History of Texas, Together with a Biographical History of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop, Travis, Lee and Burleson Counties. Page: 555

HISTOR Y OF TEXAS.

county; and Henry, a farmer of this county.
John M. McClanahan was born in Lawrence
county, Alabama, May 30, 1832, and came
with his parents to Texas in 1846. He began
farming at the age of twenty-one years,
and, in 1857, immediately after his marriage,
located on his present farm. He now owns
300 acres of land, 120 acres of which is under
a good state of cultivation. During the late
war he was engaged in detail service in
Wall's division, commissary department. In
1884 Mr. McClanahan was the Democratic
nominee for the State Legislature, for
the district composed of Burleson and Lee
counties, and was elected by the largest imajority
ever given any candidate in this locality.
He held that office by re-elections until
1888. Socially, he is a Royal Arch Mason;
and religiously a Clerk and Deacon in the
Missionary Baptist Church.
Mr. McClanahan was married in Caldwell,
Texas, August 25, 1857, to Bettie Horton,
and they had four children: James W., Tax
Collector of Caldwell, Burleson county; John
S., a farmer of Lee county; and Mamie and
Annie, twins, the former a teacher in the
Caldwell school, and the latter in the Lexington
school. Mrs. McClanahan died in June,
1874, and in 1882 our subject married
Annie Griffin. This wife died in January,
1892.
James Harvey McClanahan, a brother of
the subject of this sketch, was born in Lawrence
county, Alabama, October 26, 1822,
and came with his parents to Texas in 1846.
In 1861 he enlisted for service in the late
war, in Company H, Second Texas Infantry,
and was sent to Galveston. On account of
sickness he was soon obliged to return home,
after which he was engaged principally on
detached service. Mr. McClanahan resides
at the old homestead, where he has 100 acres

of land, forty-eight acres cultivated. In his
political relations lie is a Democrat, and religiously
is a member of the Baptist Church.
December 7, 1871, he was united ill marriage
to Dollie A. Johnson, a native of Alahalma,
who came with her parents to Texas
after the close of the Civil war. To this
union have been born four children, viz.:
Ora, who was killed in a runaway accident;
Lee, deceased; Emma, deceased; and Bertha,
at home.
T IOMPSON F. FOWLER, deceased.When
we survey the useful labors of
many men we are often compelled to
regret the meagerness of their personal
histories left on record. This is especially
true of those who from native modesty
have shunned rather than courted publicity
during their lives. It is one of the purposes
of this volume to rescue from oblivion and
preserve in its appropriate place an account
of the labors of the leading citizens of the
locality covered by it, together with brief
notes of their personal characteristics and
manner of conducting themselves towards
their fellow-men. Among those deserving
this recognition, mention may here be made
of the late Thompson F. Fowler, farmer,
stock raiser and influential citizen of Davilla,
Milam county. Mr. Fowler was a native of
Pike county Missouri, born March 22, 1836.
At the age of fourteen he was brought by his
parents to Texas, and was reared in Gonzales
and Burnet counties, where they resided
during his early years. November 2,
1858, he married Miss Martha Smithwick of
Burnet county, and in 1860 moved to California,
which State, with brief intervals of
temporary absence, continued to be his home
until 1872. In the meantime having lost

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