an accorn grows.
*Migration of John Adam LAGRONE (Sr)