100th Birthday Party for Freeman Home

Banners were flying on Saturday, May 29, for the 100th Birthday Party of the Pickard/Garrison/ Freeman home. The public was invited to tour both the home and the barn area. The barn operated as a gin from 1870 to 1916. Ed Pickard, grandson of the original owner, gave a tour of the barn area. Before Saturday’s Open House, almost 50 cousins gathered for lunch at Webb Hill Country Club in Wolfe City. The cousins were given a Pickard Family Tree which included the descendants of Laurence and Laura Pickard. The house was built 100 years ago by the grandparents of current owners, Sharline and Weldon Freeman. Laurence and Laura Pickard built the home in Pecan Gap in 1921. Their daughter, Laurine Pickard Garrison and husband Thel Garrison, became owners of the property in 1978; their daughter Sharline Garrison Freeman and husband Weldon Freeman because the owners in 1999. They remain the owners of the home and eighty acres. The property, known as part of the Jernigan Thicket, was first owned by Curtis Jernigan who received it as part of a land grant from the Republic of Texas in 1838. The property was purchased by Mr. Thomas Benton Hockaday in 1870. Mr. Hockaday’s daughter, Ella, later started a private girls’ school in Dallas. The red barns located on the site were actually part of Mr. Thomas Benton Hockaday’s cotton gin in the late 1800’s. Two slippery elms used in the construction of the gin are still intact. What looks like a silo at the back of the barn is a water tank used for train engines. There is also part of an old railroad car located inside one of the barns. These became part of the farm when Laura Ross Pickard’s father was the Santa Fe foreman for the crew that built the track from Paris to Pecan Gap. The home featured many original furnishings. A wooden table that traveled to Texas with Sharline’s greatgrandmother sits on the front porch. The building of the house was supervised by Sharline’s great-grandfather, Ed Pickard, who built other houses in Pecan Gap and in Highland Park, Dallas. Materials for construction were brought by wagon over unpaved roads from Jefferson, Texas, to Pecan Gap. The home has been a family gathering place for 100 years. The home has adjusted to many changes over this time and a visit to the farm continues to be a family highlight.