Bay Family History & Genealogy

Williamson, Mrs. Lena E. (942-S) b-Oct.4,1892 d-May 19,1920
"Daughter of J.W.& Livia Green, Married W.A.Williamson on Dec.12,1909"
My maternal Grandmother (RA Anderson, son of Christine Lena Williamson, born April 1920)


Bays Chapel Cemetary

BAY, Andrew F. Will dated 11 Mar 1878; Will proven 22 Jul 1878; Died 25 Apr 1878. Ref: BB 4:59.

BAY, James H. Died 27 Jan 1884. Ref: BB 4:97.

BAY, Sarah C. Died Nov 1883. Ref: BB 4:97.

BAY, Thomas Died 14 Feb 1861. Ref: BB 3:59.

Bays Chapel Cemetery. Marker: "28 Jan 1793 - 14 Feb 1861 lst. Cpl Col Higgins Regt. MTD War of 1812." Ref: Cem 4:70.

BAY, W. Harrison Will dated 17 Dec 1895;Will proven 20 May 1898;Died 10 Sep 1897. Ref: BB 5:91.
Bays Chapel United Methodist Church
29974 Bay's Chapel Rd., Richards, TX 77873

Aug. 22, 2004!
In the fall of 1850, Thomas Bay and his wife Mary left Haywood County, Tennessee en route to Texas. With them were their eight children and their families: William Harrison and wife Cynthia, Andrew Foster and wife Elizabeth, Jane Bay Williamson and her husband, Bob, James Henry, Rebecca, Joseph, Sallie, and Thomas Boen. Also a son-in-law, Mr. Duckworth and his three children. His wife Cynthia had died in Tennessee. They came in covered wagons and after about three months on the road they arrived in Montgomery County, Texas, about Christmas time. These families bought and settled on the J.H. Collard headright, a tract of land consisting of several thousands of acreage in upper Montgomery County.

Immediately they began building their homes of hewn logs. After their homes were built, another structure was erected, also of hewn logs, that would serve the dual purpose of church and school. Since there was no other church or school available to these people, this building became known as the Bay's Chapel Church and School. According to the first church register there were six members who joined the church by letter in 1851. In 1853 Mr. John Neason joined by profession and several others joined in 1854. The church grew steadily as other families moved in to the community. Some of these earlier families were the Williamsons, Neasons, Hokes, Sims, Keislers, Edwards, Leonards, Satchers, Harmons, Olihants, Hendricks, Coopers, Gartmans, Welchs, Thomas', Worshams, Johnsons, Caldwells, and others are named in the church registers.

This first church, located on a two acre tract given by Andrew F. Bay and his wife Elizabeth was across the road from the present church site. It continued to be used as church and school until the early seventies when a new frame building was erected on the same two acres as the log church. This new and larger building was necessary to accommodate the increasing population of the community. It too, served as both church and school. There were not many ministers to serve the vast expanse of Texas, and from earlier history it is believed that Bay's Chapel was on the Montgomery-Danville Circuit since the Prairie Plains was not organized until later. Some of the earlier ministers who served Bay's Chapel were A.B.F. Kerr, Calvin Brooks, T.B. Buckingham, C.L. Farrington, and G.S. (Doc) Sandel.

The first schools of this community were pay schools and until about 1894 were two-month per year terms. Some of the earlier teachers were Miss Sue Mooring, Miss Jennie Sandel, Mr. James Harmon, Mr. Nathan Pace, Mrs. J.W. Farris, Mr. Efford Rhodes, Mr. John Hoke, Miss Alice Farris and Miss Stapp. Land for a cemetary was given by Thomas Bay. This plot was located about a mile from the church and school. The first person buried there was a child of Jane Bay Williamson in 1852. It is interesting to note that the parents, Thomas Bay and wife, and seven of the children along with their husbands or wives and over the years many, many grandchildren were buried in this cemetery. Sallie Bay Sandel and husband had moved to the Mary's Chapel Community.

Later, when the Prairie Plains Circuit was organized it was composed of Bay's Chapel, Farris Chapel, Mary's Chapel and Oak Grove, now Crabb's Prairie. A parsonage was needed for the circuit and in 1891 Rev. J.R. Murray, Pastor in Charge, called a meeting of the officials of the churches in the circuit to decide on a location. Bay's Chapel was selected as the site. Feeling that the two acres were too small for the church and parsonage, William Harrison Bay gave five acres of land where the present church is located. The Building committee appointed by Rev. Murray were J.H. Bay, D.E. Keisler, and T.W. Hoke. The parsonage was built by free labor from the several churches, with Mr. Pierce Harmon the paid contractor. It was completed in 1892 and used as a parsonage until 1913. During these twenty-one years, fourteen ministers lived there. These were, Reverends J.R. Murray, J.C. Moore, J.A. Grimes, H.T. Hart, J.C. Huddleston, T.R. Cain, G.W. Henderson, A.J. Frick, and Eugene Binford.

In 1898, when Rev. Joseph C. Moore was pastor of the circuit, it was decided that due to the continued growth of the membership that a larger church was needed at Bay's Chapel. Rev. Moore appointed the following to serve on the building committee: James Henry Bay, J. Thomas Keisler, Thomas W. Hoke, and Rev. Gideon Powledge, a superannuated Methodist minister, who had located in the community. Mr. Hep Francklow was hired as the building contractor. All other labor was free, given by all able and willing workers of the community. The church was finished in August of 1899. Rev. Joe Mickle, P.E., delivered the dedication sermon to one of the largest crowds ever assembled at the church. It is felt that Mrs. J.C. Moore, wife of the pastor of the circuit, best expressed the building of the church. (From the Christian Advocate, a weekly Methodist magazine, dated August 24, 1899.)

"August 11. Our meeting began at Bay's Chapel. The people had been looking forward to the time with much interest. More than one year ago they went into the pine woods and cut the timber. Bro. Tom Keisler furnished teams and did the sawing free of charge, with the members helping him. The building committee, consisting of Bros. Keisler, Bay, Powledge, and Hoke, employed a good mechanic by the day. They and others began and worked on the church until there was all gone, then applied for and received $100.00 from the Church Extension Board, and by hard work raised some $55.00 or $60.00 and in June resumed work. By August 11, the church had been completed, painted and well seated and lighted. Had it not been for the willingness of the people to work and the kindness of Bro. Keisler, with the desire of all concerned for a house of worship, we could not have the house we now have. It was valued at $1,500.00. The pastor, Rev. J.C. Moore presented the people with a nice pulpit, and made a full hand at worked on the church. Sunday the 13th, the crowd began to arrive early and by 11:00 o'clock perhaps the largest crowd ever to assemble here had gathered. At the beginning of the service, our beloved Presiding Elder, Bro. Joe Mickle, baptized eight babies. He then preached a great sermon, after which he dedicated the house to the worship of God. Then came the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, administered by Bro. G.S. Sandel. It was truly a great day in the history of Bay's Chapel."

As previously stated, the pulpit was given by Rev. Moore. The beautiful railing and pulpit stand were hand carved by him. In the research of this church history, it was interesting to learn that the benches were made from especially selected giant pine trees given by Mrs. Sarah Gilmore Thomas, and the benches were made under the supervision of Mr. Tom Keisler. Since the completion of the church in 1899 many Methodist ministers have served the church continuously up to the present time. There are now eleven active members of the church, and services are held the second Sunday afternoon of each month. It is now pastored by the minister from the Richards Station, Rev. Roland P. Samford.

In addition to the regular second Sunday afternoon services, there is an annual homecoming the fourth Sunday of August. The Homecomings are very special for many people return to their old Church. There is preaching in the morning along with a Memorial Service. Following the services, long tables are set up outside under the large oak trees and delicious food spread on them. In the afternoon many visit the well kept cemetery, others gather in the church for several hours of singing, while many spend the time visiting and reminiscing of olden days. In this brief history it was not possible to mention all who had a part in the building of this church and community. But without a doubt there is not one among us who can look at the ceiling and walls of this old church without being able to see the fingerprints of their beloved and devoted ancestors whose utmost desire was to build a good Christian community.

TN Pension Roll of 1835

COPIED AND INDEXED BY:
WILLIAM R. NAVEY
P. O. BOX 251
HOLLY RIDGE, NC 28445





RESOLUTIONS OF THE SENATE OF THE 5TH AND 30TH OF JUNE, 1834 AND
THE 3RD OF MARCH, 1835

IN RELATION TO THE

PENSION ESTABLISHMENT OF THE UNITED STATES

WASHINGTON

PRINTED BY DUFF GREEN

1835



ANDREW BAY
WILSON COUNTY
SERGEANT
NORTH CAROLINA LINE
$120.00 ANNUAL ALLOWANCE
$300.00 AMOUNT RECEIVED
APRIL 20, 1833 PENSION STARTED
AGE 78

American History
The Revolutionaries
contributed by Lu Hickey


The Revolutionaries - 1780 - Pacolet Creek
Cornwallis decided to divide his own force into three parts. One would be left to guard Camden under Lieutenant Colonel Lord Francis Rawdon. Tarleton and his 1,100 cavalry and foot soldiers would become a fast-moving hammer that would pursue Brigadier General Daniel Morgan and finally crush him against an anvil. Cornwallis's third force, which would hover in North Carolina and intercept the rebels as they fled from Tarelton's onslaught.
A British victory of that magnitude like the win at Camden, would attract the region's Tories to fight for the British Crown, an essential clement in the strategic calculations of Sir Henry Clinton, Cornwallis and the ministers watching from London. Despite abundant evidence to the contrary, they all still believed in the myth that a vast population of southern Tories would leap at the chance to fight alongside British troops.
Before either hammer or anvil could be emplaced, however, Morgan made his presence known. A week later his small, footsore band had headed west, the Virginia commander heard that some 250 Georgia Loyalists had crossed the Savannah river and were torching American homesteads along Fair Forest Creek, north of Ninety Six and Winnsboro, Morgan wasted no time. William Washington and his dragoons, supported by units of South Carolina and Georgia mounted militia, thundered after the raiders and caught up with them at a small cluster of dwellings called Hammond's Store. In the screaming, smoke-misted melee, 150 Tories were sabered out of their saddles and another 40 captured.
Fearing that his entire garrison at Ninety-Six might be in jeopardy, Cornwallis let slip the Green Dragoons. On January 1, 1781, the 550 men legion and 200 kilted Scotch Highlanders of the 71st Infantry Regiment moved briskly toward the broad river along with a Royal Artillery squad dragging a pair of three pounders, call grasshoppers because they hopped when fired. Another 250 men soon joined them. Their Aim:: to cross the Broad, then push Morgan back to the north toward Kings Mountain, where the combined forces of Cornwallis and Leslie (the anvil) would be waiting.
Tarelton's were not the only Dragoons riding across the Carolinas. Five days after the Loyalist troop set out on its search and destroy mission,Light-Horse Harry Lee and his troop cantered into Nathanael Green's camp on the PeeDee, spurs jingling and plumed helmets glinting in the sun. The grimy army could only stand and gape at this dashing new weapon. The young Virginian--Lee was only 24, stayed for a week while Greene instructed him on the tactics he wanted the horsemen to use, and contacted the man with whom Lee would join forces: Francis Marion. In mid-January, Lee and his men vanished into the swamps to join the fox.
General Morgan had sent word up and down the river:: fall back fast. His soaking huddle of Continental regulars, militia and riflemen, encumbered with heavy, wooden-wheel wagons, had quickly formed ranks before dawn on January 16 and began moving toward Cherokee Ford, the best place for them to cross the Broad. Aware of these implacable British hounds on his fresh trail, Morgan pushed his men another dozen miles. Finally, he stopped for the night in a swath of sparsely treed meadow called "Hannah's Cowpens" after a local Tory farmer had owned extensive castle enclosures there.
Morgan waited for his force to regroup. Some of his men were still quick-marching in from their up-stream positions and Pickens was due to arrive with 150 new troops. "Many a hearty curse had been vented against Gen. Morgan," recalled one soldier, "for retreating, as we thought, to avoid a fight." Hunted by a mobile force they had reason to fear, they had been marched out of a strong defensive position moated by a swollen creek, in favor of this open place--it looked like a "killing field."
When dusk fell on that first day of retreat, Morgan was still seven miles from the Cherokee Ford on the Broad river. In classical military terms, his position was disastrously bad, opening toward a voracious enemy but with a wide, rain swollen river barring his line of retreat to the north and east. There was no swamp or thicket one either of Morgan's flanks to protect him from a charge by the Dragoons. The only advantage of Cowpens offered the Americans was the vantage point of two small hills toward the northern edge of the clearing, with a dip about 80 yards long between the smaller and the larger. Behind the second hill was open meadow all the way to the river. British Commander Banastre Tarleton himself would write:. "Certainly as good a place for action as Lt. Col. Tarleton could desire. America does not produce any more suitable for the nature of the troops under his command."
Militia aside, some of the troops under Morgan's command were among the best of the Continental Army. 300 blooded veterans of Maryland and Delaware. 140 veterans of Virginia riflemen and a company of Georgians. Many of them were Continental veterans eager to take action. They were all under the command of Lt. Col. John Eager Howard. These men would be the back-bone of Morgan's forces.
300 North and South Carolinians under Colonel Pickens, many of them armed with long rifles..
Morgan strategically place the troops 150 yards down the slope--where they would fire only two volleys at nearly point-blank range before turning and marching left across the field of battle where they could swing behind the main battle lines and re-form. 150 yards below, he placed 150 Georgia and North Carolina sharp-shooters under the command of Major Joseph McDowell and Major John Cunningham. Both squads had been ordered to take aim in particular at the stripes and epaulettes, the British officers and non-comes.
Finally, Morgan prepared another surprise. Half a mile behind the hill where he had placed his main line, he stationed Lt. Col. Washington and his seasoned cavalry along with 45 mounted Georgian infantry.
At around 6:00 a.m., American scouts told Morgan that Tarleton was five miles ahead and riding in fast. "Boys, get up, Benny is coming!!" The men ate a hurried breakfast and formed their lines. Morgan told his troops: "My friends in arms, my dear boys, I request you to remember Saratoga, Monmouth, Paoli, Brandywine and this day you must play your part for your honor and liberty's cause.."
Around 7 a.m., green coats showed through the woods, 50 dragoons and their supporting infantry moved into the open field,. Behind them 250 members of the legion infantry. Then the shine of the "grasshopper" cannon moved up. Red coats flickered through the trees farther back. 200 men of the Seventh Regiment of Foot and 200 Scots of the 71st Highlanders, followed by 50 members of the 17th Light Dragoons, then the bulk of Tarleton's troops emerged.
Tarleton's strategy was than Cornwallis and Leslie were moving their anvil into position east of the trapped Americans. The young dragoon was wrong. He would find a potent foe at Cowpens, but he would not find an anvil.Nettled by this unexpected reversal, Tarelton ordered his cannon to fire before his lines were fully formed, to drive back the marksmen. The soldiers started slowly then accelerated into a trot, giving a loud shout.
"They gave us the British Halloo, boys!! Give them the Indian Halloo, by God!!" shouted Morgan.The British trotted closer and at 125 yards the order was given::"FIRE"...The terrified militia regained something like good order as they marched behind the second of the two Cowpens hills and formed a full circle around to support the American line on the right. Tarleton had called his reserve Highlanders on his left and the attacking British lines extended to the right.
Colonel Howard hastily ordered the Virginians on the right to face about and meet the enemy. The command was misunderstood. The company turned 180 degrees as command but started to march off the battlefield..The other officers follow but the opportunist, Morgan, kicked his horse hard and got in front of the retreating line. Over his shoulder, he could hear the British cheers as they saw an apparent retreat. Tarleton, whose ardor was always inflamed by the sight of his enemies backs, threw his remaining cavalry into the battle and the attackers broke ranks, advancing on the run.
Pickens wheeled his militia back into line and fired on the Highlanders. Washingron sprang into action, crashing into the British cavalry smashing the Green Legion. the cavalry quailed and about 200 of them ran from the battlefield, Washington was now behind the British regulars of the Seventh Regiment, who had no stomach for bayonets, most of them threw down their weapons and fell facedown on the ground.
The only fighting remained on the American right, where the stubborn Highlanders who gave ground sparingly. The Continentals pivoted to face them and Pickens militia rushed in to engage them hand to hand. The Highlander commander, Major Archibald McArthur, was taken prisoner and the Scotsmen finally grounded their arms.
So goes the Highlanders in the Carolina's. Those who stayed on American soil and did not go back to their homelands spread far and wide. The Cumberland County Soldiers of the War of 1812 Muster Rolls reflect the highlanders that stayed behind when the British returned to their homeland and the Scots became American-Scots for generations to come. The ingenuity and intelligence the Scots brought to American cannot be surpassed.

Our forefather, Bay, a SGM (sgt major) in the S. Carolina force was at Brandywine and “the cowpens”. He served for 2 years..

Kings Mountain is recognized as one of the decisive battles and a major tuming point in the Revolutionary War. An unusually high percentage of the men who fought on both sides at Kings Mountain were of Scottish and Scots-Irish bloodlines. Scots-Irish Colonel William Campbell was commander of the Patriot forces and the Loyalists were led by Lt. Col. Patrick Ferguson, a Highland Scot. As was so often the case in Scottish history, the fight was between those who opposed the Crown and those who supported it.
The Patriots wore a twist of white paper in their hat bands for "friend or foe" recognition. The Loyalists wore a twig of evergreen for the same purpose. The evergreen twig probably had Scottish origins.
For years, prior to Culloden, the bayonet was not effective against the large, broadsword, and Claymore. The Loyalists tried the bayonet as the decisive weapon at Kings Mountain but it was no match for the rifle, backed by the belt axe and hunting knife.
As early as 1644, the MacDonalds, who were supporting Charles I, were sent to "ravage the territory around Loch Etive with fire and sword." The words were used as challenge and response by the Patriots before the battle of Cowpens: challenge-"with fire", response-"and sword." The battle of Kings Mountain resulted directly from Col. Ferguson's threat to destroy the over-mountain settlements "with fire and sword."


The Old 300
contributed by Tex Rogers

By Tex Rogers (c)Copyright 1999 Southwest Scots
Although many cultures can stake a claim on the settlement of early Texas - mostly the Spanish, Indians and French - it was the Scots and others of Celtic descent who led the way in truly taming the wild territory and bringing it forward to a republic.
More than 85 percent of the pioneers who renounced their American citizenship to follow Stephen F. Austin into the Mexican state of Tejas were of Celtic origin, and half that number were of Scottish descent.
In all, 342 pioneers applied for the 297 grants (thus, the term Old Three Hundred) of land given to Austin by the Mexican government. Most were distributed from 1823-24 and the remainder in 1827. These pioneers were indeed hardy souls who were simply following an ethnic course established generations before on the border of Scotland and England.
Just who these people were and what drove them to give up being citizens of the recently-formed United States for the hope of land in the wild Texas territory is eloquently explained by the imminent historian T.R. Fehrenbach in "Lone Star: A History of Texas and the Texans" (MacMillan, 1968).
In his award-winning book, considered by many the most definitive one-volume history of Texas, Fehrenbach devoted an entire chapter to "The Anglo-Celts," in which he detailed in great length the history, migratory patterns and culture of that tough, stubborn people who were shoved from their Scottish borders to Ireland, and eventually across the Atlantic to the New World.
With the Calvinist teachings of John Knox still ringing in their ears, this latest wave of New Worlders were looking for new opportunities on new frontiers, Fehrenbach wrote. Pushing inward from the towns on the Atlantic Coast, these Anglo-Celts found themselves first in Appalachia, then in Kentucky and Tennessee, before finally finding Texas.
The author's explanation of the Anglo-Celtic ethos makes it easily understood why they followed Austin westward in search of land to an area between the Lavaca and Brazos rivers in southeast Texas which now encompasses Austin, Colorado, Washington, Brazos, Grimes, Wharton, Matagorda, Fort Bend counties and portions of Jackson, Harris and Chambers counties. On a Texas map, the colony encompassed territory from Anahuac east of Houston down the gulf coast as far west as Edna, and north to Bryan-College Station.
In taking up the quest for new land, they agreed to renounce their U.S. Citizenship and become citizens of Spain. They also agreed to become Catholics, but that requirement was waived tacitly by Mexican officials as long as no preachers were found in the new colony.
It was Moses Austin (Clan Keith), a Connecticut-born mine operator who had the initial dream of bringing Americans from the United States into Spanish Territory in Texas. Austin had a successful experience with the Spanish when he was allowed to settle 30 families in Spanish-held Missouri in 1797. Austin proved to be a very good Spanish citizen, and a prominent leader. And after Missouri became part of the United States again in 1804 after the Louisiana Purchase, Austin prospered even more, becoming a founder and principal stockholder in the Bank of Saint Louis.
Then in 1818 the young nation experienced its first national depression that left Austin completely broke when his bank collapsed. Having no loyalty to the United States because of its financial policies, the 55-year-old Moses Austin decided he could do better colonizing Spanish territory. So in the fall of 1820, he set out of an 800-mile trek to San Antonio de Béxar.
Austin wasn't welcome in San Antonio because the Spanish were still recovering from the escapades of Dr. James Long, who the previous year had led a small army into Texas and establish a republic, only to be executed in Mexico City. Austin found that no Americans were welcome in San Antonio, and he was told by the governor to get out of town before sunset or face arrest.
But before a dejected Austin left San Antonio he met an old friend, the Felipe Enrique Neri, Baron de Bastrop, whom Austin had dealings with formerly in Louisiana. Poor but still well respected in San Antonio, Bastrop was able to gain a new audience with the governor, and argued Austin's case for colonizing Texas with Americans who were willing to come.
Bastrop offered three arguments:
•The Indian in Texas would never end until the country between San Antonio and the Sabine was settled. The Comanches acted like the owned the entire territory at the time.
•No Spaniards or Mexicans were coming to Texas, even after several centuries of Spain trying to colonize the area. In fact, more were leaving Texas.
•Colonization by willing Anglo-Saxons had been successful in Louisiana, and there appeared to other way to put people on the land.
So on Jan. 27, 1821, a petition in the name of Moses Austin was granted. Mexican officials had become convinced that a band of American colonists in Texas might create a buffer between Spanish settlements and the Indians, and that the right kind of Americans who were loyal to be Spanish Crown would prevent future encroachments into Texas because they would have an immense stake in the land, as Fehrenbach wrote.
But Austin never saw his dreamed fulfilled. He arrived back in Missouri in time to die, but not before he asked his son Stephen to carry on the dream.
Stephen F. Austin needed no encouragement. He despised the land system of the United States, which encouraged speculation, while the Spanish system rewarded colonization.
The young Austin traveled from Louisiana to San Antonio where he met with the Spanish governor, who acknowledged him as his father's successor. By the time Austin returned to Louisiana, more than a hundred letters from applicants awaiting for him. People were already standing in line, wanting to come to Texas.
From 1823-24 Austin and the land commissioner Baron de Bastrop issued 272 titles. Bastrop was called away from the colony for a short period and an additional 35 titles were not issued until 1827, by Gaspar Flores de Abrego, a new land commissioner. In all, 307 titles were issued to 297 grantees.
Most of the families who followed Austin to Texas came as farmers, but several were already of substantial means from the Trans-Appalachia South. they were all were part of a large westward migration from the Eastern Seaboard states that had begun in the late 1700's. To avoid problems among the colonists, Austin attempted to select only those of "better" classes, and indeed, only four of the grantees could not read.
So, armed with an independent self-reliance strengthened by generational advances through Appalachia, and fortified by a Calvinistic code the stressed discipline, hard work and perseverance, those who followed Stephen F. Austin to Texas carried names linked to Scottish clans like Anderson, Andrews, Bailey, Barnett, Beard, Bell and Bowman. There were also Brown, Callihan, Carter, Charles, Clark, Clarke, Coats, Coles, Cooper, Cumings, Cummins and Davidson.
There were names like Duty, Dyer, Elder, Fenton, Fisher, Frazier, George, Gilbert, Gilleland, Gray, Guthrie, Haddon, Hall, Hamilton and Harris, as well as Harvey, Haynes, Hope, Hudson and Hunter. There were Ingram, Jamison, Johnson, Keller, Kelly, Kennedy, Kennon and Kerr, along with Linsey and Little.
Other among the grantees were McClain, McCormick, McCoy, McCrosky, McFarlan, McKinney, McKinsey, McNair, McNeel, McNutt and McWilliams, along with Martin, Mathis, Miller, Moore, Morrison and Morton. There were also Nelson, Nuckols, Parks, Phelps, Phillips, Prater, Ramey, Rankin, Richarson, Roberts, Robertson, Robinson and Ross. Also, Scobey, Scott, Sims, Smith, Spencer and Sutherland. Among the names were also Taylor, Thomas, Thompson, Walker, Wallace, White and Wilkins.
In all, there were only two names of German origin, eight from France, and two of Dutch extraction. The remainder carried names affiliated to Scottish clans or of Celtic stock from the British Isles.
The Celt's common quest in Texas was land, a commodity many of their ancestors had lost in Scotland and Ireland, and these new Texians were willing to face isolation, back-breaking work and Indian perils on new borders to hold on to it.
As Fehrenbach wrote in Lone Star: "The Anglo-Celts had not crossed the sea to become servile tenants."
The group of Scots, Irish and other Celts who followed Austin into Texas was just the beginning. Many more, with names such as Houston, Bowie, Crawford, Everitt, Grimes, Coleman, Bower, Carson, Latimer, Stewart and Briscoe would eventually declare their independence from Mexico, and some would die for that belief.

Historical Background
Scots-Irish immigrants came from the historic province of Ulster (in the north of Ireland). Scottish settlers began to come in large numbers to Ulster in the early decades of the 1600s. James I, the English monarch, sought to solidify control by transferring land ownership to Protestants and by settling their lands with Protestant tenants (English and Scottish). Scottish settlers continued to come to Ireland throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
Scots-Irish immigrants settled in the American colonies from the 1600s. However, the first major migration of Scots-Irish to America was a group that came with Rev. James McGregor from County Londonderry to New England in 1718. They arrived at Boston, and many of them moved to New Hampshire, establishing the town of Londonderry.
The majority of the Scots-Irish who came to America in the colonial period settled in Pennsylvania, Virginia, and the Carolinas. Nonetheless, there was significant Scots-Irish settlement in each of the thirteen American colonies.
Many of the earliest Scots-Irish immigrants (of the 1720s and 1730s) first settled in Pennsylvania. Many then moved down from Pennsylvania into Virginia and the Carolinas. From there immigrants and their descendants went on to populate the states of Georgia, Kentucky, and Tennessee in the 1780s and 1790s.
There are a myriad of possible reasons for the immigration of so many of the Scots-Irish to America in the 1700s. High rents and religious persecution have often been blamed. Most of the Scots-Irish came freely to the American colonies, although there were also some who were deported as prisoners or came as indentured servants. Others came with British Army regiments and remained in the American colonies.
It is important to keep in mind that just because an ancestor came from Ireland to America during the colonial period does not mean that he/she was necessarily Scots-Irish. Many Anglicans, Catholics, and Quakers also came from Ireland during this time period. An ancestor from Ireland can often be identified as Scots-Irish from: family tradition; the surname; the given names in the family; association with other Scots-Irish; or identification as a Presbyterian.
Group/Congregational Migrations
The Scots-Irish largely came to colonial America in family groups, often such that members of an extended family settled near one another in America, whether they immigrated together or separately. Some Scots-Irish immigrants came to America as part of larger group or congregational migrations, meaning that an entire group or congregation of Presbyterians together moved from one locality in Ireland to one locality in America. It is thus very important to trace persons that immigrated with a Scots-Irish ancestor or were associated with the ancestor in America.
In some cases, the immigrating group was led by a minister. In such instances, the minister may be traced back to the church he served in Ireland. Most of the immigrants who accompanied him would be from the same area. However, a group or congregational migration may have drawn from a larger area than just one town or parish in Ireland.
After Culloden began Scotland's RECONSTRUCTION it was called the Highland Clearances. And many of our Clansmen and women left the "Auld" country for a new life in the Americas. Mostly as freemen although some politicals were sold into bondage.
Strange as it may seem some took up arms for the loyalist side in the War of Independence. One of these was the husband of Flora MacDonald, who rescued Charles Edward Stuart from the clutches of the English after Culloden. In 1774 she and her husband Allen MacDonald, with their seven children emigrated to North Carolina, as loyalists they were not alone in America's South. Between 1764 and 1776, following the famines and the recriminations that followed Culloden more than 23,000 Highlanders emigrated to the American colonies.
They joined a large group of fellow Scots at Cross Creek (now Fayetteville) and when the governor of North Carolina called for volunteers to fight for King George against the rebels Allen MacDonald raised the Royal Highland Emigrants Regiment. They were slaugtered in an ill advised charge at Moore's Creek, so reminiscent of Culloden. Following their defeat their property was confiscated and the family eventually moved north to New York and finally to Nova Scotia, Canada.
Today Historians are keen to point out that there are more ancestors of the Clans in North America than in Scotland. The very first census taken in 1790, showed that people of Celtic descent outnumbered Anglo-Saxons 2 to 1 in the South. Perhaps three quarters of the white population of the American South before the War of Southern Independence were of Celtic (mostly Scottish) descent. It is also possilble that the fearsome Rebel Yell that struck terror in to the Yankee's also did the same to the English troops in bygone days.
Many settled in Georgia. General Oglethorpe invited many of them to help defend his southern frontier. One incentive he used was the banning, in Scotland, of the wearing of the Highland dress. No such restrictions applied in the colonies, where they could retain their culture, customs language and dress.
Perhaps no part of the American colonies was more settled by Scots immigrants than North Carolina.
Land grants to John Innes, Hugh Campbell and William Forbes in 1732 ensured a steady supply of Scots. In a letter written by a visiting British Minister of the area around Cross Creek at the end of the century he wrote, "the Gaelic language is still prevelant amongst them, their Negroes speak it, and they have a clergyman who preaches in it. As late as 1851 the Raleigh Register reported that many in the area still spoke in the Gaelic.
There have been many notable Governors of Southern states who achieved distinction :-
James Glen - South Carolina
Alexander Spotswood - Virginia (on the staff of Marleborough at Blenheim August 13th 1704)
Lawrence Dinwiddie - Virginia
John Murray, Earl of Dunmore - New York and Virginia
Gabriel Johnson - North Carolina
Thomas Pollock - North Carolina
And the connection went on to Scots who fought in the Civil War and even on into the 20th Century here are a few names that we could add to our section entitled "What if":-
John Paul Jones - father of the United States Navy
Andrew Jackson - President
Stonewall Jackson - Confederate General
Jeb Stuart - Confederate General
Alexander Graham Bell - Inventor of the Telephone

The word Jacobite comes from the Jacob's or James' from the Royal House of Stuart. The followers of these James' were known as Jacobites.
England was being ruled by a Protestant Queen Elizabeth I when she died she was succeeded by James VI of Scotland. England being a mainly protestant country did not take to being ruled by James a catholic King from Scotland. The Stuarts were eventually exiled and forced to go to France.
When the reigning monarch Queen Anne died without an heir the Act of Union 1707, amongst other things allowed the House of Hanover in Germany to take over the crown, something the English desperately wanted.
For forty years the Stuarts, the legitimate Blood line to the throne had been claiming the throne of both Scotland and England also Ireland. But religion and politics kept the Stuarts out.
James VIII the old pretender had a lot of support from within France, Ireland and Scotland even some in England but he never really did anything about it
When his son was born a new fire was fuelled with the passions of his unhappy followers. Charles Edward Stuart (Bonnie Prince Charlie) realised that he could fulfil the dream and regain the crown that was rightfully his. Now 23 years old with the support of his father and the French he decided to make his claim to the crown. He travelled to Scotland to rally support but along the way the French had a change of heart and withdrew their support. Without military support there was little he could do but hoping that support from the Scots and the Irish might stir the French into re-affirming their previous support.
When he arrived in the Highlands his support began to gain momentum and his army of faithful Highlanders flocked to his support. He made his way south to Edinburgh, which he entered without opposition, and then at Prestonpans south of Edinburgh he defeated Cove's army of 4000. It seemed that The Young Pretender, as he became known would do what he said he would.
He could have stayed in Edinburgh and ruled Scotland but he knew that the English would amass a large army and push him back out. His only choice was to continue to march south.
George II put together an army of British, Dutch, Germans and mercenaries from all over under the charge of General Wade and William Augustus Duke of Cumberland.
Charles had now been in England for 26 days and was in Derby, 120 miles from London. Cumberland thought that he was in Wales trying to get more support but he was wrong. And this was the closest the Jacobites ever got to their objective. Cumberland sent a spy to the Jacobite camp with the news that a force of 30,000 men were heading straight for them. Little did they know that is was a deception and they decided that they should return home. Short of support and supplies, winter upon them all were in favour of returning home and waiting for the spring. This gave Cumberland the chance to follow them. Charles with his army of just over 5,000 and an army of, so he believed, behind him knew this was his only realistic choice.
Making his way to Stirling his men still had it in them to take on the English at Falkirk and beat them, however without ammunition and sapped of energy they made camp at Stirling for 5 weeks while the Prince moved on to Glasgow.
Eventually they slowly made their way back home to the Highlands. Barely had they made camp in Inverness when the news arrived that Cumberland had landed at Nairn 16 miles from Inverness. Cold, exhausted and freezing some of his army went home to their families, some stayed. Thinking to strike first he sent 1,500 of his best troops to make a night march on Cumberland's camp. In the morning they returned having had no success. Later that morning April 16th 1746 Cumberland marched his army to Culloden Moor and faced the Clansmen.
Just over 4,000 Jacobites stood in the snow, some having been up all night after their night march to Nairn, all were starving, tired and the worse for wear. A mixture of Clans, Irish, old men
and young boys, facing 9,000 veterans, well supplied infantry and cavalry.
Cumberland's troops were made up from English veterans fresh from Europe and over 4,000 Scots, in some case it was Clansman against Clansman, brother against brother.
The English had cannon and rifles enough ammunition on the Princes side all they had left was the Highland way "The Charge"
After the first volley the Princes troops were cut down by the dozen it was over in a few minutes all that was left was to run or to charge - outnumbered 2 to 1 they charge Cumberland's right flank for a brief spell the right were scattered but closing ranks they began the massacre. In 30 minutes it was all over those who could ran for cover and back to their homes. By Cumberland's own estimate some 2,000 Highlanders lay dead on Culloden Moor. It didn't end there "The Butcher Cumberland" gave the order "No Quarter Given" his army then marched on and killed every wounded Highlander left on the field. They then marched on to Inverness and carried on their work in the homes in Inverness looking for Jacobites but all were labelled as one Men, Women, Children, the old and the young put either to the bayonet, hangman's rope or simply burnt to death in their houses.
His orders were obeyed "No Quarter Given" and none was.
The slaughter did not end there for months his army moved around the Highlands clearing out any threat once and for all.
Five months passed before the hunt for Jacobites finally eased off. It was at this time Bonnie Prince Charlie made his escape back to France.
Highlanders were scattered to the four corners of the earth even sold as slaves.
Our native language Gaelic was banned and it was a hanging offence if spoken. Wearing the tartan was also a hanging offence.
These times were known as THE HIGHLAND CLEARANCES
SIR WALTER SCOTT and the CIVIL WAR.
It was Sir Walter that made every gentleman in the South a Major or a Colonel, or a General or a Judge, before the war; and it was he, also, that made those gentlemen value their bogus decorations. For it was he that created rank and caste down there, and also reverence for rank and caste, and pride and pleasure in them. Enough is laid on slavery, without fathering upon it these creations and contributions of Sir Walter. Sir Walter had so large a hand in making Southern character, as it existed before the war, that he is in great measure responsible for the war.

Mark Twain - Life on the Mississippi.

Twain was serious, and although he was the only person of note to accuse Sir Walter Scott directly of being responsible for the Civil War, many others have pointed out the huge influence Scott had on Southern character and culture.
It is difficult nowadays for anyone who has managed to plough through a Scott novel to understand the tremendous influence he had on the world. Not only was he regarded as the greatest writer of his age, his influence was everywhere - everything from operas to knitting patterns, from dog breeds to railway stations, were named after his books and characters (he was even responsible for a minor agricultural revolution in Poland). He had invented the historical novel, captured the romantic imagination of the world, and nowhere more than in the United States of America.
Scott was not the first to popularise Scottish themes; James MacPherson's Ossian had created a great stir, but, particularly in America, Jane Porter's Scottish Chiefs (1810) became a perennial favourite of Southern youth, and had prepared the way for Scott's novels. President Andrew Jackson, who scarcely ever read a book, recommended its hero, Sir William Wallace, to his nephew as a model upon which to build his character.
It was however Sir Walter's tales of chivalry - the cult of the horse, of honour, of knights, and the glorification of womanhood, that captured the imaginations the Southern upper classes (Ivanhoe for instance was so popular that medieval tournaments were organised in Southern towns), and the concept of the Southern aristocrat as a kind of medieval knight developed during the antebellum period as a result of the enormous influence of Scott upon the Planter class (Robert E. Lee is often described in 'chivalric', even 'Arthurian' terms; Twain parodies it in The Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court). In his book Cavalier and Yankee, William R. Taylor suggests a less than glorious explanation for the South's attachment to this fanciful romantic past - "They grasped at symbols of stability and order to stem their feelings of drift and uncertainty and to quiet their uneasiness about the inequalities within Southern society. Soon they would be forced to answer directly charges concerning Negro slavery levelled at them from the North." There was another powerful reason why Scott had struck a sympathetic response in the Old South. In his Scottish novels, Scott had depicted gallant little Scotland striving to express her cultural identity against the political and military pressure of the English, and Southerners immediately seized on this comparison between themselves and the North. This feeling of pressure, of being the underdog, combined with their strong feelings of honour and chivalry, became an explosive mixture.
Of course, a very significant part of the Southern population, both in numbers and influence, was of Scottish and Ulster-Scots (Scotch-Irish) descent. In his book A History of the Old South, Clement Eaton calls them "the cutting edge of the frontier", "excellent Indian fighters", and "the blue blood of the South". Many Southerners were descendants of Scottish (and English) Cavalier and Jacobite exiles, or the 1,00o survivors of Culloden transported there after the '45. This 'Celtic' component was a ubiquitous feature of antebellum Southern life - Andrew Jackson, John C. Calhoun (Colquhoun), James K(nox) Polk, Sam Houston, Jim Bowie, Davy Crocket, and Confederate President Jefferson Davis, to name but a few, were reared on old-world stories of warrior heroism. Davis's grandmother for instance was Scottish, and his mother told him legends from the land of her birth, and even taught him a few words of Gaelic that Davis later took pleasure in teaching his own children - in 1869 he made a highly symbolic pilgrimage to Culloden Battlefield, the site of the final Jacobite defeat.
In his book The Mind of the South, W. J. Cash has emphasized the hold of the Scottish clan tradition in the South, whereby the ordinary white farmer stood shoulder to shoulder with the Planter "like a Scottish clansman to his chief", for there was a fierce sense of belonging to a great aristocratic tradition. In this new country this sense of 'clan loyalty' developed into a sharing of the Planter's aristocratic paraphernalia, including his culture, his standards of honour, and even his distinguished ancestors, for, like the Highland clan, the ordinary white was often related by ties of blood to his aristocratic neighbour, or at the very least, shared the Highland concept of "widely extended kinship", or in Scott's words - "associations common to inhabitants of a rude and wild land".
Before the war, Southerners had identified with the manners and ideals of Scott's novels (Professor Osterweiss of Yale University calls the South 'Walter Scottland'); but after the war, in defeat, they identified even more closely their 'Lost Cause' with Scott's novels of Bonnie Prince Charlie and the 'Lost Cause' of the Jacobite struggle for Scottish independence in 1746.
Back in Scotland, 'The Wizard of the North' had, through his novels and poems, (with the help of other Lowlanders, particularly songwriters and collectors such as Robert Burns, James Hogg and Lady Nairne), 'reconstructed' the once feared Jacobites, and by the time of his death in 1832, (and with Highland society safely destroyed), the Highlands had become a romantic wonderland of noble savages and past glories. In a similar way, the Southerners, who had vehemently opposed Northern 'Reconstruction', slowly began to reconstruct themselves in the American imagination. Ironically, according to Taylor, it was with the unwitting connivance of many Northerners, who still longingly regarded the South as having the romantic, aristocratic, and 'Cavalier' society that the more democratic and acquisitive North lacked.
However, the South's stubborn resistance to the North's attempt at 'Reconstruct' them had a much more sinister component. According to Professor Osterweiss - "It was characteristic if not inevitable that the institution employed to restore the Southern system was a clandestine, quasi-military band of self-styled "knights-errant" in the Scottish tradition, who surrounded their organisation with the symbols of both romantic and folk myth. The Ku Klux Klan - a title and a concept with probable debts to Scott and Goethe." The origins of 'The Klan' remain a mystery; some suggest it was founded by Confederate veterans at Pulaski, Tennessee - men who "saw themselves as persecuted Scottish 'klansmen' riding forth to redress the wrongs being perpetrated by . . . people in league with the hated conquerors." Professor Macinnes of Aberdeen University thinks their lineage is undoubtedly Scottish, their name being an Aberdeen dialect term introduced by farm workers who belonged to the elite and secret Society of Horsemen, which survived in Scotland well into the 20th century. Whatever their origin, the symbolism is obvious, the fiery cross for instance (in Gaelic the crosh-tairie), a symbol of resistance and coercion, is straight out of Scott's The Lady of the Lake.
Scott's legacy in his own country and in the South, whether we like it or not, was enormous, and today, it is not the victorious Hanoverian Army of the British, nor the Union Army of the North that stirs the majority of hearts and imaginations, but the beaten yet un-bowed armies of the Highlands and the Old South, and the lost romantic worlds they symbolised. The question remains to be answered - did they both lose their wars, but win, and continue the win, the final victory?