|
Thurza was born 1803 in Greene Co GA to William Kilgore, Jr & Ann Higgibotham. Her family had been some of the earliest pioneers in Georgia, with her grandfather, William Kilgore, Sr being born there in the 1730's. Thurza married John Jackson Pyle in Covington Co MS in 1816. They lived there for many years, and all but two of their children were born there. In 1833 Thurza came with her husband to Texas, where he served in the Army of the Republic of Texas. They lived in Montogomery Co TX for nearly 20 years but when John was given 640 acres of land for his service they made their way to Kaufman County in summer 1853. The place they lived was soon known as Pyle's Prairie and is still known by that name today. Thurza lost her son, Joseph, in the Mexican-American War & lost another son, Simon, in an accident when he was only 25 years old. A family story says that it was Thurza who chose the place for the Pyle's Prairie Cemetery because it was already an Indian burial site. Soon after their arrival in Kaufman County some Indians stole horses from them. The Indians were caught , hanged and buried at the site. Knowing this, and believing the site was already sacred with the interment of the Indians, it was Thurza who decided that her son-in-law, J P McFarland, who was married to her daughter Emmaline for only five months before his death, would be buried there after he died suddenly in March of 1854. Thurza died in 1857 and is buried at Pyle's Prairie Cemetery near her husband and many of her children and grandchildren. The burial place now holds five generations of her descendants. Children of Thurza Pyle: |