Heathcock Genealogy Database - Person Sheet
Heathcock Genealogy Database - Person Sheet
NamePolly Henson 
704, Step GGG Grandmother
704, Step GGG GrandmotherSpouses
1Phillip Goodbread , GGG Grandfather
, GGG GrandfatherBirthca 1786, Rutherford Co NC
Death1870, Wilson Co TX Age: 84
FatherJohn Goodbread Sr. (ca1751-1808)
MotherMary Ledbetter (ca1744-ca1825)
Marriage1 Jul 1830, Marengo Co AL
ChildrenMary Louisa (1830-1874)
Notes for Phillip (Spouse 1)
Phillip Goodbread (son of John Goodbread, Sr.) appears to have had three wives. His first is counted in the 1810 census of Rutherford County, where his household is said to consist of one male 16-26 (Phillip himself), one female 26-45 (his wife), and a boy and girl under the age of 10.705 However, the record shows that he married Nancy Webb on 19 December 1812 in Burke County NC. He married again, to Polly Goodbread, in Marengo County Alabama 1 July 1830.251 Phillip Goodbread's known children are:
(1) Joseph b before 1810; d 1840 Shelby County Texas
(2) Minerva m Daniel Bird
(3) Thomas b ca 1815 NC; m Malinda Brewer 27 May 1833
(4) John b ca 1818; d 1848 Grimes County Texas
(5) Phillip R. b ca 1820; d in Civil War?
(6) Sarah m Martin West
(7) Nancy m Creed Taylor
(8) Mary Louisa b 15 March 1830; m 1st James Gillespie; m 2nd Oliver Lightfoot
Phillip Goodbread appeared in Texas in December of 1834. Along with sons John and Joseph, he fought in the Texas War of Independence and was granted a headright of a League and a Labor of land (about 1800 acres).706 He eventually settled in Wilson County and died in 1869. The partition of Phillip Goodbread's estate, recorded 5 November 1870,707 deals with three parcels of land: (1) one league in Grimes County, (2) 1/3 league in Wilson and Gonzales Counties (the headright of Phillip Goodbread, Jr., deceased, and (3) 500 acres in Wilson County. Phillip Goodbread is buried in an unmarked grave in Bird Cemetery.
(1) Joseph b before 1810; d 1840 Shelby County Texas
(2) Minerva m Daniel Bird
(3) Thomas b ca 1815 NC; m Malinda Brewer 27 May 1833
(4) John b ca 1818; d 1848 Grimes County Texas
(5) Phillip R. b ca 1820; d in Civil War?
(6) Sarah m Martin West
(7) Nancy m Creed Taylor
(8) Mary Louisa b 15 March 1830; m 1st James Gillespie; m 2nd Oliver Lightfoot
Phillip Goodbread appeared in Texas in December of 1834. Along with sons John and Joseph, he fought in the Texas War of Independence and was granted a headright of a League and a Labor of land (about 1800 acres).706 He eventually settled in Wilson County and died in 1869. The partition of Phillip Goodbread's estate, recorded 5 November 1870,707 deals with three parcels of land: (1) one league in Grimes County, (2) 1/3 league in Wilson and Gonzales Counties (the headright of Phillip Goodbread, Jr., deceased, and (3) 500 acres in Wilson County. Phillip Goodbread is buried in an unmarked grave in Bird Cemetery.
Notes for Phillip (Spouse 1)
PHILLIP R. GOODBREAD177
For this week's story, I am indebted to Rudelle (Mills) Davis who is a great-great-great-granddaughter of Phillip Goodbread. Rudelle lives in El Paso which is so much more a part of New Mexico than it is of Texas that it is almost a foreign land. I thought at first only to substitute "here" for "there" in her typescript and thus bring the story back to Wilson County. But I ended up using her facts to write the story in my own style.
Phillip Goodbread! born in Rowan County, North Carolina, about 1786 or 87 was a descendant of Ludwig Gutbrodt who came from Germany to Pennsylvania in 1731. Phillip's father, John Goodbread, was a Tory in the American Revolution. He was not in the minority in that area of western North Carolina where sympathies changed with the winds ... where, when the King's men were out in force no Patriots were to be found ... and vice versa. Though John with many of his neighbors, changed his mind and fought on "our" side, he was not as fortunate as some and his lands were confiscated for his treachery.
Now, North Carolina courts were lenient on the wives and widows of Tories, and, without exception, returned part of the property confiscated from their husbands; so Mary Leadbetter, widow of John Bradly, who married John Goodbread and became the mother of Phillip, was able to bring up her children--the Bradly ones and Phillip Goodbread--in North Carolina.
But being exonerated by the courts didn't lessen the burden borne by a son born to a Loyalist--particularly the contempt of those whose sympathies had been just as wayward, but who had escaped conviction. Phillip Goodbread left North Carolina young and by 1830 had made his way to Marengo County, Alabama, where he married for the third time, Polly Goodbread, probably a widow of one of his kinsmen.
In 1834, he, his wife, three of his four sons and four daughters made the trek westward to Texas. One of his daughters, Minerva, had married Daniel Bird and there were grandchildren in the party.
They located first in the area of Shelby and Grimes Counties. And in the latter county, Nancy married Creed Taylor the 25th of April 1840. Where Sarah "Sally" married Martin West has not yet been discovered.
Creed Taylor, whose family had been in Texas since before he, aged 11, was enumerated by a Mexican Census taker at Gonzales in 1828 as "Crud," probably promoted the move of the Bird and West families to this area.
Daniel Bird's headright grant to a full league (he also got a labor) of land on the Ecleto was an early one, and I was told by his great-grandson, the late Horner Bird, that when his grandfather moved to the banks of that stream, his nearest neighbors were on the banks of the Cibolo at Sutherland Springs.
I have always been amused by the information on the Bexar County 1850 Census which indicated that Minerva Bird, Sally West and Nancy Taylor were all thirty-five years of age. I reckon in those days an enumerator didn't ask a lady her age ... he just guessed. The Goodbread girls were certainly not triplets ... Sally and Nancy were not even full sisters of Minerva.
The first of Phillip's sons to meet disaster in Texas was Joseph.
In 1840, he was shot and killed in Shelbyville by Charley Jackson, a killing that was given credit for touching off the War of the Regulators and Moderators. He had been a freighter and an amusing story is told of his ox "Old Brindle." Seems Old Brindle was missing one morning when it came time to start off on a trip. Joseph yoked in a substitute. Eight miles down the road, he decided his wagon needed greasing as it was pulling too hard. Upon parting the wagon sheets to secure the axle grease, lo and behold, he discovered Old Brindle sleeping peacefully in the bed.
Phillip's next son to succumb to the trials and tribulations of the new frontier was John. How he met death is not known but in 1848 his father was appointed administrator of his estate. Same consisted of a land certficate for 320 acres, one horse and a cow. Twelve different attempts were made by the Court to get Phillip to make some kind of a report before, in exasperation, he reported that John left no wife, no child, no mother; the land certificate had been located; the horse was dead; and so was the cow. The Court declared Phillip the sole heir and closed the case.
In 1851, Phillip, again a widower, with his youngest daughter Mary Louisa (I guess you know 'twas pronounced Lew-I-zer) joined his other daughters and their husbands in what was to become Wilson County. He had traded John's land certificate for 500 acres on the Ecleto. And son Phillip Jr. had also secured land in the area.
Here, Mary Louisa married John Gillespie, who must have died soon after the birth of their daughter Henrietta Cebelle (pronounced Sea-belle), for in 1854 she married Oliver Lightfoot, and it was in their household that Phillip lived.
Now, in his late sixties, in those days an old man, Phillip probably thought he was settling down to a life of peace and contentment among his daughters and grandchildren. Not so. There was yet to come the War Between the States and the aftermath, for Texas far worse than the War itself, the Reconstruction. His son Phillip died unmarried and with him the last hope for a grandson to bear the Goodbread name, for Joseph had but one daughter Mary Lavinia(?) and Thomas,who had also come to this area, had daughters only. Two of his daughters, Nancy Taylor and Minerva Bird, also died. The Taylor grandsons, Hays and Doboy, became embroiled in the Taylor-Sutton feud and Hays, at least, was killed before his grandfather's death. Grandson Phillip Goodbread West, too, the old man's namesake, was killed at Albuquerque by that town's carpetbagger postmaster.
In March of 1870, Mary Louisa Lightfoot was named Administrator of her father's estate. His only remaining son, Thomas, who had settled in that area of Guadalupe County which was added to Wilson in the 1870's died in 1872. And in 1874 Mary Louisa died. Of his eight children, only Sally remained.
Somewhere in this area, perhaps in the old Bird Cemetery (across the creek from Steel Branch), where lies his daughter Minerva, Phillip Goodbread rests in an unmarked grave. His estate was partitioned. Sally, with her husband Martin West, and her brothers-in-law Daniel Bird and Creed Taylor, moved to Kendall County. And in 1889 she and her children and their spouses disposed of the last of their Wilson County property.
It is only fair, I think, since in this reconstruction of Rudelle's facts (note 1) I have left the impression that no Goodbread blood yet flows in the veins of Wilson countians, to tell you that the late Ferd Ware of Pandora was descended from Mary Louisa Goodbread as was the family of the late Bee and Willie (Lightfoot) Freasier (sizeable families both, I might add). And up at Sutherland Springs are to be found the Degans--all descended from the marriage in Bastrop County of Thomas Goodbread's daughter Elizabeth to the German emigrant Jacob Degan on the 3rd of August 1854. And also, though I can pinpoint but a few of them, some descendants of the marriage of Thomas' daughter Mary 20 John Heathcock ... among them those children born to the second marriage of Francis "Frank" Wiley to John and Mary Heathcock's eldest daughter Elizabeth. Likewise, also, the descendants of Thomas' daughter Martha's marriage to a Van Dorn .. among them being the children born to Lamie Van Dorn who was wed to James T. Carr in Wilson County the 8th of April, 1877.
No doubt, many readers know more: all the Birds, who've changed the spelling to Byrd at Nixon.
1. And some from Clayton Heathcock of Berkeley, California, too.
2. He married first Rhoda Cotter.
For this week's story, I am indebted to Rudelle (Mills) Davis who is a great-great-great-granddaughter of Phillip Goodbread. Rudelle lives in El Paso which is so much more a part of New Mexico than it is of Texas that it is almost a foreign land. I thought at first only to substitute "here" for "there" in her typescript and thus bring the story back to Wilson County. But I ended up using her facts to write the story in my own style.
Phillip Goodbread! born in Rowan County, North Carolina, about 1786 or 87 was a descendant of Ludwig Gutbrodt who came from Germany to Pennsylvania in 1731. Phillip's father, John Goodbread, was a Tory in the American Revolution. He was not in the minority in that area of western North Carolina where sympathies changed with the winds ... where, when the King's men were out in force no Patriots were to be found ... and vice versa. Though John with many of his neighbors, changed his mind and fought on "our" side, he was not as fortunate as some and his lands were confiscated for his treachery.
Now, North Carolina courts were lenient on the wives and widows of Tories, and, without exception, returned part of the property confiscated from their husbands; so Mary Leadbetter, widow of John Bradly, who married John Goodbread and became the mother of Phillip, was able to bring up her children--the Bradly ones and Phillip Goodbread--in North Carolina.
But being exonerated by the courts didn't lessen the burden borne by a son born to a Loyalist--particularly the contempt of those whose sympathies had been just as wayward, but who had escaped conviction. Phillip Goodbread left North Carolina young and by 1830 had made his way to Marengo County, Alabama, where he married for the third time, Polly Goodbread, probably a widow of one of his kinsmen.
In 1834, he, his wife, three of his four sons and four daughters made the trek westward to Texas. One of his daughters, Minerva, had married Daniel Bird and there were grandchildren in the party.
They located first in the area of Shelby and Grimes Counties. And in the latter county, Nancy married Creed Taylor the 25th of April 1840. Where Sarah "Sally" married Martin West has not yet been discovered.
Creed Taylor, whose family had been in Texas since before he, aged 11, was enumerated by a Mexican Census taker at Gonzales in 1828 as "Crud," probably promoted the move of the Bird and West families to this area.
Daniel Bird's headright grant to a full league (he also got a labor) of land on the Ecleto was an early one, and I was told by his great-grandson, the late Horner Bird, that when his grandfather moved to the banks of that stream, his nearest neighbors were on the banks of the Cibolo at Sutherland Springs.
I have always been amused by the information on the Bexar County 1850 Census which indicated that Minerva Bird, Sally West and Nancy Taylor were all thirty-five years of age. I reckon in those days an enumerator didn't ask a lady her age ... he just guessed. The Goodbread girls were certainly not triplets ... Sally and Nancy were not even full sisters of Minerva.
The first of Phillip's sons to meet disaster in Texas was Joseph.
In 1840, he was shot and killed in Shelbyville by Charley Jackson, a killing that was given credit for touching off the War of the Regulators and Moderators. He had been a freighter and an amusing story is told of his ox "Old Brindle." Seems Old Brindle was missing one morning when it came time to start off on a trip. Joseph yoked in a substitute. Eight miles down the road, he decided his wagon needed greasing as it was pulling too hard. Upon parting the wagon sheets to secure the axle grease, lo and behold, he discovered Old Brindle sleeping peacefully in the bed.
Phillip's next son to succumb to the trials and tribulations of the new frontier was John. How he met death is not known but in 1848 his father was appointed administrator of his estate. Same consisted of a land certficate for 320 acres, one horse and a cow. Twelve different attempts were made by the Court to get Phillip to make some kind of a report before, in exasperation, he reported that John left no wife, no child, no mother; the land certificate had been located; the horse was dead; and so was the cow. The Court declared Phillip the sole heir and closed the case.
In 1851, Phillip, again a widower, with his youngest daughter Mary Louisa (I guess you know 'twas pronounced Lew-I-zer) joined his other daughters and their husbands in what was to become Wilson County. He had traded John's land certificate for 500 acres on the Ecleto. And son Phillip Jr. had also secured land in the area.
Here, Mary Louisa married John Gillespie, who must have died soon after the birth of their daughter Henrietta Cebelle (pronounced Sea-belle), for in 1854 she married Oliver Lightfoot, and it was in their household that Phillip lived.
Now, in his late sixties, in those days an old man, Phillip probably thought he was settling down to a life of peace and contentment among his daughters and grandchildren. Not so. There was yet to come the War Between the States and the aftermath, for Texas far worse than the War itself, the Reconstruction. His son Phillip died unmarried and with him the last hope for a grandson to bear the Goodbread name, for Joseph had but one daughter Mary Lavinia(?) and Thomas,who had also come to this area, had daughters only. Two of his daughters, Nancy Taylor and Minerva Bird, also died. The Taylor grandsons, Hays and Doboy, became embroiled in the Taylor-Sutton feud and Hays, at least, was killed before his grandfather's death. Grandson Phillip Goodbread West, too, the old man's namesake, was killed at Albuquerque by that town's carpetbagger postmaster.
In March of 1870, Mary Louisa Lightfoot was named Administrator of her father's estate. His only remaining son, Thomas, who had settled in that area of Guadalupe County which was added to Wilson in the 1870's died in 1872. And in 1874 Mary Louisa died. Of his eight children, only Sally remained.
Somewhere in this area, perhaps in the old Bird Cemetery (across the creek from Steel Branch), where lies his daughter Minerva, Phillip Goodbread rests in an unmarked grave. His estate was partitioned. Sally, with her husband Martin West, and her brothers-in-law Daniel Bird and Creed Taylor, moved to Kendall County. And in 1889 she and her children and their spouses disposed of the last of their Wilson County property.
It is only fair, I think, since in this reconstruction of Rudelle's facts (note 1) I have left the impression that no Goodbread blood yet flows in the veins of Wilson countians, to tell you that the late Ferd Ware of Pandora was descended from Mary Louisa Goodbread as was the family of the late Bee and Willie (Lightfoot) Freasier (sizeable families both, I might add). And up at Sutherland Springs are to be found the Degans--all descended from the marriage in Bastrop County of Thomas Goodbread's daughter Elizabeth to the German emigrant Jacob Degan on the 3rd of August 1854. And also, though I can pinpoint but a few of them, some descendants of the marriage of Thomas' daughter Mary 20 John Heathcock ... among them those children born to the second marriage of Francis "Frank" Wiley to John and Mary Heathcock's eldest daughter Elizabeth. Likewise, also, the descendants of Thomas' daughter Martha's marriage to a Van Dorn .. among them being the children born to Lamie Van Dorn who was wed to James T. Carr in Wilson County the 8th of April, 1877.
No doubt, many readers know more: all the Birds, who've changed the spelling to Byrd at Nixon.
1. And some from Clayton Heathcock of Berkeley, California, too.
2. He married first Rhoda Cotter.
Notes for Phillip (Spouse 1)
PHILLIP GOODBREAD,57 son of John Sr. and Mary (Ledbetter - Bradley) Goodbread was the progenitor of the Texas descendants. He was born in Rutherford Co., North Carolina about 1784. Phillip had four brothers and sisters, as well as Bradley half-brothers and sisters.
Phillip grew up in hostile times. Although his father fought on the American side in the Revolution, he was accused of being a Loyalist and his lands confiscated. The Goodbreads were slave owners, the 1810 census of Rutherford Co., NC showing seven slaves in the household of his mother Mary Goodbread and five slaves in Phillip's household. Evidently Phillip Goodbread brought slaves with him to Texas, for in 1870 his daughter Mary Louisa Lightfoot has two freed negroes living with her, Maggie Goodbread, cook, age 40 and her daughter Laura, age 16, assistant cook. Laura Goodbread married 23 Jan. 1873 Jefferson Roberts, both shown as colored.
Phillip Goodbread married 1st before 1810, wife's name unknown, for he is on the 1810 Census, Rutherford Co. NC as head of the household, with a wife, a son and a daughter, both under 10 years old, and a male age 16-26, who is believed to be Drury Mathews, who had apprenticed himself to Phillip in 1806 by indenture recorded in Rutherford Co. Will Book B, page 202.
Sometime before 19 Dec. 1812 Phillip Goodbread's first wife must have died for this is the date of his marriage bond to Nancy Webb in Burke Co. NC. Nothing is known of Nancy Webb's parents, but she is the mother of all but two of his known children, Joseph as a son of the first wife, and Mary Louisa who was born to Phillip Goodbread and his third wife, Polly Goodbread.
Although Phillip Goodbread is on the 1820 Census of Burke Co. NC, there is a record of him being in White County, TN in 1818. Phillip, his sister Sarah and her husband Walton Ledbetter had moved to Sparta, White Co. TN about 1816 or 1817 and Phillip bought some land. They ran into Indian trouble and Phillip and the Ledbetters decided to return to Burke Co~ NC. Phillip was in Court over the land deal, but he won his case. (White Co., TN Court Records 1818)
Phillip Goodbread continued on the move, for sometime before 1830 Phillip had made his way to Marengo Co., Alabama, where he married for the third time. The marriage bond is dated July 1, 1830. His bride is Polly Goodbread and Joseph Goodbread was bondsman, with Baptist Minister Jesse W. Bird performing the ceremony on the 4th of July.
Polly Goodbread was born about 1793 in North Carolina and it is believed that she was a Henson, and possibly the widow of Joab Goodbread. Also in Marengo Co. AL in 1830 were John, Joseph and William Henson and she may have com~ to Alabama with some of her Henson kin. Mr. James T. Goodbread has checked out this Henson connection and found Mary Henson, daughter of William Henson, Jr., married Joab Goodbread in Sumner Co. TN by marriage bond dated 16 Sept. 1816. Joab Goodbread is on the Muster Roll of detached militia, 3rd Reg., Burke Co., NC, dated Aug. 1814. No further record has been found on Joab Goodbread and it is possible he was killed by the Indians. Polly, is of course, a nickname often given to girls named Mary. Joab is a probable grandson of old Phillip Goodbread, although it has not been determined just who his parents were.
A short time after Phillip Goodbread's third marriage he and his family are on the move again, for they came to Texas in December 1834. The Goodbread party consisted of Phillip Goodbread, his third wife, Polly and their daughter Mary Louisa, a toddler less than two years old; three of Phillip's sons, Joseph, John and Phillip R., two teenage daughters, Sarah and Nancy, and his one married daughter Minerva, her husband Daniel Bird and their two young sons. Phillip's son Thomas Goodbread and his family remained in Alabama until after 1850, when they too joined the rest of the family in Texas.
Did the Goodbreads enter this new home at Nagocdoches, the point of entry at that time? We don't know. Texas was a raw new land in 1834, still part of Mexico. Mexico had gained her independence from Spain only a few short years before. When in 1821 Moses Austin, a United States citizen made application to bring 200 families into the area, the Spanish Government had readily agreed. After Mexico won its independence from Spain it took nearly two years of negotiation for the new Mexican government to approve this settlement, but once approved it brought a flood of immigrants to the new land. In 1830, when Mexico discovered the newcomers actually outnumbered the older inhabitants, Mexico stopped all immigration. So, coming in December 1834, it would seem the Goodbread family were among the many illegal immigrants of the times.
The new citizens of Texas became more and more dissatisfied with their Mexican rulers and finally in the fall of 1835 a convention or Texans proclaimed Santa Ana's dictatorial government to be an illegal usurpation of power in violation of the Mexican Constitution of 1824. Before Christmas 1835 the Texans had ousted all Mexican military forces from the region. But that was not to be an end of it for Santa Ana gathered his forces the following Spring. The Texans declared their independence from Mexico on March 2, 1836. Four days later the Alamo fell to Santa Ana, followed by the defeat at Goliad the 27th of March. By 9 April 1836, with Sam Houston in command, the Texans defeated Santa Ana at San Jacinto and the Republic of Texas was assured of her independence, which she maintained as an Independent Nation for ten years before joining the United States as the twenty-eighth State in 1846. All of these events took place in the first twelve years the Goodbreads lived in Texas. When they arrived they became Mexican citizens, a few years later they were citizens of the Republic of Texas and now after these turbulent years had again become American citizens.
The first two years for the Goodbread family in Texas were turbulant times indeed. Phillip’s son John must have been about 16 or 17 when they came to Texas and his service record shows he served in the Texas Revolution from 6 June to 30 September 1836. On 22 April 1839 John Goodbread received from the Secretary of War Bounty Warrant No. 9062 for 320 acres of land for his service. Poor John didn't get around to patenting his land before he died when he was about 30 years old. In Montgomery County Probate records Phillip Goodbread is appointed Administrator of John's estate at the July court 1848. There are fourteen references to this estate, and in each of them Phillip Goodbread of Walker County has not appeared in Court and the case is continued. Finally in the May term 1849 Phillip Goodbread appears and is declared the sole heir of John Goodbread upon his statement that "John left no wife, children or mother. The 320 acre certificate has been located, the horse is dead and so is one cow. No debts known of, none paid".
Why would Phillip Goodbread leave Alabama and bring his family to this raw new turbulent frontier? Land, available in abundance, was the drawing card, just as it was in all of the western migrations. While the Republic of Texas existed as an independent nation from 1836 to 1846 Headrights were given to single men and to heads of households. First class certificates for married men who had arrived before 2 March 1836 were for a league (4,423.4 acres) and a labor (177.1 acres) of land; for single men one third of a league (1,476.1 acres). Second Class Headright Certificates were issued to those arriving after March 2, 1836 and before 1 October 1837, which provided that married men were to be given 1280 acres and single men 640 acres. One of Phillip Goodbread's sons-in-law, Martin West received a Second Class Headright for 640 acres, showing us when he arrived. The arrival of the Goodbread family in December 1834 is derived from the affidavit attached to Phillip Goodbread's Headright Certificate. All of the party arriving in 1834 got their first class certificates.
Not too long after the Goodbread's arrival in Texas two of the daughters married. Sarah Goodbread married Martin West sometime before 1838, but no marriage record has been found. Creed Taylor in an interview in 1901 stated he married Nancy Goodbread 25 April 1&40 in Grimes County, but no record of such a license has been found. Grimes County records start with 1846. Phillip Goodbread and family we believe settled in Montgomery County when they arrived. We do know by Deed record of 24 February 1835 Phillip's son-in-law Daniel Bird purchased a League of Land from James Ford, located in the State of Coahuila and Texas. This land was granted James Ford by the contractor Stephen F. Austin and the deed is filed in Montgomery County Deed Book 1, Page 1. Montgomery County was formed in 1836. Both Grimes and Walker were formed from Montgomery County in 1846. Phillip Goodbread is on the 1850 census of Walker County. I suspect Phillip Goodbread laid out his league of land in Montgomery County soon after he arrived, marked the corner trees with "P. G." and stayed right there until after his wife died when he moved to Wilson County to join his married daughters about 1858. Only the names of the County changed as new counties were cut off from the old.
Included in the Document section are copies of the Texas Land Grants to Phillip Goodbread and his two sons John and Phillip R. Goodbread. As a married man, Phillip was entitled to a League and a Labor of land. The Patent of Phillip Goodbread's grant for the League of land from the Republic of Texas was dated 25 Oct. 1845, signed by Anson Jones, President. The twenty-five labors of land were located on the waters of B. Fort Smiths Creek and Walker Creek in what is now Grimes County. His grant of one labor of land (Patent No. 396, Vol. 1) was dated 31 Dec. 1844 and attached is a transfer from Phillip Goodbread of Walker County to William Farris on 7 Apr. 1848, for a consideration of $75.00.
Phillip Goodbread, close to 85 years of age, died in Wilson County, TX in late 1869 or early 1870. His son Thomas Goodbread and daughter Mary Louisa Lightfoot petitioned for letters of Administration on his Estate to be granted to Mary Louisa, which were granted in March 1870. (Wilson Co. Probate Book B, page 77.) Phillip Goodbread at the time of his death had buried three wives, his two sons Joseph and John; his two daughters Minerva Bird and Nancy Taylor; and his two grandsons Hays Taylor and Phillip Goodbread West. His son Phillip R. Goodbread died either just before or just after the father died.
The son, Phillip R. Goodbread had never patented his headright land. The heirs proceeded to use this headright to patent land in Wilson, Karnes and Gonzales Counties, added old Phillip Goodbread's Grimes County land, combined the Estates and partitioned the land into five parts. This partition was first filed in Wilson County Nov. 5, 1870 in Deed Book A, pages 337-340. It was later filed in Karnes, Gonzales and Grimes Co. TX. A copy of the partition is included in the Document Section. At the time of the partition the heirs were shown as the sons-in-law Daniel Bird and Creed Taylor; son Thomas Goodbread; and daughters Sarah West with husband Martin, and Mary Louisa Lightfoot with husband Oliver. Thomas Goodbread died in 1871 and Mary Louisa Lightfoot died in 1874, leaving Sarah Goodbread West as Phillip's only surviving child. When Sarah died we do not know, but she was still alive in 1889, living in Kimble Co. TX.
Phillip Goodbread had eight children by his three wives:
<1> Joseph Goodbread;
<2> Minerva Goodbread;
<3> Thomas Goodbread;
<4> John Goodbread;
<5> Phillip R. Goodbread;
<6> Sarah Goodbread;
<7> Nancy Goodbread;
<8> Mary Louisa Goodbread.
Phillip grew up in hostile times. Although his father fought on the American side in the Revolution, he was accused of being a Loyalist and his lands confiscated. The Goodbreads were slave owners, the 1810 census of Rutherford Co., NC showing seven slaves in the household of his mother Mary Goodbread and five slaves in Phillip's household. Evidently Phillip Goodbread brought slaves with him to Texas, for in 1870 his daughter Mary Louisa Lightfoot has two freed negroes living with her, Maggie Goodbread, cook, age 40 and her daughter Laura, age 16, assistant cook. Laura Goodbread married 23 Jan. 1873 Jefferson Roberts, both shown as colored.
Phillip Goodbread married 1st before 1810, wife's name unknown, for he is on the 1810 Census, Rutherford Co. NC as head of the household, with a wife, a son and a daughter, both under 10 years old, and a male age 16-26, who is believed to be Drury Mathews, who had apprenticed himself to Phillip in 1806 by indenture recorded in Rutherford Co. Will Book B, page 202.
Sometime before 19 Dec. 1812 Phillip Goodbread's first wife must have died for this is the date of his marriage bond to Nancy Webb in Burke Co. NC. Nothing is known of Nancy Webb's parents, but she is the mother of all but two of his known children, Joseph as a son of the first wife, and Mary Louisa who was born to Phillip Goodbread and his third wife, Polly Goodbread.
Although Phillip Goodbread is on the 1820 Census of Burke Co. NC, there is a record of him being in White County, TN in 1818. Phillip, his sister Sarah and her husband Walton Ledbetter had moved to Sparta, White Co. TN about 1816 or 1817 and Phillip bought some land. They ran into Indian trouble and Phillip and the Ledbetters decided to return to Burke Co~ NC. Phillip was in Court over the land deal, but he won his case. (White Co., TN Court Records 1818)
Phillip Goodbread continued on the move, for sometime before 1830 Phillip had made his way to Marengo Co., Alabama, where he married for the third time. The marriage bond is dated July 1, 1830. His bride is Polly Goodbread and Joseph Goodbread was bondsman, with Baptist Minister Jesse W. Bird performing the ceremony on the 4th of July.
Polly Goodbread was born about 1793 in North Carolina and it is believed that she was a Henson, and possibly the widow of Joab Goodbread. Also in Marengo Co. AL in 1830 were John, Joseph and William Henson and she may have com~ to Alabama with some of her Henson kin. Mr. James T. Goodbread has checked out this Henson connection and found Mary Henson, daughter of William Henson, Jr., married Joab Goodbread in Sumner Co. TN by marriage bond dated 16 Sept. 1816. Joab Goodbread is on the Muster Roll of detached militia, 3rd Reg., Burke Co., NC, dated Aug. 1814. No further record has been found on Joab Goodbread and it is possible he was killed by the Indians. Polly, is of course, a nickname often given to girls named Mary. Joab is a probable grandson of old Phillip Goodbread, although it has not been determined just who his parents were.
A short time after Phillip Goodbread's third marriage he and his family are on the move again, for they came to Texas in December 1834. The Goodbread party consisted of Phillip Goodbread, his third wife, Polly and their daughter Mary Louisa, a toddler less than two years old; three of Phillip's sons, Joseph, John and Phillip R., two teenage daughters, Sarah and Nancy, and his one married daughter Minerva, her husband Daniel Bird and their two young sons. Phillip's son Thomas Goodbread and his family remained in Alabama until after 1850, when they too joined the rest of the family in Texas.
Did the Goodbreads enter this new home at Nagocdoches, the point of entry at that time? We don't know. Texas was a raw new land in 1834, still part of Mexico. Mexico had gained her independence from Spain only a few short years before. When in 1821 Moses Austin, a United States citizen made application to bring 200 families into the area, the Spanish Government had readily agreed. After Mexico won its independence from Spain it took nearly two years of negotiation for the new Mexican government to approve this settlement, but once approved it brought a flood of immigrants to the new land. In 1830, when Mexico discovered the newcomers actually outnumbered the older inhabitants, Mexico stopped all immigration. So, coming in December 1834, it would seem the Goodbread family were among the many illegal immigrants of the times.
The new citizens of Texas became more and more dissatisfied with their Mexican rulers and finally in the fall of 1835 a convention or Texans proclaimed Santa Ana's dictatorial government to be an illegal usurpation of power in violation of the Mexican Constitution of 1824. Before Christmas 1835 the Texans had ousted all Mexican military forces from the region. But that was not to be an end of it for Santa Ana gathered his forces the following Spring. The Texans declared their independence from Mexico on March 2, 1836. Four days later the Alamo fell to Santa Ana, followed by the defeat at Goliad the 27th of March. By 9 April 1836, with Sam Houston in command, the Texans defeated Santa Ana at San Jacinto and the Republic of Texas was assured of her independence, which she maintained as an Independent Nation for ten years before joining the United States as the twenty-eighth State in 1846. All of these events took place in the first twelve years the Goodbreads lived in Texas. When they arrived they became Mexican citizens, a few years later they were citizens of the Republic of Texas and now after these turbulent years had again become American citizens.
The first two years for the Goodbread family in Texas were turbulant times indeed. Phillip’s son John must have been about 16 or 17 when they came to Texas and his service record shows he served in the Texas Revolution from 6 June to 30 September 1836. On 22 April 1839 John Goodbread received from the Secretary of War Bounty Warrant No. 9062 for 320 acres of land for his service. Poor John didn't get around to patenting his land before he died when he was about 30 years old. In Montgomery County Probate records Phillip Goodbread is appointed Administrator of John's estate at the July court 1848. There are fourteen references to this estate, and in each of them Phillip Goodbread of Walker County has not appeared in Court and the case is continued. Finally in the May term 1849 Phillip Goodbread appears and is declared the sole heir of John Goodbread upon his statement that "John left no wife, children or mother. The 320 acre certificate has been located, the horse is dead and so is one cow. No debts known of, none paid".
Why would Phillip Goodbread leave Alabama and bring his family to this raw new turbulent frontier? Land, available in abundance, was the drawing card, just as it was in all of the western migrations. While the Republic of Texas existed as an independent nation from 1836 to 1846 Headrights were given to single men and to heads of households. First class certificates for married men who had arrived before 2 March 1836 were for a league (4,423.4 acres) and a labor (177.1 acres) of land; for single men one third of a league (1,476.1 acres). Second Class Headright Certificates were issued to those arriving after March 2, 1836 and before 1 October 1837, which provided that married men were to be given 1280 acres and single men 640 acres. One of Phillip Goodbread's sons-in-law, Martin West received a Second Class Headright for 640 acres, showing us when he arrived. The arrival of the Goodbread family in December 1834 is derived from the affidavit attached to Phillip Goodbread's Headright Certificate. All of the party arriving in 1834 got their first class certificates.
Not too long after the Goodbread's arrival in Texas two of the daughters married. Sarah Goodbread married Martin West sometime before 1838, but no marriage record has been found. Creed Taylor in an interview in 1901 stated he married Nancy Goodbread 25 April 1&40 in Grimes County, but no record of such a license has been found. Grimes County records start with 1846. Phillip Goodbread and family we believe settled in Montgomery County when they arrived. We do know by Deed record of 24 February 1835 Phillip's son-in-law Daniel Bird purchased a League of Land from James Ford, located in the State of Coahuila and Texas. This land was granted James Ford by the contractor Stephen F. Austin and the deed is filed in Montgomery County Deed Book 1, Page 1. Montgomery County was formed in 1836. Both Grimes and Walker were formed from Montgomery County in 1846. Phillip Goodbread is on the 1850 census of Walker County. I suspect Phillip Goodbread laid out his league of land in Montgomery County soon after he arrived, marked the corner trees with "P. G." and stayed right there until after his wife died when he moved to Wilson County to join his married daughters about 1858. Only the names of the County changed as new counties were cut off from the old.
Included in the Document section are copies of the Texas Land Grants to Phillip Goodbread and his two sons John and Phillip R. Goodbread. As a married man, Phillip was entitled to a League and a Labor of land. The Patent of Phillip Goodbread's grant for the League of land from the Republic of Texas was dated 25 Oct. 1845, signed by Anson Jones, President. The twenty-five labors of land were located on the waters of B. Fort Smiths Creek and Walker Creek in what is now Grimes County. His grant of one labor of land (Patent No. 396, Vol. 1) was dated 31 Dec. 1844 and attached is a transfer from Phillip Goodbread of Walker County to William Farris on 7 Apr. 1848, for a consideration of $75.00.
Phillip Goodbread, close to 85 years of age, died in Wilson County, TX in late 1869 or early 1870. His son Thomas Goodbread and daughter Mary Louisa Lightfoot petitioned for letters of Administration on his Estate to be granted to Mary Louisa, which were granted in March 1870. (Wilson Co. Probate Book B, page 77.) Phillip Goodbread at the time of his death had buried three wives, his two sons Joseph and John; his two daughters Minerva Bird and Nancy Taylor; and his two grandsons Hays Taylor and Phillip Goodbread West. His son Phillip R. Goodbread died either just before or just after the father died.
The son, Phillip R. Goodbread had never patented his headright land. The heirs proceeded to use this headright to patent land in Wilson, Karnes and Gonzales Counties, added old Phillip Goodbread's Grimes County land, combined the Estates and partitioned the land into five parts. This partition was first filed in Wilson County Nov. 5, 1870 in Deed Book A, pages 337-340. It was later filed in Karnes, Gonzales and Grimes Co. TX. A copy of the partition is included in the Document Section. At the time of the partition the heirs were shown as the sons-in-law Daniel Bird and Creed Taylor; son Thomas Goodbread; and daughters Sarah West with husband Martin, and Mary Louisa Lightfoot with husband Oliver. Thomas Goodbread died in 1871 and Mary Louisa Lightfoot died in 1874, leaving Sarah Goodbread West as Phillip's only surviving child. When Sarah died we do not know, but she was still alive in 1889, living in Kimble Co. TX.
Phillip Goodbread had eight children by his three wives:
<1> Joseph Goodbread;
<2> Minerva Goodbread;
<3> Thomas Goodbread;
<4> John Goodbread;
<5> Phillip R. Goodbread;
<6> Sarah Goodbread;
<7> Nancy Goodbread;
<8> Mary Louisa Goodbread.