Ephrum Ramsey was born the 4Th of July 1835 on a small farm in Fayette County Alabama. At the age of 12 he saved the life of one of his neighbors that was drowning in the local river. This incident would turn out to be a major milestone in his life. The neighbor's father was not only a very successful plantation owner but he was a graduate of the Virginia Military Institute. With his help Ephrum was able to get into VMI and graduated in 1858. He enlisted in the US Army as a Second Lt. in the Calvary. In 1861 1st Lt. Ramsey resigned his commission and enlisted in the Confederate Army. After four long bitter years Capt. Ramsey came home to Fayette County Alabama.

His family farm destroyed and the people he grew up with bitter and disillusioned , he decided to join up with a band of ExConfederate soldiers that were relocating to South America. He recruited several of his boyhood friends including Horatio Jones, the boy he had saved 18 years earlier. He entrusted the only map of the route with Horatio Jones. For reasons that have never been completely explained the Wagon Train decided to stop in East Texas.

Ephrum was appointed Sheriff of the new town of Nomocotton Texas and served through the rough and tumble days of gunfighters and cattle rustling. Ephrum was very instrumental in the breaking up of the infamous Lunsford Gang that terrorized East Texas in the early 1890's. In 1903 Ephrum Ramsey resigned in protest of the new "Ethical Reforms" being instituted by Mayor John Dodson.

Ephrum Ramsey died in his sleep on Jan 10th 1910. He was survived by his widow Beatrice Lunsford Ramsey, his two sons James and Thomas Ramsey and his stepson Wyatt Lunsford Jr. In the sense of historical perspective I would like to point out that Wyatt Lunsford JR was the son of Wyatt Lunsford the leader of the Lunsford Gang and the father of John, Wyatt and Dozier Lunsford.

To date the only appearance of Ephrum Ramsey was in the short story "A Little History of Nomocotton, Texas."