William Jett and Mary Ann Barrow Norman
11/25/1831-12/28/1914
1-3 1845-10-13- 1864 Email – Danny Williams, [email protected]Dan’s Home Page More on the
Norman family and William Jett Norman's ancestors. http://www.geocities.com/dannyroywilliams/index.html ________________________________________________________________________ William Jett Norman was the youngest son of James H. Norman and a brother to Cyrus Norman. He was born on November 25, 1831 in Knoxville Tennessee and later moved with his family to their farm in Bradley county, Tennessee. William became a schoolteacher by trade and ventured to Texas sometime in the 1850's. It's told that in 1860 he married
sixteen-year-old Mary Ann Barrow at Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana. William
would have been twenty-nine. I haven't been able to verify the location of
this marriage. I do know that Mary was the daughter of Benjamin Franklin
"the bearhunter" Barrow and Permelia
Jane White.. Mary Ann’s father, Benjamin Franklin Barrow, was born
April 24, 1807 in Opelousas, Louisiana, and died February 07, 1877 in
Chambers Co., Texas of Small Pox. He was the son of Reuben Barrow and Mary Jane Johnson. He married Permelia Jane White, daughter of James White and
Sarah Cade. His second marriage was
to Mary Jane Middleton. He was an official of Chambers
county, Texas. He possessed a sizeable ranch holding many cattle and a man
who still carries quite a legend in that county today. Mary Ann’s mother, Permelia Jane White, was born Abt.
1820 in St. Martinsville, Louisiana, and died September 11, 1861 in Chambers
Co., Texas. William and Mary Barrow Norman settled in Chambers
county, Texas. The county is situated in the southeast part of Texas,
consists of flat coastal plains, is one-third water, and lies directly on the
Gulf of Mexico. Galveston Bay surrounds the east side of the county. The
marshy surroundings are ideal habitat for mosquitoes that spread disease in
earlier years, killing many settlers. The Civil War and the hardships it
brought during the 1860's, were an additional burden. During this time,
William's wife Mary gave birth to a son, William Jett Norman, Jr. Infant
"Willie" died September
9, 1864. Mary lived only a month longer, dying on October 13,
1864. Both were buried in her mother's parents family cemetery–the
White
cemetery. On her marker is inscribed, "Farewell my dearest
Mary, my love, my bride, my all." According to a Historical Marker on Highway I-10 in
Chambers county, Mary's grandfather James Taylor White (1789 - 1852) migrated
to that area from Louisiana in 1828. He developed one of the largest herds of
longhorn cattle in Southeast Texas. On White's Ranch in June 1832, area
colonists signed the Turtle Bayou Resolutions, written to protest the actions
of Captain Juan Davis Bradburn, commander of the Mexican Troops at Anahuac.
Four years later, White provided shelter and aid for settlers fleeing the
advancing Mexican forces under Santa Anna, and supplied cattle for the Texas
army. Following the revolution, White began driving his
cattle overland to markets in New Orleans, one of the first to make cattle drives.
His cattle brand, the "crossed W," inherited from his father in
1806, is still used by members of the White family. Texas had sided with the South during the Civil War;
conscription was forced on many able men unwilling to volunteer and unable to
escape north. Did William serve? His brother Cyrus in Tennessee, in a claim
of his own loyalty, had stated that no family had served the South. So I have
doubts that William was conscripted. There are various military enrollment
records showing "William Norman's" name, but I haven't found
conclusive evidence of anything.
After Mary's death, it appears that William Norman stayed in Chambers
county no later than 1870. He married Mary Josephine Stafford, who had previously
been married to a man with the last name of Cawthon. William and Mary
Josephine's first daughter, Nancy Caroline, was born June 23, 1872. William
traveled to his childhood home in Bradley county, Tennessee in 1873 to get
his mother Nancy [Wiley] who had lived there alone for a year after her son
Cyrus moved to Cherokee Indian Territory [Oklahoma]. She died around 1875. William's wife Mary Josephine had an asthma problem. To
alleviate her condition, they moved several times trying to find a favorable
climate in the state of Texas. Their second daughter, Jettie Mae Norman (Mary Jett),
was born September 23, 1875 at Troup in Smith county, Texas. Their third daughter, Johnie Inez Norman,
was born May 23, 1878 in Johnson county, Texas. By this time, the family was seriously thinking of moving
to Arkansas and trying the "hot springs" in hopes of finding some
help for Mary Josephine's asthma. In the process of moving from their current
residence in Callahan county, Texas, they traveled through what would later
become Mineral Wells, located in Palo Pinto county. Upon finding the
"healing waters" of that area, William Jett and Mary Josephine
settled there to live the rest of their lives. According to a letter written by a descendant of
William Jett, they built the second house in the town, William wrote the City
Charter for the new town of Mineral Wells and he served as the first mayor of
that town. William Jett Norman died on December 28, 1914 in
Mineral Wells. His death
certificate states that the already widowed William was buried in
the adjoining Parker county. It was signed by informant and son-in-law H.C.
McGowan of Baird (Callahan county). A descendant of William Jett Norman once wrote of what
she'd heard of her Norman lineage; that, when the Normans came to America,
"they had many chests of silver and it took several slaves to take them
off the boats, and that we were Huguenots." Who
knows but read her letter on my Home Page. |