Elizabeth Jane Harrell was born August 20, 1822 in Yazoo County, Mississippi.  Her father died when she was a young child.  I have no record of what happened to her mother.  She was taken in by her uncle, Jacob Harrell, who left Missouri, along with his brothers, James and Joab, and settled along the Colorado River in Travis County with his friend Reuben Hornsby.  This was in 1833.  It was not long and Jacob took his family and settled a little farther up the Colorado River at a place called Waterloo.  They were the first family there.  Today, in Austin a historical marker is on Congress Avenue, at the Colorado River, stating that Jacob Harrell and family lived there.  Later, he settled the town of Round Rock, and is buried there.

Elizabeth Jane Harrell married in the spring of 1835, under Coahuila-Texas law, and rewed in the new Republic of Texas, to William McCutcheon.  This would have made her not quite 13 years old.  Her first child was born in 1836, and thirteen children were born to this family, over the next 30 years.  Their marriage was a happy union and they a lived a happy life for 65 years.  They were a well-respected family in Williamson County.  Her devoted husband preceded her in death three years, three months and six days.  They are both buried at the McCutcheon/Shiloh Cemetery, outside of Hutto on the land they set aside for that purpose.  A Texas flag waves, proudly, over the cemetery.

In her early married life, she went through the scenes of what is known as the run-a-way scrape, from Santa Anna’s Mexican army, with an infant in her arms.  Her husband was with Houston and Burleson with rifle in hand to hold back the invaders of their early home.  Only those who lived through these trying times can realize the heart aches and anxiety of the mothers in those days of trial and bloodshed.  She professed religion in the early 1850’s and joined the Methodist Episcopal Church South.  She was one among the mothers of the infant Republic, that she loved, who lived to see it develop into a great commonwealth.*

Today, the descendants come together every two years, having William and Elizabeth as their common ancestors.   We take pride in our ancestry, and pride in the part they played in building the Republic of Texas in Bastrop, Travis, Lampasas, and Williamson Counties.

*From her obituary
 

Sylvia Kennedy, Descendant