James William Parkhill, b. 1800n d. 1835 in Kentucky.  He left his wife Ritha and 3 small children.  Ritha married again Aug. 15, 1835 to George Madison Connally. 

Around January-February 1846, George and Ritha and their eight children moved to Northeast Texas. Ritha's father Moses Birdwell and his second wife Hannah Birdwell, and family (sisters, and brothers), and her first husbands brother David Goodner Parkhill and his family also came with them.  There were also several other families that came along.  First building boats and rafts near Guntersville, Alabama accomplished this trip. These boats carried them, their belongings and some livestock, west and north on the Tennessee River to the Ohio River in Kentucky.  Ritha Connally was also pregnant at the time and they stayed six weeks in Paducah, Kentucky where their son, George Birdwell Connally was born. They continued down the Mississippi to the mouth of the Red River in Louisiana.  They worked their way up the Red River to Shreveport, Louisiana, where they stayed a period of six weeks.  They continued up the Red River to north of Clarksville, Texas.  They went a short distance by land to south of where Paris, Texas is today.  They lived for a short time with Ritha's brother in Hopkins Co., Texas, then moved to and lived about 14 miles south of Paris, Texas on Click Creek. 

Submitted by James Parkhill