John Shropshire
John Elliott Shropshire was born in Harrison County, Kentucky on August 1, 1814 in Harrison County, Kentucky. He married Martha Jane Withers on January 30, 1834 in Marion County, Missouri. Martha was born on December 13, 1816 in Scott County, Kentucky. John Shropshire and Martha had eight children.
The children included Amanda Malvina who was born on born November 24, 1834. She married William Preston Withers (a cousin) on November 17, 1853 in Yazoo City, Mississippi. William was the son of Hugh Withers and Fannie West. He was born in Scott County, Kentucky on November 5, 1823. His first marriage was to Sarah Berry on September 9, 1851, but Sarah lived only one month after the wedding. She died on October 9, 1851 in Charleston, Virginia. William moved to Caldwell County in 1852 where he is listed as a charter member of the First Christian Church, organized that year. William and Amanda had ten children. Amanda died on December 24, 1872
Mary Virginia who was born October 30, 1836 and married to John Bradford West (October 4, 1853) and later to Tilloston B. McDowell (brother of Samuel McDowell) on March 3, 1859.
In a letter written by Amanda to her sister Mary: "…We have had a great deal of rain. More than I ever saw in Texas in the Summer before.
Kate and the children are well. Bro. Sam. Is complaining some today, but said this morning that he would write Bro Till today. He just returned from Galveston (where) he said it rained nearly all the time he was there. I received a letter from Mr. Withers and he said he would start home the first day of October, and (for me) to write to him in St. Louis and Bolivar (Tennessee), as it is only six days to the 1st I do not think it worth while to write at St. Louis so I write to him to Bolivar to the care of Bro. Till. I would be so glad if you could come home with him. We are very anxious for him to come but do not want him to run any risk of Cholera. I would rather he could wait a few weeks than to have a spell of sickness on the way…..I cannot help feeling uneasy knowing there is so much sickness on the river. "
Mildred Huldah was born October 8, 1838 and married to Dr. James Culbertson on October 8, 1856. She died November 19, 1920.
Lorinda Catherine (Kate), another sister, was born October 5, 1840. She married Samuel P. J. McDowell on June 25, 1857. Mr. McDowell, a prominent pioneer who came to Lockhart in 1852, was born in Tennessee in 1824 and was educated in the common schools of western Tennessee. He joined an expedition against the Lipan and Seminole Indians in the Nueces area in 1855 and was elected county clerk the following year, which office he held for two terms. He was elected state representative for Hays, Caldwell and Blanco Counties in 1861; but he resigned his position to serve in Company K, Seventeenth Texas Infantry. He again served as county clerk from 1873 to 1880. He spent his last years living quietly in Lockhart where he died in 1920 at the age of ninety-five. Lorinda died February 8, 1876.
Emily Jane who was born on August 21, 1845. She married Abner McC Lay on Novemver 29, 1866 and died November 12, 1936.
John William (born October 23, 1847) died in June 1848.
James (born June 4, 1851) died in May 1851.
John Withers (born October 18, 1852) married Sophronia Montgomery on November 22, 1880. He died on March 27, 1912.
Later Emma (John's Daughter) was to write: "An Uncle, Hugh Withers (William Preston's father), with a large family, and my two married sisters, also the Runkle family came here (Lockhart) in the autumn of 1853, bringing their negroes and household goods. They came from Missouri in their buggies, carriages and wagons, having already purchased their homes, six, seven or eight miles north of here. My sisters were Mrs. W. P. Withers Amanda) and Mrs. John Bradford West (Mary).
My mother and father were visiting in Missouri that summer, having moved to Mississippi. Later my mother died
(Martha Jane died on November 24, 1853 in Yazoo City, Mississippi and is buried in the Glenwood Cemetery of Yazoo City); my father brought my two sisters, Mildred and Kate, a brother, John W. Shropshire, and myself here. We came across the gulf to Indianola (The port of Indianola, on Matagorda Bay in Calhoun County, was founded in August 1846 as Indian Point by Sam Addison White and William M. Cook) and by stage to Lockhart, arriving on June 1, 1855. We stopped for dinner at the "Minot" Hotel, a two story frame building with galleries above and below, on north and east, on the southwest corner of the square. There was also a two story hotel, "The Trumbull", where the Griesenbeck stood. I think there was one where the "Carter is now.
Just across the street was Champ Cowan's boarding house. He was Champ Cabaniss' grandfather. The Episcopal church was the only church building but across the street (west) was a two story building, the upper used by the Masons and the lower for a school house during the week and Sunday for different denominations - the Christian Church always the fourth Sunday.
The preachers came from surrounding towns. The only resident preacher was the Episcopal.
On the site of the Vogel Lumber Yard was a blacksmith shop - Lippold and Stroud.
In September, 1855, my sister Kate and myself entered the schools, boarding with Mr. John Proctor who owned the two story home on San Antonio Street, afterwards bought by Dr. Childs, father of Mrs. A.R. Crew. Many will no doubt remember the old place; across the street north was a one story brick, owned by Mr. Rogan, uncle of Edgar Rogan, Sr. He had a large family.
Among the citizens were the Fords, Maynards, Clardys, McMahons, Powells, Millers, McNeals, Berrys, mauldings, Storeys, Nixes, S.J.P. McDowell, Dr. Culbertson, Chiles, Searcy, Lane, Powers. There were Alex and William Cowan -lawyers - and two old maid sisters and many others.
The settlers here were generally well educated and in comfortable circumstances financially. They had brought their slaves, household goods. Their parlors, as they were called in that day, were well furnished with carpets and draperies for the windows and furniture better than today, more substantial. Some of it is still in use, as I know. We brought our piano and used it for many years.
Of course we did not have the conveniences that we have now - electricity, gas, phones, radios, but we always had servants and did not think it was a white woman's place to do domestic work.
We always treated our servants kindly and many stayed with us after they were freed.
In the summer of 1855 the concrete building used for so many years by the Christian Church was built, also one for the Presbyterians and one for the Methodists, of the same material. The basement of the Christian Church was used for a schoolhouse and later a printing shop. I never saw an Indian here except the friendly ones that came to sell their baskets, beadwork - though other parts of Texas did have trouble with them.
The stagecoach ran regularly, also freight wagons.
I continued in the same school until I finished the course. I visited my sister in Hempstead in the early sixties and attended a ball and banquet when the first train got to Brenham. At the latter the centerpiece was a locomotive and cars made of cake. It was beautiful."
While John Elliott Shropshire was not an enlisted man during the War Between the States, he did run the blockade to Cuba for medicine and supplies for the Confederacy. The last trip he made the Yankees chased him and he had to set fire to his boat to keep them from capturing it. The crew escaped to the Florida coast in small boats.
After the end of the war, John Elliott married his second wife, Martha F. Adcock on May 2, 1868 according to Washington County records in Brenham, Texas. From December 1, 1868 through February 21, 1882 he bought and sold property in and around Brenham. Quite a few deeds are on file in Brenham. The last one concerning him was dated June 15, 1883 and was for "the Tax Collector sold property of the estate of Jno. E. Shropshire for taxes owed for the year 1882." The property was sold for $6 which was the amount of the taxes. This may help explain why there was no marker placed on his grave at the ""ld City Cemetery"" The widow was broke. All records of the old cemeteries in and around Brenhan have been checked and there is no record of John E. Shropshire or Martha Aycock Shropshire.
The 1870 census for Washington County shows John E. Shropshire, age 55, born in Kentucky, as head of household "withour occupation", his wife Martha F., son John W. Shropshire, age 17, born in Mississippi (son of first wife Martha Jane Withers), and several other people with occupations of painter, carpenter, etc. So it is interpreted that they ran a boarding house. The 1880 census shows John E. Shropshire as a "Money Broker", wife Martha, 2 boarders and a niece and nephew, both widowed with two small children who probably were Martha's kinfolk, since none of the names fit any of the Shropshire family history.
John Elliott died on May 12, 1882 in his rocking chair on the porch of his home.
Created on 12/09/2006 04:52 PM by boblay
Updated on 12/13/2006 08:46 PM by boblay
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