Family Group Record
Husband: David Seth Hanna
Born: 2 March 1828 - Vermillion County, Illinois
Died: 30 April 1905 - Cherokee, San Saba County, Texas
Buried:
Father: Jesse Pearce Hanna (1803-1883)
Mother: Elizabeth Williams (1805-1899)
Marriage: 27 September 1849 Place: Washington County, Arkansas
Events
1. Cemetery, Hanna Cemetery, May 1905 - Cherokee, San Saba County, Texas
Wife: Martha Jane Jones
Born: 6 September 1832 - Washington County, Arkansas
Died: 2 September 1920 - San Saba, San Saba County, Texas
Buried: September 1920 - Cherokee, San Saba County, Texas
Events
1. Cemetery, Hanna Cemetery, September 1920 - Cherokee, San Saba County,
Texas
Children
1 F Josephine Hanna
Born: 26 March 1857
Died: March 1897 - Cherokee, San Saba County, Texas
Buried:
Spouse: Albert Galitan Rice (1852- )
Marr. Date: 1874
2 F Amanda Texanna Hanna
Born: 28 December 1854 - Georgetown, Williamson County, Texas
Died: 28 September 1936 - San Saba, San Saba County, Texas
Buried:
Spouse: Dr. William Seaborn Sanderson (1851-1923)
Marr. Date: 27 November 1878 - Cherokee, San Saba County, Texas
3 F Elizabeth Hanna
Born: 30 March 1852
Died: 1918
Buried:
Spouse: Samuel Moses Moore (1844-1902)
Marr. Date: 1871
4 F Sarah Ann Hanna
Born: 27 September 1862
Died:
Buried:
Spouse:
Marr. Date:
5 M John Williams Hanna
Born: 28 September 1865 - Cherokee, San Saba County, Texas
Died: 15 December 1923 - San Saba, San Saba County, Texas
Buried:
Spouse:
Marr. Date:
Research Notes (Husband)
Judge David S. Hanna. Son of Jesse P. Hanna and brother of Robert Milton
Hanna. David S. Hanna founded the town of Cherokee Texas.
CHEROKEE, TEXAS. Cherokee is on State Highway 16 some fifteen miles south of
San Saba in southern San Saba County. The settlement of upper Cherokee Creek,
from which the community took its name, dates to the early 1850s, when P. P.
"Pop" Woodard established a ranch five miles west of the site of what is now Cherokee.
The second oldest post office in the county was the Cherokee post office, which
was moved several times before arriving at the site that it still occupied in
the 1980s. It originally opened in 1858 in the home of J. R. Williams in Llano
County, then moved in 1869 to the residence of Capt. John Williams in Hanna, a
school community on Cherokee Creek in San Saba County. In June 1871 the office
was moved to the Montgomery school community on the north bank of the creek,
where it shared a building with William O. Handshey's store and the Landrum
Hotel. The post office was moved again in September 1878 to the home of M. H.
Wadsworth on the Jackson Branch of Cherokee Creek, then moved one last time in
July of 1879 to James Samuel Hart's store in Cherokee.
David Seth Hanna laid out the permanent townsite of Cherokee in 1878. By the
mid-1880s the settlement had developed into the processing and marketing center
of an active farming and ranching economy, and by the mid-1890s the town
reported a population of 500.
In the 1890s the agricultural economy of the Cherokee valley supported a hotel,
several churches and schools, a number of processing and supply businesses, and
various craft and professional services.
Cherokee also became a county center of higher education when Francis Marion
Behrns established the Cherokee Academy around 1894. Twice reorganized-first as
the West Texas Normal and Business College (1896) and later as Cherokee Junior
College (1911)-the school operated until its sale to the county school district
in 1921. It then served the community as Cherokee High School until fire razed
the main building in 1945. The school was rebuilt using its original façade.
In the 1920s Cherokee supported a short-lived bank and two newspapers, and for
the next several decades the number of residents remained stable at about 250.
In 1990 Cherokee, with a population estimated at 175, served primarily as a
supply and postal center for a stock raising and farming economy. Local
agricultural production centered on sheep, poultry, and pecans.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Alma Ward Hamrick, The Call of the San Saba: A History of San
Saba County (San Antonio: Naylor, 1941; 2d ed., Austin: Jenkins, 1969). San
Saba County History (San Saba, Texas: San Saba County Historical Commission,
1983). Alice Gray Upchurch, "A Sketch History of San Saba County," Southwestern
Historical Quarterly 50 (July 1946).
Daniel P. Greene
Note: Martha J. Jones Hanna filled for a Widow's Application for a Pension on
Oct.26, 1914 number 29639 in her application she said that David S. Hanna
joined the "Home Guard" commanded by John H. Brown in the Cavalry Unit.
Martha Jones Hanna "Widow's Application for Pension 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Texas National Guard Historical Sketch
Civil War
As in all other conflicts in which fighting manpower was needed, Texas
furnished more than its share during the Civil War. The State was predominantly
on the Confederate side and the majority of the men donned the grey uniform to
fight for Jeff Davis.
The Secession Convention in February, 1861, commissioned Colonels John S. Ford
and Henry E. McCulloch, both old Indian fighters and Rangers, to each enlist a
regiment for border service for short periods, six or 12 months. McCulloch's
and Dalyrimple's forces were consolidated and afterwards reorganized and
enlisted for 12 months in the Confederate service as the First Texas Mounted Rifles.
This command was succeeded by an organization first known as the Frontier
Regiment organized as State troops in 1862, and afterwards known as the 36th
Texas Cavalry in the Confederate service. In the spring of 1864, Governor
Murrah transferred the regiment to the Confederate service and it was sent to
the coast. In 1863-64, another regiment was on the frontier commanded by
Colonel James Bourland, which had several engagements with Indians. The last
State troops on the northwestern frontier during the winter of 1864 and the
spring of 1865 were some 200 men under Major John Henry Brown. This force was
disbanded in May, 1865.
The number of troops furnished by the State of Texas to the Confederate Army
included 45 regiments of cavalry, 23 regiments of infantry, 12 battalions of
cavalry, four battalions of infantry, one regiment of heavy artillery and 30
batteries of light artillery, which passed beyond the control of the State
authorities. Besides these, the State maintained at its own expense, five
regiments and four battalions of cavalry and four regiments and one battalion
of infantry. Figuring on the usual allotment, this would give a total of 89,500
soldiers furnished out of an adult population of 120,000.
One full regiment and another partially recruited, with two or three
independent companies, are all the regularly organized commands of Texans that
were in the Union Army, but it is believed that half as many more left the
State and joined organized commands from other States. The most conservative
estimates place the whole number of Texans who served in the Union Army at 2,000.
The days of the Civil War in Texas were ones of confusion and struggle, filled
with the ever present problem of keeping the ranks of the army filled with
fighting men. Every exertion was made to fill the ranks of the army. Besides
the men already in the field, Governor Lubbock, on July 26, 1861, called for 14
additional regiments. On November 29, General Magruder made a call for 10,000
more. At the close of Governor Lubbock's administration in 1863, the Adjutant
General reported 90,000 Texans in the Confederate service, besides minute
companies not then liable to duty at the front.
This showed that there were more Texas troops in the army than votes cast at
any general election ever held in the State up to that time. By the close of
1861, most of the original Union men (who had not left the State) had joined
the army or were otherwise engaged in the service of the Confederacy. They held
that while they had opposed disunion as unnecessary and inexpedient their
allegiance was due primarily to the State, and, it having withdrawn, it was
their duty to acquiesce in its commands and fight for the success of the new
Confederacy to which it had linked its fortunes.
Legislative action by both the State and the Confederate Union added to the
general excited conditions of the time. The legislature on January 13, 1862,
passed a law providing that if any person within "this State should maliciously
and advisedly discourage people from enlisting in the service of Texas or of
the Confederate States or dispose the people to favor the enemy, every such
person shall be deemed guilty of a high misdemeanor and on conviction thereof
shall be punished by imprisonment in the penitentiary for not less than three
years nor more than five years, at the discretion of the jury."
In 1862, a conscription law was passed by the Confederate States Congress.
Under its provisions all males from 18 to 45 years of age were to be placed in
the service, except ministers, state, city and county officers and certain
slave owners. All persons holding 15 slaves, or over, were exempt. This
provision gave rise to the saying that the struggle was the "rich man's war and
the poor man's fight." It caused much discontent and severe criticism.
It was only natural that certain men should not want to go to war. One
newspaper commented on this situation as follows: "William N. Hardeman,
enrolling officer for Travis County, published in the Gazette the names of
deserters. They were mostly young men of Union proclivities who had been
conscripted and enrolled but had left the country to avoid service."
In another newspaper, a business man of Austin, subject to conscription,
advertised that he would give $1,000 for a substitute to take his place in the
army. This is just a sample of how some men managed to escape actual fighting
and remained at home.
But even at home, there were several military companies organized for duty,
from time to time during the progress of the war. These companies performed
such services as guarding prisoners, protecting the town and county, drilling
recruits for the regular army, etc. These companies were composed of elderly
men, too old for active service in the field.
Most of these companies were mustered into the service of the Confederate
States, subject to the orders of the commanding general of the
Trans-Mississippi department. They were in the home service from their
organization to the close of the war and were called on for special duties
several times. They received no pay, receiving rations only.
The military spirit pervaded all classes and nearly everyone was attached to
the service in some manner, either at home or in the field. Many, known to be
Union men, joined these companies for various reasons. In fact, some of the
most devoted of them went into active field service. With the vast majority of
its adult population enlisted in the army, either in active or home service,
the State of Texas was more or less a military camp during the Civil War.
FRONTIER ORGANIZATION. The Frontier Organization represented the final
modification of frontier defense in Texas during the Civil War. In 1863
Governor Pendleton Murrah and the legislature proposed to transfer the
state-supported Frontier Regiment to Confederate service. Such a move would
have relieved the state of a financial burden, but the regiment would then have
been under Confederate control, subject to removal from the frontier at the
discretion of Confederate commanders. Concern for the protection of the
frontier played a major role in deliberations of the Tenth Legislature in late
1863, as state officials hesitated to transfer the Frontier Regiment to the
Confederacy without assuring the best protection possible for the frontier
counties. The resulting law, which established the Frontier Organization and
transferred the Frontier Regiment, passed the legislature on December 15, 1863.
The law declared that all persons liable for military service who were actual
residents of the frontier counties of Texas were to be enrolled into companies
of from twenty-five to sixty-five men. The act defined the frontier line and
the fifty-nine organized frontier counties of Texas; it also instructed
Governor Murrah to divide the designated counties into three districts and to
appoint a suitable man with the rank of major of cavalry to take charge of the
organization of mounted companies within the district. The major of each
district was to require that one-fourth of his men, on a rotation basis, be in
service at any one time. In January 1864 Murrah appointed three men to take
command of the frontier districts. William Quayleqv commanded the First
Frontier District, headquartered in Decatur; George Bernard Erathqv commanded
the Second Frontier District, headquartered in Gatesville; and James M. Hunter
commanded the Third Frontier District, headquartered in Fredericksburg. Nearly
4,000 men were on the rolls of the organization by the time of the Frontier
Regiment's transfer on March 1, 1864.
James Webb Throckmortonqv replaced Quayle in December 1864 as commander of the
First Frontier District. In January 1865 John Henry Brownqv replaced Hunter in
the Third Frontier District. Coordinating military affairs in the Second and
Third Military districts, however, was John D. McAdoo, brigadier general of
state troops, who took command in June 1864, initially to quell unrest over
Hunter's administration of the district. McAdoo remained in direct command of
the Third District until Brown's arrival and later coordinated activities of
the Second and Third districts until the end of the war.
Companies in the Frontier Organization normally averaged between fifty and
fifty-five men in strength, usually with about fifteen men per squad for patrol
duty. The length of service at any one time varied according to the task,
presence of the enemy, and availability of supplies, but most squads on patrol
duty expected to remain out for about ten days at a time. The Frontier
Organization not only provided protection against Indian incursions but also
enforced Confederate conscription, rounded up deserters, and provided
protection to settlers from renegades and bandits. The Frontier Organization
assumed chief responsibility for the protection of the Texas frontier from
March 1864 until several months after the end of the war. Its engagements
included the Ellison Springs Indian Fight.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Hans Peter Nielsen Gammel, comp., Laws of Texas, 1822-1897 (10
vols., Austin: Gammel, 1898). Joseph Carroll McConnell, West Texas Frontier
(Vol. 1, Jacksboro, Texas, 1933; Vol. 2, Palo Pinto, Texas, 1939). David Paul
Smith, Frontier Defense in Texas, 1861-1865 (Ph.D. dissertation, North Texas
State University, 1987). The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the
Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies.
David Paul Smith
