History of Texas, Together with a Biographical History of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop, Travis, Lee and Burleson Counties. Page: 410

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410

410 HISTORY OF TEXAS.

four sons and two daugliters,-settled, with
one Exception, around him, and lived and
died in that vicinity. His sons were: John,
Wilson, William, and Jefferson; and the
daughters: Sallie, afterward Mrs. W. 0.
Sparks; and Harriet, who was successively
the wife of Wiley Carter, Charles M. Henderson,
and King Fisher.
The third of these, William, was well
known to many of the citizens of Milam
county with whom at an earlier date lie had
frequent business and official intercourse, and
with some of whom he remained on terms of
intimate friendship until his death. A more
extended notice of him therefore will be appropriate
in this volume. He was a native of
Bedford county, Tennessee, and was born
January 23, 1816. As can be gathered from
the dates le was only a lad when his parents
came to Texas. He was old enough, however,
to carry a rifle, and this lie did, acting
as scout and guard on the journey West, discharging
his duties as such to the satisfaction
of the older members of the company and to
the gratification of his youthful ambition.
After his father had taken up temporary
quarters in Robertson county, Williaml, in
company with his brother, Jefferson, joined
Moses Cummings' surveying corps, in which
they became chain carriers, and for several
months were engaged in laying off lands in
the Robertson grant for the new settlers. As
early as December 25, 1833, they selected
and ran off claims for themselves, locating
them on Little river, in what is now Bell
county. No actual settlement was made on
these until a much later date on account of
the disturbances then in progress on the
frontier. When the war caine on with
Mexico both brothers and a brother-iy -law,
Wiley Carter, enlisted in the defenseJf the
settlers, joining Captain L. H. Mabbett's

company, with which they served till independence
was won. They were not in the
battle of. San Jacinto, being in charge of
important stores of provision and army supplies
at that time, but served as part of the
detachment which buried the bones of
Fannin's men at Goliad, and were in active
sympathy with and support of all the other
measures and operations of those stirring
days.
At the close of hostilities young Reed
returned to the settlements east of the Brazos
and spent several years in that locality, mostly
in Robertson county, where he *as engaged
in farming. In 1841 he married Emeline
Cobb, of Robertson county, and three years
later, in company with his relatives, moved
out and settled on his claim. At that time
the locality where he settled was part of the
Milam Land District, and was very sparsely
settled. The nearest town of any consequence
was old Nashville on the Brazos, and it was
but little more than a trading post. The
records were kept there, and the courts were
held there, and such supplies as the settlers
needed or were able to afford were obtained
from the two or three small stores at that
place. When Burleson county was created a
by act of the Legislature in 1846, and Milam
county as now defined was erected into a
separate organization, and the seat of justice
fixed at Cameron, this became the chief place
of consequence to the settlers living to the
northwest, and hither most of them came
upon matters of public interest and to buy
their wares and supplies. Mr. Reed was a
frequenter of Cameron in those days, and
knew all of the public characters who figured
in the history of the county. He was present
at the sitting of the first district court
ever held at Cameron, being in fact a member
of the first jury ever impanneled to serve

HITO YOFTXA

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History of Texas, Together with a Biographical History of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop, Travis, Lee and Burleson Counties. (Book)

History of Texas, Together with a Biographical History of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop, Travis, Lee and Burleson Counties.

Book containing a brief overview of the state of Texas and more specific focus on six specific counties, with extensive biographical sketches about persons related to the history of those places. An alphabetical index of persons who are included follows the table of contents at the front of the book.

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Lewis Publishing Company. History of Texas, Together with a Biographical History of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop, Travis, Lee and Burleson Counties., book, 1893; Chicago, Illinois. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth29785/m1/438/ocr/: accessed March 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .

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