The Autobiography of Berry Merchant
March 18, 1878 Rockport, Texas
The subject of this sketch was born in Williamson County, Tennessee, near Franklin in middle Tennessee on November 7, 1819, and his father's name was Edward A., a son of James Merchant (Marchant) of South Carolina. Berry Merchant's mother's name was Elizabeth, a daughter of Benjamin Little. Berry Merchant's father was a soldier under Jackson in the Creek War and took part in the battle of Horseshoe Bend and Fort Williams. Afterwards, he married and lived in Maury, McNairy, Bedford, and Davidson counties of Tennessee. Twenty miles below Nashville on the Cumberland River and from the last named place, my father went to Texas in 1829; and my mother with myself and one sister went to Bedford County where we stayed one season with grandfather Marchant and grandfather Little.
When my father returned from Texas, we moved to Franklin County in north Alabama where my father's brother, John D. Merchant lived. After a residence in Alabama for nearly two years, Father and family consisting of wife and three children (myself and two sisters), Uncle and wife and four children (two sons and two daughters) and Uncle's brother-in-law, Z. C. Walker, in the year 1832, emigrated to Texas, taking to water at Florence, Alabama on board a flat boat bought for the purpose. Thence we traveled down the Tennessee, Ohio, and Mississippi Rivers to Natchez whence we disposed of our boat and took a steamer for New Orleans, thence up the Red river on the steamer ''Warsaw'' to Natchitoches where we hired teams and went to Texas, crossing the Sabine River at John Lathim's Ferry. We settled in what was afterward called Shelby County on March 2, 1832. During the summer of the same year, war broke out between the Mexicans and the Texans, and there resulted a battle at Nacogdoches, forty miles west of where we lived. My father and Uncle John D. and Z. C. Walker participated in the fight against the Mexicans which resulted in a victory for the Texans. Again in the fall of 1835, the war cloud hovered, and my father and Uncle John, with other citizens volunteered and went to San Antonio where the Texan army met and defeated the Mexican Army and garrisoned the place with the immortal 150 men headed by Travis, Crockett, and Bowie who gloriously fell in the defense of their country. When again in the early spring of 1836, another call for troops came loud and long, we armed and marched to the west. My father had just returned home from a campaign; and, being a poor man having to provide for the family, I petitioned my father to let me go, which he did. Consequently, I served a campaign under General Sam Houston, Commander-in-chief for which service I now draw a pension. Returning home I engaged with my father on the farm until the crop was made. Later I was employed by William W. Landrum (who was afterward Coe Landrum) as clerk in his store in Shelbyville where I remained until the fall of 1837. I became enamored with a nice girl of fourteen summers, just from Mississippi, by the name of Nancy Phillips, and we were married on the 22nd day of September 1837. We lived happily together until in 1856, she fell asleep in Jesus after giving birth to ten children (five sons and five daughters). She died in Cook County, Texas and was buried at Indian Creek camp ground with her two youngest children by her side.
Soon after my marriage, war broke again on us in 1838, and I volunteered into service against the Cherokees and Creek Indians and the Mexicana combined under Old Bulls, Cherokee chief and Cardoway's Mexicans. After an unsuccessful campaign, we were discharged and returned home to the great joy of my wife, but the next year they came again and the army was again called out. This time my father, as the year before, went into the service; I, being sick, stayed home. At the Cherokee Village, the Texans, under General T. J. Rusk and Col. W. W. Anderson and other officers, met the enemy in battle and killed Bowls, their chief, and many others and dispersed the balance and again returned home to enjoy the quietude of domesticity. I settled down to farming and stock-raising and was remunerated for my labor.
In 1840 at a quarterly meeting of the Methodist Church held near a stream called Flat Fork, eight males best of Logansport, Louisiana, with Frank Wilson presiding Elder and Nathan Shook, preacher in charge, myself and wife both embraced religion and joined the church, and, feeling that I was called to preach, very soon began to exercise in public, and my labors seemed to be attended with wonderful power and blessing of Heaven.
In the fall of 1844, 1 sold out in Shelby County and, together with my father and family and an Uncle Price and family, moved to northern Texas to Titus County and settled between Big Cyprus and White Oak near the line of Hopkins County and here again I began to till the soil and raise stock and vas bountifully repaid. Soon I licensed to preach and greatly enjoyed that field of labor.
Some tine about the year 1854, I was ordained Deacon at Marshall by Bishop Andrews. In 1849, I was in partnership with Joseph Shup (brother-in-law) selling goods. In 1856, my health having partially failed, I sold out in Titus and moved to Cook County, northwest Texas where I soon lost my wife and two children as above stated. I then returned to Titus County and bought my old place back and in September of the same year married my present wife who was the widow Coke. Her maiden name was Bennett, daughter of Thomas Bennett of Pickens County, Alabama, and again 1 was restored to conjugal and domestic happiness. All went well for some time and again my health gave way and I was forced to breakup and leave a bountiful and happy home under the advice of my family physician and friend and moved south and, after spending the year of 1859 on the E1m Fork of the Trinity in Denton County (where I had a stock ranch at what is known as Sparks Lake). Here, by the way, I greatly enjoyed myself hunting deer, turkey, geese and ducks, having a daily supply of wild meats all through the winter. On the l0th day of May of 1862, in company with T. L, Bennett (brother-in-law) and J. F. Prescott (son-in- law), we rolled out for southern Texas and landed on the Medio in Bee County about the first of June 1860. T. L. Bennett did not unload his wagon but went back to Denton County. The balance of us remained and settled on a creek called Piasto or Map Creek seven miles below the town of Beeville where I took a preemption of 160 acres of land. I went on to improve my place until the time expired for obtaining a patent. Then I sold out and moved to Beeville and there in 1863 went into partnership with G. W. McClanahan in a store, but on going to Brownsville I contracted yellow fever. When I returned home I found that my family had contracted what was termed the camp fever, and the result was three of my family died. Those who died were a married daughter, a step-son of nine years and an infant daughter, and I came near losing my wife and several more.
During my residence in Beeville I and my family had enjoyed ourselves greatly, and I had accepted and traveled the Beeville circuit and had been elected Justice of the Peace besides. We had good schools and society.
But when the great war came and the very roots of society were uprooted, I sold out and moved off and finally settled in San Antonio and remained there until the war closed in 1865. In 1867 I went to the Guadalup River nine miles above the town of Gonzales, where in connection with J. C, Thompson, we made a crop of corn and cotton. After gathering and disposing of the crop we moved west of the San Antonio River and settled in Wilson County, thirty miles south of San Antonio in the immediate neighborhood of which lived my eldest son, S. W. Merchant and son-in-law J. F. Prewett. Here again we had for a time pleasant times and good society and again I entered into farming and stock raising on a small scale. However by this time I bad been reduced from a competency down to nearly nothing. but nothing abashed I pushed ahead and made plenty. I took charge of the Pleasanton circuit in which the Lord greatly blessed my labors in the salvation of many precious souls for which I give glory to God to this day.
In 1871, I sold out again and came to this place (Rockport) with comparatively nothing. Here I bought a lot, and built a house upon it, and enclosed it, after which I took charge of a lumber yard for E. W. Richards, which I ran for two years. In the meantime, I was elected Justice of the Peace in Precinct No.2, and afterward to No. 1. and also to the office of City Assessor and Collector for three years. At the beginning of the present year (1878), I was elected mayor of the city and held at the time a position in County Commissioners Court as Commissioner of Precinct no. 4. Monday the 18th instant, I was duly elected Chief Justice of the County by the County Commissioners Court to fill the unexpired term of Hon. A. H. Abbey, Resigned. 0n the first day of January 1875, I opened a grocery store of family supplies on Austin Street at the foot of St. Mary's Street in Rockport. After having bought this house and lot and paid for it, I have added another story to my store house and also bought another house and several lots as a family residence. All of this is paid for.
Here on Aransas Bay, where we have the magnificent Morgan Steamers and other vessels plying regularly, is beyond doubt one of the best and balmy climates I ever saw. Nearly a1l of our timber growth is evergreen, and we seldom have frost, and vegetables of all kinds grow to perfection. For instance, I raised a turnip in my garden this season that measured 40 there in circumference and weighed 21 pounds and many others nearly as large. My present wife whose name is Martha has borne me 5 children_3 sons and 2 daughters.
B. Merchant
March 18, 1878 Rockport, Texas
The subject of this sketch was born in Williamson County, Tennessee, near Franklin in middle Tennessee on November 7, 1819, and his father's name was Edward A., a son of James Merchant (Marchant) of South Carolina. Berry Merchant's mother's name was Elizabeth, a daughter of Benjamin Little. Berry Merchant's father was a soldier under Jackson in the Creek War and took part in the battle of Horseshoe Bend and Fort Williams. Afterwards, he married and lived in Maury, McNairy, Bedford, and Davidson counties of Tennessee. Twenty miles below Nashville on the Cumberland River and from the last named place, my father went to Texas in 1829; and my mother with myself and one sister went to Bedford County where we stayed one season with grandfather Marchant and grandfather Little.
When my father returned from Texas, we moved to Franklin County in north Alabama where my father's brother, John D. Merchant lived. After a residence in Alabama for nearly two years, Father and family consisting of wife and three children (myself and two sisters), Uncle and wife and four children (two sons and two daughters) and Uncle's brother-in-law, Z. C. Walker, in the year 1832, emigrated to Texas, taking to water at Florence, Alabama on board a flat boat bought for the purpose. Thence we traveled down the Tennessee, Ohio, and Mississippi Rivers to Natchez whence we disposed of our boat and took a steamer for New Orleans, thence up the Red river on the steamer ''Warsaw'' to Natchitoches where we hired teams and went to Texas, crossing the Sabine River at John Lathim's Ferry. We settled in what was afterward called Shelby County on March 2, 1832. During the summer of the same year, war broke out between the Mexicans and the Texans, and there resulted a battle at Nacogdoches, forty miles west of where we lived. My father and Uncle John D. and Z. C. Walker participated in the fight against the Mexicans which resulted in a victory for the Texans. Again in the fall of 1835, the war cloud hovered, and my father and Uncle John, with other citizens volunteered and went to San Antonio where the Texan army met and defeated the Mexican Army and garrisoned the place with the immortal 150 men headed by Travis, Crockett, and Bowie who gloriously fell in the defense of their country. When again in the early spring of 1836, another call for troops came loud and long, we armed and marched to the west. My father had just returned home from a campaign; and, being a poor man having to provide for the family, I petitioned my father to let me go, which he did. Consequently, I served a campaign under General Sam Houston, Commander-in-chief for which service I now draw a pension. Returning home I engaged with my father on the farm until the crop was made. Later I was employed by William W. Landrum (who was afterward Coe Landrum) as clerk in his store in Shelbyville where I remained until the fall of 1837. I became enamored with a nice girl of fourteen summers, just from Mississippi, by the name of Nancy Phillips, and we were married on the 22nd day of September 1837. We lived happily together until in 1856, she fell asleep in Jesus after giving birth to ten children (five sons and five daughters). She died in Cook County, Texas and was buried at Indian Creek camp ground with her two youngest children by her side.
Soon after my marriage, war broke again on us in 1838, and I volunteered into service against the Cherokees and Creek Indians and the Mexicana combined under Old Bulls, Cherokee chief and Cardoway's Mexicans. After an unsuccessful campaign, we were discharged and returned home to the great joy of my wife, but the next year they came again and the army was again called out. This time my father, as the year before, went into the service; I, being sick, stayed home. At the Cherokee Village, the Texans, under General T. J. Rusk and Col. W. W. Anderson and other officers, met the enemy in battle and killed Bowls, their chief, and many others and dispersed the balance and again returned home to enjoy the quietude of domesticity. I settled down to farming and stock-raising and was remunerated for my labor.
In 1840 at a quarterly meeting of the Methodist Church held near a stream called Flat Fork, eight males best of Logansport, Louisiana, with Frank Wilson presiding Elder and Nathan Shook, preacher in charge, myself and wife both embraced religion and joined the church, and, feeling that I was called to preach, very soon began to exercise in public, and my labors seemed to be attended with wonderful power and blessing of Heaven.
In the fall of 1844, 1 sold out in Shelby County and, together with my father and family and an Uncle Price and family, moved to northern Texas to Titus County and settled between Big Cyprus and White Oak near the line of Hopkins County and here again I began to till the soil and raise stock and vas bountifully repaid. Soon I licensed to preach and greatly enjoyed that field of labor.
Some tine about the year 1854, I was ordained Deacon at Marshall by Bishop Andrews. In 1849, I was in partnership with Joseph Shup (brother-in-law) selling goods. In 1856, my health having partially failed, I sold out in Titus and moved to Cook County, northwest Texas where I soon lost my wife and two children as above stated. I then returned to Titus County and bought my old place back and in September of the same year married my present wife who was the widow Coke. Her maiden name was Bennett, daughter of Thomas Bennett of Pickens County, Alabama, and again 1 was restored to conjugal and domestic happiness. All went well for some time and again my health gave way and I was forced to breakup and leave a bountiful and happy home under the advice of my family physician and friend and moved south and, after spending the year of 1859 on the E1m Fork of the Trinity in Denton County (where I had a stock ranch at what is known as Sparks Lake). Here, by the way, I greatly enjoyed myself hunting deer, turkey, geese and ducks, having a daily supply of wild meats all through the winter. On the l0th day of May of 1862, in company with T. L, Bennett (brother-in-law) and J. F. Prescott (son-in- law), we rolled out for southern Texas and landed on the Medio in Bee County about the first of June 1860. T. L. Bennett did not unload his wagon but went back to Denton County. The balance of us remained and settled on a creek called Piasto or Map Creek seven miles below the town of Beeville where I took a preemption of 160 acres of land. I went on to improve my place until the time expired for obtaining a patent. Then I sold out and moved to Beeville and there in 1863 went into partnership with G. W. McClanahan in a store, but on going to Brownsville I contracted yellow fever. When I returned home I found that my family had contracted what was termed the camp fever, and the result was three of my family died. Those who died were a married daughter, a step-son of nine years and an infant daughter, and I came near losing my wife and several more.
During my residence in Beeville I and my family had enjoyed ourselves greatly, and I had accepted and traveled the Beeville circuit and had been elected Justice of the Peace besides. We had good schools and society.
But when the great war came and the very roots of society were uprooted, I sold out and moved off and finally settled in San Antonio and remained there until the war closed in 1865. In 1867 I went to the Guadalup River nine miles above the town of Gonzales, where in connection with J. C, Thompson, we made a crop of corn and cotton. After gathering and disposing of the crop we moved west of the San Antonio River and settled in Wilson County, thirty miles south of San Antonio in the immediate neighborhood of which lived my eldest son, S. W. Merchant and son-in-law J. F. Prewett. Here again we had for a time pleasant times and good society and again I entered into farming and stock raising on a small scale. However by this time I bad been reduced from a competency down to nearly nothing. but nothing abashed I pushed ahead and made plenty. I took charge of the Pleasanton circuit in which the Lord greatly blessed my labors in the salvation of many precious souls for which I give glory to God to this day.
In 1871, I sold out again and came to this place (Rockport) with comparatively nothing. Here I bought a lot, and built a house upon it, and enclosed it, after which I took charge of a lumber yard for E. W. Richards, which I ran for two years. In the meantime, I was elected Justice of the Peace in Precinct No.2, and afterward to No. 1. and also to the office of City Assessor and Collector for three years. At the beginning of the present year (1878), I was elected mayor of the city and held at the time a position in County Commissioners Court as Commissioner of Precinct no. 4. Monday the 18th instant, I was duly elected Chief Justice of the County by the County Commissioners Court to fill the unexpired term of Hon. A. H. Abbey, Resigned. 0n the first day of January 1875, I opened a grocery store of family supplies on Austin Street at the foot of St. Mary's Street in Rockport. After having bought this house and lot and paid for it, I have added another story to my store house and also bought another house and several lots as a family residence. All of this is paid for.
Here on Aransas Bay, where we have the magnificent Morgan Steamers and other vessels plying regularly, is beyond doubt one of the best and balmy climates I ever saw. Nearly a1l of our timber growth is evergreen, and we seldom have frost, and vegetables of all kinds grow to perfection. For instance, I raised a turnip in my garden this season that measured 40 there in circumference and weighed 21 pounds and many others nearly as large. My present wife whose name is Martha has borne me 5 children_3 sons and 2 daughters.
B. Merchant
The Autobiography of Berry Merchant
March 18, 1878 Rockport, Texas
The subject of this sketch was born in Williamson County, Tennessee, near Franklin in middle Tennessee on November 7, 1819, and his father's name was Edward A., a son of James Merchant (Marchant) of South Carolina. Berry Merchant's mother's name was Elizabeth, a daughter of Benjamin Little. Berry Merchant's father was a soldier under Jackson in the Creek War and took part in the battle of Horseshoe Bend and Fort Williams. Afterwards, he married and lived in Maury, McNairy, Bedford, and Davidson counties of Tennessee. Twenty miles below Nashville on the Cumberland River and from the last named place, my father went to Texas in 1829; and my mother with myself and one sister went to Bedford County where we stayed one season with grandfather Marchant and grandfather Little.
When my father returned from Texas, we moved to Franklin County in north Alabama where my father's brother, John D. Merchant lived. After a residence in Alabama for nearly two years, Father and family consisting of wife and three children (myself and two sisters), Uncle and wife and four children (two sons and two daughters) and Uncle's brother-in-law, Z. C. Walker, in the year 1832, emigrated to Texas, taking to water at Florence, Alabama on board a flat boat bought for the purpose. Thence we traveled down the Tennessee, Ohio, and Mississippi Rivers to Natchez whence we disposed of our boat and took a steamer for New Orleans, thence up the Red river on the steamer ''Warsaw'' to Natchitoches where we hired teams and went to Texas, crossing the Sabine River at John Lathim's Ferry. We settled in what was afterward called Shelby County on March 2, 1832. During the summer of the same year, war broke out between the Mexicans and the Texans, and there resulted a battle at Nacogdoches, forty miles west of where we lived. My father and Uncle John D. and Z. C. Walker participated in the fight against the Mexicans which resulted in a victory for the Texans. Again in the fall of 1835, the war cloud hovered, and my father and Uncle John, with other citizens volunteered and went to San Antonio where the Texan army met and defeated the Mexican Army and garrisoned the place with the immortal 150 men headed by Travis, Crockett, and Bowie who gloriously fell in the defense of their country. When again in the early spring of 1836, another call for troops came loud and long, we armed and marched to the west. My father had just returned home from a campaign; and, being a poor man having to provide for the family, I petitioned my father to let me go, which he did. Consequently, I served a campaign under General Sam Houston, Commander-in-chief for which service I now draw a pension. Returning home I engaged with my father on the farm until the crop was made. Later I was employed by William W. Landrum (who was afterward Coe Landrum) as clerk in his store in Shelbyville where I remained until the fall of 1837. I became enamored with a nice girl of fourteen summers, just from Mississippi, by the name of Nancy Phillips, and we were married on the 22nd day of September 1837. We lived happily together until in 1856, she fell asleep in Jesus after giving birth to ten children (five sons and five daughters). She died in Cook County, Texas and was buried at Indian Creek camp ground with her two youngest children by her side.
Soon after my marriage, war broke again on us in 1838, and I volunteered into service against the Cherokees and Creek Indians and the Mexicana combined under Old Bulls, Cherokee chief and Cardoway's Mexicans. After an unsuccessful campaign, we were discharged and returned home to the great joy of my wife, but the next year they came again and the army was again called out. This time my father, as the year before, went into the service; I, being sick, stayed home. At the Cherokee Village, the Texans, under General T. J. Rusk and Col. W. W. Anderson and other officers, met the enemy in battle and killed Bowls, their chief, and many others and dispersed the balance and again returned home to enjoy the quietude of domesticity. I settled down to farming and stock-raising and was remunerated for my labor.
In 1840 at a quarterly meeting of the Methodist Church held near a stream called Flat Fork, eight males best of Logansport, Louisiana, with Frank Wilson presiding Elder and Nathan Shook, preacher in charge, myself and wife both embraced religion and joined the church, and, feeling that I was called to preach, very soon began to exercise in public, and my labors seemed to be attended with wonderful power and blessing of Heaven.
In the fall of 1844, 1 sold out in Shelby County and, together with my father and family and an Uncle Price and family, moved to northern Texas to Titus County and settled between Big Cyprus and White Oak near the line of Hopkins County and here again I began to till the soil and raise stock and vas bountifully repaid. Soon I licensed to preach and greatly enjoyed that field of labor.
Some tine about the year 1854, I was ordained Deacon at Marshall by Bishop Andrews. In 1849, I was in partnership with Joseph Shup (brother-in-law) selling goods. In 1856, my health having partially failed, I sold out in Titus and moved to Cook County, northwest Texas where I soon lost my wife and two children as above stated. I then returned to Titus County and bought my old place back and in September of the same year married my present wife who was the widow Coke. Her maiden name was Bennett, daughter of Thomas Bennett of Pickens County, Alabama, and again 1 was restored to conjugal and domestic happiness. All went well for some time and again my health gave way and I was forced to breakup and leave a bountiful and happy home under the advice of my family physician and friend and moved south and, after spending the year of 1859 on the E1m Fork of the Trinity in Denton County (where I had a stock ranch at what is known as Sparks Lake). Here, by the way, I greatly enjoyed myself hunting deer, turkey, geese and ducks, having a daily supply of wild meats all through the winter. On the l0th day of May of 1862, in company with T. L, Bennett (brother-in-law) and J. F. Prescott (son-in- law), we rolled out for southern Texas and landed on the Medio in Bee County about the first of June 1860. T. L. Bennett did not unload his wagon but went back to Denton County. The balance of us remained and settled on a creek called Piasto or Map Creek seven miles below the town of Beeville where I took a preemption of 160 acres of land. I went on to improve my place until the time expired for obtaining a patent. Then I sold out and moved to Beeville and there in 1863 went into partnership with G. W. McClanahan in a store, but on going to Brownsville I contracted yellow fever. When I returned home I found that my family had contracted what was termed the camp fever, and the result was three of my family died. Those who died were a married daughter, a step-son of nine years and an infant daughter, and I came near losing my wife and several more.
During my residence in Beeville I and my family had enjoyed ourselves greatly, and I had accepted and traveled the Beeville circuit and had been elected Justice of the Peace besides. We had good schools and society.
But when the great war came and the very roots of society were uprooted, I sold out and moved off and finally settled in San Antonio and remained there until the war closed in 1865. In 1867 I went to the Guadalup River nine miles above the town of Gonzales, where in connection with J. C, Thompson, we made a crop of corn and cotton. After gathering and disposing of the crop we moved west of the San Antonio River and settled in Wilson County, thirty miles south of San Antonio in the immediate neighborhood of which lived my eldest son, S. W. Merchant and son-in-law J. F. Prewett. Here again we had for a time pleasant times and good society and again I entered into farming and stock raising on a small scale. However by this time I bad been reduced from a competency down to nearly nothing. but nothing abashed I pushed ahead and made plenty. I took charge of the Pleasanton circuit in which the Lord greatly blessed my labors in the salvation of many precious souls for which I give glory to God to this day.
In 1871, I sold out again and came to this place (Rockport) with comparatively nothing. Here I bought a lot, and built a house upon it, and enclosed it, after which I took charge of a lumber yard for E. W. Richards, which I ran for two years. In the meantime, I was elected Justice of the Peace in Precinct No.2, and afterward to No. 1. and also to the office of City Assessor and Collector for three years. At the beginning of the present year (1878), I was elected mayor of the city and held at the time a position in County Commissioners Court as Commissioner of Precinct no. 4. Monday the 18th instant, I was duly elected Chief Justice of the County by the County Commissioners Court to fill the unexpired term of Hon. A. H. Abbey, Resigned. 0n the first day of January 1875, I opened a grocery store of family supplies on Austin Street at the foot of St. Mary's Street in Rockport. After having bought this house and lot and paid for it, I have added another story to my store house and also bought another house and several lots as a family residence. All of this is paid for.
Here on Aransas Bay, where we have the magnificent Morgan Steamers and other vessels plying regularly, is beyond doubt one of the best and balmy climates I ever saw. Nearly a1l of our timber growth is evergreen, and we seldom have frost, and vegetables of all kinds grow to perfection. For instance, I raised a turnip in my garden this season that measured 40 there in circumference and weighed 21 pounds and many others nearly as large. My present wife whose name is Martha has borne me 5 children_3 sons and 2 daughters.
B. Merchant
March 18, 1878 Rockport, Texas
The subject of this sketch was born in Williamson County, Tennessee, near Franklin in middle Tennessee on November 7, 1819, and his father's name was Edward A., a son of James Merchant (Marchant) of South Carolina. Berry Merchant's mother's name was Elizabeth, a daughter of Benjamin Little. Berry Merchant's father was a soldier under Jackson in the Creek War and took part in the battle of Horseshoe Bend and Fort Williams. Afterwards, he married and lived in Maury, McNairy, Bedford, and Davidson counties of Tennessee. Twenty miles below Nashville on the Cumberland River and from the last named place, my father went to Texas in 1829; and my mother with myself and one sister went to Bedford County where we stayed one season with grandfather Marchant and grandfather Little.
When my father returned from Texas, we moved to Franklin County in north Alabama where my father's brother, John D. Merchant lived. After a residence in Alabama for nearly two years, Father and family consisting of wife and three children (myself and two sisters), Uncle and wife and four children (two sons and two daughters) and Uncle's brother-in-law, Z. C. Walker, in the year 1832, emigrated to Texas, taking to water at Florence, Alabama on board a flat boat bought for the purpose. Thence we traveled down the Tennessee, Ohio, and Mississippi Rivers to Natchez whence we disposed of our boat and took a steamer for New Orleans, thence up the Red river on the steamer ''Warsaw'' to Natchitoches where we hired teams and went to Texas, crossing the Sabine River at John Lathim's Ferry. We settled in what was afterward called Shelby County on March 2, 1832. During the summer of the same year, war broke out between the Mexicans and the Texans, and there resulted a battle at Nacogdoches, forty miles west of where we lived. My father and Uncle John D. and Z. C. Walker participated in the fight against the Mexicans which resulted in a victory for the Texans. Again in the fall of 1835, the war cloud hovered, and my father and Uncle John, with other citizens volunteered and went to San Antonio where the Texan army met and defeated the Mexican Army and garrisoned the place with the immortal 150 men headed by Travis, Crockett, and Bowie who gloriously fell in the defense of their country. When again in the early spring of 1836, another call for troops came loud and long, we armed and marched to the west. My father had just returned home from a campaign; and, being a poor man having to provide for the family, I petitioned my father to let me go, which he did. Consequently, I served a campaign under General Sam Houston, Commander-in-chief for which service I now draw a pension. Returning home I engaged with my father on the farm until the crop was made. Later I was employed by William W. Landrum (who was afterward Coe Landrum) as clerk in his store in Shelbyville where I remained until the fall of 1837. I became enamored with a nice girl of fourteen summers, just from Mississippi, by the name of Nancy Phillips, and we were married on the 22nd day of September 1837. We lived happily together until in 1856, she fell asleep in Jesus after giving birth to ten children (five sons and five daughters). She died in Cook County, Texas and was buried at Indian Creek camp ground with her two youngest children by her side.
Soon after my marriage, war broke again on us in 1838, and I volunteered into service against the Cherokees and Creek Indians and the Mexicana combined under Old Bulls, Cherokee chief and Cardoway's Mexicans. After an unsuccessful campaign, we were discharged and returned home to the great joy of my wife, but the next year they came again and the army was again called out. This time my father, as the year before, went into the service; I, being sick, stayed home. At the Cherokee Village, the Texans, under General T. J. Rusk and Col. W. W. Anderson and other officers, met the enemy in battle and killed Bowls, their chief, and many others and dispersed the balance and again returned home to enjoy the quietude of domesticity. I settled down to farming and stock-raising and was remunerated for my labor.
In 1840 at a quarterly meeting of the Methodist Church held near a stream called Flat Fork, eight males best of Logansport, Louisiana, with Frank Wilson presiding Elder and Nathan Shook, preacher in charge, myself and wife both embraced religion and joined the church, and, feeling that I was called to preach, very soon began to exercise in public, and my labors seemed to be attended with wonderful power and blessing of Heaven.
In the fall of 1844, 1 sold out in Shelby County and, together with my father and family and an Uncle Price and family, moved to northern Texas to Titus County and settled between Big Cyprus and White Oak near the line of Hopkins County and here again I began to till the soil and raise stock and vas bountifully repaid. Soon I licensed to preach and greatly enjoyed that field of labor.
Some tine about the year 1854, I was ordained Deacon at Marshall by Bishop Andrews. In 1849, I was in partnership with Joseph Shup (brother-in-law) selling goods. In 1856, my health having partially failed, I sold out in Titus and moved to Cook County, northwest Texas where I soon lost my wife and two children as above stated. I then returned to Titus County and bought my old place back and in September of the same year married my present wife who was the widow Coke. Her maiden name was Bennett, daughter of Thomas Bennett of Pickens County, Alabama, and again 1 was restored to conjugal and domestic happiness. All went well for some time and again my health gave way and I was forced to breakup and leave a bountiful and happy home under the advice of my family physician and friend and moved south and, after spending the year of 1859 on the E1m Fork of the Trinity in Denton County (where I had a stock ranch at what is known as Sparks Lake). Here, by the way, I greatly enjoyed myself hunting deer, turkey, geese and ducks, having a daily supply of wild meats all through the winter. On the l0th day of May of 1862, in company with T. L, Bennett (brother-in-law) and J. F. Prescott (son-in- law), we rolled out for southern Texas and landed on the Medio in Bee County about the first of June 1860. T. L. Bennett did not unload his wagon but went back to Denton County. The balance of us remained and settled on a creek called Piasto or Map Creek seven miles below the town of Beeville where I took a preemption of 160 acres of land. I went on to improve my place until the time expired for obtaining a patent. Then I sold out and moved to Beeville and there in 1863 went into partnership with G. W. McClanahan in a store, but on going to Brownsville I contracted yellow fever. When I returned home I found that my family had contracted what was termed the camp fever, and the result was three of my family died. Those who died were a married daughter, a step-son of nine years and an infant daughter, and I came near losing my wife and several more.
During my residence in Beeville I and my family had enjoyed ourselves greatly, and I had accepted and traveled the Beeville circuit and had been elected Justice of the Peace besides. We had good schools and society.
But when the great war came and the very roots of society were uprooted, I sold out and moved off and finally settled in San Antonio and remained there until the war closed in 1865. In 1867 I went to the Guadalup River nine miles above the town of Gonzales, where in connection with J. C, Thompson, we made a crop of corn and cotton. After gathering and disposing of the crop we moved west of the San Antonio River and settled in Wilson County, thirty miles south of San Antonio in the immediate neighborhood of which lived my eldest son, S. W. Merchant and son-in-law J. F. Prewett. Here again we had for a time pleasant times and good society and again I entered into farming and stock raising on a small scale. However by this time I bad been reduced from a competency down to nearly nothing. but nothing abashed I pushed ahead and made plenty. I took charge of the Pleasanton circuit in which the Lord greatly blessed my labors in the salvation of many precious souls for which I give glory to God to this day.
In 1871, I sold out again and came to this place (Rockport) with comparatively nothing. Here I bought a lot, and built a house upon it, and enclosed it, after which I took charge of a lumber yard for E. W. Richards, which I ran for two years. In the meantime, I was elected Justice of the Peace in Precinct No.2, and afterward to No. 1. and also to the office of City Assessor and Collector for three years. At the beginning of the present year (1878), I was elected mayor of the city and held at the time a position in County Commissioners Court as Commissioner of Precinct no. 4. Monday the 18th instant, I was duly elected Chief Justice of the County by the County Commissioners Court to fill the unexpired term of Hon. A. H. Abbey, Resigned. 0n the first day of January 1875, I opened a grocery store of family supplies on Austin Street at the foot of St. Mary's Street in Rockport. After having bought this house and lot and paid for it, I have added another story to my store house and also bought another house and several lots as a family residence. All of this is paid for.
Here on Aransas Bay, where we have the magnificent Morgan Steamers and other vessels plying regularly, is beyond doubt one of the best and balmy climates I ever saw. Nearly a1l of our timber growth is evergreen, and we seldom have frost, and vegetables of all kinds grow to perfection. For instance, I raised a turnip in my garden this season that measured 40 there in circumference and weighed 21 pounds and many others nearly as large. My present wife whose name is Martha has borne me 5 children_3 sons and 2 daughters.
B. Merchant
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