Birds of Burleson County, Texas
John Bird and family, with his brother Thomas Bird and family, and his sister Wincey Bird Bell and family, came to Texas in June 1830, from Perry County, Tennessee and settled in Austin’s Colony near San Filipe, about six miles from the Brazos River. John, Thomas, and Wincey are thought to be children of William Bird of Tennessee.
John Bird was born in what was later Perry County, Tennessee, in 1795. After service in the War of 1812, John returned to Tennessee, where her married Sarah Denton, born about 1800, a daughter of Benjamin Denton. In Austin’s Colony, John was elected captain of the militia. During the Texas Revolution he commanded a unit of Texas cavalry against the Mexicans near San Antonio in 1835, and in March 1836, he commanded sixty volunteers in defense of the western frontier on the Brazos River. & nbsp; On 2 April 1839, John was elected captain of a company of rangers, which he led to Fort Milam on the Texas frontier. He and a single companion, Nathan Brookshire, set out on the morning of 20 April 1839, searching for Indians. On the morning of 25 May 1839, the two encountered a party of Comanche skinning buffalo. The Indians fled but returned on the following morning, 26 May 1839, heavily reinforced and stampeded a heard of buffalo through the rangers’ camp. Captain Bird and his 54 men perused the retreating Indians for four miles before discovering that they had ridden into a trap laid by the estimated 250 warriors. The rangers attempted to fall back to Fort Milam but were overtaken and attacked after about a quarter mile, at about 3:30 p.m. The rangers repealed several mounted charges by the Comanche but were severely beset by Indians on foot, who approached the rangers’ position by way of a sheltered ravine. At sunset, the Indians withdrew, “yelling like devils” according to one survivor of the fight. Five of the rangers had been killed including Captain Bird, who was shot through the heart by an arrow that came from a great distance. Comanche deaths were variously estimated at between 30 and 75. Captain John Bird and the other four dead rangers were buried on the battle ground in present Bell County. A Texas Historical Marker commemorating the fight was erected by the Texas and Bell County Historical Commissions. At the time of his death, John Bird owner 354 acres of land in present Austin County and a league (4,428 acres) of land in present Burleson County. John and Sarah Bird’s homestead was in present Austin County. They had five children: Elba Bird, Nancy Jane Bird, William Parish Bird, Thomas Jefferson Bird, and Wincey Bird. William Isely Allbright married the widow Sarah Denton Bird on 15 November 1840, in Austin County, Republic of Texas. Mr. Allbright was born about 1803. The date that William and Sarah Allbright moved to the Bird league in Burleson County is not known but, they joined the Dove Baptist Church in Caldwell, Burleson County, in November 1848. Thomas J. Bird and Martha Bird joined Dove Church on 22 September 1849. William and Sarah Allbright did not have children. Mrs. Sarah Denton Bird Allbright died in December 1873, and is buried in the Allbright - Harmony Cemetery on the Bird league in Burleson County, Texas, about seven miles south of Caldwell and about 350 yards east of Davidson Creek.
Children of Captain John Bird and Mrs. Sarah Denton Bird are:
1. Nancy Jane Bird, born in Perry County, Tennessee, was married six times and had children. Edward Shipman, James W. Dexter, Mr. Peters, and John Haley are four of her husbands.
2. William Parish Bird was born 28 October 1819, in Perry County, Tennessee. On 2 November 1843, in Austin County, Republic of Texas, he married Callie Roxana Powell, daughter of John and Celia Powell. They had twelve children: Elizabeth Bird married George William Sheppard; Mary Melisa Bird married Frank Zarr; Isaac Bird; J.J. Bird; Georgia A. Bird married William Baker; Inez Naomi Bird married George Lamb; John G. Bird married Elizabeth Haddox; Sarah “Sally” Bird married Jasper N. Haney; Wincey Bird married James Madison Haddox; Eliza Bird; Laura Bird married Charles Morgan; and Dorothy Vardon “Dolly” Bird married Commodore Perry Hill. Mrs. Callie Bird died 17 February 1895 and William P. Bird died 5 January 1899. They are buried in the Bird Cemetery on the John Bird league in Burleson County, Texas
3. Thomas Jefferson Bird, born 28 August 1821, in Perry County, Tennessee, married Martha Ann Carter on 28 December 1845, in Austin County, Republic of Texas. They had five children: John Bird born in 1847; Mary Bird born in 1850; Sarah Bird born in 1853; William Bird born 1855; and Fisher E. Bird born in 1857; After Martha died, Thomas married Ellen Pillow, born 29 June 1849, and they had six children: Mattie Bird; Tom Bird; Mitt Bird; Mitchell Bird; George Bird; and Hillary Bird. Mrs. Ellen Bird died 7 January 1897, and Thomas J. Bird died 5 March 1897. They are buried in the Bird Cemetery in Burleson County, Texas.
4. Wincey Bird, daughter of John and Sarah Bird, married William Allen on 14 December 1837, in Austin County, Republic of Texas. Mrs. Wincey Allen married David Ryan on 17 August 1847, in Burleson County, Texas. No additional records have been found.
Thomas N. Bird, born about 1797 in what is now Perry County, Tennessee, married Nancy Denton, a daughter of Benjamin Denton. Before they came to Texas in 1830, they had three children: Jane Bird, born about 1825; Mary Bird, born about 1827; and William Bird, born about 1829. Their fourth child was Nathan Bird, born about1833 in present Austin County, Texas. Nathan Bird was enumerated in the household of his cousin Thomas J. Bird and family in the 1850 Census of Burleson County, Texas. Nathan Bird married Miranda Ellen Blanchet on 23 February 1854, in Burleson County, Texas. They had two daughters: Mary Jane Bird and Sarah Elizabeth Bird. No record has been found of what happened to Mrs. Miranda Bird. Nathan Bird married Sarah Ann Lewis on 18 December 1856, in Burleson County, Texas. Nathan and Sarah did not have children. Nathan Bird died 25 December 1857, in Burleson County, Texas from pneumonia.
Wincey Bird, daughter of William Bird, was born about 1800 in Tennessee, and married James H. Bell about 1820 in Tennessee. James Bell received a land grant of a league and a labor in Stephen F. Austin’s Colony, located in present Burleson County, Texas, on Davidson Creek. Next door was the league of John Bird. Both the James Bell and the John Bird homesteads were always in present Austin County, Texas. James and Wincey Bell’s children are: Permelia Jane Bell, born about 1822 in Tennessee, married Moses G. Shipman in 1842 in San Felipe and their children are: Elizabeth Shipman, James Shipman, Mary Shipman, John Shipman, and Sarah Shipman, after Moses died, Permelia Bell Shipman married John McMinn in 1857, and they were living in Washington County, Texas on 6 August 1860; William G. Bell, born about 1823, married Martha Ann Pillow in 1848, and was in Goliad County, Texas in 1860; Cyrena Ann Bell, born about 1826, married Preston Peevyhouse in 1838 in San Felipe; Sarah Malinda Bell, born about 1827, married Thomas Cooper in 1847, in San Felipe; and James Carthage Bell, born in 1834, married Harriet Frances Busby in 1858 in Dewitt County, Texas, and was in Goliad County, Texas in 1860. Mrs. Wincey Bird Bell died 17 October 1855, in Austin County, Texas.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Handbook of Texas Online; Texas State Historical Association; accessed January 24, 2010.
Patriot Ancestor Album; Daughters of the Republic of Texas; Turner Publishing; Paducah, KY; 1995.
Astride The Old San Antonio Road – A Pictorial History of Burleson County, Texas; Burleson County Historical Society; Taylor Pub.; Dallas; 1980.
Bird Family Genealogy Forum; GenForum; Genealogy.com; internet.
1850, 1860, and 1870 Census of Texas.
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County Coordinator:
Gayle Triller
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