Rev. Hugh Martin Childress, Sr. was born in Tennessee, December 13, 1800.  His father was born in Virginia, his mother in North Carolina.  He married Susannah Watters in Perry County, Alabama, December 5. 1823.  She was born in Tennessee December 29, 1809.  Her parents were both born in Georgia.  On October 30, 1832, he received a land grant of one league of land (4428.4 acres) in Bastrop County.  In late 1835, the Texas Provisional Government was established and the Ranger Corps was formally created.  He served as a first Lieutenant of the permanent Volunteer Company of Texas Militia in 1835.

     In 1836, he served as a private in the Ranger Corps of Mounted Riflemen under Captain John J. Tumlinson.  About March 1, 1836, Captain Tumlinson's Ranger Company was ordered to cover the retreat of frightened families to safer positions, a flight known as the Runaway Scrape, while the Mexican Army was advancing.  In the latter part of 1836, Colonel Robert M. Coleman (for whom Coleman County was named) was ordered to proceed up Walnut Creek, six miles below Austin, and build the Coleman Fort, consisting of a cluster of log cabins enclosed in a heavy stockade.  All of the rangers under the command of Captain Tumlinson were ordered to report to Colonel Coleman.  Texas won her independence from Mexico on April 21, 1836, at the Battle of San Jacinto.  Mexico, however, did not recognize the new Republic of Texas as an independent nation for a number of years; rebellious Mexicans caused trouble for almost a decade.  Captain Childress participated in the Battle of the Salado and in the Dawson Massacre. He received his final discharge from Colonel Edward Burleson on August 20, 1851.  Rev. Childress began a ranch because he could not earn enough as a Methodist minister.  The children of Rev. Hugh Martin Childress, Sr. and Susannah (Watters) Childress were:

     (1) Lemuel Childress born 1825/1830; died 1836, The Alamo Mission, San Antonio.  He was accidentally killed before the siege began.

     (2) A daughter Childress born 1825/1830.  She either died before 1850 or married before 1850.

     (3) Hugh Martin Childress, Jr., born May 24, 1835, died September 24, 1897, Grant County, New Mexico; married June 7, 1855, Hulda Ann Cox, daughter of Solomon Cox of Missouri and Bell County, Texas.

     (4) Elisha Childress, born October 1, 1837, died January 24, 1884, Coleman County, married Mary Mariah Murrill, daughter of Joseph and Mary D. (Bailey) Murrill, both of Tennessee, June 7, 1837, died June 24, 1912, Coleman County.  Both are buried in Atoka Cemetery, they had no children (see John Joseph Kincaid).  Grief at the death of his first son, Lemuel, caused Hugh M. to become a Methodist minister.

     Shortly after the establishment of Camp Colorado in 1856, Rev. Childress moved to Coleman County.  Hugh Martin, Jr. took over his father's cattle and Rev. Childress devoted all of his time to his religion.  He was known far and wide as the 'Bear Hunter Preacher."  A contemporary left a description of him and his work. "As the Indians were often passing through the country, and everybody had to carry arms, the old preacher always carried a shotgun and a six-shooter.  I saw him often go into the house where he was to preach on Sunday and set his gun up against the wall and lay his six-shooter under the table, get out his book and go to preaching.  It did not seem to embarrass him in any way."  He was a large man and very heavy.  He always rode a big grey horse.  When he rode up to a home, the children had to run and take him a chair to help him climb off his horse.

     Rev. Hugh Martin Childress, Sr. died in Coleman County, July 29, 1886.  Susannah died February 18, 1882.  Both are buried in Atoka Cemetery.