Sunday, May 19, 2024
LEGENDS OF TEXAS
Editor's Note: The story of John Chesney Crownover and his wife, Nancy Castleman Crownover, is told by his third great-grandson, Don Spencer. Don and his wife, Andrea, actively practice architecture in Texas and Colorado. They live part-time in southern Colorado, but call Hico, Texas home. Don is vice president of SFA's Old 300. He is a member of The Texas State Genealogical Society's "First Families of Texas", and The Sons of The Republic of Texas, David Crockett Chapter in Granbury.
Greetings to all Texians! My name is John Chesney Crownover. I was born in March 1799 in Union County, South Carolina. I was the third child of John and Elizbeth Chesney Crownover. My beautiful wife, Nancy, was born in Franklin, Williamson County Tennessee in April 1804. Nancy was the oldest child and daughter of Sylvanus and Elizabeth (Betsy Lucas) Castleman, early Tejas settlers as well. Sylvanus and Betsy received Land Grant No. 1, issued to them by S.F. Austin and Baron de Bastrop on July 5, 1824.
As some of the very first original settlers to arrive with Stephen F. Austin in Tejas, Nancy and I were most proud of the fact that we were the first couple, in the new Province of Texas, to be married by "Bond Marriage.” A provision of S.F. Austin's colonization contract with Mexico was that the Roman Catholic religion would be the only one practiced in colonial Tejas. This minor detail was pretty much ignored by the majorities of Protestant settlers like us until it became a legal issue when the subject of marriage came up. There was only one known priest that visited the colony, Father Muldoon, who was normally in Mexico. So, to keep the colony growing spiritually, morally, and population wise, our great leader, Stephen F. Austin had recently authorized Bond Marriage ceremonies to be performed between a couple like us who could not wait the sometimes year or more for the priest to show up to perform a proper Catholic wedding which was not high on our list of rituals! The wedding ceremony was beautiful, and attended by Nancy's parents, Sylvanus and Betsy Castleman, and many of our friends in San Felipe de Austin. We had so hoped that my parents, John and Elizabeth Crownover, who were not in Tejas at that time could attend, but they later travelled to San Felipe de Austin to join us all in 1830 from Arkansas. My dad applied for land and settled in Madison County in May 1835, under Empresario S.F. Austin's Fifth Contract.
Nancy and I received Land Grant No. 70, which was the title to a Sitio (4,448 acres) of land in present day Wharton and Matagorda counties, and a Labor (177 acres) of land in present day Austin County on July 24, 1824. I cast my vote for Baron de Bastrop as the Texas Deputy to the Convention of Coahuila and Texas on April 29, 1824, which was the same date of our marriage. Later, Nancy and I moved to Arkansas where two of our children were born. We returned to Texas where our other four children were born on our land. Tragically, Nancy died during the birth of our son, John Bunyon, on April 1, 1844.
Our families led very exciting and adventuresome, but often extremely difficult lives on the new frontier of Texas. We were daily witnesses to the amazing determination of Stephen F. Austin, and our Old 300 Community as we forged a new and independent Republic of Texas. God bless Texas!
Footnote: Nancy Castleman Crownover passed away in 1844 at the age of 40 and John Chesney Crownover passed away at age 41 in 1845. They left six children behind: Chesney, Arthur (Arter), Leona, Marian, Ruffana, and John Bunyon. After John and Nancy's early deaths, the minor children including Leona (Don Spencer's second great-grandmother) went to live and be raised by aunts. Leona was raised from age 8 by her aunt, Mary (Polly) Crownover Rabb, in Austin on their large property at the time, which included Barton Springs and portions of what is now Zilker Park. Mrs. Crownover Rabb was nationally known for her personal experiences and memoirs of the difficult, but exciting early days in the San Felipe de Austin Colony and "The Runaway Scrape" in her 1875 manuscript, "Travels and Adventures in Texas in the 1820s."
Her original manuscript account can be found at The Dolph Briscoe Center for American History Library at campus of The University of Texas at Austin. The manuscript can also be viewed online at digitalcollections.briscoecenter.org. Anyone interested in a fascinating glimpse into first-hand knowledge of the early colony days of San Felipe de Austin would enjoy reading her manuscript.
The Sons of the Republic of Texas consists of members who are direct lineal descendants of those who settled the Republic of Texas from 1836 to Feb. 19, 1846. The purpose of the SRT is to perpetuate the memory and spirit of the men and women who won Texas’ independence. They set the course for Texas to become a nation and eventually the 28th state. Legacy Comes To Life personifies our ancestors with true stories about real people who changed the course of history. For membership information, please visit our website; srttexas.org or email old300.srt@gmail.com.
