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Bay City
Elliott's Ferry |
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Elliott Cemetery Moore Family Red Bluff Cemetery |
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Drawn by Raleigh Conklin and
submitted by Gale French |
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John and William Elliott's father and mother, John and Hannah Beecham Elliott, came to Texas in 1849, and located in Matagorda where he was a shoemaker. Their father later became a prominent stockman and followed that occupation until his death in November, 1885, at the age of eighty-four. His wife died in 1852. Eight children were born to this couple; William; John; Elizabeth, who married John Wendell; Anna who married Waldo G. Thompson; and four other children who died young. John and William bought 500 acres of land at the site of Elliott's Ferry on the Colorado River. In 1862, John began furnishing beef for the Confederate Army and traveled from Matagorda County to Vicksburg with a herd of cattle; he butchered each day of the trip for a different division of men. After the siege of Vicksburg, John Elliott returned to Texas and was at Prairie Landing from that time until the war ended. He served as a 3rd Sergeant in the Tres-Palacios Coast Guards during the war. He lost most of his property, but regained his land and eventually became the owner of 3,000 acres. The first vote John cast was in the 1894 election which determined the move of the county seat of Matagorda County from to Bay City. Election day was on his sixty-third birthday, his vote was the sixty-third vote cast, and there was a sixty-three vote majority for the removal of the county seat. On May 26, 1853, John Elliott married Ellen Trimble, a native of Indiana, whose father had died as a prisoner of war in Mexico. She died in 1864, survived by her husband and three children: Mary Ann "Annie" who married William Johnson; Frances "Fanny," who married George Byrd; and Ellen, who married Pleasant Dawdy. On January 1, 1866, John Elliott married Mrs. Ellen Butterfield who died in 1871. They had one child, Susan, who died with yellow fever. On August 21, 1873, Mrs. Mary Jane Gamble, daughter of William A. Dawdy, became his wife. Dawdy, born in Bedford County, Tennesse, in 1810, was one of the first settlers in Matagorda County. He served in the Seminole War and in teh Mexican War where he was a wagon-master. His home was in New Orleans for many years, but later he came to Matagorda where he became a stock dealer and contractor. After the storm of 1854, William Dawsy helped to rebuild the town of Matagorda. He died in 1887. John was later the president of a bank in El Campo. As a member of the BlHe was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Ashby until his death. Historic Matagorda County, Volume II, pp. 142-143 & The Elliott Family of Matagorda County, Texas: a Genealogical Review by Gale L. French
Photo courtesy of Winona Klare, Mariana Vancil
& Gale French |
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John Elliott, born in England, February 12, 1833 [February 18, 1832], and died at El Campo, Texas, February 10, 1904. Just as the hands pointed to the hour of seven, the soul of this good Christian man passed away. His end was most peaceful, and he died without the least shadow of pain. Standing at his beside in his dying moments were his devoted wife, his daughters, Fannie Bird of Waco and Mrs. Annie Johnson of Van Vleck: his sister-in-law, Miss Rosa Dawdy of Wharton, and his granddaughter, Mrs. Nora O'Connell of Van Vleck. It was hard to stand there and see that loving wife, who had been his counselor and companion for many years, give up her loved one; but, thank God, we can all take comfort in the thought that he has gone to a better world than this. The last words he uttered were to his wife, who hastened to him, hoping there might be a change for the better. Had he lived a few days longer he would have been seventy-one years old. In this long and useful life he had made friends wherever he went. Many and willing were the hands of these friends to aid him, but, alas! nothing could be done but to watch and wait. God's will be done!
Sleep on, dear grandfather, Nora O'Connell
Van Vleck, Texas. |
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Captain Jack Elliott died at El Campo yesterday morning of an illness which probably owed its fatality to the effects of a long and severe attack of the grippe of which he suffered last winter. From that he had never entirely recovered, and during the past year had made several trips to different health resorts in a vain quest of his wonted hardy and rugged health. The burial takes place at Wharton this morning, and a number of Bay City's best citizens who had known and loved Captain Jack Elliott went up to pay their last respects to his mortal body. Captain Elliott landed in this county fifty years ago, from England, a member of a large party of immigrants from the mother country. A number of these pioneers are still with us, among whom the writer recalls the names of "Uncle Billy" Elliott, the Pybuses, Rowleses and Downers.
Up to four years ago Mr. Elliott had resided
continuously in this county, where he gathered together a
comfortable fortune. His third wife survives him, as do his brother,
"Uncle Billie," and a daughter, Mrs. Wm. Johnson of Van Vleck. |
John L. "Jack" Elliott, Jr. was born in Melton
Mowbray, England, on February 18, 1832, and came to the United
States in 1848 with his brother, William, who was eighteen years
old. They arrived at Galveston after a short stay in New York where
a William worked as a mechanic. John and William Elliott migrated to
Matagorda County where an uncle, George Elliott, was living. George
Elliott was a blacksmith, and practiced that trade until the latter
part of his life, when he operated a ferry which crossed the
Colorado River. Still later he became a pilot at the mouth of the
Brazos River, and kept a hotel there. George died at Columbus in
1862 at the age of sixty-two.