1833 / 1891 / 2013 :: News from San Augustine

On this date in our extended family history . . . the 19th day of September . . . in the year 1891 . . . Easter Jane Sublett nee Roberts dies at her residence, three miles east of San Augustine, Texas [click HERE to read what some of the 1891 papers had to say about Easter and her family] . . .


Easter Jane is an older sister of Mahala Lee Roberts . . . who is a 3rd great-grandma to the Keeper of this family history blog . . . this Easter Jane and Mahala are two of nine children known to have been born to Elisha Roberts and his wife, Martha "Patsy" Gill . . .



By the time Mahala was 16 years of age, in 1833, Easter Jane had already been married for five years, to Philip Sublett . . . and that was the year when Elisha, as well as this son-in-law, were two of the twenty-one men who signed the original founding document of San Augustine . . . those twenty-one men, and their place in the family tree of the Keeper of this family history blog (if any), are listed below . . .

• John Cartwright || findagrave [paternal grandpa of wife of 1st cousin four times removed, Benjamin Thomas Roberts]
• Chichester Chaplin || findagrave [son-in-law of Haden Edwards and Martin Parmer]
• Samuel Davis, Jr. || findagrave, and his sister Mary Richardson Willson nee Davis, wife of Dr. Stephen Pelham Willson [these Davis siblings are my 2nd cousins five times removed . . . this connection is via a different maternal line which our Roberts descendant, Berta Mary Henry nee Sharp, marries into in 1895]
• William English
• Claiborn Garrett
• William Garrett || findagrave [father-in-law of 1st cousin four times removed, Henry William Sublett]
• James S. Hanks [brother of Wyatt Hanks]
• Wyatt Hanks || findagrave
• Alexander Horton || findagrave [entered Texas with Elisha Roberts, and served as Sheriff when Elisha was Alcalde]
• Benjamin Lindsay
• L.H. Mabbitt [stepson of Wyatt Hanks]
• Thomas McFarland || findagrave
• William McFarland || findagrave
• Elisha Roberts || findagrave [4th great-grandpa]
• Philip Sublett || findagrave [husband of 3rd great-grand-aunt, Easter Jane]
• Charles Stanfield Taylor || findagrave
• Edward Teal [father of Henry Teal; brother of George Teel]
• Henry Teal
• George Teel / Teal || findagrave [father-in-law of nephew of wife of 3rd great-grand-uncle, Noel Gil Roberts]
• I D Thomas [brother-in-law of 3rd great-grand-uncle, Noel Gil Roberts; grandpa of the renowned artist, Seymour Thomas, who was also a grandson of Stephen W. Blount, signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence]

A special invitation has been issued to descendants of the above men to gather in San Augustine during the annual Sassafras Festival for an event hosted by San Augustine Main Street . . . during this annual festival, at 2 p.m. on the 26th day of October . . . there will be a gathering at the Historic Museum Theatre on Columbia Street in downtown San Augustine . . . regarding this special event it has been stated that . . .

Historic San Augustine is celebrating its 180th birthday with a presentation of the newly discovered deed dated July 11th, 1833 purchasing the land where the town of San Augustine was laid out by Thomas McFarland. The document is signed by these 21 Texas patriots who established the town.

If you are a descendant of one of the twenty-one signers listed above, please contact Connie at . . . deed dot descendants at gmail dot com . . . for more info about the Sassafras Festival, please call 936-275-3172 . . .