Thomas Abraham Teague, my Great-Great Grandfather

Thomas A Teague was quite a colorful man. He was born in Pulaski, Missouri on Dec. 22, 1836. He grew up in the Ozarks, moving from Missouri to Arkansas in 1850 when he was 14. His mother died not long after the family moved to Arkansas.

Tom moved to Denton, Texas around 1860, when he as 24 years old. A beauty named Phalby Chism Pierce caught his eye and the two of them were married later that year. They welcomed a baby boy, John Bolter Teague, into the world on June 2, 1861. 

Sadly, the Civil War reached them in Texas and Tom was drafted to fight for the Confederate Army. He joined the Texas 15th Regiment as a Private in 1862. As the war raged on Tom found himself with an unorganized group of men on August 25, 1863, in Smith County, Tenn. The Union soldiers captured all of them and Tom was a prisoner of war until 1865 when he decided to enlist in the Union Army. He was 27 years old when his name shows up under the Union Soldiers Service Records, serving with the Sixteenth Calvary of New York.  

Phalby and his son John moved to be closer to Tom. We know this because on July 14, 1865, in Newton County, Missouri, Phalby gave birth to a baby girl whom they named Phalby Jane Pierce.

When the war ended Tom returned with his family in Travis Co. Texas.  Phalby and Tom made a good life for themselves in the beautiful hill country of central Texas. His daughter Marion, son James and daughter America were all born in and around the Austin, Texas area.

As the story goes Tom lived hard and played hard. One night he got into a fight in a local saloon and ended up breaking the other man's neck. Although witnesses said that it was a fair fight, Tom heard that a lynching might be in store for him. He was not going to take any chances to he fled all the way to Globe, Arizona where he went by the name of Tom Rose for a while.  His family joined him in Globe where they lived and eventually had families of their own. 


Phalby died at age 84 on May 31, 1921, as a result of 'Injury to Spine and Fracture of Neck and Left Femur. The Death Certificate does not say how these injuries occurred, possibly a Motor Vehicle Accident. Tom died on December 9, 1925, at the age of 91 of 'Natural Causes, Old Age.' 

They are both said to be buried at Fort Thomas in Arizona. There is no gravestone for either.

Thomas A Teague Draft Registration 

Tom's Confederate Record and his Union Record

Taken Prisoner by the Union Army, August 25, 1863

Fort Thomas, Arizona where Tom and Phalby are said to be buried.

This story and the facts/fiction of it has been told with this Scots Irish woman's way of always making a story a little more interesting for the telling of it. Most of the sources found to add interesting details of Tom and Phalby's life can be found by doing a search for their names on the internet. Ancestry has a lot of the information and the photos that were uploaded by other family members of these two interesting characters.  The information about Fort Thomas is from Wikipedia.

I hope you have enjoyed reading about Thomas and Phalby. 

Three Generations of intricate Family Tree