Sloan Fortenberry who was a son of William M. Fortenberry was born in Arkansas April 12, 1851. His wife Kathryn (Kate) Georgia Ann Moore was the daughter of Samantha Jane Rankin Moore and James Jefferson Moore and was born in Shelby County, Texas, October 12, 1859. Her father was a native of Georgia and her mother was born in Tennessee.
Soon after the Civil War, the mother died leaving three daughter: Kate, Nan and Harriet. Their father kept them together. They moved to Hill County, Texas, and when Grandmother Kate was ten or eleven their father died. Their uncle, David Cambell of Whiteboro, came for them and gave them a home until Kate and Nan were married. Harriet died at sixteen and is buried at Rosston just outside the Fortenberry iron fence. She was born February 22, 1867, and died February 11, 1883.
When Grandmother Kate was fifteen they moved to Leo in Cooke County just across the Wise county line. It was there she met a young cowman, Sloan Fortenberry. In February 1878, when grandmother was past eighteen, they were married, up the creek from Leo among squirrels, whpper-wills and wid turkeys. Grandfather was twenty six years. He had come from Arkansas when he was seven years old.
A year or two after their marriage, they acquired 120 acres of land on White’s Creek near the Wise-Denton county line and near the corner of the two counties. This was added to along until several hundred acres made up their estate.
Four sons were born to them: Ambrose Taylor, William Everett, Aubrey Sloan And Claud Rankin. There were twenty grandchildren. Grandfather gave the first child in each family a calf.
Grandfather was thrown from a horse in his middle years and his leg was broken so that it had to be amputated by a doctor at Greenwood. He recovered, but was never able to use an artificial limb made for him. Instead, he used a peg leg. With the hospitals of today, his leg might have been saved. He died at the age of sixty.
Grandmother, however lived to be 85 years old. During this time she lived in her own home and traveled some. She made several trips to Oregon to visit Aunt Fannie and Uncle David Cambell who had made a home for her and her two sisters after the death of their parents. She died in April 1943. She and grandfather are both buried at Rosston, Texas, Cooke County.