Mary Ann Kent married (1)William Riley Byas. Their children were Susan Emily Byas Brunson, Joseph Byas and William Riley David Byas. Four other children, Mary Ann Byas, Isaac Byas, Wm Benjamin Byas & John C. Byas died in 1870.
Mary Ann Kent was a daughter of Andrew Jackson Kent, one of 32 volunteers from Gonzales, Texas who died in defense of the Alamo. Her mother was Elizabeth Zumwalt.
She married (2)Samuel Robert Chambers, married (3)John G Morriss/Morris. Mary Ann survived her three husbands and four of her children.
∼Mary Ann Kent, daughter of Andrew Jackson Kent, who died at the Alamo in 1836, and Elizabeth Zumwalt Kent. Married (1) William Riley Byas in 1845. Married (2) Samuel Robert Chambers in 1878/79. Married John G Morriss/Morris in 1881.
Mary Ann survived her three husbands and four of her seven children who died in a typhoid epidemic in 1870. The three surviving children were: Joseph Byas,1847/48, d.1925,TX., Susan Emily Byas Brunson, b.1858, d. 1930, OR., and Wm Riley David Byas,b.1864, d.1949,TX.
*************
On 6 Jun 1845, William Byas and Mary Ann Kent obtained a license to marry from County Clerk Benjamin Pike of GonzalesCo and married in LavacaCo on 13 Jun 1845 with Justice of the Peace J.H. Livergood officiating. William Byas came to Texas about 1837 at the age of 13 leaving his widowed mother and family on a farm in PickensCo, Alabama. His father died in about 1830 and the children had to work both on the small farm and for others at minimal wages to support the family. He hired out to drive a wagon with a group leaving for Texas despite the protest of his mother. The wagon train traveled overland through Mississippi, Louisiana, into Texas to the Brazos River at Ft. Bend, over the Colorado River at Brenhams near La Grange and then across the Navidad, Lavaca and Peach Creeks to Gonzales. At first young Byas worked for people in the train with which he had come to Texas, helping build cabins, clear fields and hauling freight and supplies which became a career in addition to farming and ranching. Like many freighters in those days, he utilized ox carts until he could afford a full team or mules or horses. He began to haul from Lavaca Bay to Gonzales on the Indianola-Austin Road originally surveyed by Byrd Lockhart that began at a point on the bay called Powderhorn (Indianola) and went north along the west bank of the Lavaca to Hallettsville where it forked to Gonzales and La Grange and Austin. The route went across the Andrew Kent league crossing a notorious creek called Hubless Branch. Hubless Branch was named because wagon wheels sank below the hubs while crossing the black mud surrounding the branch during a rain. Crossing Hubless Branch at times was a half-day or so work and freighters often camped nearby after the exhausting cross. Nearby was the Andrew Kent homeplace in which the unmarried Kent children Isaac, Bosman, Mary Ann and Nancy Jane lived at the time and it is there that freighter William Byas is thought to have met Mary Ann.
Mary Ann inherited 1107 acres of the Andrew Kent league and it is there that the young couple built their first homestead. In 1845-46 Byas was on the road about six months of the year and carried supplies in the Mexican War of 1846. The rest of the time he spent farming and ranching on the Kent homestead. He was one of the 79 original voters in the newly founded county of Lavaca on 13 Jul 1846. Sometime after the birth of their first child Joseph Byas on 10 Aug 1847, Mary Ann and William Byas separated and William is thought to have served in Capt. Sutton's Texas Rangers when he was recruiting at Petersburg. Among the troop were many friends, relatives and neighbors including David and Bosman Kent, Isaac Kent Zumwalt, John Arnold and Ben Highsmith. Mary Ann is thought to have looked after ailing stepfather Joseph Kent, whom she loved as did all the Kent children, very much as her own father. In the 1850 census of LavacaCo, Mary Ann, William and Joseph Byas were listed. Sometime in the 1850's they moved to a homeplace on Big Brushy Creek. They sold 200 acres of the northeast part of her share of the Andrew Kent league next to Isaac Kent's plot to Richard Heath for $200 on 19 Aug 1852. Mary Ann bought $50 worth of cattle and mules from Seth Baldridge in Sep 1852. There additional children John C. (b. 1852), Mary A. (b. 1854), Isaac (b. 1856), Susan Emily (b. 22 Jan 1858), William Benjamin (b. 1861) and William Riley (b. 25 Dec 1864) were born.
The 1860 census of LavacaCo showed the family living on Big Brushy Creek. On 1 Mar 1861 Mary Ann Byas bought 140 plus acres on Big Brushy Creek from W.W. Mays for $52.54. William Byas enlisted in Co. A of the 34th Texas Cavalry, Alexander's Regiment, 2nd Partisan Rangers of the CSA in 1862. In the period, Mary Ann sent Joe with a horse to inform his father of urgent need of his presence. Joe replaced William in training at the age of 15 while he was on leave, but went home because of the difficulty of the training for a 15 year old. On the way he met father William returning to duty and rode his horse back home. Joe maintained the family under the difficult conditions of war until William was furloughed because of illness from his post in Louisiana in Mar 1864. He returned but again the rheumatism was too severe and he was transferred to a local reserve unit in Texas. He died prior to activation of his unit in Feb 1865 at age 41. The family barely survived the Civil War years with their land intact, but the homeplace became rundown and their livestock scattered. At that time widow Mary Ann began to sell parts of her inheritance to survive and pay taxes. Between 1865 and 1869, she sold 100 acres to Levi Ezzell, 100 acres to G. Sherley for $100, 100 acres to Henry Crocker, 50.5 acres to Jonathan Sherley for $50 and 279 acres on Lost Creek to Milton B. McCoy for $435.
Malaria plagued the Lavaca River valley region in fall 1869 and on recommendation of doctors, friends and relatives, Mary Ann and family joined her sister's family, Louisa Billings, in the drier climate of Mountain Home in KerrCo after selling the 140.75 acre plot to W.R. Parr for $150. In the 1870 census, Mary Ann and family were living on 300 acres on Johnson Creek above Ingram with post office address Kerrville. Nearby were the families of Y.H. and Louisa Stockman and Louisa Billings. Sickness, either malaria or typhoid fever, continued to plague the family. In one day John C. at 18, Mary A. at 16, Isaac at 14 and William Benjamin at 9 died of the fever. Both Joe and Susan Emily were near death at one time, but recovered.
On 29 Jan 1879 Mary Ann Kent Byas married blacksmith and farmer Robert Chambers and became stepmother for two Thomas children, Emley about 15 and Zeb about 11 at the home on Byas Branch. On 18 Jul 1881, to the surprise of family and friends, 56 year old Mary Ann Kent Byas Chambers married John G. Morriss who was about 71 and a widower of many years. In LavacaCo, he had been married to Sarah Billings. According to Byas descendants John Morriss was an exemplary husband and stepfather as well as a fine Christian.
Orphan of Alamo Goes to Reward
Mary Ann Morriss, Aged Pioneer Dies at Upper Guadalupe After Long Ilness, Funeral Sunday
Grandma Mary Ann Morriss, aged 92 years, died at the home of her son, W.R. Byas, on the upper Guadalupe, Saturday morning Feb. 24, after a lingering illness, and her body was laid to rest at Nichol's graveyard Sunday afternoon, the service being conducted by Rev. J. B. Riddle of Kerrville. Grandma Morriss was a daughter of Andrew J. Kent, one of the heroes of the Alamo. The family moved to Texas from Calloway county, Missouri, when she was a little girl, settling first in Lavaca county. She had been a resident of Kerr county for many years, and by her pure life and able Christian example had been a blessing to those with whom she came in contact. She leaves three children living, Messrs. Joe and W.R. Byas of Hunt and Mrs. Susan Brunson of Roosevelt, Arizona. [1917 obituary from a local Kerrville newspaper] Source: Info found and used with permission from Andrew Kent-Index
SONS OF DEWITT COLONY TEXAS
Wallace L. McKeehan, All Rights Reserved
Mary Ann Kent was a daughter of Andrew Jackson Kent, one of 32 volunteers from Gonzales, Texas who died in defense of the Alamo. Her mother was Elizabeth Zumwalt.
She married (2)Samuel Robert Chambers, married (3)John G Morriss/Morris. Mary Ann survived her three husbands and four of her children.
∼Mary Ann Kent, daughter of Andrew Jackson Kent, who died at the Alamo in 1836, and Elizabeth Zumwalt Kent. Married (1) William Riley Byas in 1845. Married (2) Samuel Robert Chambers in 1878/79. Married John G Morriss/Morris in 1881.
Mary Ann survived her three husbands and four of her seven children who died in a typhoid epidemic in 1870. The three surviving children were: Joseph Byas,1847/48, d.1925,TX., Susan Emily Byas Brunson, b.1858, d. 1930, OR., and Wm Riley David Byas,b.1864, d.1949,TX.
*************
On 6 Jun 1845, William Byas and Mary Ann Kent obtained a license to marry from County Clerk Benjamin Pike of GonzalesCo and married in LavacaCo on 13 Jun 1845 with Justice of the Peace J.H. Livergood officiating. William Byas came to Texas about 1837 at the age of 13 leaving his widowed mother and family on a farm in PickensCo, Alabama. His father died in about 1830 and the children had to work both on the small farm and for others at minimal wages to support the family. He hired out to drive a wagon with a group leaving for Texas despite the protest of his mother. The wagon train traveled overland through Mississippi, Louisiana, into Texas to the Brazos River at Ft. Bend, over the Colorado River at Brenhams near La Grange and then across the Navidad, Lavaca and Peach Creeks to Gonzales. At first young Byas worked for people in the train with which he had come to Texas, helping build cabins, clear fields and hauling freight and supplies which became a career in addition to farming and ranching. Like many freighters in those days, he utilized ox carts until he could afford a full team or mules or horses. He began to haul from Lavaca Bay to Gonzales on the Indianola-Austin Road originally surveyed by Byrd Lockhart that began at a point on the bay called Powderhorn (Indianola) and went north along the west bank of the Lavaca to Hallettsville where it forked to Gonzales and La Grange and Austin. The route went across the Andrew Kent league crossing a notorious creek called Hubless Branch. Hubless Branch was named because wagon wheels sank below the hubs while crossing the black mud surrounding the branch during a rain. Crossing Hubless Branch at times was a half-day or so work and freighters often camped nearby after the exhausting cross. Nearby was the Andrew Kent homeplace in which the unmarried Kent children Isaac, Bosman, Mary Ann and Nancy Jane lived at the time and it is there that freighter William Byas is thought to have met Mary Ann.
Mary Ann inherited 1107 acres of the Andrew Kent league and it is there that the young couple built their first homestead. In 1845-46 Byas was on the road about six months of the year and carried supplies in the Mexican War of 1846. The rest of the time he spent farming and ranching on the Kent homestead. He was one of the 79 original voters in the newly founded county of Lavaca on 13 Jul 1846. Sometime after the birth of their first child Joseph Byas on 10 Aug 1847, Mary Ann and William Byas separated and William is thought to have served in Capt. Sutton's Texas Rangers when he was recruiting at Petersburg. Among the troop were many friends, relatives and neighbors including David and Bosman Kent, Isaac Kent Zumwalt, John Arnold and Ben Highsmith. Mary Ann is thought to have looked after ailing stepfather Joseph Kent, whom she loved as did all the Kent children, very much as her own father. In the 1850 census of LavacaCo, Mary Ann, William and Joseph Byas were listed. Sometime in the 1850's they moved to a homeplace on Big Brushy Creek. They sold 200 acres of the northeast part of her share of the Andrew Kent league next to Isaac Kent's plot to Richard Heath for $200 on 19 Aug 1852. Mary Ann bought $50 worth of cattle and mules from Seth Baldridge in Sep 1852. There additional children John C. (b. 1852), Mary A. (b. 1854), Isaac (b. 1856), Susan Emily (b. 22 Jan 1858), William Benjamin (b. 1861) and William Riley (b. 25 Dec 1864) were born.
The 1860 census of LavacaCo showed the family living on Big Brushy Creek. On 1 Mar 1861 Mary Ann Byas bought 140 plus acres on Big Brushy Creek from W.W. Mays for $52.54. William Byas enlisted in Co. A of the 34th Texas Cavalry, Alexander's Regiment, 2nd Partisan Rangers of the CSA in 1862. In the period, Mary Ann sent Joe with a horse to inform his father of urgent need of his presence. Joe replaced William in training at the age of 15 while he was on leave, but went home because of the difficulty of the training for a 15 year old. On the way he met father William returning to duty and rode his horse back home. Joe maintained the family under the difficult conditions of war until William was furloughed because of illness from his post in Louisiana in Mar 1864. He returned but again the rheumatism was too severe and he was transferred to a local reserve unit in Texas. He died prior to activation of his unit in Feb 1865 at age 41. The family barely survived the Civil War years with their land intact, but the homeplace became rundown and their livestock scattered. At that time widow Mary Ann began to sell parts of her inheritance to survive and pay taxes. Between 1865 and 1869, she sold 100 acres to Levi Ezzell, 100 acres to G. Sherley for $100, 100 acres to Henry Crocker, 50.5 acres to Jonathan Sherley for $50 and 279 acres on Lost Creek to Milton B. McCoy for $435.
Malaria plagued the Lavaca River valley region in fall 1869 and on recommendation of doctors, friends and relatives, Mary Ann and family joined her sister's family, Louisa Billings, in the drier climate of Mountain Home in KerrCo after selling the 140.75 acre plot to W.R. Parr for $150. In the 1870 census, Mary Ann and family were living on 300 acres on Johnson Creek above Ingram with post office address Kerrville. Nearby were the families of Y.H. and Louisa Stockman and Louisa Billings. Sickness, either malaria or typhoid fever, continued to plague the family. In one day John C. at 18, Mary A. at 16, Isaac at 14 and William Benjamin at 9 died of the fever. Both Joe and Susan Emily were near death at one time, but recovered.
On 29 Jan 1879 Mary Ann Kent Byas married blacksmith and farmer Robert Chambers and became stepmother for two Thomas children, Emley about 15 and Zeb about 11 at the home on Byas Branch. On 18 Jul 1881, to the surprise of family and friends, 56 year old Mary Ann Kent Byas Chambers married John G. Morriss who was about 71 and a widower of many years. In LavacaCo, he had been married to Sarah Billings. According to Byas descendants John Morriss was an exemplary husband and stepfather as well as a fine Christian.
Orphan of Alamo Goes to Reward
Mary Ann Morriss, Aged Pioneer Dies at Upper Guadalupe After Long Ilness, Funeral Sunday
Grandma Mary Ann Morriss, aged 92 years, died at the home of her son, W.R. Byas, on the upper Guadalupe, Saturday morning Feb. 24, after a lingering illness, and her body was laid to rest at Nichol's graveyard Sunday afternoon, the service being conducted by Rev. J. B. Riddle of Kerrville. Grandma Morriss was a daughter of Andrew J. Kent, one of the heroes of the Alamo. The family moved to Texas from Calloway county, Missouri, when she was a little girl, settling first in Lavaca county. She had been a resident of Kerr county for many years, and by her pure life and able Christian example had been a blessing to those with whom she came in contact. She leaves three children living, Messrs. Joe and W.R. Byas of Hunt and Mrs. Susan Brunson of Roosevelt, Arizona. [1917 obituary from a local Kerrville newspaper] Source: Info found and used with permission from Andrew Kent-Index
SONS OF DEWITT COLONY TEXAS
Wallace L. McKeehan, All Rights Reserved
Mary Ann Kent married (1)William Riley Byas. Their children were Susan Emily Byas Brunson, Joseph Byas and William Riley David Byas. Four other children, Mary Ann Byas, Isaac Byas, Wm Benjamin Byas & John C. Byas died in 1870.
Mary Ann Kent was a daughter of Andrew Jackson Kent, one of 32 volunteers from Gonzales, Texas who died in defense of the Alamo. Her mother was Elizabeth Zumwalt.
She married (2)Samuel Robert Chambers, married (3)John G Morriss/Morris. Mary Ann survived her three husbands and four of her children.
∼Mary Ann Kent, daughter of Andrew Jackson Kent, who died at the Alamo in 1836, and Elizabeth Zumwalt Kent. Married (1) William Riley Byas in 1845. Married (2) Samuel Robert Chambers in 1878/79. Married John G Morriss/Morris in 1881.
Mary Ann survived her three husbands and four of her seven children who died in a typhoid epidemic in 1870. The three surviving children were: Joseph Byas,1847/48, d.1925,TX., Susan Emily Byas Brunson, b.1858, d. 1930, OR., and Wm Riley David Byas,b.1864, d.1949,TX.
*************
On 6 Jun 1845, William Byas and Mary Ann Kent obtained a license to marry from County Clerk Benjamin Pike of GonzalesCo and married in LavacaCo on 13 Jun 1845 with Justice of the Peace J.H. Livergood officiating. William Byas came to Texas about 1837 at the age of 13 leaving his widowed mother and family on a farm in PickensCo, Alabama. His father died in about 1830 and the children had to work both on the small farm and for others at minimal wages to support the family. He hired out to drive a wagon with a group leaving for Texas despite the protest of his mother. The wagon train traveled overland through Mississippi, Louisiana, into Texas to the Brazos River at Ft. Bend, over the Colorado River at Brenhams near La Grange and then across the Navidad, Lavaca and Peach Creeks to Gonzales. At first young Byas worked for people in the train with which he had come to Texas, helping build cabins, clear fields and hauling freight and supplies which became a career in addition to farming and ranching. Like many freighters in those days, he utilized ox carts until he could afford a full team or mules or horses. He began to haul from Lavaca Bay to Gonzales on the Indianola-Austin Road originally surveyed by Byrd Lockhart that began at a point on the bay called Powderhorn (Indianola) and went north along the west bank of the Lavaca to Hallettsville where it forked to Gonzales and La Grange and Austin. The route went across the Andrew Kent league crossing a notorious creek called Hubless Branch. Hubless Branch was named because wagon wheels sank below the hubs while crossing the black mud surrounding the branch during a rain. Crossing Hubless Branch at times was a half-day or so work and freighters often camped nearby after the exhausting cross. Nearby was the Andrew Kent homeplace in which the unmarried Kent children Isaac, Bosman, Mary Ann and Nancy Jane lived at the time and it is there that freighter William Byas is thought to have met Mary Ann.
Mary Ann inherited 1107 acres of the Andrew Kent league and it is there that the young couple built their first homestead. In 1845-46 Byas was on the road about six months of the year and carried supplies in the Mexican War of 1846. The rest of the time he spent farming and ranching on the Kent homestead. He was one of the 79 original voters in the newly founded county of Lavaca on 13 Jul 1846. Sometime after the birth of their first child Joseph Byas on 10 Aug 1847, Mary Ann and William Byas separated and William is thought to have served in Capt. Sutton's Texas Rangers when he was recruiting at Petersburg. Among the troop were many friends, relatives and neighbors including David and Bosman Kent, Isaac Kent Zumwalt, John Arnold and Ben Highsmith. Mary Ann is thought to have looked after ailing stepfather Joseph Kent, whom she loved as did all the Kent children, very much as her own father. In the 1850 census of LavacaCo, Mary Ann, William and Joseph Byas were listed. Sometime in the 1850's they moved to a homeplace on Big Brushy Creek. They sold 200 acres of the northeast part of her share of the Andrew Kent league next to Isaac Kent's plot to Richard Heath for $200 on 19 Aug 1852. Mary Ann bought $50 worth of cattle and mules from Seth Baldridge in Sep 1852. There additional children John C. (b. 1852), Mary A. (b. 1854), Isaac (b. 1856), Susan Emily (b. 22 Jan 1858), William Benjamin (b. 1861) and William Riley (b. 25 Dec 1864) were born.
The 1860 census of LavacaCo showed the family living on Big Brushy Creek. On 1 Mar 1861 Mary Ann Byas bought 140 plus acres on Big Brushy Creek from W.W. Mays for $52.54. William Byas enlisted in Co. A of the 34th Texas Cavalry, Alexander's Regiment, 2nd Partisan Rangers of the CSA in 1862. In the period, Mary Ann sent Joe with a horse to inform his father of urgent need of his presence. Joe replaced William in training at the age of 15 while he was on leave, but went home because of the difficulty of the training for a 15 year old. On the way he met father William returning to duty and rode his horse back home. Joe maintained the family under the difficult conditions of war until William was furloughed because of illness from his post in Louisiana in Mar 1864. He returned but again the rheumatism was too severe and he was transferred to a local reserve unit in Texas. He died prior to activation of his unit in Feb 1865 at age 41. The family barely survived the Civil War years with their land intact, but the homeplace became rundown and their livestock scattered. At that time widow Mary Ann began to sell parts of her inheritance to survive and pay taxes. Between 1865 and 1869, she sold 100 acres to Levi Ezzell, 100 acres to G. Sherley for $100, 100 acres to Henry Crocker, 50.5 acres to Jonathan Sherley for $50 and 279 acres on Lost Creek to Milton B. McCoy for $435.
Malaria plagued the Lavaca River valley region in fall 1869 and on recommendation of doctors, friends and relatives, Mary Ann and family joined her sister's family, Louisa Billings, in the drier climate of Mountain Home in KerrCo after selling the 140.75 acre plot to W.R. Parr for $150. In the 1870 census, Mary Ann and family were living on 300 acres on Johnson Creek above Ingram with post office address Kerrville. Nearby were the families of Y.H. and Louisa Stockman and Louisa Billings. Sickness, either malaria or typhoid fever, continued to plague the family. In one day John C. at 18, Mary A. at 16, Isaac at 14 and William Benjamin at 9 died of the fever. Both Joe and Susan Emily were near death at one time, but recovered.
On 29 Jan 1879 Mary Ann Kent Byas married blacksmith and farmer Robert Chambers and became stepmother for two Thomas children, Emley about 15 and Zeb about 11 at the home on Byas Branch. On 18 Jul 1881, to the surprise of family and friends, 56 year old Mary Ann Kent Byas Chambers married John G. Morriss who was about 71 and a widower of many years. In LavacaCo, he had been married to Sarah Billings. According to Byas descendants John Morriss was an exemplary husband and stepfather as well as a fine Christian.
Orphan of Alamo Goes to Reward
Mary Ann Morriss, Aged Pioneer Dies at Upper Guadalupe After Long Ilness, Funeral Sunday
Grandma Mary Ann Morriss, aged 92 years, died at the home of her son, W.R. Byas, on the upper Guadalupe, Saturday morning Feb. 24, after a lingering illness, and her body was laid to rest at Nichol's graveyard Sunday afternoon, the service being conducted by Rev. J. B. Riddle of Kerrville. Grandma Morriss was a daughter of Andrew J. Kent, one of the heroes of the Alamo. The family moved to Texas from Calloway county, Missouri, when she was a little girl, settling first in Lavaca county. She had been a resident of Kerr county for many years, and by her pure life and able Christian example had been a blessing to those with whom she came in contact. She leaves three children living, Messrs. Joe and W.R. Byas of Hunt and Mrs. Susan Brunson of Roosevelt, Arizona. [1917 obituary from a local Kerrville newspaper] Source: Info found and used with permission from Andrew Kent-Index
SONS OF DEWITT COLONY TEXAS
Wallace L. McKeehan, All Rights Reserved
Mary Ann Kent was a daughter of Andrew Jackson Kent, one of 32 volunteers from Gonzales, Texas who died in defense of the Alamo. Her mother was Elizabeth Zumwalt.
She married (2)Samuel Robert Chambers, married (3)John G Morriss/Morris. Mary Ann survived her three husbands and four of her children.
∼Mary Ann Kent, daughter of Andrew Jackson Kent, who died at the Alamo in 1836, and Elizabeth Zumwalt Kent. Married (1) William Riley Byas in 1845. Married (2) Samuel Robert Chambers in 1878/79. Married John G Morriss/Morris in 1881.
Mary Ann survived her three husbands and four of her seven children who died in a typhoid epidemic in 1870. The three surviving children were: Joseph Byas,1847/48, d.1925,TX., Susan Emily Byas Brunson, b.1858, d. 1930, OR., and Wm Riley David Byas,b.1864, d.1949,TX.
*************
On 6 Jun 1845, William Byas and Mary Ann Kent obtained a license to marry from County Clerk Benjamin Pike of GonzalesCo and married in LavacaCo on 13 Jun 1845 with Justice of the Peace J.H. Livergood officiating. William Byas came to Texas about 1837 at the age of 13 leaving his widowed mother and family on a farm in PickensCo, Alabama. His father died in about 1830 and the children had to work both on the small farm and for others at minimal wages to support the family. He hired out to drive a wagon with a group leaving for Texas despite the protest of his mother. The wagon train traveled overland through Mississippi, Louisiana, into Texas to the Brazos River at Ft. Bend, over the Colorado River at Brenhams near La Grange and then across the Navidad, Lavaca and Peach Creeks to Gonzales. At first young Byas worked for people in the train with which he had come to Texas, helping build cabins, clear fields and hauling freight and supplies which became a career in addition to farming and ranching. Like many freighters in those days, he utilized ox carts until he could afford a full team or mules or horses. He began to haul from Lavaca Bay to Gonzales on the Indianola-Austin Road originally surveyed by Byrd Lockhart that began at a point on the bay called Powderhorn (Indianola) and went north along the west bank of the Lavaca to Hallettsville where it forked to Gonzales and La Grange and Austin. The route went across the Andrew Kent league crossing a notorious creek called Hubless Branch. Hubless Branch was named because wagon wheels sank below the hubs while crossing the black mud surrounding the branch during a rain. Crossing Hubless Branch at times was a half-day or so work and freighters often camped nearby after the exhausting cross. Nearby was the Andrew Kent homeplace in which the unmarried Kent children Isaac, Bosman, Mary Ann and Nancy Jane lived at the time and it is there that freighter William Byas is thought to have met Mary Ann.
Mary Ann inherited 1107 acres of the Andrew Kent league and it is there that the young couple built their first homestead. In 1845-46 Byas was on the road about six months of the year and carried supplies in the Mexican War of 1846. The rest of the time he spent farming and ranching on the Kent homestead. He was one of the 79 original voters in the newly founded county of Lavaca on 13 Jul 1846. Sometime after the birth of their first child Joseph Byas on 10 Aug 1847, Mary Ann and William Byas separated and William is thought to have served in Capt. Sutton's Texas Rangers when he was recruiting at Petersburg. Among the troop were many friends, relatives and neighbors including David and Bosman Kent, Isaac Kent Zumwalt, John Arnold and Ben Highsmith. Mary Ann is thought to have looked after ailing stepfather Joseph Kent, whom she loved as did all the Kent children, very much as her own father. In the 1850 census of LavacaCo, Mary Ann, William and Joseph Byas were listed. Sometime in the 1850's they moved to a homeplace on Big Brushy Creek. They sold 200 acres of the northeast part of her share of the Andrew Kent league next to Isaac Kent's plot to Richard Heath for $200 on 19 Aug 1852. Mary Ann bought $50 worth of cattle and mules from Seth Baldridge in Sep 1852. There additional children John C. (b. 1852), Mary A. (b. 1854), Isaac (b. 1856), Susan Emily (b. 22 Jan 1858), William Benjamin (b. 1861) and William Riley (b. 25 Dec 1864) were born.
The 1860 census of LavacaCo showed the family living on Big Brushy Creek. On 1 Mar 1861 Mary Ann Byas bought 140 plus acres on Big Brushy Creek from W.W. Mays for $52.54. William Byas enlisted in Co. A of the 34th Texas Cavalry, Alexander's Regiment, 2nd Partisan Rangers of the CSA in 1862. In the period, Mary Ann sent Joe with a horse to inform his father of urgent need of his presence. Joe replaced William in training at the age of 15 while he was on leave, but went home because of the difficulty of the training for a 15 year old. On the way he met father William returning to duty and rode his horse back home. Joe maintained the family under the difficult conditions of war until William was furloughed because of illness from his post in Louisiana in Mar 1864. He returned but again the rheumatism was too severe and he was transferred to a local reserve unit in Texas. He died prior to activation of his unit in Feb 1865 at age 41. The family barely survived the Civil War years with their land intact, but the homeplace became rundown and their livestock scattered. At that time widow Mary Ann began to sell parts of her inheritance to survive and pay taxes. Between 1865 and 1869, she sold 100 acres to Levi Ezzell, 100 acres to G. Sherley for $100, 100 acres to Henry Crocker, 50.5 acres to Jonathan Sherley for $50 and 279 acres on Lost Creek to Milton B. McCoy for $435.
Malaria plagued the Lavaca River valley region in fall 1869 and on recommendation of doctors, friends and relatives, Mary Ann and family joined her sister's family, Louisa Billings, in the drier climate of Mountain Home in KerrCo after selling the 140.75 acre plot to W.R. Parr for $150. In the 1870 census, Mary Ann and family were living on 300 acres on Johnson Creek above Ingram with post office address Kerrville. Nearby were the families of Y.H. and Louisa Stockman and Louisa Billings. Sickness, either malaria or typhoid fever, continued to plague the family. In one day John C. at 18, Mary A. at 16, Isaac at 14 and William Benjamin at 9 died of the fever. Both Joe and Susan Emily were near death at one time, but recovered.
On 29 Jan 1879 Mary Ann Kent Byas married blacksmith and farmer Robert Chambers and became stepmother for two Thomas children, Emley about 15 and Zeb about 11 at the home on Byas Branch. On 18 Jul 1881, to the surprise of family and friends, 56 year old Mary Ann Kent Byas Chambers married John G. Morriss who was about 71 and a widower of many years. In LavacaCo, he had been married to Sarah Billings. According to Byas descendants John Morriss was an exemplary husband and stepfather as well as a fine Christian.
Orphan of Alamo Goes to Reward
Mary Ann Morriss, Aged Pioneer Dies at Upper Guadalupe After Long Ilness, Funeral Sunday
Grandma Mary Ann Morriss, aged 92 years, died at the home of her son, W.R. Byas, on the upper Guadalupe, Saturday morning Feb. 24, after a lingering illness, and her body was laid to rest at Nichol's graveyard Sunday afternoon, the service being conducted by Rev. J. B. Riddle of Kerrville. Grandma Morriss was a daughter of Andrew J. Kent, one of the heroes of the Alamo. The family moved to Texas from Calloway county, Missouri, when she was a little girl, settling first in Lavaca county. She had been a resident of Kerr county for many years, and by her pure life and able Christian example had been a blessing to those with whom she came in contact. She leaves three children living, Messrs. Joe and W.R. Byas of Hunt and Mrs. Susan Brunson of Roosevelt, Arizona. [1917 obituary from a local Kerrville newspaper] Source: Info found and used with permission from Andrew Kent-Index
SONS OF DEWITT COLONY TEXAS
Wallace L. McKeehan, All Rights Reserved
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