email Mike Welch  ggg-grandson
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written by Jo Ann Hatch  gg-granddaughter

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Sarah Morgan was born in North Carolina (possibly Moore Co.) in 1794 to George and Nancy Morgan. For whatever reason, George and Nancy migrated through South Carolina to Georgia and on into Wilcox County Alabama by 1815 where Sarah married Wiley Jones in the neighboring county of Clarke. Four children were born to Sarah and Wiley in Alabama, three sons and a daughter.

About 1832, after the birth of their daughter in Alabama, Sarah and Wiley moved to Texas, probably in the company of Sarah’s parents, George and Nancy Morgan, and other family members, both Morgan and Jones. Sarah’s brother, George Washington “Wash” Morgan, in his biography, says that he arrived in Texas on 10 February, 1833. The Morgans chose to settle in what is now Falls County, about seven miles above the falls of the Brazos River.

The Wiley and Sarah Jones family traveled on westward and settled at Deweese Crossing on the Colorado River among the settlers of impresario Stephen Austin’s “Old Three Hundred”. On July 21, 1833 a son was born to Sarah and Wiley, their only child to be born in Texas. They named him Elbert.

These families were undoubtedly attracted to this frontier country claimed by Mexico by the prospect of a chance for large land holdings and perhaps for a new start in life. Sarah’s father received a Mexican land grant in the Robertson Colony along the Brazos on 9 September, 1835.

The date of the arrival of the Jones family at Dewees Crossing on the Colorado River is not known, but by March of 1836 they had accumulated a home and considerable livestock at that location.

Following the Battle of the Alamo in March, 1836, the Jones family was in the direct path of not only Sam Houston’s retreating army, but also of Mexican troops under Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna. It is recorded that Sam Houston’s army camped on the east bank of the Colorado River and the Mexican army camped about two miles west of the river; the armies remained (in this vicinity) for seven or eight days.

Sarah’s claim years later recorded that her family furnished to Sam Houston’s Army, 50 head of beef cattle, 150 pork hogs, 1500 pounds of bacon, 25 bushels of peas, 100 bushels of corn and one rifle impressed into service by Captain William Wise (?). She also claimed “provisions and household and kitchen furniture, being all I had, destroyed by the Mexican Army under Santa Anna.”

The Jones family surely joined the hundreds of settlers who had to flee eastward before the Mexican Army. This forced flight is known as “The Runaway Scrape” in Texas history.  Sarah’s Father and Mother, along with all the Morgans fled their site on the Brazos River also. It was not until April 21, 1836 that General Sam Houston finally stopped the Mexican Army and captured Santa Anna at the Battle of San Jacinto, that the anglo settlers returned to their homes. It is likely that the Jones’ did not return to the Colorado River, but settled along the Brazos near Sarah’s family, the Morgans.

In the claim made years later by Sarah askeing for restitution for the losses suffered at the hands of the Mexican Army and for supplies given to Sam Houston’s Army, she is supported by the testimony of Abner Kuykendall who was one of “The Old Three Hundred”. He swears that Sarah’s claim of losses are just and that she is the widow of Wiley Jones who “lived on the Colorado River near Dewees Crossing in 1836, and that the said Wiley Jones is dead and that he died before the spring and summer of 1837.”   

There is a land grant in the General Land Office in Austin where a  certificate was issued June 8, 1838 upon application of J.A. Wilkinson who claims to be the administrator of the Wiley Jones estate. Wilkerson was probably a land speculator whose aim may not have been to benefit the widow but to benefit himself.  

As a widow Sarah made her home near her parents, her married brothers and their families on the Brazos. She had two small children, Martha and Elbert, but also three stalwart adult sons George M. Jones, Andrew Jackson Jones and James Russel Jones, to help her make a home in this raw country. This was the makeup of Sarah’s household when the family tragedy well known in Texas History as the Morgan Massacre occurred.

On Sunday night, January 1, 1839, it was a little after dark in the house of George and Nancy Morgan where two of the children of Sarah Jones, Andrew Jackson Jones and young Elbert Jones were spending the night with their grandparents, along with several members of the Marlin family who were neighbors.

The little house was suddenly attacked by Indians, who instantly rushed in, tomahawked and scalped Grandfather George Morgan and his wife Nancy, their grandson Andrew Jackson Jones and several others.

The names of those who were killed are remembered by a monument near the site of the massacre, however, the name of Andrew Jackson Jones does not appear there. It seems those who later recorded remembrances of this event did know him as Jackson Jones, and knew he was a grandson of George and  Nancy Morgan, but he was only known as the son of “A Mrs. Jones.”  Also the names of the two small boys who escaped from the house that night are given variously as Morgan or Marlin, and in one text as Wesley Jones, when in reality one of them was six year old Elbert Jones. For proof of this I present the following document:

In the Manuscripts from the Federal Writers Project 1936-1940 (American Life Histories)  is an interview with E. R. Blocker in which he states:  IN 1895 HE HAD AN 'OLD MAN' WORKING FOR HIM BUILDING A ROCK CHIMNEY WHOSE NAME WAS JONES. THE OLD MAN CLAIMED HE WAS BORN NEAR MARLIN, FALLS COUNTY, TEXAS AND THAT HE WAS THE BOY WHO MADE HIS ESCAPE WITH THE LITTLE GIRL WHEN THE INDIANS MURDERED HIS PARENTS AND KINS PEOPLE, THE MORGANS, SEVEN MILES NORTH OF MARLIN AT ROCK DAM CROSSING ON THE BRAZOS.

 (There is a note that "we know Mr. Blocker meant old man Jones’ grandparents instead of parents.” This note was made by the interviewer). At the time of this interview Elbert Jones would have been about 62 years old. The interview was 56 years after the massacre. Unless one was there, how could they have known the exact location and the obscure fact that one little boy and girl escaped together.

The fact that Elbert Jones was a stone mason is well known by his grandchildren who knew him, and one of them has claimed he did some stone work on the Bexar County Texas Court House.

In what is surely a miracle of events there is a preserved account of what life was like in the next few years following this horrific massacre for the family of Sarah Morgan Jones.

Six weeks following the massacre of Sarah’s parents and her son Andrew Jackson Jones, her son George M. Jones died on 20th February, 1839. The exact date of his death is contained in the settlement of his estate. The settlement also states that he was unmarried. It has been speculated that he may have died in the subsequent battle with the Indians following the Morgan Massacre or he may have died a few weeks later as a result of wounds received at that time.

By 1840 Sarah had lost her parents, her husband, two sons and a sister in-law to the savage Indians. In an obscure document that has been  preserved, we get a glimpse into the life of Sarah’s family just one year after these traumatic events occurred. Finding this story is incredible. It is like reaching back 160 years and being there and feeling what they felt. Life was so hard for the women, but they just kept following their men to farther frontiers.

In the McLean Papers concerning Robertson’s Colony in Texas, Volume XVII, pages 68-69-70 the following is recorded.
“From a very rare eyewitness account which the Reverend A.B. Lawrence included in his book entitled: Texas in 1840, published only a year after the Morgan Massacre occurred. It tells us what happened to one of those families (Morgan Massacre survivors). (The author) Lawrence was on his way from Houston to Austin when he stopped along the way to spend the night of January 8, 1840 with a family beside the road.”  At this point the story is told in the words of Reverend Lawrence:

    “As the sun was about to set, we were apprised of being in the neighborhood of company by startling and sharp cracks of rifles at no great distance….we found ourselves close upon an unfinished house. At a little distance in the woods stood two young men, loading their rifles….One of these was a small man and apparently quite young (possibly Sarah’s son James Russell who would have been about 20) and the other remarkably large, athletic and powerful. Their appearance was sufficient rustic for every forest or hunting purpose, and their language and conversation smacked strongly of the spirit of border fighting and hatred to the Indians...
    “Having obtained permission to put up with them for the night, and been ushered into the only habitable apartment in the house, we discovered that the inmates consisted of the elder of these young men and his wife; the young man, his mother and three other younger children. All these resided in the same little (room), which constituted their parlor, bedroom and kitchen.
    “…It required but little penetration to discover that our hosts were accustomed to the vicissitudes attendant upon settlers in the borders of the haunts of savages, and that to them sporting and the killing of Indians were merely synonymous terms.
    “A large wood fire, the only light to be obtained, threw its imperfect glare upon the countenances of the circle, and produced an appearance of ghastliness. …This, added to the evident roughness and recklessness of character exhibited in the (older young man) rendered our abode here less desirable than some other places we have seen. Soon, however, the bacon was fried, the hominy prepared, and supper, consisting of little more than these, announced. The elder lady then directed her little girl (Martha?)to hold up the lighted pine knot over the table, and by this light we partook of our simple but abundant repast.
    (In reference to talk about Indians before) “our hostess, whose thin and pale countenance, her shining and unsteady dark eyes, grizzled and disheveled hair, rendered her appearance almost haggard, remarked with great bitterness, “I am afraid these cursed Indians will never give me peace more. I was in hopes I had heard the last of them. My family has been butchered, and I have been driven about by them till my soul is sick of life.”
    Being asked if her family had suffered much from the savages, she replied, (turning her wild and piercing eyes upon me,) “Have they! Yes, all my family have been murdered by them except these children. That boy, (pointing to the younger of the men…) had three balls planted within an inch of his life. One of my sons, my two sisters, and my old father and mother were all cut to pieces on New Year’s night a year ago, January 1, 1839.”
    “After supper, from conversations with the family, chiefly from a lad of about twelve years, we obtained a narrative of the facts alluded to….     
    At this point the Reverend Lawrence gives a sketch of the Morgan Massacre.   Though at no time does the Reverend mention the names of these people, there is not much doubt that he has spent the night in the home of Sarah Morgan Jones and her family.

The next written record of Sarah Jones is found in the land records of Milam County Texas when a Wiley Jones land grant was patented on 31 July 1845. This was a 1st Class Grant and was for 4605 acres or a league and a labor of land, to which each settler who was in Texas as of March 2, 1836 was entitled under the laws of the newly formed Republic of Texas. Much of this land would later be located in Bell County.

There is another record in Milam District where the heirs of Wiley Jones are granted 26 labors of land in Milam District as his head right  land. This grant is signed by Anson Jones (no relation) 1st governor of Texas.

Sarah and her family sold portions of this land over the next years, presumably as their only source of income. Contained in these deeds is information that Sarah had trouble getting a good and clear deed. Land sales were contingent upon her being able to produce a good deed.

Texas land records show Sarah not only filing claim to her husband’s head right land, but also to those of her two sons, Andrew Jackson Jones who died in the Morgan Massacre and George M. Jones, who died six weeks later on 20 February, 1839.

Land records also hold proof that Sarah is the daughter of George Morgan of the Morgan Massacre when she sells land in 1845 and in the deed states this is “part of the league of land granted as a head right to my father, George Morgan, being the league of land on which said George Morgan lived and on which he was killed by the Indians.”

In 1850 Sarah was living in Burleson County with her son, Elbert. Her son, James Russell Jones married Margaret Williman in 1849 and lived nearby.

About this time one of Sarah’s husband’s brothers, also named James Russell Jones moved to Texas from Alabama with his wife and several children. He settled in Burleson County near Sarah and her sons.

 In 1851 she sold part of her land lying in Bell County inherited from husband Wiley Jones. Sarah signed the deed with her mark X. She received 37 and one half cents per acre. She did not yet have a clear title.

In 1852 Sarah was still living in Burleson County when she sold the south half of the league and labor of the Wiley Jones head right land in Bell County, Texas.

Finally in 1853,when Sarah was in her 59th year, a Partition of the Wiley Jones land is made in the District Court of Bell County, with the widow Sarah receiving one half of the grant and the remainder being divided among the three surviving children (James Russell, Martha and Elbert). Finally a clear and good title to all the land was granted the Jones family.

It was in 1853 that Sarah’s youngest child, Elbert, married Nancy Williamson. About this same time her daughter,Martha, who had married Benjamin Swope, died, probably in child birth.

In 1857 Sarah made the aforementioned claim on the Republic of Texas for losses suffered by her family in 1836 at Dewess Crossing on the Colorado River. The claim was filed in Bell County and is now found at the Texas State Library and Archives under Republic of Texas claims.

In 1860 Sarah was living in Coryell County with her son Elbert who now has a family of his own. The last known record made by Sarah is, while still living in Coryell County, she sold land in Bell County in 1869.

By this time Sarah was 75 years old and had survived 36 years in the beautiful cruel Texas frontier country. The land grants given by the Republic of Texas, though extensive, were not of great value but probably kept Sarah and the remaining members of her family in Texas. This sturdy, determined, resilient, unflinching lady left a great number of posterity, many of whom still live in Texas today.

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