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Archiver > HODGES > 2002-03 > 1015727938


From: "Jerry Brandel" <>
Subject: [HODGES-L] DeWitt Colony Biographies-Surnames H-N
Date: Sat, 9 Mar 2002 20:38:58 -0600



HODGES. James Sr., James Jr., John Seaborn, Thomas Wilburn. Records from Tipton County, Tennessee indicate that James Hodges Sr. (1775 Virginia - 1846 Texas) arrived in Texas in the early 1830's with his wife Edith Nobles, three daughters, Nancy Elizabeth, Sarah and Edith and four sons, Thomas, James Jr., David and John. James Jr. was the leader of the group which included several others besides the Hodges. The Hodges family left Wales in early colonial days, settled in Tidewater, Virginia for a number of years and then moved to Tipton County, Tennessee where they lived until their move to Texas. The group carried all of their possessions including their slaves, cattle, teams, and even a well-filled medicine chest to Texas by wagon train. They established their camp on the east bank of the San Marcos River a short distance above the junction with the Guadalupe River and farmed land across the river for a time, going back and forth across the river by canoes. The Hodges' sett!
lers at times took refuge in the blockhouse or fort built on the banks of the Guadalupe River for protection against Mexican and Indian raiders. This blockhouse had an underground passage to the river so that the garrison could secure water from this source in time of seige.
The Hodges family and their group were an independent expedition from Tennessee to Texas and they bought the entire Salinas Grant which consisted of four leagues of land. Salinas would not accept the gold which the leader Hodges offered, so they had to travel to New Orleans to exchange it for Mexican silver dollars. It was brought back by pack horses with guards for protection from the Indians. They also bought other land totaling six leagues. The Salinas Grant was their principal settlement, with the exception of one small tract. It comprised all the land in what was known as the forks of the rivers extending from the San Marcos to the Guadalupe River and including all the land between for at least ten miles westward above their junction. This land was divided into large farms and substantial homes were built for the different families of the expedition. In a few years a thriving settlement had been established. The various families of the Hodges settlement took part in wha!
t was known as the "Runaway Scrape" after the town of Gonzales was burned by the retreating army of Sam Houston. They went to LaGrange, where they stayed for a year and a half before returning to their homes near Gonzales. Upon their return they found their valuables, which had been buried in a wash pot, intact.
Yoakum's History of Texas, Volume 11, Page 11 recorded that James Hodges Jr. a representative of Gonzales was one of fifty-five members of the Constitutional Convention which met November 1, 1835 at San Felipe de Austin and drafted the Texas Declaration of Independence. James Hodges Jr. (1801 Tennessee March 13, 1853 Gonzales County) married Nancy Johnson (1792 Tennessee -1872 Gonzales County). Their son, James Jackson Hodges (November 23,1828 -August 2,1902) married Martha Pritchett (August 14, 1827 Missouri - January 29, 1911 Gonzales County) and their son, James Ware Hodges (November 28,1855 - July 23,1929) married Mary Emma Nelson Hodges January 19, 1902, the widow of his brother Robert Sion Hodges. Robert and Mary Emma Hodges had three children: Barney Raymond (18921923); Victoria Frances (1895-1966); and Willie Houston (1899-1928). James Ware and Mary Emma Hodges had one child, Hattie, who married Homer M. Burke. Hattie Hodges Burke. (From The History of Gonzales Count!
y, Texas. Reprinted by permission of the Gonzales County Historical Commission).
James Hodges Jr. was born in 1801 in Tennessee and died in Gonzales County March 13, 1853. He married Nancy Johnson (1792 Tennessee - 1872 Gonzales County). James Hodges Sr. and brother emigrated from England to fight as allies of the American colonists. They later settled in Norfork, Virginia near the Tidewaters, then moved to Tipton County, Tennessee. They were disinherited by their father, a shipbuilder of Cardiff, Wales. It was said the Hodges shipyard was still in existence one hundred years after the father's death. James Hodges Sr. and his son-in-law Isham Smith made a trip to Texas in the early spring and summer of 1825 to visit Green DeWitt in search of good farming and grazing land. They liked what they saw and returned home and began the preparation for the trip back to Texas. They arrived in Texas the latter part of 1829 or 1830 and purchased approximately 17,000 acres situated in the forks of the Guadalupe and San Marcos Rivers. The story was told that the money!
paid to Jose Maria Salinas for the land they purchased was buried by Salinas in San Antonio. He died soon thereafter and the money was never found.
The Hodges family that arrived in Texas consisted of James Hodges Sr., his second wife Edith Nobles Hodges, James Jr. and his wife Nancy Johnson Hodges, Thomas, David and John Seaborn Hodges. Douglas Hodges was a son of James Jr. and Nancy Johnson Hodges. He settled in the forks of the rivers on the Hodges land where he was a farmer and rancher. He made several trips to Dodge City, Kansas with the trail drives. He married Lucinda Adaline "Ina" Jarvis and raised four children: Georgie, Alna, Henry and Jarvis. Georgie Hodges married Charles Neubauer, a farmer in Gonzales County and had three children: Aina Hodges married Robert Stamport and lived in Gonzales County in the Greenwood community where she taught school; Henry Hodges, a heavy equipment operator, married Thada Osborn, lived in Gonzales County and had three children but one son died at birth; and Jarvis Hodges, a farmer, rancher and truck driver in his later years, married Effie Mae Staton and had two sons Alvis and !
one who died in infancy. Alvis, an electrician and refrigeration repairman, worked in Gonzales for some forty-three years. He married Nettie Lee Foster and had one son Wayne Hodges who worked for Cox Oil Well Service. He married Shirley Dolezal and lived next door to this parents in Gonzales County with their two sons, Kenneth and Kristofor. Alvis O. Hodges. (From The History of Gonzales County, Texas. Reprinted by permission of the Gonzales County Historical Commission).
http://www.tamu.edu/ccbn/dewitt/dewittbios2.htm#hodges

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