Susanna Avaminta Chessher was born in Jasper County, Texas.  Her father, James Chessher, deeded her 200 acres before she married.  The land was near the Pine Island Bayou.  She met a young man from Shelby County, William Goodwyn.  He had worked for F. A. E. Anderson who owned a mercantile in Shelby County.  William was sent to pick up supplies down the river and met Susanna.  They wed in 1852 in Jefferson County. 

William bought land in Hardin County in 1856.  Upon the birth of their first child, Eglintine G. Goodwyn, he deeded her land and buildings in Harden County.  William was in the warehouse business on the banks of Pine Island Bayou.  When the War Between the States started he enlisted in Woodville, Texas in 1862.  He died in 1863 in the Charity Hospital In Gordonville, Virginia with pneumonia.

Susanna sold some of her land in 1866 and a year later she married S. L. Ward and had one child, Estelle, born in 1870.  Mr. Ward died and Susanna's father died in 1873 in the Fletcher community and her mother soon after this in the Concord communty.

Susanna died and is buried in an unmarked grave.  Her children were sent to their Goodwyn kin in Shelby County, Texas where they lived, married and died.  All were buried in the RatherCemetery in the Hurst community.

Othodell Smith, Descendant