The Sublett family (Soblet) was of French Huguenot origin, from Sedan, in the Ardennes region of Northern France. The family fled to London after Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes, 1685, and from there came to Virginia. the family gradually diffused across the Appalachian Mountains to Kentucky and Tennessee where Isaiah P Sublett, son of William Scott and Ann (Robertson) Sublett was born, 23 December 1827. On 25 September 1847, he married Susan F. Cawthon (June 1, 1822 – June 30, 1893) in Wilson Co, TN (near Nashville).
By 1850, the Sublett family, Isaiah, his wife, Isaiah’s parents and siblings, removed, to Shelby County, in east central Texas, just north of San Augustine County, where William’s brother, Philip, had settled earlier. There Isaiah joined Newburn Lodge No. 97, petitioning on 29 October, 1854. He was initiated 25 November, passed 23 December of that year, and raised 27 January 1855. De demitted in July, 1855; the lodge to which he demitted (if any) has not yet been determined. The town of Newburn evidently no longer exists.
The Subletts came to Denton County soon thereafter, probably attracted by the possibilities of land grants from the Peters Colony. They settled in the “Chinn’s Chapel” area, and, in 1860 obtained 160 acres just south of where the Double Oak Town Hall is now located, by patent # 63. Brother Sublett bought and sold land, and he and Susan had five children who survived childhood, Frances (1849, born Tennessee), Sarah (1851, born Texas), Susan (1854) John (1861) and Mary (1863).
During the Civil War, Isaiah was a 2nd Lieutenant in Mounted Co. “C” 21st Brigade, Texas State Troops, servicing under Capt. Theodore J. Dorsett (first WP of Lewisville Lodge) and Brigadier General Wm. Hudson. The unit served briefly in Texas’ northwest frontier. He was described at 5′ 10″, fair complexion, 35 years of age and a stock raiser by trade. Since this unit was supposed to be active until Confederate troops took over, this latter event was not long in coming. Later, he farmed.
Brother Sublett was WM in 1862, 1863 and 1870. After his wife, Susan’s death, he remarried, to Mrs. M.E. V Prichard, 7 October, 1896. He died November 27, 1899 and he and his first wife are buired in the odd Fellows cemetery, Denton.
The Sublett surname is entwined with the history of the Republic of Texas. Isaiah was a first cousin once-removed to Philip Allen Sublett, who served in pre-Alamo battles, at Nacodoches (1832), was in the San Antonio area for the Grass Fight, the Battle of Concepcion and the siege of Bexar in which the Texians defeated the Mexican defenders and their commander, Santa Anna’s brother-in-law, Martin Perfecto de Cos. it has been claimed (by a reliable source) that Sublett’s troops from San Augustine committed some depredations (looting) in Gonzales on the way to San Antonio, certainly possible since the town’s men were already at San Antonio. Sublett fought bravely once he got there.
Philip A. Sublett had settled in San Augustine. By 1834 he was the municipality’s (second) judge. He may have been the one who determined that Theodore Dorsett’s family (he was Lewisville Lodge’s first WM) were suitable persons to live there. Phillip Sublett served in a number of important positions during the Texas Revolution and afterwards. He nominated his law parter, Sam Houston, to be the first President of the Republic.
San Augustine has a rich Masonic history and is home of a very early Masonic Lodge charted in Texas (by the Louisiana Grand Lodge), McFarland, now Redlands Lodge No. 3. The Lodge’s founder, John Gillespie, was sentenced to death in Mexico, but was reprieved by the commander of the firing squad, a brother Mason, when he gave the Masonic sign of distress. As far as I have been able to determine, this is a true case of the use of the sign to save one’s life, unlike that for Santa Anna, now subject to question. “The Sublett House” built by his son Henery, in San Augustine, still exisits.