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On August 26, 1857, John T. Sargent married Sarah Ann Hill, born on
August 20, 1837, to John W. and Sarah Ann Taylor Hill. They built
their home on the ranch and lived near his father, George. Their
children were:
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The elder Sargent barely escaped death at the hands of Mexican
soldiers while he was residing at Refugio. He was arrested as a spy,
his hands were tied, and the order for his execution was given, when
Mrs. Sargent, assisted by several Mexican women, succeeded in
convincing the Mexican commander that the accused was innocent of
the charge. He was released and soon after the Sargent family moved
to Victoria. After the Texas Revolution, the Sargent family moved to Dimmitt’s Point, where the mother and two brothers of John Thomas Sargent passed away. The following year Matagorda peninsula was selected as the new home, and while living there, the Sargents heard the news of the burning of Linnville by the Indians.
Starting in the cattle business at an early age, John Thomas Sargent
by the time he had reached middle age, was one of the most prominent
cattle raisers of the Coast Country. Like all other sons and
daughters of the frontier, he was taught to work and work hard, and
this, combined with an executive ability of the highest order, a
personal integrity that was never questioned, soon placed him on the
road to success. He experienced all the ups and downs of the cattle
business, but never lost his grip, and, through never failing
industry, he soon acquired thousands of acres and thousands of head
of stock.
Mr. Sargent was ever a believer in progress and took a leading part
in the importation of registered bulls for the improvement of the
old range stock. When he started in the business, the range along
the Gulf Cost was an ideal one for cattle raising. In fact, the free
grass in that section in the early days was of a better quality and
more abundant, than any other section of Texas.
Immigration into the Coast County gradually pushed the cowman and
cowboy further West, and Mr. Sargent, recognizing the change in
conditions, and realizing that open range and free grass would soon
be a matter of history, began purchasing large sections of land. He
believed in co-operating, and up to the time of his death, took
great interest in the Cattle Raisers’ Association of Texas, and all
matters pertaining to the industry. He was a believer in improved
stock, and the example he set in this respect was of great benefit
to the community in which he lived. When the Civil War began, Mr. Sargent enlisted in Company “D,” 5th Texas Cavalry. This company was composed almost entirely of Matagorda County volunteers, and was commanded by the gallant Captain E. S. Rugeley, a native of Matagorda County. This company was kept busy throughout the war, protecting the Texas frontier, and doing guard duty. While battles were few and far between in Texas during the war, the Confederate soldiers were kept busy at all times protecting the coast and frontier from invading parties of Federals, the Comanche and Kiowa Indians, and from bands of desperate men. August 26, 1857, Mr. Sargent married Sarah Ann Hill, and of this marriage there were five children: Mrs. T. J. Hamilton, Mrs. C. S. Austin, Mrs. D. R. Peareson, Mrs. S. T. Peareson and George T. Sargent. In the great storm of 1875, Mr. Sargent lost his father and wife. After this sad happening, he and his children took up their residence in the city of Matagorda. In 1881, he married Jane Ann Bates, and of this union one child was born, Mrs. James W. Rugeley.
From Matagorda, Mr. Sargent and his family moved to Bay City in
1906, and he died there, January 17, 1911. He was a consistent
member of the Episcopal Church, an Odd Fellow, a Thirty-Second
degree Mason and a member of the Ancient Arabic Order Nobles Mystic
Shrine. History of the Cattlemen of Texas, pages 217-218 |
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Died, at the family residence in Bay City at 8:30 o’clock a. m.
today, after a brief illness of less than twenty-four hours
duration, John T. Sargent, aged seventy-seven years.
The funeral service will be held tomorrow afternoon at 2:30 o’clock,
at Shirley hall, conducted by Rev. Jno. Sloan, rector of St. Mark’s
Episcopal church. Interment will be made in Cedarvale cemetery at
4:30, the rite and service being conducted by Bay City Lodge No. 865
A. F. & A. M.
The depth of this honored and honorable pioneer citizen of the
county was a severe shock to the entire citizens of the town when
announced this morning, for, in addition to the great esteem and
sincere good will in which John T. Sargent was held by everyone who
knew him or who even knew of him through public repute, very few
were aware that he had been ill, and to the sorrow the news carried
was added the pain of shocked surprise. He had, in fact, been ill
but a few hours, having apparently in the enjoyment of his
accustomed vigorous health yesterday morning. Some time during the
forenoon he was preparing to accompany his daughter, Mrs. Fannie P.
Hamilton of Matagorda, to the train, but during the preparations for
departure the attack seized him. So sudden was the seizure that
unconsciousness came before the nearest neighbors could reach the
home in response to the frantic appeals of the distressed wife and
daughters, and by the time physicians reached his bedside he was
plainly desperately ill.
From then on for many hours the contest was waged between human
skill and the determined assaults of the death angel, with the
result that at an early hour this morning the patient rallied,
consciousness returned and hope once more reigned in the hearts of
the anxious watchers by his bedside. He recognized friends and
member of the family, seemed to realize the strain under which they
were laboring and smiling faintly, with a last pathetic return of
that fortitude which had characterized him throughout life, he
declared that he was not yet to die and bade them to take heart and
be of good cheer.
The hour had struck for Death’s victory, however; an hour or two
after this hopeful rally, the end came—quietly, without pain and
peacefully the spirit of the soldier and pioneer took its way to the
Great Beyond. Around his bed when the end came were his wife, two
daughters and son, while somewhere on the way other daughters were
speeding as fast as steam could bring them in response to the
summons sent them yesterday.
John T. Sargent immigrated to Matagorda county when an
infant-in-arms, bring brought here by his parents George Sargent and
wife, from London, England, where he was born. The parents settled
on Caney creek, near its mouth, and the father engaged in farming
and stock growing. Gradually a property was acquired and after the
boy John grew to manhood he wrought with great success in the
carrying out of his fortune, to the end that for many years previous
to his death he had been counted one of the county’s wealthiest
citizens.
On August 26th, 1857, John R. Sargent was married to Miss
Sarah Ann Hill, Rev. John A. Bates, rector of the Episcopal church
at Matagorda, one of it not the first Episcopal church organizations
in the state, officiating.
Five children were born to them: Mrs. Fannie P. Hamilton of
Matagorda Mrs. C. S. Austin of San Antonio, Geo. T. Sargent of
Matagorda, Mrs. D. R. Peareson of Richmond and Mrs. Sydney Peareson
of Bay City.
In 1875, during the great storm, the first great tragedy of
decedent’s life occurred, for in that upheaval both his father and
his wife lost their lives. On August 31, 1881, he married Miss Jane
A. Bates, and to this union one child was born, a daughter who is
now the wife of James W. Rugeley of Bay City.
John T. Sargent was among those who readily responded when the call
to arms was sounded in sixty-one and leaving the peaceful pursuits
of the life he loved so well he enlisted as a private in Co. D 35th
Texas cavalry, and served with distinguishing bravery and
self-sacrifice during the period of the war between the states. At
the time of his death he was one of two surviving members of the
famous company which was composed almost entirely of Matagorda
county volunteers and commanded by a native of the county, the
gallant Capt. E. S. Rugeley. Now the sole survivor still residing in
the old county is Capt. Frank Rugeley.
Matagorda county thus loses one more of her pioneers—another of that
sturdy, heroic mold of men who came into the wilderness when
civilization was in its swaddling clothes and from its rough timbers
hewed shelter for their wives and babies and through its dense
growths cut paths for the tender feet of the present generation to
travel. And in their self imposed heroic task they took unto their
own natures the sturdiness of the great oaks that grew about him,
tempered by the tenderness of the vines that clung to the rough
trunks; they absorbed the gentleness of Nature in her sweetest moods
and became inspired with the divine love of Truth which was the
natural first element of their environments and social condition. So
they became a splendid type of an almost distinct type of men, these
pioneers and it is small wonder that when one of the last few of
them passes to his reward as has John T. Sargent, the whole
community should bend under the weight of its sense of loss.
Decedent was a life-long member of the Episcopal church and his
devotion of his church, expressed both in a generous support of its
institutions and faithful and conscientious following of its
principles, was profound. He was also a Master, Royal Arch and
Thirty-second Degree Mason and a Noble of the Mystic Shrine, and in
his intense loyalty to the teachings of that great order he but gave
further expression to the quality of the spirit that animated his
every action in life.
The Tribune, while sharing a good
friend’s sorrow over the end of the life which had meant so much to
those bound to him by ties of family affection, tenders to them its
sincere consolation in their hour of trial.
The Daily Tribune, January 17, 1911? |
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Mrs. Jane Ann Sargent, who was born in Matagorda in 1859, died
Friday night, April 13, at the Matagorda County General hospital,
after witnessing the events of 86 years, two months and ten days in
the county of her birth.
A life-long Episcopalian, she was buried from St. Mark’s Episcopal
church of this city at 5:00 o’clock Saturday, Rev. Aubrey C. Maxted,
rector, officiating. Interment was in Cedarvale cemetery.
Life began for Jane Ann Bates, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Bates
of Matagorda, when that little city was around 30 years of age and
was struggling against the dangers of frontier life in a war torn,
disease-ridden section of the Gulf Coast area. In 1882, a pioneer Episcopalian rector of Christ Church, Matagorda, Rev. L. Cooper Waddill, performed the ceremony that united Jane Ann Bates and John Thomas Sargent, one of the most prominent cattle raisers of the Coast country during the last half of the nineteenth century. They made their home in Matagorda until 1906 when they moved to Bay City, where Mr. Sargent died in 1911 and where Mrs. Sargent has lived to the time of her death.
She is survived by two daughters, Mrs. Catherine Rugeley of Bay City
and Mrs. D. R. Pearson of Richmond; two grandchildren, Mrs. John
Rakestraw of Bay City and Chief S. Walcott Rugeley of Houston, now
with the Seabees in the Pacific; four great –grandchildren, Cordelia
Rugeley, Joan Rugeley, Ann Catherine Rakestraw and Pamela Sue
Rakestraw, all of Bay City, and one brother, H. W. Bates, also of
this city.
Taylor Bros. Funeral Home was in charge of arrangements.
The Matagorda County Tribune,
April 19, 1945 |
John
Thomas Sargent, of Bay City, Texas, was essentially a child of the
frontier, although born in London, England, March 24, 1834. His
father, George Sargent, a brave and stalwart Englishman, brought the
Sargent family from London to New York in 1835. From there they
proceeded to Aransas, Texas, where they threw in their destinies
with those of the Powers’ Colony, and settled in the vicinity of
Mission Refugio. Texas was then in the throes of a revolution, which
through bloodshed and sorrow, was to result in the Lone Star
Republic, and later in the Empire State of the Union.