John Connell 1833-1902

J.H. Connell, a capitalist of Belton, was born in San Augustine county, Texas, when Texas was a province of Mexico, April 3, 1833, son of John H. and Matilda T. (Roberts) Connell, natives of Pennsylvania and Kentucky respectively.


John H. Connell's father, a native of Ireland, came to America at an early day and settled in Pennsylvania, where he followed his trade, that of blacksmithing. John H., leaving home when a youth, came in 1826 to Texas and engaged in the mercantile business near Austin, where he was married in 1830. Mr. Connell came to Texas with Sterling C. Robertson, and both secured large tracts of land.


The Roberts family were also among the pioneers of this section of the country. J.H. [sic -- i.e., should be Elisha] Roberts went from Kentucky to Louisiana in 1819, and in 1820 came to San Augustine, Texas. Elisha Roberts was one of the earliest settlers within the confines of the State.


Mr. Connell died at Viesca in 1834. He was truly a self-made man, and during his lifetime acquired considerable property. Belton is located on a portion of the land on which Mr. Connell once lived. Mrs. Connell having donated to the county of Bell 120 acres, in 1850, on which to establish the county seat. John H. Connell and his wife were the parents of two children: Josephine, wife of Anderson Hamblin, both being now deceased; and J.H., the subject of our sketch.


After the death of Mr. Connell, Mrs. Connell was married in 1835, to Samuel T. Allen, of New York, and their union was blessed in the birth of two children: Thomas R., deceased; and Eunice A., widow of Colonel John T. Coffee, of Missouri. Samuel T. Allen was killed by the Indians at the three forks of the Trinity, in November, 1838, and in the fall of 1847 Mrs. Allen married his brother, Thomas J. Allen. Her death occurred April 3, 1879, at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Coffee, in Georgetown, Williamson county, this state.


The subject of our sketch was reared amid the frontier scenes of what is now San Augustine, Milam, Williamson and Galveston counties. In 1854 he went to California, making the trip from Galveston by water; spent two years in the southern part of the Golden State, and while working in the mines lost his health. He was, however, financially successful. Returning home in the latter part of 1855, he engaged in farming and stock-raising in Texas up to the year 1861. The war coming on in that year, he joined the Confederate forces; was in the Trans-Mississippi Department, and participated in numerous skirmishes and battles.


Returning to his home in the latter part of May, 1865, Mr. Connell set about repairing his wasted fortune, and with renewed energy engaged in his old occupation of farming and stock-raising. He continued his operations in Williamson county till January 28, 1884, when he rented his farm and moved to his property in Belton. He owns considerable valuable real estate, his Belton home place consisting of some 250 acres adjoining town. He has a handsome residence, an intelligent family, and is comfortably situated to enjoy life, having practically retired from active business.


Mr. Connell was married September 15, 1869, to Miss Jennie Howlett, a native of Texas, born in Milam county, October 5, 1844, daughter of James and Sarah (Moore) Howlett, natives of Kentucky and Tennessee respectively. Both the Howletts and the Moores were among the early pioneers of Texas.


Mr. and Mrs. Connell are the parents of five children: John H., Jr., T.E., Susan, May T. and Albert L. T.E. is now a student at the State University of Texas. Mr. Connell and his wife are consistent members of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, and are held in high esteem by all who know them.

A Memorial and Biographical History of McLennan, Falls, Bell, and Coryell Counties (Chicago: Lewis, 1893; rpt., St. Louis: Ingmire, 1984).

KINSHIP CHART

The table below shows the known familial connection(s) between the named individual and . . . James Madison Hall, the Keeper of the Journal . . . as well as to the Keeper of this family history blog . . .

IN THE JOURNAL	REAL NAME	BORN	LINK TO J.M. HALL (b. 1819)	LINK TO BENOTFORGOT
FATHER	Joshua James Hall	1790	father	2nd husband of widowed 3rd-great-grandma
FAWN aka PET	Florence Mahala Christian Worley? Robinson? Lambert? nee Hall	1860	daughter	1st cousin 3 times removed
FRANK	Frank Stewart	1839	employee & 2nd husband of the little woman	2nd husband of widowed 2nd great-grand-aunt
JIMMY	James Wrigley Hall	1862	son	1st cousin 3 times removed
JOSEPHINE	Josephine Martha Hall	1863	daughter	1st cousin 3 times removed
MAJOR	James Hall Sharp	1863	nephew	great grand uncle
MOTHER	Mahala Lee Sharp Hall nee Roberts	1816	stepmother & mother-in-law	3rd great-grandma
MRS. BEALE	Elizabeth Lemaire Beale nee Waring	1824	mother-in-law of stepbrother	3rd great-grandma
NELLIE aka ALEX	Mary Alexandrien Sharp nee Lemaire	1843	wife of step-brother	2nd great-grandma
ROBERTA aka BERTA aka BURT	Roberta Downes Halyard nee Hall	1852	half-sister to him as well as to his wife	2nd great-grand-aunt
SAM	Samuel Houston Sharp	1839	step-brother & brother-in-law & employee	2nd great-grandpa
THE LITTLE WOMAN	Margaret Annot Hall Stewart nee Sharp	1840	step-sister & wife	2nd great-grand-aunt
TOBY	Horace Oscar Hall	1854	half-brother to him as well as to his wife	2nd great-grand-uncle

Major Eugene Bolling

Eugene Bolling, Confederate officer, was born in 1832 in Tennessee to Yelverton de Mallet Bolling and Sophia Sully of South Carolina. The family relocated to Montgomery, Montgomery County, Alabama, in 1850. Bolling married Carolina E. Gayle in 1853, then moved from Edgefield County, South Carolina, to settle in Galveston County, Texas. He worked as a farmer prior to the Civil War.

Bolling's service record indicates that he enlisted on June 7, 1861, with a rank of captain.

On June 30, 1862, his company and twelve others were mustered into Confederate service at Brenham, Texas, in Washington County. Bolling held the rank of captain in Company G of Nichol's Ninth Regiment but soon commanded Company A of the First Battalion of the First Texas Infantry, known as Waul's Texas Legion.

On May 17, 1863, Waul's Legion was ordered into the confines of Vicksburg and assigned to Maj. Gen. Carter L. Stevenson's division. Captain Bolling was slightly injured during the defense of the city and sometime after was promoted to the rank of major in command of the First Battalion of Waul's Legion following the death of Maj. A. Cameron.

On July 4, 1863, Bolling and his unit surrendered to Union forces at Vicksburg and were paroled on July 5, 1863. Following parole the members of Waul's Texas Legion were returned to Texas where they were reorganized. Bolling then applied to be relieved from field duty for the remainder of the war as a result of a surgeon's opinion that a heart condition affected his service. Bolling's request was granted, and for the remainder of the war he served as major of companies F and S of Timmons's Regiment in the confines of Texas.

He surrendered on June 2, 1865, with the other soldiers under the command of Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith.

After the war Eugene Bolling married Mary Bolling, who survived him in Galveston County and later moved to Grayson County. In 1866 he served as a director of the National Bank of Texas in Galveston. The last known location of Eugene S. Bolling was in Galveston County in 1869. [SIC] According to his findagrave memorial page, he died 02 August 1870 in Cross Keys, Alabama.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Compiled Service Records of Confederate Soldiers Who Served in Organizations From the State of Texas, NARA microfilm series M323, roll 263, National Archives, Washington D.C. Robert A. Hasskarl and Leif R. Hasskarl, Waul's Texas Legion, 1862–1865 (Ada, Oklahoma: Robert A. Hasskarl, 1985). L.L. Knight, comp., Their Last Full Measure: Texas Confederate Casualty Lists, Volume II, 1863 (Arlington, Texas: G.T.T. Publishing, 1997). Stewart Sifakis, Compendium of the Confederate Armies. Texas (New York: Facts on File, 1995). Laura Simmons, "Waul's Legion From Texas to Mississippi," Texana, VII (Spring 1969). Brett J. Derbes

The following, adapted from the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, is the preferred citation for this article.

Brett J. Derbes, "BOLLING, EUGENE S.," Handbook of Texas Online (http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fbobd), accessed May 08, 2012. Published by the Texas State Historical Association.

Sunday, May 12th, 1861

To day the steamer Alamo, Capt. McKee came up and was detained here some time on account of the rail road hands failing or refusing to open the draw in the bridge. after a couple of hours detention she was enabled to pass through. weather changable in the day and a hard storm & rain throughout the night.

1866 :: Crawford House

Dallas Herald. (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 14, No. 52, Ed. 1 Saturday, September 14, 1867

Among the victims of the yellow fever at Galveston, we find the name of Mrs. N.B. Crawford, of whom the Telegraph gives the following notice:

“She was born in Knox county, Tennessee, in the year 1815; the wife of Dr. J.W. Crawford, who died in Washington county, Texas, in the year of 1856; the daughter of Major Jesse Bartlett and Frances Calloway, who emigrated to Texas in an early day. Major Jesse Bartlett was one among the first Texians to resist Mexican oppression, and served as an officer in the army under Gen. Sam Houston during the struggle for Texas Independence. Mrs. Crawford was one of the oldest Texians in the State, and resided the largest portion of her life in Washington county, Texas. Some years previous to the war, she moved to Hempstead, where she remained until the close of the war, and then removed to Galveston where, up to her death, she kept the Crawford House. She leaves a son and daughter and many relations and friends to mourn her sore loss. Thus so untimely the community has lost one of its most benevolent servants, Christianity one of the most consistent Christians, and a family a devoted mother."

"Opposite Catholic Church, fronting on Church St."

Mahala Lee Sharp Hall nee Roberts

175 years ago today . . . on the 3rd day of November . . . in the year 1816 . . . a baby girl is born in Washington Parish, Louisana . . . she is given the name Mahala Lee Roberts . . .


 

. . . Mahala Lee Sharp Hall nee Roberts . . . aka (in this Journal) Mrs. Hall . . . or Mrs. J.J. Hall . . . or Mother . . . is a 3rd great-grandma of the Keeper of this Blog (aka Vickie Everhart) . . . and is the step-mother . . . as well as the mother-in-law . . . of the Keeper of this Journal (aka James Madison Hall) . . .



 

Our Mahala is 43 years of age when she is first mentioned in the Journal . . . on Monday, January 16th, 1860 . . . when J.M. Hall writes that . . . Mrs. J.J. Hall also left on a visit to Mrs. Matthews with a view of purchasing a negro man for me . . .





Mahala Lee Roberts
North American Indian name meaning /"Woman"/
Mahaley /HALL/
Michala /Roberts/

• Born on 3 November 1816 - Washington Parish, Louisiana
  
• Died on 27 June 1885 - Elkhart Creek, Houston County, Texas
  
• Age at death: 68 years old
  
• Buried in June 1885 - Hall Cemetery, Houston County, Texas
  

Parents

* Elisha Roberts ca 1774-1844 * Martha Gill ca 1781-1845

Marriages and children

* Married on 22 March 1838, San Augustine County, Texas, to John M. Sharp ca 1800/1815-/ca 1846, with
o Samuel Houston ca 1839-ca 1885; findagrave o Margaret Annot ca 1840-ca 1878; findagrave
* Married on 12 February 1851, San Augustine County, Texas, to Joshua James Hall, Colonel ca 1790-ca 1871, with
o Roberta A. 1852-1915 o Horace Oscar 1854-1934

Notes from Ida Mae:- My Grandmother [i.e., Mahala] came from San Augustine to Houston County, and I believe that my father [i.e., Samuel Houston Sharp, Sr.] and aunt [i.e., Margaret Hall Stewart nee Sharp] were born there before she came to this County [i.e., Houston Co., TX]. I do not know anything about her family, except that she had a sister named Margaret, who married a McDonald and lived in Houston County, Texas. . . .

• A Tribute to Our Mahala
  
• Our Mahala's Extensive Timeline
  
• All mentions of Mahala in this Journal as of this date (updates will be ongoing through at least September of 2016)

Houston County, Texas

Established June 12, 1837, named for President Sam Houston, and located on the El Camino Real Highway. The El Camino Real is recognized as one of the state's oldest and most significant of the trans-Texas routes, and the most famous of the early historic trails.

• Houston County TXGenWeb Project

Houston County, the first county established by the Republic of Texas, is east of Waco in the East Texas Timberlands region.

• It is bordered on the north by Anderson County, on the east by Cherokee, Angelina, and Trinity counties, on the south by Walker and Madison counties, and on the west by Leon County.
• Its center lies at 31°20' north latitude and 99°25' west longitude.
• Crockett is the county seat and largest town.
• In addition to U.S. Highway 287 the county's transportation needs are served by State highways 7, 19, and 21 and the Union Pacific Railroad.
• Houston County covers 1,234 square miles, with elevations ranging from 200 to 300 feet.
• The Neches River forms the northeastern boundary of the county, and the Trinity River is the western boundary.
• The terrain is gently rolling to hilly. Soils are generally light colored and loamy, with very deep reddish clayey subsoils. In the southwest and west the soils are sandy with clayey subsoils.
• The predominant vegetation is mixed pine and hardwood forests. Between 21 and 30 percent of the land in the county is considered prime farmland.
• The climate is subtropical and humid, with cool winters and hot summers. Temperatures range in January from an average low of 36° F to an average high of 58°, and in July from 71° to 94°. The average annual rainfall is 42 inches. The average annual snowfall is less than one inch.
• The growing season averages 260 days a year, with the last freeze in early March and the first in late November. . . .

In 1837 the boundaries of Houston County were laid out and its government was organized. It was named for President Sam Houston, who signed the order establishing the county on June 12, 1837. Upon its formation from Nacogdoches County in 1837, Houston County included the territory that later became Trinity and Anderson counties and part of Henderson County. Land was donated for the county seat by Andrew E. Gossett, who named it for his father's friend and former Tennessee neighbor, David Crockett. . . .
During the early years of the county's existence, there were frequent hostile encounters between settlers and Indians. In October 1838 an Indian band attacked the home of John Edens on San Pedro Creek, where a number of women and children had taken refuge while the men of the area were away combating the Córdova Rebellion. In what became known as the Edens-Madden massacre, more than a half dozen people were killed and a number of others were wounded. Many early families constructed forts or blockhouses for protection, but sporadic attacks continued until the early 1850s.

During the early 1840s the population of the county grew rapidly. In 1847 the number of residents reached 1,929, and by 1850 it stood at 2,721. Many of the early settlers were planters from the Old South who brought their slaves with them, and the early tax rolls of the county show that the number of bondsmen increased steadily during the decade, rising from 308 in 1840 to 545 in 1850.

Much of the early settlement was along the Neches and Trinity rivers. Linking the two rivers was the Old San Antonio Road, which provided the main overland route to and through the county. Farming in Houston County was originally conducted on a subsistence basis, but by the late 1840s a thriving plantation economy, based primarily on cotton, had developed.

In 1850, Houston County plantations produced 740 bales, and the figure grew rapidly over the next decade. During the 1850s Alabama and Hall's Bluff, both on the Trinity River, became important shipping sites for the county's cotton crop. Planters hauled the heavy bales overland to the river and then transported them by flatboat to Galveston for sale and export to New Orleans and other sites.

In 1860, on the eve of the Civil War, Houston County had a population of 8,058, including 2,819 slaves. Despite the rapid population growth of the previous decade and a half, the area remained sparsely settled. Arable land amounted to less than 40,000 acres, and Crockett was the only sizable town. Alabama, Augusta, Randolph, Hall's Bluff, and several other sites had post offices, but most of these communities were little more than villages.

The Civil War and its aftermath brought profound changes to the county. Its citizens voted overwhelmingly for secession, 552 for and only 38 against, and county men volunteered for the Confederate Army in large numbers. Despite having a white population of little more than 5,000, the county provided nearly 1,000 men to the war effort. Many of these spent long periods away from home during the war, and those who remained behind were forced to deal with the lack of markets and wild fluctuations in the value of Confederate currency, as well as concern for their relatives and friends on the battlefield.

The end of the war brought wrenching changes in the county's economy. For many Houston County residents, the abolition of slavery meant devastating economic loss. Before the war slaves had constituted nearly half of all taxable property in the county, and their loss, coupled with a sharp decline in property values, caused a profound disruption for most planters. The value of farms in the county dropped from $1,154,435 in 1860 to $57,180 in 1870.

The black population fared no better. Many black farmers left the farms owned by their former masters to seek better working and living conditions, but for the vast majority the change brought only marginal improvement. Most ended up working on the land on shares, receiving one-third or one-half of the crop for their labors.

Politically, however, Houston County blacks fared somewhat better than freedmen in other counties; as late as 1873, largely as a result of black voters, Republican gubernatorial candidate Edmund J. Davis won a narrow majority of the county's votes. As was the case elsewhere in the state, however, the introduction of the white primary and other discriminatory voting practices eventually served effectively to disfranchise African Americans until the 1960s.

Although Houston County witnessed little of the violence that many other counties experienced during Reconstruction, the effects of the war were felt for some time, and the economy did not begin fully to recover until 1872, when the Houston and Great Northern Railroad was built through the county. The new railroad provided improved access to markets outside of Texas and brought in large numbers of new settlers, who helped to reinvigorate the county. Between 1870 and 1880 the population grew from 8,147 to 16,702. Many of the new residents settled along the tracks, where numerous new communities, among them Grapeland, Latexo, and Lovelady, were built.

The influx of new settlers had a dramatic impact on the agricultural economy. Between 1870 and 1880 the number of farms in the county increased from seventy-five to 1,698, and the number of improved acres grew from 6,746 to 73,884. Corn, cotton, and cattle were the leading products. In 1880 the county's farmers produced 283,402 bushels of corn and 9,730 bales of cotton; the agricultural census counted 14,368 cattle. . . .

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Armistead Albert Aldrich, The History of Houston County, Texas (San Antonio: Naylor, 1943). Frontier Times, May 1929. Houston County Historical Commission, History of Houston County, Texas, 1687–1979 (Tulsa, Oklahoma: Heritage, 1979). Thomas Nelms Mainer, Houston County in the Civil War (Crockett, Texas: Houston County Historical Commission, 1981). Gifford E. White, The First Settlers of Houston County, Texas (Austin, 1983). Albert Woldert, "The Location of the Tejas Indian Village (San Pedro) and the Spanish Missions in Houston County," Southwestern Historical Quarterly 38 (January 1935).

Eliza H. Bishop

The following, adapted from the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, is the preferred citation for this article.

Handbook of Texas Online, s.v. "," http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/HH/hch19.html (accessed August 4, 2010).

(NOTE: "s.v." stands for sub verbo, "under the word.")

The Handbook of Texas Online is a project of the Texas State Historical Association (http://www.tshaonline.org).

Copyright ©, The Texas State Historical Association, 1997-2002