Indian Wars and Pioneers of Texas Page: 355 of 894
762 p., [172] leaves of plates : ill., ports. ; 30 cm.View a full description of this book.
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302
INDIAN WARS A.ND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
mon school education in such schools as the country
afforded, to which varied experience and extensive
reading and observation have since largely added.
He marched to San Antonio in the spring of
1842, and again in the autumn of that year with
Gen. Somervell as sergeant in Capt. William Ryan's
company, to oppose Gen. Adrian Woll, who
attempted another Mexican invasion. Mr. Fenn
served throughout the campaign.
In 1846, when war was declared between Mexico
and the United States he went with Gen. Albert
Sydney Johnston to the seat of war and served with
Capt. Jack Hays' company.
During the war between the States, he enlisted
under the flag of the Confederate States and did
good service as Second Lieutenant in Strobel's
Company.
Mr. Fenn was united in marriage to Miss
Rebecca Matilda Williams, of Fort Bend County,
Texas, April 13th, 1853, and has four children:
Francis Marion Oatis, who married Miss Lottie
Benson, of Charlottesville, Va.; May, wife of Mr.
Jas. McKeever, Jr., of Houston; Ann Belle, and
Jos. Johnston Fenn, the latter of whom married
Miss Mollie Walker, of Houston.
Mrs. Fenn was born in Woodville, Miss., in
1835. Her parents were Mr. Daniel Williams and
Mrs. Ann Fitz Randolph (Ayers) Williams. She
is a great granddaughter of Gen. Nathaniel Randolph,
a Lieutenant and Aide de Camp on the staff of
Gen. Lafayette during the war of the Revolution,
and also a great granddaughter of Ezekiel Ayers,
who also served with distinction in the Continental
army. Her grandfather, Isaac Williams, was one
of the pioneers of the Province of Mississippi, of
which he served for some time as Colonial Governor.
An uncle, Governor Henry Johnson, was Governor
of Louisiana and a member of the United States
Senate, retiring from that body in 1860 when
eighty years of age. Her parents came to Texas
in 1845, and settled on Oyster creek, in Fort Bend
County, bringing with them four children: Joseph
Smith, who died in the Federal prison at Fort
Butler, in Illinois, during the war between the
States; Johnson Coddington, who also died in thatprison; Edwin J., now living on Oyster creek; and
Annie Williams, who died in Houston, February
17th, 1893. Johnson Coddington Williams, who
was a member of Terry's Rangers when first
enlisted, but at the time of his death at Fort Butler
was a member of W. H. Wilke's Regiment,
Carter's Brigade.
Mrs. Fenn's first year in Texas was spent in the
old homestead of Moses Shipman, one of the
original "Austin 300." The logs and boards of
.the house were all made by hand and joined together
with wooden pins, there being no iron bolts
or nails in the country. Here she and the family
were obliged to drink water from creeks and ponds
and suffered all the inconveniences and hardships
incident to life in a new and entirely undeveloped
country.
Mrs. Fenn is a member of the Presbyterian
Church, president of San Jacinto Chapter, Daughters
of the Republic of Texas, and since 1877 has
been a member of the Texas Veterans' Association.
She is a lady of rare culture and intellectual
attainments.
Mr. Fenn has been a member' of the Texas
Veterans' Association since 1876. He is a member
of the Democratic party, with the highest sense of
every duty, and well merits the confidence and
esteem in which he is held by those who know him
best within the social and business world. He has
met with a reasonable measure of success in a
financial way, having $100,000 judiciously invested.
He has lived in Houston since 1872. Mr.
and Mrs. Fenn have a delightful home in that cityHere
they are quietly and happily passing their
declining years. They have witnessed villages,
towns and cities rise where the red Indian pitched
his wigwam; there are now waving fields of golden
grain on sun-kissed prairies over which once
wandered the buffalo and coyote; they have beheld
the coming of the railroad and the telegraph,
and not only the dawning but wondrous growth
and expansion of a refined and elegant civilization
for which they helped clear the way. They and
others like them are entitled to lasting gratitude
and remembrance.
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Brown, John Henry. Indian Wars and Pioneers of Texas, book, 1880~; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth6725/m1/355/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.