Thomas Franklin Dossey
born: 1810 in Franklin Co., Tennessee.
died: Aug 1871 in Groesbeck, Limestone Co., Texas
buried: 1871 in Faulkenberry Cemetery, Groesbeck, Limestone Co., Texas.

He married:
Lavinia Elizabeth Curry on 8 Sep 1835 in Morgan Co., Alabama
born: 1812 in Alabama
died: about 1859/60

He married:
Hannah Claypool Faulkenberry.
died: 1871 in Limestone Co., Texas.

(Quoting Carolyn Dossey) "Thomas Franklin Dossey was born about 1810 in
Tennessee. Census records state he was born in Alabama, but earlier records were found of the family in Tennessee. Also according to the Voter's Registration for 1869 in Limestone County he says he was born in Tennessee. As a young boy he moved with the family to Morgan County, Alabama. He grew to manhood in the Apple Grove Region of this county. He married one of Moses (?) Curry's daughters - Lavinia Elizabeth. His brother G. W. married another daughter Nancy.
Thomas was married to Lavinia Curry on Sepember 8, 1835, by J. W. Briscoe, J. P. Also about this time he followed his father into county politics and served as county constable. Because of the hardships in northern Alabama about this time, the family migrated to western Arkansas. During the few years spent in Arkansas three children, William, Elizabeth, and Thomas Franklin, Jr., were born to this marriage.
The lure of free land in Texas brought Thomas and his brother Greenberry into Texas. Thomas received a headright of 640 acres in Hopkins County. According to the headright papers he arrived in Texas in December of 1841. G. W. also had a headright in Hopkins County, which he sold to Daniel Clendennen in 1849. Thomas had the land surveyed in two portions of 320 acres each that he sold shortly after 1850.
During the years in Hopkins County other children were born to this marriage. Nancy, Louisa, James, Mary, and Sally were probably born in Hopkins County. The youngest son Harvey could have been born in Hopkins County or shortly after the family moved to Limestone County, Texas.
By 1855 the family had moved into Limestone County near other members ofthe family. G. W. had owned land in the county but did not stay. Joseph hadmoved his family from Arkansas into Texas. Also there was the family of William P. Dossey and Nancy Dossey Ridge who had lived in Alabama and Arkansas. On the 1855 Scholastic (Roll) Thomas has three unnamed children attending school.
The land in Hopkins County was sold and land bought in Limestone County.Although Thomas was a farmer to support his family, religion was a bigger part of his life. He was a self-ordained Primitive Baptist minister. It is said by some that his preaching was what drove G. W. to settle in a different part of Texas. (Researcher Mike Stanton notes that, "Near Teague, Texas, southeast of Waco, Texas, there is a marker that reads: "SALEM PREDESTINARIAN BAPTIST CHURCH AND CEMETERY. Among the oldest in county, it was founded December 3, 1853 by the Lee families, Elders Thomas Dossey and C. T. Echols certifying to constitution of church. Elder Dossey named it. The five-acre site was given by the W. H. McSwane family. The first building of logs was replaced later by frame structure. The present chapel was erected in 1961.""
On the 1860 census Thomas is listed as a preacher living alone with his younger children. Family tradition says that his favorite place to preach was on a stump to the workers in the fields. Lavinia had died about 1859. The oldest son William was killed in an accident from a horse on the ranch of his uncle Greenberry William in Atascosa County. Elizabeth had married Matthew Clendennen. Thomas Jr. had married Elizabeth Welch and went with her family to settle in Coryell County, Texas. No later record has been found of Nancy, and Sally must have died young.
Daughter Louisa was blind and she later married Richard Tow. James became lame after a farm accident, and he was never to marry. He lived with other members of his family.
Sometime after 1860 Thomas married a second time to Hannah Claypool Faulkenberry. The 1860 census of Limestone County shows Thomas to be living near the Faulkenberry family, which may have become Thomas's stepchildren. It must have been one of the stepchildren's descendants that marked their graves in the Faulkenberry Cemetery, as none of Thomas's descendants knew where he was buried. It is not known if any children were born of this marriage. The boys did not get along well with the new stepmother and after a beating, Harvey and James ran away to live with other members of the family.
Both Thomas and Hannah died in 1871 and are buried beside Hannah's first husband in Faulkenberry Cemetery at Groesbeck, Texas. Family tradition says that Thomas died quoting the Bible.