History of Texas, Together with a Biographical History of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop, Travis, Lee and Burleson Counties. Page: 511

HISTORY OF TEXAS. 511

tions, not only because it demoralized his
slaves and rendered inefficient their labor, but
because he was called away to the service and
kept from home most of the time until the
closing months of the great struggle. He
died just before the close of hostilities in
1865 from sickness, being at home at the
time. His eldest son, Jesse, had died in the
Confederate service, so that surviving the
father were a widow and five children. The
widow lived until July, 1891, when she too
passed away. The eldest child of the family
was a daughter, Sallie, who is now the wife
of Tom Goodwin and resides at Bryan; the
eldest son after the death of Jesse, was John,
while the four younger members were Robert,
a Burleson county farmer,- Mary, Olivia and
Joeday.
John Newsom was born in Washington
county, Georgia, August 11, 1849, and was
in his sixth year when his parents moved to
Texas. His boyhood was passed in Washington
and Brazos counties and his youth in
Burleson. He had the benefit of good educational
advantages, attending school at Independence
and at Waco. He took charge of
affairs on the farm after growing up and
addressed himself to the task of putting
things to rights on the old homestead and to
assisting in the proper training of his younger
brothers and sisters. Having thus early
been brought into contact with the practical
affairs of life, he learned to rely upon himself
and to put into use all the knowledge he had
acquired at school, and all he had picked up
at intervals around home on the farm. Mr.
Newsom has been engaged continuously now
for twenty-four years in farming, at which
he has met with exceptionally good success,
being accounted one of Burleson county's
largest, thriftiest and most successful farmers.
His place consisting of 500 acres, lying in

the famous Brazos bottoms, and nearly all of
which is in cultivation, producing about 300
bales of cotton annually, and yielding sufficient
grain to support stock and run it successfully
without resorting to other resources.
Mr. Newsom also owns and conducts during
the gin ning season a steam gill, which receives
a liberal patronage and is a source of some
revenue. Being somewhat isolated from tle
rest of the world and a man who believes
strongly in the maxim of minding his own
business, he has never actively engaged in
public matters, having held no offices nor
taken any part in political wrangles. He
votes the Democratic ticket on all occasions,
and believes in good government and the
strict enforcement of the law and the observance
of order, to the maintainance of all of
which lie lends his aid actively and by example.
Mr. Newsom is unmarried.
It (RS. IRENE LEWIS, widow of
George R. Lewis, is one of the pioneer
women of Texas. She was born
in Blount county, Alabama, September
16, 1821, daughter of John and Molly
(Holt) Ryan. Her father and mother were
natives of Virginia and Tennessee, respectively,
and were married in Kentucky. Her
grandfather, William Ryan, a native of the
Emerald Isle, came to America and located
in Virginia, where he reared and educated
his children. John Ryan, father of Mrs.
Lewis, came to Texas in 1832, as a member
of Captain Bean's company, and died at Fort
Gibson the following year.
The subject of our sketch was mainly
reared in Johnson county, Arkansas, where
she was married, April 4, 1839, to George.
R. Lewis, with whom the joys and sorrows

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