William McCutcheon was born December 12, 1812 in Davidson County, Tennessee to parents William McCutcheon and Catherine Overton Avery.  She had previously been married by bond to Vinson Avery in 1809, North Carolina, her birth state.  One son was born to that union, Willis Avery.  Vinson Avery died at sea.  After an unsuccessful marriage to William McCutcheon, Catherine Avery McCutcheon took her two sons, Willis and William, Jr. with her to Troy, Lincoln County, Missouri.  There she met and married Gordon C. Jennings.  They had four more children.

In 1832, Willis Avery and William McCutcheon left Missouri for Bastrop (Mina) County, Texas in Austin’s Colony.  The Jennings family followed in 1833.  A 1^st   Class Headright grant, #209, Bastrop County, and a bounty grant, Bexar County, were issued in 1838 to William McCutcheon.  He also had a script grant in Lampasas County.  After establishing in Texas, he went back for his sweetheart, Elizabeth Jane Harrell in Missouri, and they were married.  They raised thirteen children in Texas.

William McCutcheon served in the Black Hawk War, Illinois, the Brushy Creek War, Williamson County, and Captain Hill’s Company of Texas Frontier Rangers.

William McCutcheon, along with Ed Barker and his half-brother, Willis Avery, settled the community of Rice’s Crossing, Williamson County, Texas.*

William McCutcheon was by trade a farmer and rancher and also led long cattle drives with his son, John, on the Chisholm Trail to Illinois.  His wife, Elizabeth, maintained the home front in Hutto on his long absences.  He died May 7, 1900; she died August 12, 1903.  Both are buried in the McCutcheon-Shiloh Cemetery, Hutto, Williamson County, Texas.

William’s half-brother, Willis, fought at San Jacinto and is buried at the State Cemetery in Austin.  His stepfather, Gordon Jennings, was the oldest defender at the Alamo.  His mother, my gggg grandmother, led the Runaway Scrape.  Her land grant: Manor, Travis County, Texas.  She died at the home of her son, William McCutcheon, September 1, 1867.

Sylvia Kennedy, Descendant

*Handbook of Texas Online