Copyright USGenNet Inc., 2026 All Rights Reserved USGenNet Data Repository Please read USGenNet Copyright Statement on this page: Transcribed and submitted by Linda Talbott for the USGenNet Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ =========================================================================== USGenNet Data Repository Notice: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization. Non-commercial organizations desiring to use this material must obtain the consent of the transcriber prior to use. Individuals desiring to use this material in their own research may do so. ============================================================================= Formatted by USGenNet Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott All of the above information must remain when copied or downloaded. ============================================================================= Texas Coastal Pioneers of Chambers County As Compliled in 1952 by Varuna Hartmann Lawrence Royal Pub. Co., Dallas, TX The Gulf Coast Pioneers of Texas Authentic Reports Gathered from Many Reliable Sources. (Many things cannot be verified as the old Record Book burned in the fire that destroyed the old Court House at Wallisville, then County seat of Chambers county 1875 or '76) Have talked with many of those who had lived in these bygone days, and in whose word there was no question, concerning the things given here. Varua Hartmann (Mrs. A. B.) Lawrence ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [p. 46] DR. GODDARD: A physician of this name came with his wife and two children, ELWIN and ELDRID. They were devout Christians, both of the young men, at times came to Barbers Hill and held religious services. DR. GODDARD was a well known physician with quite a practice. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [p. 47] GRIFFITH: HENRY and his wife, a son, Henry 2nd and two daughters, BETTY and JERMINA. BETTY married a DONAHOE. HENRY 2nd married REBECCA HARTMAN and their children were AMOS and WILMUTH (twins), ARMILDA, CHARLEY, URIAH (SI) "TEENY" and SUSIE. AMOS married "DUMP" FRANSEN (FRANZEN). WILMUTH married McKAY. ARMILDA married HENRY ICETT. URIAH (SI) married CHRISTINA FRANZEN. TEENY married ?? HADEN: DR. HADEN and his wife had eight children. ROBBIE (named for her father ROBERT), ANNIE, JOHN, CHARLES, JIM and DICK, HOPKINS and WILL. ROBBIE first married CLARENCE BERRY, had a daughter (CLARENCE) then being left a widow, she married JOHN PARKER. ANNIE married GEORGE KELLY. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [p. 48] JIM married KATE McCRARY. DICK a cripple married late in life, an unusual fine widowed lady. WILL married Lucy LAWRENCE, moved to Galveston and had a family of seven children. He made a fortune in the boat line and shell and gravel business. After his decease, his sons carry on the W. D. Haden business in Houston. CHARLEY died unmarried. HOPKINS married ANNE LAURIE MATTHEWS. JOHN married a MISS MAY. HAMMOND: A man of this name was here in the eartier days of Texas Settlement. This man was a welcome visitor at the SOLOMON BARROW 1st home, on Trinity Bay. He married LUCINDA WILBURN, a widow with three sons. As everyone called him "NICK", she became "MRS. NICK" to everyone far and near. An amusing story has been told of one of NICK’S visits to SOLOMON BARROW. As the two men sat before the fireplace: a cat passed by NICK’S side toward the warm fire. Without breaking the conversation, NICK suddenly jerked his foot, and the cat leaped in the fire! After a time another cat entered and as it passed by NICK, again he jerked his foot; and that cat leaped in the fire! A third cat came in, and as it passed, NICK again jerked his foot suddenly and of course the cat leaped ahead in the fire! "What in H-- is the ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [p. 49] matter with the cats?" said SOLOMON to NICK, "they all come in and then jump in the fire." But NICK did not answer this question. He told the story later when he was far away from SOLOMON. HANEY: MARY HANEY, a widow with a girl child, named HENRIETTA (called HARRIETT) married a man named FISHER. MARY HANEY FISHER then had a daughter named ANN and a son named JERRYMIAH CONRAD. Their mother died and HARRIET (HANEY, the half-sister who was called HARRIET FISHER) and ANN FISHER "raised" brother JERRY FISHER. HARRIET HANEY was married to JOSEPH LAWRENCE from Westchester County, New York. They lived on Lawrence Island. ANN FISHER married ?? STUBBS, who lived on a small piece of land on Lawrence’s Island. JOSEPH LAWRENCE and his wife HARRIET HANEY had six children. After HARRIET his wife died JOSEPH LAWRENCE 1st married again and they had one child, ALBERT LAWRENCE. Their first child was a son named ROBERT who married JOSEPHINE CLARK. They had two children: CHARLES HENRY who married EMILY STUBBS; EMMA JOSEPHINE who died as a small child. CHARLES and EMILY LAWRENCE had eight children: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [p.50] BERTIE who died in early childhood; EMMA JOSEPHINE, who married JOSEPH WILBURN; EDNA who married DEMPSY REEVES; ROBERT wo married MARY GREEN; CHARLES who married VIOLET BARROW; JOSEPH (JOE) who married MRS. CORA HENRY. HANNON: There was a handsome young Doctor in the community for a time. He was an attractive man of pleasant kindly speech, and was successful in his practice. His name was HANNON, an Irishman, who gailoped over the country to see his patients. He would come to see my father, run right up to the yard fence, and his trained horse would run right up to the fence, then stop and then the doctor would get down, and come briskly in, while the horse waited. He treated my grandmother for some time, until she was cured and well again. Then there was the time when a man was kicked in the face while branding a colt. An artery in the face was cut through. He fainted from loss of blood, some one ran a horse at top speed for DR. HANNON, who only said, ‘Lead the way," dropped the reins around the pommel of his saddle, thrust his hand deep in his coat pockets and ran all the way across the miles, leaped from his horse, and with his hands held the cut until it stopped bleeding. He had kept his hands warm during the wild ride by keeping them in his ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [p.51] pockets, and was ready to use them when he knew they were needed. This man was drowned in Cedar Bayou, and his horse was still on the little ferry, he used to cross the stream. Who he was, no one knew, where he came from none knew. So a brilliant doctor was lost to the world that needed him. He gave a picture of himself to GRANDMA BARBER, but no address of his people was ever found. Some said he was shot, was why he fell from the little ferry flat, that he and his horse crossed each day to see patients. So ended a valuable life. HARRELL: An old man of the above name lived on Cedar Bayou in the early days. His wife CAROLINE was a sister of MRS. COLLINS MILAM; they were the BRIDGES Sisters. JOHN HARRELL and CAROLINE had five children: MOLLY; BARNIE; WILLIE; JACKIE; and JIMMIE. MOLLY married WILLIE MILLS after his wife (LAURA ANDERSON) died. BARNIE married WYLIE JONES. WILLIE married GARDNER BROWN. JACKIE was married after they had left Cedar Bayou (name unknown). JIMMIE may or may not have ever married. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [p.52] HARTMANN: The HARTMANN family consisting of a father and two sons came to the U.S.A. about the year of 1800 from Baden- Baden, Germany. They were from the Court circles of the Kaiser of that day and were educated or had their education finished in Heidelberg. After the death of his wife, the father of the sons who had just been graduated from Heidelberg, decided to come to the new country and avoid a military life for his sons. He settled in New Orleans where he had a drug store and one son, like himself, was a physician connected with the store. The other son was a. musician of note and his descendants are still in the music department of the oldest piano and music house in New Orleans. EDWARD GEORGE HARTMANN the Ist died of Yellow Fever when it killed so many at the beginning of the century. DR. EDWARD GEORGE HARTMANN the 2nd took his family across Lake Pontchartrain to his summer home to escape the scourge. In 1825 he moved to Texas: having joined the Texas Army and serving as Quartermaster in SAM HOUSTON’S efficient Army. In. 1849 he took his two oldest sons, URIAH and EDWARD, and went round by the Southern route to Catifornia: The passage was very slow as the boat was of course a sailing vessel. One boy, EDWARD GEORGE the 3rd was a very sick boy and only the kindness of the steward kept him alive. Each day there would be dainties brought to tempt the sick boy’s appetite, from the Captain’s table. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [p. 53] DR. HARTMANN went to the gold producing area of California and there he and his sons dug quite a bit of the precious metal. DR. HARTMANN being a skilled goldsmith made from this ore, a ring for each member of his family. EDWARD had a small ring made from the gold he had dug for himself and gave it to the girl he later married. This ring is now in my possession. The brother of DR. EDWARD F. HARTMANN was named FERDINAND. He was killed in the Texas Mexican War, leaving a family in New Orleans. DR. EDWARD HARTMANN married in Louisiana and while we are not sure about his wife’s surname, we know she had a brother named GEO. SMITH living near Waco in 1860. We know that EDWARD GEORGE 3rd (my father) saw him and raided UNCLE GEORGE’S turkey roost for his company in the War between ie States. DR. HARTMANN and his wife had eight children: URIAH who married JEANETTE McNEECE, left 2 children; LOUISA who married PHILIP WINFREE, both died, left no children. REBECCA who married HENRY GRIFFITH, had 7 children: CHARLEY who died unmarried; MARY who married JOE KILGORE, she reared 12 children; WILLIE who married after moving to West Texas, wife’s name unknown - left some children; EDWARD G. married ADALEASA (or ADA) FITZGERALD, they had two girls to live, these girls married JOSEPH LAWRENCE’S two sons; ROBERT HARTMANN who never married, died at the age of 26 years. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [p. 54] URIAH HARTMANN’S wite Jeannette was frail and delicate, so he moved to West Texas and there he became a member of Texas Rangers, at that time doing police duty and fighting Indians. His son, U. E. HARTMANN of Balinger, Texas, has the old records of the Rangers’ work of that day. DR. EDWARD GEORGE HARTMANN the 2nd died in Galveston of Yellow Fever in the Sixties when many citizens of that city died of its outbreak. DR. HARTMANN was buried in the old Cemetery there in the CRAIN burial plot where his little son FRANKIE HARTMANN was laid to rest, by his Mother, MRS. EMILY E. CRAIN HARTMANN. Their monument (CRAIN’S) placed there by CHARLEY CRAIN does not record Dr. HARTMANN nor his little son’s burial there. CANORA SILVIS, daughter of EDWARD GEORGE HARTMANN the 3rd. married EDMOND PETIA: they had three children to live, DELL who married DR. W. C. BROWN of Dallas, they had one child, MARGERY who now lives in Hawaii, they had a son, LEROY JOSEPH, who married EMMA WILLIAMS and they had three children, a son, LEROY JOSEPH, JR., MAGGIE DELL and GEORGE EDMOND. LEROY JOSEPH, JR. married MARY STARCK, and their children are MARYLYN, CAROLYN and JOSEPH, JR. MAGGIE DELL married LEWIS MICKLEY, their four children are: sons PAT and STEVE, their daughters are: KERRY and BETSY. GEORGE EDMOND LAWRENCE married NANCY WOODS, they have two children, MARK and DIANE. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [p. 55] After the death of EDMOND LAWRENCE, CANORA SILVIS married ROBERT FOSTER CARTER a minister of the Christian Church. They had one son, ROBERT FOSTER CARTER, who now lives at Willis, Texas. CANORA SILVIS HARTMANN was the oldest daughter of EDWARD GEORGE HARTMANN III of the name. Their Grandfather, DR. EDWARD GEORGE HARTMANN II of the old name died in Galveston of yellow fever before the younger daughter was born. WARD, a son of CANORA and EDMOND LAWRENCE died about age 40 years - unmarried. HODGES: WILLIAM HENRY HODGES married FIDELIA MARY DORSETT. They had the following children born to them: MARY, MARTHA, SUSAN ANN, MARGARET, FIDELIA and a son named WILLIAM HENRY. These are all that I know of. SUSAN ANN (called ANN) married FRANCIS MARION FITZGERALD and they had a daughter, ADALEASA MARTHA and a son, FRANCIS MARION, always called FRANK. After her husband’s death SUSAN ANN married AMOS BARBER and became the mother of a large family of BARBER children. Many of their descendants are living in the Barber’s Hill community that now has the old Spanish name of "Mount Belvieu" for its Post Office designation. ===============================================================================