Great, great grandfather, Tyre Buckley, was born in the Mississippi
Territory in 1815. It wasn’t until December
10th 1817 that Mississippi was admitted to the Union as the 20th state. Adams
County, Mississippi was where
one of the main migration routes from the east, the Naches Trace, passed through
going west.
It was in 1823 that Tyre
arrived in Texas with his father,
John, and mother, Elizabeth. They settled in the Tenaha
Municipality which was under the
rule of the Mexican government. Nashville,
founded in 1824, was the most important town in the district and near John’s
new home. Tyre was given a
Headright grant for 1/3 league of land (number 484). This was given to all
non-head of household male members of the family.
In 1835, John and Tyre
joined the war to separate the Republic
of Texas from Mexico.
He was 18 years old. He was in Elwood Burleson’s command and when Burleson was
promoted, Tyre was moved to Phillip
Sublette’s command under Captain John English. John English was a neighbor of
the Buckleys. They fought in San Antonio
where Tyre was furloughed in 1836.
In April of 1836 he was discharged honorably from San Augustine. In 1836 the
Congress of the Republic of Texas
established Shelby County,
named for Isaac Shelby, hero of the American Revolution and governor of Kentucky.
The name of county seat, Nashville
was changed to Shelbyville in 1836 also.
Tyre married
Susan (thought to be Wooten) about 1840. She was born in Texas
in 1822. They started their family in 1845 with the birth of their son, John.
By 1850 they had three children. Margaret E. was 3 and Ambrose was 2 and a
half. They lived in Shelby County
and were on the Shelbyville census records.
Susan died around 1860 and Tyre, at age 55, was married to
Mary Frances Watson Winlow Buckley who was born about 1832 according to the
census of 1870 (d. after 1900). Great grandfather Moses, at age 18, was one of
the children living there. It is thought he was the child of Susan. The other
children were James, 16, and Tyre B., 12.
They were also thought to be Tyre
and Susan’s children. Thomas Winlow, aged 15, also lived there and is
thought to be Mary’s by her first spouse. There was Emily who was born in 1860
and was thought to be Susan’s last child. Two other boys of Tyre
and Susan’s were Turner, born in 1853, and George born in 1857. Tyre
and Mary had Gilbert Houston in1864, Mary in1865, and M. Louise in 1871.
Tyre startedapplying for the Veterans Donation land that was provided for by the government
in 1837. Texas had enacted
legislation that set up procedures for Republic Claims. His first claim was
audited and was approved for 640 acres of land. He was finally given a Veteran
Donation Warrant number 424 in 1876. He did not receive the Voucher until 1881
after he was proven to be indigent. He had already sold the Donation Voucher
for the 640 acres for $160 in 1876.
Tyre also
applied for a veteran’s pension. Each of the applications had letters attached
that were written by former officers of the militia that Tyre had fought under
and letters by his own agents certifying the truth had been told about the
service record and indigent circumstances. He received the pension about the
same time he received the land voucher, between 1881 and 1885, he was over 63
years old and the war had been over for more than 45 years. There were 9
pension laws that were so confusing that the men had to get a lawyer or Judge
to assist them to gather the necessary documents.
Tyre died
sometime after 1880 in Shelbyville where he lived. He had lived through the War
against Mexico,
the Moderator-Regulator War that was centered in Shelbyville, and the Civil
War. He was buried on the land he and Susan once owned in the Buckley Cemetery near Susan and his
parents.
Linda S. Welch O’Hart and Alma L. Welch Cryer, Descendants
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