John A. Rutherford came with his family to the Direct area from Tennessee in1835, a few months before the Texas Revolution. When Lamar County wasformed in 1842, he was elected its Chief Justice by the Republic of TexasCongress. He was a surveyor, a farmer, and the first schoolteacher in HoneyGrove. Taking his land grant along Red River and east of Petty, he becamea wealthy man for his time. Though he opposed secession, he lost two sonsin the Civil War. After the conflict, he began writing a daily diary which hekept until his death. It paints a marvelous picture of farm life in post-warNortheast Texas. In it, he mentions over 500 peoplewho lived in and passed through the Petty area,many of whom stayed at the inn he and his sons ran.Although proudly proclaiming himself an atheist,he was the most moral of men, and being one ofits earliest settlers, he helped build Lamar County.