Smith Point, Chambers County
Born on the family plantation in the Cherokee Nation near present Rome, Georgia, Sarah Ridge (1814-1891) attended mission schools and girls' seminary. Her father Major Ridge was a Cherokee leader and friend of Sam Houston. Major Ridge, Sarah's brother John, and cousin were later assassinated for supporting the treaty which traded Indian lands for acreage in the West. This treaty led to the infamous "Trail of Tears." Sarah married a lawyer, George Washington Paschal, in 1837 and they settled in Arkansas. In 1847 the family and slaves moved to Galveston. During the 1850 yellow fever epidemic Sarah opened her home and treated many of the ill with an Indian remedy. After Sarah and Paschal were divorced, she married Charles C. Sisson Pix, an Englishman, in 1856 in the home of Republic of Texas President Mirabeau B. Lamar. Sarah traded her Galveston home for this land of smith Point soon after her marriage. Pix cattle ranged from here to present Liberty. While Pix served in the Confederate Army, Sarah built the ranch into a large operation. With the end of slavery, the ranch declined. After Sarah divorced Pix in 1880, she remained on the ranch with her widowed daughter Agnes Paschal McNeir and two grandsons. Heirs still own the land.