| On page 126 of
Kerr County's Marriage Record Book A, a marriage is
listed between Joshua S. Welch and Dorcas (misspelled "Darkas")
E. Merritt. This was on July 2, 1871.
How did Dorcas Merritt get to Kerr County to meet her
future husband?
Sherwood Randolph
Merritt, father of Dorcas and 7 other children, came to
Kerr County about 1862 and settled in the West Kerr County
area near Hunt. He was born in Morgan
County, Georgia, and owned land in Clayborne Parish,
Louisiana, where he married his 2nd wife, Keziah Jane
Watson Brazeal, widow of Elijah Brazeal, in 1856.
He had been married
before to Sarah Skinner and had 2 children by her.
She died in 1855. Keziah, his new wife, had 5 children by
her first husband. The Merritt family was growing
fast!!
Sherwood Randolph and Keziah Merritt moved to Texas about 1860 and are
found on the 1860 census in Burnet County.
Family lore says they stopped there so Arabella
could be born. She was their 2nd child.
By 1862 they had settled in Kerr County near the
present town of Hunt in the west section of
the county and are among the earliest pioneers in
that area. Their children were: Dorcas Ellen Merritt born in 1857 in Kern County,
Louisiana; Arabella Merritt born 25 Apr 1860 in
Texas; John Henry Merritt born 12 Aug 1862 in Kerr
County, Texas; Robert Randolph Merritt born 15 Nov
1864 in Kerr County; Burkett Foster Merritt born 13
May 1867 in Kerr County; and Jasper Newton Merritt
born 15 Feb 1869 in Kerr County.
S. R. Merritt
enlisted in the Confederate Service on April 2,
1864, and was in the 3rd Frontier District, Kerr
County, commanded by J. D. McAdoo.
In 1873, he became a Texas Ranger and commanded
Company #1 of Kerr County. Thus it
was that on October 15, 2005, his gravesite at
Hunt Japonica Cemetery was honored with a
Ceremony to install a Texas Ranger Medallion to
commemorate this service.
(Click for Photos of
the Texas Ranger Ceremony)
In addition
to the marriage of his oldest daughter, Dorcas
(mentioned above), Sherwood's and Keziah's
children married as follows - all in Kerr
County: Arabella Merritt married
John Henry Smith on December 9, 1875; Robert
Randolph Merritt married Susan Frances New on
July 9, 1885; Burkett Foster Merritt married
Viola Kiziah New on February 12, 1889 and Jasper
Newton Merritt married Lucy Minerva New on
Christmas Day, December 15, 1889.
The three New girls were sisters.
Keziah Watson
Brazeal Merritt died of heart failure on July 5, 1913. A wife, mother of 12
children by her 2 husbands and a pioneer
resident of Kerr County, Texas, she was 88 years
of age at the time of her death.
Sherwood
Randolph Merritt, son of John & Sarah Merritt & born on March 3, 1827, lived to the
age of 96, celebrating life to the fullest in
his service to family and community.
Compiled from the family files of Charles
Anderson Merritt ©2008
|