Robert Grimmer Cartwright

Notes:

"Robert was a respected citizen of Shelby County, having served as a county commissioner and as trustee of the ambitious Shelby University. By 1850, he had an estate of about $13,000, comfortable by local standards but not as impressive of that of his elder brother, Matthew. His various enterprises included a mill and a store in addition to his farm in the Jonathan Bittick league, and like Matthew, Robert has several thousand acres of speculative land. He owned nine slaves who helped him raise cotton, corn, cattle, hogs and sheep. Beginning in 1851, Robert's family and slaves were treated for intermittent fever by Dr. William J. Ragland, a Tennessee kinsman.....Mary Lanier Cartwright became very ill in 1852 and died by the end of September; Robert survived her by less than seven months...He had named Matthew his executor and co-guardian of his children with W. W. Lanier, his brother-in-law." (Henson and Parmelee, pp. 165-166).

(Research):

Census Listings:

1850 Census
Texas, Shelby County
437-437
Robt G Cartwright 41 Farer 6000 Tenn
Mary H Cartwright 31 F Tenn
Amandy Cartwright 7 F Texas
Matthew Cartwright 3 M Texas
Robt Cartwright 6/12 M Texas
Clement W Lanier 17 M Tenn
P?? H McBride 43 Chair Maker Kent
Easter Martin 28 F Unk
Dick Wm Martin 9 M Tx
Bennet Martin 7 M Tx
Alford Martin 5 M Tx
Wm Perkins 19 M Farm Ala
438-438
Wm and Matildy Lanier Family

Robert married Mary Hill Lanier on 8 Aug 1837 in San Augustine County, Texas. Mary was born about 1819 in Tennessee; died before Sep 1852 in Shelby County, Texas. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Married:
The couple moved to Shelbyville, where his wife's family lived, in 1845. Besides farming and raising livestock, he entered into a partnership in a saloon and store in town. (Henson and Parmelee, p. 131).

1. Amanda "Mandy" Cartwright was born about 1843 in San Augustine County, Texas; died after 1860.
2. Matthew Cartwright was born about 1847 in Shelby County, Tennessee; died about 1921.
3. Robert Cartwright was born about 1849 in Shelby County, Texas; died about 1933.

Notes:

John was the only son of Matthew (1754-1812) and Mary "Polly" Grimmer Cartwright (1761-1824), although he had five sisters. He was a grandson of John Cartwright (1728-1780) and Sarah Miller.

Harry Noble wrote a twenty page biography of him in his book, TEXAS TRAILBLAZERS (pages 70 - 90). He noted that much additional material can be found in the first five chapters of Margaret Swett Henson and Deolece Parmelee's volume THE CARTWRIGHTS OF SAN AUGUSTINE (Texas State Historical Association, Austin, 1993).

Margaret Henson, in her preface of her book about the Cartwright Family, writes that Emily Griffith Roberts, the wife a John Cartwright's great-grandson, privately published a two-volume genealogy about the family in 1939 and 1948. The volumes included research and many documents concerning the Roberts, Griffiths, Cartwrights and other interrelated families. A committee of descendants later employed Mrs. Deolece Parmelee to explore the collections of papers scattered in private hands, along with some archived at the Eugene C. Barker Texas History Center, and to prepare a more complete history. Parmelee made photocopies and typescripts, arranged them in a usable order, and eventually compiled a 450 page typescript. This was largely the basis for Henson's 1993 book.

Noble wrote that when John Cartwright was five years old his parents sold their farm in North Carolina and moved westward across the mountains into Tennessee. There they purchased two hundred acres on Drake's Lick Creek in Sumner County. John spent his childhood in Tennessee. He would continue a pilgrimage that would cover approximately 800 miles and involve at least five moves, but when completed thirty-three years later, he would be in Texas--his home for the remainder of his life. Texas would also be the home for several generations of his descendants.

While in Wilson County, Tennessee, John was a merchant, an occupation he would continue for the rest of his life. By 1818 he was having trouble collecting certain debts. His attorney, a new resident in Lebanon, Tennessee, was Sam Houston....the two men were detstined to meet again--the next time in San Augustine, Texas. (Noble, page 71)

John later moved his family to Mississippi, and "caught 'Texas fever' when the new Mexican government...stabilized...with a constitution resembling that of the United States." He began the last leg of his pilgrimage in early 1825...(taking) his family down the Mississippi River to New Orleans by steamboat and then across the Gulf and up the Red River. Leaving the river at Natchitoches, the family traveled by wagons overland past Fort Jessup to James Gaines ferry. John picked his homesite about five miles east of the Ayish Bayou close to the banks of springs near Palo Gacho Creek. The area was vacant, not a settler anywhere near, "...although the house of a previous owner remained in the vicinity." John's thirty-three year odyssey was over, ending on the banks of the Palo Gacho Creek in Texas and Coahuila, Mexico. What a mosiac of people John found in the Ayish Bayou region when he arrived. Most were hard working farmers or businessmen of modest means, but some were unscruplous drifters, already at odds with the law. (Noble, page 72)

John and his family can be found on the 1835 Sabine District census. Their were 11 slaves in their home, from ages 12 to 39. There were also 4 children born to their slaves.

On August 21, 1840, with the assistance of San Augustine attorney William W. Frizell, Cartwright made his will. In it he gave the 885 acre homesite on Palo Gacho to his two minor sons, Clinton and Richard. He also gave his wife an interest in the homesite and placed the restriction that it couldn't be sold until after her death. Additionally, he gave her all monies due him by debt. He then distributed the remaining assets to various family members. (Noble, 89) John Cartwright died on July 18, 1841, and (his son-in-law William) Garrett, along with Mary, Cartwright's widow, were appointed executors of Cartwright's estate. Their selections was confirmed the following month. With assistance from Matthew Cartwright, Garrett then compiled an inventory of the estate. It was valued at $72,800. (Noble)

In the book, The Cartwrights of San Augustine, it was noted that elder sons, Matthew and Robert, challenged the will, likely on the grounds that the document was not in keeping with the community property laws adopted by the Republic of Texas in January 1840, and because John had exceeded his testamentary powers in the distribution of his property to his children. Mary Cartwright immediately renounced her executorship in order to contest John's will so as to "receive in common with my children such portions of said estate as we are by law entitled to." The family reached a settlement in January 1842. (Henson and Parmelee, pp. 119-120).

John married Mary E. "Polly" Crutchfield on 21 Jan 1807 in Wilson County, Tennessee. Mary was born on 26 Oct 1787 in Virginia; died on 17 Jun 1848 in San Augustine County, Texas; was buried in Cartwright Cemetery, San Augustine County, Texas. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

The daughter of George and Dicey Hoskins Crutchfield. George Crutchfield, her father, was a veteran of the revolutionary war. (Noble, page 71). Her family moved from Virginia into Kentucky, and later moved south into Tennessee. (Henson & Parmelee, page 4). On the 1880 census, son George indicates his mother was born in Virginia. "The Cartwrights of San Augustine" indicated that she grew up in Smith County, Tennessee, and that her four sisters and three brothers mostly remained in Smith County for the rest of their lifes.

Mary suffered from recurring malaria since at least 1847, and died ten days after son Clinton succumbed to the same disease. In twenty-two months, the three surviving Cartwright brothers has lost two sisters, a brother and their mother. (Hemson and Parmelee, pp. 153-154).