Sign posted by the Texas Historical Commission indicates Jerusha Sanchez (0300004) was the first civilian settler of Camp Dixie and a midwife for the Nueces Canyon area. Dixie was the forerunner of Barksdale, Texas. (Photo courtesy of findagrave.com)

(Honestly, I am not certain how much of this is factual and how much is conjecture; the following was pulled together from various unsourced listings with information often in disagreement.) As inscribed on her gravestone, Jerusia Sanches was born July 17, 1809; two census records agree that she was born in Illinois, but they place the year of birth at 1812-14. Her mother was possibly from Illinois, and her father was possibly from Tennessee; however, it is assumed that Jerusha’s father was French and that her mother was Cherokee (or is it the other way around?). One listing claims her maiden name was Bridges without source information or explanation. Her and her children spent some time in Arkansas until about 1831 and lived in Louisiana between 1831 and 1844. It is proposed that she married four times (or perhaps three times?). She married her first husband, William Henry Lemons, Senior, about 1829; he died about 1835. She had two children by her first husband. Her second husband was supposedly Milton J. Tidwell. The Tidwells ventured west to Arkansas with the Blantons; they in turn went to settle Strouds Community in Robertson County, Texas. Milton Tidwell was killed by Kachia Indians during a raid of that settlement in 1840 in which Sara Tidwell (this might not have been Jerusha – more on this later) and her three small children were taken captive. One of her children died while in captivity. She and her two remaining children were ransomed by a brother from Conway, Arkansas by the name of Richard Blanton. Richard then brought his sister Sarah and her children back with him to Arkansas. Jerusha’s third husband was Clarence Burns. She had two children by her third husband. Jerusha witnessed the death of Clarence Burns after 1841. She married her fourth husband, Francisco Sanches, on February 13, 1844 in Texas. She had five children by her fourth husband. In 1848, they moved to Navarro County. She witnessed the death of Francisco Sanches about 1867 in Texas and moved to Camp Wood in Nueces Canyon, Texas, where she served as a midwife. She is noted as the first civilian settler of Camp Dixie, which later became Barksdale, Texas. She died September 11, 1884 and was buried in Vance Cemetery in Real County, Texas. She was a frontier doctor employed by the Union Army, as confirmed by a soldier’s diary. She passed away in 1884 due to “cancer of the face” at 75 years of age. She was buried with a marked tombstone in the Vance Cemetery. The State of Texas has erected an historical maker to her honor in Barksdale.