Mariann Fisk Laughlin Judge John Greenleaf Fisk 1807-1888 Born in Albany, New York, Greenleaf, "Leaf," Fisk, came to Texas in 1834 in search of land and adventure. He married Many Ann Manlove, daughter of Colonel Bartholomew Manlove, in 1835. Greenleaf was a lawyer, surveyor, land speculator, rancher and San Jacinto veteran. During his lifetime, he held the office of clerk of the district court of Bastrop County, member of the House of Representatives from Bastrop County, mayor of Bastrop, Chief Justice of Bastrop County, Supreme Court Judge of Texas, first county judge of Williamson County, first county judge of Brown County, District Clerk, County Surveyor, County Clerk, County Treasurer, and Justice of the Peace. He is also known as the "Father of Brownwood."   Bartholomew Manlove 1775-1855 Bartholomew Manlove came to settle in Texas in 1832. He had lived off and on in East Texas for several years prior to his move from Kentucky, with some of his family, to Bastrop. He was thus, much older than he appears in this picture and beginning a second career. He helped organize the Committee on Safety and Correspondence, was a member of the First Consultation, and served as mayor of Bastrop in 1837, 1838, 1842 and 1845. During the First Runaway Scrape, he saved the Milam Colony land records by taking them to San Augustine.

Alyce Annette Boscamp Clarke Ferguson Nathaniel R. Brewer A natural adventurer, Nathaniel Breuyer ran away from his home in Paris to keep from becoming a Catholic priest. He landed in Augusta, Maine, changed his name from Breuyer to Brewer and married Mary Ann Smith. Feeling Maine too cold, the young couple migrated south, and their first child was born in Bexar. Nathaniel made regular trips to the courthouse steps, shrewdly buying properties auctioned off for unpaid taxes, and in time, he became a large landowner. He had goods shipped to Camargo from New Orleans, and soon the family began selling merchandise far into Mexico. Although officials confiscated their goods, Nathaniel refused to give up and went deeper into the jungle to the Istmo de Thuantepec, where officials would not bother his family that had grown to four daughters. Nathaniel died there of unknown causes while Mary and the girls remained for several years, battling to get documentation of ownership of their homestead. Eventually they relocated to Goliad, Texas, to be near Mary's sister, Jane. A picture of Nathaniel survived a bad storm in Goliad, the pieces lovingly put back together by a family who never forgot the daring French runaway.

JoNell Majors & Kay Valenta George "Shorty" Allen 1819-1907 A native of New York, George Allen arrived in Galveston as a boy of seventeen in 1836. He established himself as a tailor in Bastrop, in 1839 receiving a land grant of 320 acres in what is now Travis County. However, he sold the land and remained in Bastrop, was appointed constable and later elected alderman. In 1846, he was elected mayor from 1846-1848 and 1850-1852. From 1862-1867 he was the tax assessor, and in 1866 he served as county judge. He married Margaret Anderson, whose family, the Carter Andersons, had arrived in Bastrop in 1832 from Missouri. George and Margaret eventually had six children: Benjamin, Richard, Ruth, Lou Ellen, Hanna, and Lucy. An Indian fighter, George organized raids against marauding Indians. Aldermen appointed George as chairman of a committee to build roads. In 1851, George contracted with the city to build a picket fence around the cemetery now known as Fairview, built high on a hill to protect mourners from lurking Indians. In lieu of some of the payment, George asked for 280 acres northeast of Bastrop near Mount Bethel Cemetery. He and his family lived there until 1900, at which time they moved to the Oak Hill community, 5 miles southeast of McDade. George died in 1907, and he and his wife are buried in the cemetery he fenced - a man short in stature but tall in action.

Willie Dee Scott Gattis Hannah Idella Gattis Grothues Patti Mauck Gordon C. Jennings 1782-1836 Born in Windham, Connecticut, the eldest son of a Revolutionary War soldier, Gordon C. Jennings moved to Missouri in the early 1820s. There he met and married a young woman with two children from previous marriages, Catherine Cynthia Overton Avery McCutcheon. Four more children were born to the couple, and desiring free land in Texas, Gordon took his family, and along with his brothers, moved to Bastrop, Stephen F. Austin's "Little Colony," in 1833. Incensed that the Mexican government had, among other things, failed to provide a system of public education, trial by jury, and freedom of religion, Texans revolted. Further enticed by the promise of land grant compensations, Gordon enlisted in the Texas militia in July of 1835 under Captain R.M. (Three-Legged Willie) Williamson in the command of Col. John H. Moore. In December, Gordon re-enlisted under Colonel William B. Travis. At the Alamo, Gordon, as the oldest soldier there, could have left without taint to his reputation, but he elected to stay to the end. As a corporal in Captain William R. Carey's artillery company, Gordon was probably manning the artillery when following a thirteen day siege, the Mexican army, after being hurled back twice by furious artillery and rifle fire, stormed the garrison. At the end of an hour and a half of brutal hand-to-hand combat, Gordon and his fellow soldiers lay dead. Later that month, Gordon's brother Charles would die at the massacre at Goliad. His contemporaries regarded Gordon Jennings as a kind, respectable man--a man who only wanted to provide a better place for his family. He did that and more, leaving behind a legacy of bravery that will endure as long as the spirit of the Alamo lives in the hearts of men. Catherine Cynthia Overton Jennings 1790-1867 Born in Perquimans County, North Carolina, at age 18, Catherine Overton married seaman Vinson Avery, and her sister Alice married his brother Frederick. Catherine and Vinson had one son, Willis, but Vinson died at sea soon after their marriage. Desiring to be near her sister and brother-in-law, Catherine and Willis joined a wagon train for Tennessee. There she married William McCutcheon and bore two more sons, William and Collin. The marriage was not a happy one, however, and ended in divorce six years later. Catherine took her two oldest boys and once again followed her sister and brother-in-law, this time to Missouri. In Lincoln County, she met and married Gordon C. Jennings. Four children were born to them there, but the lure of Texas was strong, and in 1833, the blended family traveled three months through Arkansas, Nacogdoches, and on to the town of Bastrop, or Mina, as it was called then. Situated on the banks of the Colorado River, Bastrop was constantly beset by Indians who raided and plundered, and many nights Catherine and her family listened to the screams of war whoops. Catherine lost her husband Gordon at the Alamo. Her sons William and Willis were Texas "Mina Volunteers" with Captain Jesse Billingsley, and Willis fought at the Battle of San Jacinto. An uncommon woman in so many ways during her lifetime, Catherine died at the age of 99 at the home of her son, William McCutcheon, in Williamson County.

Willie Dee Scott Gattis Hannah Idella Gattis Grothues Patti Mauck The Ride of Katy Jennings by Linda Sioux Henley Catherine Jennings Lockwood 1825-1911 In 1833, at the age of seven, Catherine Jennings settled in Bastrop, Texas, with her parents Gordon Jennings and Catherine McCutcheon. Three years later, her father joined Colonel Wm. B. Travis in San Antonio. When news reached the family that the Alamo had fallen, and Santa Anna and his army were marching through Texas to attack Sam Houston and his men, Catherine's mother placed her on a horse to warn their neighbors. At age ten, riding bareback, Catherine made her way for miles, warning terrified settlers of the coming of the Mexican army and Santa Anna's edict of "no quarter." Six years later, Catherine married Casper Whistler and moved north to Fannin County. Indians attacked the cabin they occupied with two other families, killing and scalping Catherine's husband and another man. Catherine went for help, walking miles through brambles, her clothes torn almost off, sustaining cuts that would leave scars for the rest of her life. One of her rescuers was Sylvester Lockwood, whom she later married. Unhappy staying in the area, the couple moved south to Manor in Travis County. After raising many children and adopting several orphans, Catherine died at the age 85, a woman of incredible courage and fortitude. Sylvester Lockwood 1813-1889 Born in Kentucky in 1813, Sylvester Lockwood so disliked the man his mother married after his father's death, he ran away from home. In 1841, he ended up in Texas. Two years later, he met and married a young widow, Catherine Jennings Whistler. Selling the land they owned in North Texas, the couple moved south, settling near Austin in the community of Manor. Despite not being able to write, Sylvester became a successful businessman. He owned a freight line, moving goods between Houston, Austin and New Orleans. Although he also owned half interest in the C.W. Lucas Distillery, most of Sylvester's wealth came from the large tracts of land he owned and farmed for cotton. Overcoming the drawbacks in his life-orphaned by the death of his father, an unhappy childhood, and being unable to write-Sylvester found success in Texas. He married and built a large family, and became an accomplished business entrepreneur and farmer. He is buried next to his wife, Catherine, in Lockwood Cemetery near Manor.

Vicky Rose Robert Hemphill Millican 1750-1836 One of Stephen F. Austin's Old Three Hundred colonists, Robert Hemphill Millican was born in Spartanburg County, South Carolina, in 1750. Married to Nancy Jane McNeil in the 1770s, they arrived in Texas in December 1821, bringing with them two married sons with their families, a widowed daughter with her family, six other sons, and one daughter. A farmer, stock raiser and mill owner, Millican's home in the big bend of the Brazos River served as an election site of militia officers. Although over 70 when he came to the Brazos Valley, Millican was anything but feeble, standing seven feet tall and weighing 300 pounds. The first shot in the Texas Revolution may have been fired at Gonzales, but the first recorded fight between a settler and a Mexican soldier happened when Millican struck a soldier at Fort Tenoxtitlan after catching him butchering one of his beeves. Millican died during the Runaway Scrape at age 86 of pneumonia and measles, twenty miles east of the Trinity River between Robbins Ferry and Nacogdoches. Illustration by Rod Timanus

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