Alfred Gray and Winifred Hyman Andrews
by Ernest Mae Seaholm
According to the family pages in the Bible of Warren Daniel and Barsheba Gainer Andrews,[1] Alfred Gray Andrews was born on 18 July 1799 in Martin County, North Carolina. He was the grandson of Edmund Andrews (1725-1795) and Agnes Wallace (1737-1795) of Pitt Co., N. C. Edmund was the son of Warren Andrews and wife Sarah. Warren Andrews (the first) had received land grants in 1738, 1739, and 1741 in Tyrrel County; in 1744, in Edgecombe Co.; and in 1760 in what is now Martin Co., on both sides of Picture Swamp. Warren Andrews died in 1774.
On 20 Sep 1825, Warren Daniel Andrews deeded 260 acres of land near Green Pond and Picture Swamp to his son Alfred Gray Andrews.[2] The land from his father was apparently his inheritance for it was deeded “for natural love and affection.” And in his mother’s will, since he was no longer in North Carolina in 1839 at the time of her death, he is merely named as being her son and willed fifty cents.[3] However, two years after receiving the land from his father, in 1827, A. G. Andrews bought 50 acres from Kenneth Johnston, land near Picture Swamp,[4] and two years after that on 12 March 1829, Alfred Gray Andrews married Winifred Hyman in the home of John Hyman in Martin Co., N.C.[5]
After living in North Carolina a few years and after the births of two of their children, the Alfred Gray Andrews family moved to Tennessee, eventually settling in Shelby County. There Arden Andrews, brother of Warren Daniel Andrews, owned land which he had willed to his son Warren A. Andrews. And here in Shelby County, Alfred Gray Andrews witnessed the marriage bond of Warren A. Andrews to Sarah U. Massey in 1841. And in Shelby County four or five of A. G. and Winifred’s children were born. The six children who lived to adulthood were Mary Ann (1831), Parthenia Elizabeth(1832), Joseph H. (1836), Sallie Elizabeth (1838), Basheba Winifred (1840), and Pembroke Alfred (1843). On 21 November 1845, A. G. Andrews sold 250 acres of land in Shelby County, Tennessee for $1,700 to Harper McGowen, apparently getting ready to move to Texas.[6]
By 1847 the Andrews family had moved to Texas, and on 11 Mar 1847, Mary Ann Andrews, the oldest of the daughters, married Oliver B. Crenshaw and settled near Oakland in Colorado County.[7] On 10 July 1849, the second daughter Parthenia Elizabeth married Lewis Monroe Mayes and settled in Lavaca County.[8] Also in 1849 A. G. Andrews started buying land in Lavaca County. He bought 400 acres from George Q. Turner. Later in 1856 he bought an additional 40_ acres from George Q. Turner. In 1854 he bought 200 acres from William and Nancy Boatright; in 1855, 197 acres from Thomas A. and Julia Hester; and 41 acres from James Peacock in 1860.[9] Why A. G. Andrews settled in Lavaca County is unclear, but there were a number of connections there from Martin County, North Carolina. Kenneth Hyman, who may have been the brother of Winifred Hyman Andrews, had married and settled in Lavaca County. Also Kinchen [Kirchen?] Mayo, who was originally from Martin County, N. C., lived in Lavaca County.
It was not long after the move to Texas that A. G. Andrews became involved in public affairs in Lavaca County. He was on a commission with Benjamin H. Stribling, N. Chambliss, John Hinch and Joseph Ryan to “lay out and sell and transfer lots, and to superintend the carrying out such propositions as may have been made in favor of the location selected” for the county seat.[10] He also was on a “Board of Trustees of a Collegiate Institute, in the town of Halletsville, Lavaca county, to be known as the Alma Female Institute” along with J. C. Finney, L. W. Layton, C. Ballard, A. Turner, S. Bennett, A. W. Hicks and M. B. Bennett.[11] After the establishment of this school, A. G. Andrews served as treasurer and steward for the school. His daughter Barsheba (Basheba) Winifred attended this school as did Julia Turner, the daughter of Amasa Turner.
On several occasions, Andrews encountered frontier justice in Lavaca County. On 3 July 1852 Hiram Stewart Foley assaulted the sheriff John McKinney with a knife with the intent to murder. A grand jury returned the indictment and during the trial three eye- witnesses--A. W. Hicks, A. G. Andrews, and John Laughlin--testified what they had seen. However, while the jury found Foley guilty, he was only fined one cent which he quickly paid.[12] In another incident Andrews had one of his prize horses stolen, but on this occasion he did nothing to redress the theft.
The A. G. Andrews family suffered a personal loss in 1852 when the daughter Parthenia Elizabeth, who had married Lewis Monroe Mayes in 1849, died as did her infant son, James Henry.[13] This tragedy may have been the reason that Alfred and Winifred decided to deed two acres of land to build a church and establish a cemetery. No deed for such a transaction has been located, but when A. G. Andrews sold 197 acres of land to his son-in-law and daughter—Don Fernando Payne and Savery Elizabeth Andrews—in 1868, the deed describes two acres that were to be exempted from the sale since they had been given to Andrews’ Chapel for a church and a cemetery.[14] There are a number of very old tombstones and markers in existence in the cemetery, but no names can be read on them if Parthenia and her son are buried there.[15]
The deaths of Parthenia and her son also led A. G. Andrews to court. He had given several slaves to Lewis Monroe Mayes, apparently as a wedding present, but with the death of his daughter and grandson, he wanted the slaves back, supposedly because he thought they were not being treated well. Mayes had summoned a number of well-known citizens to appear on his behalf in the case, and when Andrews could not summon an individual to support his cause, the case was dropped. Mayes later remarried and moved from the area.[16]
Being close neighbors to the Amasa Turner family, A. G. Andrews joined Colonel Turner in attempting to enlarge Lavaca County by adding land across the Navidad River in Colorado County. Andrews took a petition so designed to add the town of Oakland and surrounding land to Lavaca County, but the plan failed.
The children of Andrews and Turner were friends, and letters written to or from the Turner family members sometimes show insight into the Andrews family affairs. When Savery (or Sallie) Andrews decided to marry Don Fernando Payne who lived near Oakland in Colorado County, A. G. Andrews opposed the marriage. Only the sisters Bashie Andrews and Mary Ann Crenshaw were in the house, a large house which had recently been completed, to witness the ceremony on 26 May 1858. The newly married couple left immediately after the ceremony to go to the Zachariah Payne home in Colorado County. However, Andrews did not remain angry with the Paynes for when Bashie married Josiah Payne, Don Payne’s brother, in 1859, the Turner letters described A. G. Andrews as being delighted with the match.[17] Also in the letters of the Turner family, A. G. Andrews was described as being a firm believer in his religion, a proponent of the temperance movement, and an opponent of the abolition movement.
The 1860’s brought many changes to the Andrews family. Joseph H. Andrews, the elder son, bought the store in Oakland with Rupert Van Wagner. However, when the Civil War started, Joe first joined the Oakland Grays, the local militia group in Oakland, but later joined Company F of Terry’s Texas Rangers with his friend Daniel Cherry Payne, the brother-in-law of Joe’s sisters Sallie and Bashie. Daniel Cherry Payne was among those Rangers who became ill in Nashville (probably from an epidemic of measles) and died in November, 1861. Joe escaped he epidemic, but he was mortally wounded at Shiloh. He was left on the field, but there was some speculation that he survived and started home. However, he never made it back to Lavaca County. After the war Rupert Van Wagner started to settle the estate of Joe Andrews, but it was 1876 before the final settlement was made.[18]
Pembroke Alfred Andrews, the younger son of A. G. Andrews, also joined the Oakland Grays when the Civil War started and later joined Whitfield’s Legion. Pembroke fought in Tennessee and eventually returned to Lavaca County after the war. On 22 Apr 1867 Pembroke married Marcia Coleman, and they became the parents of a daughter Florence (1868-1946). However, both A. G. Andrews and Pembroke became disillusioned with life in Texas after the war. Hearing about the life and lands in Mexico from articles in newspapers written by John Henry Brown, A. G. Andrews made a trip to Tuxpan, Vera Cruz, Mexico to see the country. On his return to Texas, he sold his land to his sons-in-law Don and Josiah Payne and E. B. Fowlkes and convinced his son Pembroke to make the move to Mexico.[19] Pembroke’s wife Marcia refused to go, but in 1868, Alfred Gray, Winifred, and Pembroke sailed from Galveston to Tuxpan. After three years, Marcia divorced Pembroke[20] and eventually left Lavaca County to settle in Coleman County, Texas, where she died in 1920 and was buried in the Coleman Cemetery.
As was his custom, once in Mexico, A. G. Andrews quickly became involved in affairs of the community. An agricultural society to help American settlers was formed, with A. G. Andrews as president and Pembroke Andrews as secretary. A number of letters and articles were written and sent to newspapers in Texas and other locations in the South reporting on the life at Tuxpan. At some times there were as many as three hundred Americans, mostly Texans, who had located in the area.[21] However, A. G. Andrews and his wife Winifred were no longer young, and about 1869, Winifred died. A. G. Andrews, who was described as “an old religionist” by Gideon Lincecum who had moved to Tuxpan also, suffered from asthma. Gideon Lincecum described a device he made which would pull Andrews’ shoulders back so he could breathe better and even though Lincecum and Andrews differed on ideas about religion, Lincecum often visited Andrews in his home after Winifred’s death. Lincecum’s son-in-law Dr. Bradford also stayed some with Andrews, but after 1871, no mention is made of A. G. Andrews. He probably died about June 1871.[22]
Pembroke remained in Mexico near Tuxpan where he married Ignacia Sanchez on 9 Jul 1893 at Tuxpan. In Mexican records he recorded his marriage and the births of eleven children: Elizabet (1878), Juan F. (1883-1899), Santiago [James] (1887), Andres (1888), Roberto (1889-1893), Jose Enrique [Joe Henry](1892), Josefina Francisca (1894-1894), Carlos (1897), Adolpho (1898), Mary Lee (1901), and Alonzo Gray (1903).[23] Pembroke did not return to the United States until 1904 and then just for a visit. He had decided to send his sons Santiago and Andres to school in Laredo, and he went to see his sister Bashie Winifred Payne in Weimar. The Weimar Mercury reported his visit and a conversation with him in which he described his farming operations in Mexico. He was collecting gum and selling it to chewing gum factories, reportedly for $30,000 a year. He also reported that he was thinking about moving closer to Laredo where he would farm onions and send his children to school. The sons James and Andres also made a visit to Weimar, but after 1904 no other mention was made of Pembroke in the Weimar Mercury.[24]
The Andrews daughters all survived their husbands by many years. O. B. Crenshaw, husband of Mary Ann, died on 8 Oct 1863 and was buried in Clear Creek Cemetery. Mary Ann moved west to live with her daughter in Brady. There she died in 1920 and is buried at Brady. Don Fernando Payne died in Colorado County 6 Dec 1871 and was also buried at Clear Creek Cemetery. His wife Savery (Sallie) lived in Colorado County for some time and then moved west with her children. She died in 1902 in Ozona, TX, where she was buried. When some of her children moved to San Angelo, they removed her body and reinterred it in San Angelo. Josiah Frederick Turner Payne, who had married Bashie Winifred, died on 20 Feb 1879 and was also buried at Clear Creek. Bashie did not leave Colorado County except for a short time to live in Houston. She returned to Weimar where she died on 11 Dec 1916. She was buried at the Masonic Cemetery in Weimar.[25]
Footnotes
1. Family pages of Bible of Warren Daniel Andrews and Barsheba Gainer Andrews, copied by Ada Andrews Williams who owned the Bible at that time.
2. Deed Book E, Martin County, NC,
3. Will Book, Martin County, NC
4. Deed Book, Martin County, NC
5. Marriage and Death Notices in Raleigh Register and North Carolina State Gazette—1826-1845, compiled by Carrie L. Broghton, p. 52
6. Shelby County, Tennessee Deed Book
7. Colorado County Marriage Book B, p. 87
8. Family pages of Lewis Monroe Mayes Bible, in possession of Mary Brown of Austin, TX when copied
9. Lavaca County Deed Books, Book C, p. 243; D, 367-368; D, 188-189; H, 170-171.
10. Chapter XXXVI, Laws of the State of Texas, “An Act to locate permanently the County Seat of Justice for the County of Lavaca, approved, January 15, 1852, pp. 28-29.
11. Chapter LIII, Laws of the State of Texas, An Act to Incorporate the Alma Institute, Approved, February 6, 1854, pp. 84-85.
12. Paul C. Boethel, Sand in Your Craw (Austin: Von Boeckmann-Jones, c.1959), pp. 3-4.
13. Family Pages in Bible of Lewis Monroe Mayes, in possession of Mary Brown of Austin when copied
14. Lavaca County, Texas Deed Book I, pp. 327-328.
15. T. H. Brady, in a letter to Ernest Mae Seaholm written shortly before he died, said that soldiers (which war?) were buried under the pile of stones stacked up in the cemetery. He also believed that Andrews Chapel was a Methodist church. The church he said burned the first day that he started to school. School was taught in the church.
16. District Court Records of Lavaca County, TX #108 , A. G. Andrews vs. L. M. Mayes.
17. Paul C. Boethel, Colonel Amasa Turner: The Gentleman from Lavaca and Other Captains at San Jacinto (Austin: Von Boeckmann-Jones, 1963), pp. 122-123.
18. Service records of Daniel Cherry Payne and Joseph H. Andrews at National Archives
19. Lavaca County, TX Deed Book I, 326-328, 405.
20. Lavaca County, TX District Court, Book E, #1544
21. Two Republics, 5 Sep 1868; Galveston Daily News, 4 Apr 1869
22. Letters of Gideon Lincecum at University of Texas Library, Center for American History (Barker Library), Austin, TX; Lois Burkhalter, Gideon Lincecum, 1793-1874: A Biography (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1965), pp.255-289.
23. Family History Library Film: Nacimientos (18870-1905) #1094739-1094744; Matrimonios (1890-1899) #1095528-1095529; Defunciones (18870-1899) #1095113-1095107.
24. Weimar Mercury, 2 Apr 1904, 7 May 1904
25. Tombstones in Clear Creek Cemetery, Colorado County, TX; Brady, TX; San Angelo, TX; and Weimar, TX
Related Links
