John Thomas Apperson was the last child of Peter and Elizabeth Petty Apperson. He was born Apr 16, 1845 near Springfield, Mo. His boyhood was spent on the Apperson plantation near Waxahachie, Ellis Co., Tx., having been taken there by his parents when only about three years old. Thomas, called Tom, was only about seventeen when he and his brother, James Petty, enlisted in the Civil War in 1862, and fought to the end in 1865, in Company A, 12th Texas Cavalry, known as Harson's Brigade, a unit of the 19th Regiment. About the time the war was over his mother had died and he chose not to use the extra money left him for a college education by his father for that purpose. Instead he decided to live on the land he inherited and do his share in helping the country return to normal. Also, he had fallen in love with Sue H McCune, daughter of Harvey T and Mary Matson McCune, who left Red Oak, Mo for Texas during the Civil War and returned there when the war ended. It is said that Sue's mother, daughter of Enoch and Jennie Matson of Bourbon Co., Ky, was the first white child born on Salt River in Kentucky. During the war, before the McCunes went to Texas, some bushwhackers went to Harvey McCune's home looking for him, or other Confederates. He escaped through a trap door cut in the floor of the sitting room which covered a stairway leading under and out of the house. Sue threw a rug over the trap door and stood in it until the bushwhackers searched the house and left.
Tom and Sue were married in Waxahachie October 22, 1965, and lived in the Peter Apperson homestead, which he inherited, until 1868 when he sold the flour mill and his land and moved near her parents at Red Oak, Mo, where he built a very nice two story home and where his five daughters grew up.
Tom and Sue had no sons - only daughters.
Their first child; Mary Anna Elizabeth Lee Apperson (Mrs William Henry Rouse) died California probably.
The others were born in Red Oak, MO:
Harvey Mae Apperson (Mrs William P Dawson) was born in Texas. 1868 - 1945 MO
Emma Susan Apperson (Mrs Leonard Morris) - 1870 - 1901
Dixie Apperson (Mrs Frank Raymond Jennings) - 1872 - 1946∼Gentry Journal-Advance
Gentry, AR
May 31, 1918

APPERSON, John Thomas - John Thomas Apperson was born in Springfield, Mo. April 16, 1845. Died at the family residence in this city May 24, 1918. During the last lingering days of mortal pilgrimage Mr. Apperson suffered the most excruciating pain and felt most touchingly the kindly ministry of those member of his family who were privileged to be near him in the last illness. An appropriate funeral service was held at the home attended by a large circle of friends with the Masonic Lodge of which Mr. Apperson was a consistent member. The burial was on Saturday {25th} at the former home of the family in Missouri, and with Masonic rites. A Friend.