Mary Ponton

Other Events and Attributes:

• Residence: 1833, Missouri; moved to
• Other-Begin: 5 Aug 1840, Foley and Ponton Incident, Lavaca Co, Texas
• Religion: Between 1841 and 1842, Christian church congregations, on Rio Navidad; established two congregations
• Census: 25 Sep 1850, Lavaca Co, Texas; (no wife)
• Religion: 25 Mar 1854, Gonzales, Texas
• Census: 1860, Lavaca, Lavaca Co, Texas
• Occupation: Between 1866 and 1867, Lavaca Co, Texas; county judge
• Religion: Between 1850-1870, Christian church minister, Lavaca Co, Texas
• Census: 13 Aug 1870, Lavaca Co, Texas

Notes:

DeWitt Colony Biographies
Gonzales Town Residents
Town Lot Owners
http://www.tamu.edu/faculty/ccbn/dewitt/innerresidents3o-z2.htm

Joel Ponton. Joel Ponton was both medical doctor and a minister of the Disciples of Christ Church. He married Sara Reavis in Cooper Co, MO on 5 Jan 1827 where they had children Andrew Judson (b. 4 Aug 1829; d. 12 Jan 1908, buried Junction, KimbleCo, TX), William Lee (m. Lutilia Ezzell 1856) and Jemima Jane (m. Thomas L. Hunt 1848). After arrival in Gonzales, a fourth David Barton (m. Lemelia Lay) was born 30 Apr 1834. On 31 Mar 1837, another son, Joseph Parthenias (m. Eliza Jane Bownds), was born in Columbus on the way back to the Gonzales area after their flight to East Texas. Wife and mother Sara Reavis Ponton died 31 Aug 1837 in Gonzales. On 28 Mar 1839, Dr. Ponton married Rhoda Delaney who adopted his children and bore more children Joel (b. 1842), Alexander (b. 1843), Martha and Ellen (and probably more) while Ponton ministered both to the physical and spiritual illnesses of his clients. Records indicate that he commonly applied steam and lobelia treatment, steam to cause sweating and lobelia (Indian tobacco) as an emetic. As a doctor, Ponton was in large demand and widely respected in the community, he had a large practice kept busy by the hazards of pioneer life. It is unclear if Dr. & Reverend Ponton practiced his spiritual ministry in the colony prior to independence. However, afterwards he was an enthusiastic minister in the early Church of Christ and established at least two congregations on the Rio Navidad in 1841-1842. In early Texas days, both of his ministeries combined could not support the large family. Ponton supported his family by as a rancher and farmer and also served the public in civil capacities. In spring 1839 after attending the death of his sister Mary Jane Ponton Patrick in San Felipe and the settlement of the William Ponton estate among the children, Ponton established his homestead on the Navidad River. On the way to the homestead on the Navidad, he purchased a 45 year old slave named Squire from James Campbell near Hallettsville. Both of Dr. Ponton's ministeries kept him on the road between homesteads and settlements, most frequently to Gonzales town. On 5 Aug 1840, he and Tucker Foley while on the way to Gonzales from their Navidad River homestead were attacked by a band of 27 Comanches on their way to the great raid on the coast at Linnville. Dr. Ponton survived, but companion Foley did not. On 5 Mar 1850, wife Rhoda Delaney Ponton died leaving him a 48 year old widower with 11 dependent children. On 11 Jul 1850, he married 18 year old Mary Henderson, one of six children of James and Lucinda Henderson from Water Hole Branch on the Lyons League about 12 miles south of Hallettsville. Joel and Mary Ponton settled near Hallettsville and had eight more children, Sarah, James, Alice, Laura, John, Lena, Henry and Victor Hugo.

Upon the death of his brother Andrew Ponton in 1850, Joel Ponton became the administrator of his estate by will of widow Mary H. Berry Ponton. After Andrew's widow Mary H. Ponton married Dr. Daniel C. Bellows in Dec 1850, the couple challenged Joel Ponton's position as administrator of the Andrew Ponton estate and he was removed, but after Ponton had established home tracts and slaves Austin and Elvira as property of the children of Andrew Ponton. The Bellows became owners of the Hicks Hotel and Tavern in Hallettsville, renamed it The Mansion House and after financial difficulties with it, Mary H. Berry Ponton Bellows died in Dec 1856 and Bellows moved out of the area. In 1857, Joel Ponton was re-established as guardian of the Andrew Ponton minor hiers and estate. He was forced to sell Austin for $157 and Elvira for $800 and tracts of land to support his nephews.

When the Civil War came, Dr. Joel Ponton supported the cause of the south without wavering and continued to do so after Lee's surrender. Prior to "Yankee Rule" in Lavaca County, Ponton served as deputy county clerk Josiah Dowling, he tried without success to obtain office under reconstruction and was elected county judge in 1866 when open polls were restored. However, he was removed form office by Federal authorities. He became again deputy county clerk under Josiah Dowling through Mar 1869. As county clerk and local minister, Ponton took care of both the civil and ceremonial formalities of marriages in the area. Wife Mary Henderson Ponton died on 17 Aug 1868 and Dr. Ponton married for the fourth time, Mrs. M.A. Beedle, by minister James Ballard. She died on 31 Mar 1871. In the same year Joel Ponton married Mrs. Harriet W. Koonce, mother of a daughter-in-law Elizabeth Koonce Mayo Ponton. On 1 Feb 1875 five times married DeWitt Colony pioneer doctor, minister, rancher and farmer Dr. Joel Ponton died with his large family in attendance. He is said to be buried on the Koonce tract of land near the Kent homestead on the Andrew Kent league in a location known as Ezzell, established by Sam and Ira Ezzell.

---------------------------------------------
Texas State Historical Association
A digital Gateway to Texas History
http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fpo57

PONTON, JOEL
PONTON, JOEL (1802?1875). Joel Ponton, early "Reformed Baptist" preacher, was born on July 3, 1802, in Virginia, the son of William and Isabella (Moreland) Ponton. The family moved to Missouri. Six years after his marriage to Sarrah Reavis in 1827, Joel followed his brother Andrew Ponton and his father to Texas. William and a companion, John Hays, were killed by Indians in 1834.

Ponton was versed in both religion and medicine and spent his entire life in the two professions; he confined his activity mostly to Lavaca County. He narrowly escaped an Indian attack in 1840 in which his companion Tucker Foley was killed. The same Indians were engaged by settlers in the battle of Plum Creek in 1840.

Ponton was probably the earliest of the "Reformed Baptists" preachers, as Alexander Campbell's movement was called, to preach in Texas. His association with these churches is first documented in 1842. His ministry continued until his death in 1875. A report by Henry Thomas, an Austin minister who visited Ponton's home on the bank of the Lavaca River in 1859, describes Ponton as "estimable and talented . . . a chaste, logical and eloquent speaker, and the only proclaimer, in the Christian Church, within sixty miles of this place." Forced to practice medicine to support a large family at this time Ponton preached very little. The Church of Christ at Ezzell was established by Ponton. He was married four times and had seventeen children. He was county judge of Lavaca County from 1866 to 1867. He died in 1875.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Paul C. Boethel, On the Headwaters of the Lavaca and the Navidad (Austin: Von Boeckmann-Jones, 1967). John Holland Jenkins, Recollections of Early Texas, ed. John H. Jenkins III (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1958; rpt. 1973).






Other-Begin:
The Foley and Ponton Incident. On 5 August, Tucker Foley and Dr. Joel Ponton, who were Lavaca County residents, were on their way to Gonzales on the Columbus Road west of Ponton?s Creek when attacked by a band of 27 mounted Comanches. They fled on horseback until Foley's horse began to falter. Foley told Ponton not to worry about him, but to save himself. Spurring his horse onward past Foley, several warriors passed Foley in hot pursuit of Ponton. Knocked off his horse with an arrow in his hat and two in his back, Ponton abandoned his also wounded horse and escaped into a dense thicket where the Indians left a guard. The main band returned to Foley who was pursued into a creek bottom where his horse became mired in a "hog wallow". He ran for cover in the timber, but was overtaken and surrounded. The warriors promised him no harm and he surrendered. As soon as he gave up his weapons, he was tied hand and feet; the bottoms of his feet were peeled of skin with knives and he was made to walk over stones and freshly burned stubble where Ponton was hiding and forced to call in attempt to get Ponton to emerge. Shortly after, the Indians killed Foley with their spears and scalped and mutilated his body. Although Ponton?s horse was killed and he was severely wounded with two arrows in his backside, he survived by crawling through the bottom land thickets and eventually managed to return to his home the following night after which minuteman leader Capt. Adam Zumwalt was alerted to the incident.

Ellen McKinney Arnold, daughter of John McKinney, related the incident told to her by her father in 1905:

"Tucker Foley was killed in about two miles of where Moulton now stands, and was buried under a big live oak tree. Father dug his grave with a butcher knife and wrapped him in a saddle blanket made out of cotton. When father found him, he was naked, had been scalped, and was hanging to a tree, tied up by his hamstrings. Nearly all the people in Lavaca County pursued the Indians, over took them and had a big fight. There were about thirty-seven men from Gonzales; my father was among the number who were joined by other volunteers. Mason Foley brought back his brother's horse and rifle; he said he killed the Indian that had them, and that he believed he was the one that killed his brother. I saw the horse and rifle several years afterward; the horse was a bay, and the rifle was a flint-rock rifle. Mase told me after the fight was over he killed all the squaws and tried to find his brother's scalp, but it was lost."
http://www.tamu.edu/faculty/ccbn/dewitt/badam2.htm


Census:
Joel Ponton 48 Michigan
Mary Ponton 17 Arkansas
David B Ponton 16 Texas
Joseph P Ponton 13 Texas
Joel Ponton 8 Texas
A C Ponton 6 Texas
Martha Ponton 3 Texas
Ellen Ponton 1 Texas
(no wife, census record in September. However marriage to wife Mary Henderson in July.)


Religion:
Gonzales Inquirer, March 25, 1854
Published in paper:
Religious Appointments:
Rev. J.H. Stibling, of the Baptist denomination, preaches in this place on the first Sabbath of every month.
Rev. AH. Walker of the Cleveland Presbyterian, on the second Sabbath of every month.
Rev. Daniel Carl, of the M.E.Church, on the third Sabbath of every month.
Rev John McCrae of the Old School Presbyterians on the fourth Sabbath of every month.
Rev Dr. Ponton, Cambellite, on every fifth Sabbath.

announcement also posted in papers of
March 11, 1854
April 22, 1854


Census:
1860 Lavaca, Lavaca Co, Texas
472 Jones William 63 1797 Male Kentucky
472 Jones Margaret 61 1799 Female Kentucky
472 Jones Camilus 22 1838 Male Tennessee
472 Jones Marsellus 16 1844 Tennessee


477 Koonce John 40 1820 Male North Carolina
477 Koonce Harriet 29 1831 Female Indiana (m2 Joel Ponton)
477 Koonce Elisabeth 16 1844 Female Mississippi

478 Bounds William 24 1836 Male Mississippi
478 Bounds Louisa (Jones) 22 1838
478 Bounds Mary 11 1849 Female
478 Bounds Ferry 7 1853 Female
478 Bounds Nancy 5 1855 Female
478 Bounds Iowel (Iowa) 7 1853 Male

479 Pontow Jewel (Joel) 58 1802 Male Virginia
479 Pontow Mary (Henderson) 27 1833 Female Kentucky
479 Pontow Jewel 18 1842 Male Texas
479 Pontow Alexander 16 1844 Male Texas
479 Pontow Martha 14 1846 Texas
479 Pontow Ellen 12 1848 Female Texas
479 Pontow Sarah 9 1851 Female Texas
479 Pontow James 8 1852 Male Texas
479 Pontow Laura 6 1854 Female Texas
479 Pontow John 4 1856 Male Texas

480 Bosworth Henry 40 1820 Male Mississippi
480 Bosworth Martha 28 1832 Female Mississippi
480 Bosworth Elisabeth 9 1851 Female Texas
480 Bosworth Woodson 3 1857 Male Texas
480 Bosworth William 1 1859 Male Texas
480 Bosworth Augustus 17 1843 Male Mississippi


Census:
Ponton Joel 68 1802 Virginia
Mary A. 41 1829 New York
Sarah 19 1851 Texas
James T. 17 1853
Laura 12 1858
John 10 1860
Lara 8 1862
Hary 5 1865
Victor H. 3 1867

Joel married Sarah Reavis on 5 Jan 1827 in Cooper Co, Missouri. Sarah was born on 8 Jun 1794 in Rutherford Co, North Carolina; died on 31 Aug 1837 in Gonzales Co, Texas. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Residence: 1833, Missouri; moved to

Notes:

DeWitt Colony Biographies
Gonzales Town Residents
Town Lot Owners
http://www.tamu.edu/faculty/ccbn/dewitt/innerresidents3o-z2.htm

PONTON. William Sr., Andrew, Joel. The Pontons originated in Virginia with William Ponton (b. abt 1772), the oldest child of Joel and Hannah Ponton of Amherst County, VA. Joel Ponton was a Revolutionary War soldier who died on 22 Jun 1826 in Nelson County, VA. Family legend says that the Ponton and Morelands were of French descent having originally come to New Amsterdam (New York) in the 17th century. William Ponton married Isabella Moreland of Pennsylvania on 12 Jan 1801 and they had children Joel (b. 3 Jul 1802), Andrew (b. 1804) and Mary Jane (b. abt 1810) in Virginia and Sarah Ann (b. 16 Sep 1820) in Missouri. William Ponton owned land in HowardCo, MO in 1819 and the family lived also in Boonville, CooperCo, MO where several children were born. It is thought that the Pontons and the John William and Catherine McClure Burket families were good friends in Missouri before coming to Texas. Upon the urging of son-in-law James B. Patrick who married Mary Jane Ponton, the Pontons and Patricks moved to the DeWitt Colony arriving 17 Dec 1829. The Patricks remained in or around Gonzales where James B. arriving in 1829 received title in 1831 to a league on the south bank of the Guadalupe River southwest of Gonzales. J.B. Patrick purchased 2 lots in inner Gonzales town on each of which he built structures, one a home on Water St. About the same time brother-in-law, Andrew Ponton, a single man, received title to a quarter sitio on the Gonzales-LavacaCo line. Andrew Ponton also purchased two lots in inner Gonzales town where he had a smokehouse which was one of the only two structures still identifiable after the burning of Gonzales by Houston's retreating army.

The elder William and Isabella Ponton settled on a league just north of current Hallettsville granted to them in current Lavaca County in the Austin Colony on 27 Nov 1832, the same day as title was passed to James Campbell on the league between the Ponton tract and current Hallettsville. Joel Ponton and family at first remained behind in MO, but followed in late 1833. He purchased in fall 1835 a lot at the bend of the San Marcos River on the far northwest corner of the Gonzales town tract. On 20 May 1834, a band of Comanches caught William Ponton and John Hays away from their guns and horses while they were cutting poles for a crib. Lavaca County author, Judge Paul Boethel in A History of Lavaca County describes the event:

"William Ponton, a member of DeWitt's Colony, was killed by the Indians near his home on Ponton's Creek in 1834. It was in spring, good rains had fallen for some time and the ground was covered with a luxuriant growth of wild flowers and grass, and game was abundant when a stray band of Comanches fell upon this settler and his companion. Ponton and his companion, named John Hays, left the house as day was breaking, May 20th, and rode out to the timber, where the Dickson or Evergreen schoolhouse once stood, to cut poles for a crib. They had been chopping about two hours and the pile of poles was steadily growing, when Ponton suddenly dropped his axe, pointed towards the top of the hill to the south, and said: 'John, look yonder; what do you reckon that is?' There, just beyond the crest of the hill, was a glimpse of several figures moving about. The two men turned pale as they realized their situation. They had brought their guns with them but had left them, together with their horses and lunch basket, a full half mile below them, where they had first started in to work. They crept in behind some trees and watched the crest of the hill, where the moving figures had disappeared, but Hays felt certain he caught the glitter of a lance before they vanished. 'Our only chance will be to get to our guns and horses,' said Ponton. 'Mebbe they haven't seen our horses. Come on, let's run for it,' and throwing aside his axe, he made a run for them, closely followed by Hays. They had hardly covered two hundred yards, however, before they heard a shrill cry from the hill and saw the Indians riding down upon them, waving their lances over their heads. A minute or two later, Ponton and Hays reached a shallow gully that stretched directly across their path; the heavy rains had made the bottom of it a quagmire, and gathering all his strength, Hays cleared it in a jump but Ponton fell short. As Hays ran on, he caught a glimpse of his comrade struggling to free himself of the mud and mire and the Indians were fast closing in upon him. Reaching the spot where they had started in to work, he saw that the horses had become frightened and had broken loose, and at the moment were galloping away across the prairie to the left. Catching up his rifle, he ran to a dense thicket of low bushes that covered two or three acres of ground on the far bank. He reached it in a few minutes and turned to look back for Ponton. The Indians were all dismounted and around the gully and he could see that his comrade was a prisoner. Working his way deep into the dense underbrush on his hands and knees, dragging his rifle behind him, he found his cover, and prepared to make his stand by laying out his ammunition beside him. In a little while, the Indians came up and rode around and around the thicket, sometimes venturing in a short distance, and then out. The underbrush was so dense he could only be guided by their voices. About two in the afternoon, the Indians brought Ponton up and made him call his comrade, but getting no response they continued their search. Just as night came on, they brought Ponton back again and this time in agony. He called upon Hays to come out and maybe they would spare his life, stating they had cut all the skin off the bottom of his feet. Again and again Ponton called to him as they continued to torture him and finally the Indians built a huge fire before the thicket. By and by all sounds ceased and Hays concluded his comrade had been killed and the Indians had ridden away, but he stayed in the thicket all night. He crept out of his hiding the next day and hurried to the nearest settlement where he organized a rescue party and returned to the scene. The party found Ponton, scalped and horribly mutilated, near the thicket."

In 1835, Andrew Ponton emerged as the Alcalde of Gonzales who guided the government of the colony through the events leading to separation from Mexico including the original confrontation at Gonzales over the Gonzales cannon. The event became known as the Battle of Gonzales, the "Lexington" of Texas and the precipitation of events leading to victory over Santa Anna at San Jacinto. Andrew Ponton became the agent for disposition of his parents league on the Lavaca River north of the Hallett home near current Hallettsville, but before any of the family could settle and improve it they were forced to flee east on the Runaway Scrape in front of Santa Anna's army. In the fall of 1837, Andrew Ponton, his brother Joel Ponton and family and sisters Sarah Ann Eggleston and Mary Jane Patrick and families returned to the DeWitt Colony to begin life again in an independent Texas Republic. Andrew, his widowed mother Isabella Ponton, and the Egglestons established homesteads on the William Ponton league on the Lavaca River near Hallettsville in addition to their homes in Gonzales town proper. The Patricks remained in Houston for a time until daughter Sarah Jane was born in 1837 and then returned to Gonzales. In 1838 the Patricks and Sarah Ann Ponton Eggleston were in San Felipe where Mary Jane Ponton Patrick became ill and died, probably in Apr 1839, in the presence of mother Isabella and other relatives. While in San Felipe, titles to tracts on their father's league were formalized. Andrew Ponton and his mother returned to a homestead on the Lavaca River, Joel Ponton acquired and settled property on the Navidad River and the Egglestons settled in Gonzales town. James B. Patrick and children also apparently returned to Gonzales town where he continued to be active in Gonzales town politics and public service. Andrew Ponton apparently made his home and spent most of the time through 1841 in Gonzales where he continued in public service as described below. After his marriage to Mary H. Berry in 1841, the couple focused on stockraising on their league on the upper Lavaca River. With slaves Austin, Elvira and Sam, the Pontons became prosperous. Upon statehood, Ponton was elected the first county judge of Lavaca County. Widowed matriarch of the Ponton clan made her home until her death after 1850 with daughter Sarah Ann and son-in-law Horace Eggleston in Gonzales.
http://www.tamu.edu/faculty/ccbn/dewitt/innerresidents3o-z2.htm#ponton


contact for this family:
Judy Lynn Turner judylynnturner@gmail.com
ancestry tree: http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/68633148/person/46186773692?ssrc=

Died:
killed by Indians

William married Isabelle Moreland on 12 Jan 1801 in Nelson Co, Virginia. Isabelle (daughter of Andrew Moreland and Ann Oglesby) was born in 1782 in Pennsylvania; died in 1860 in Gonzales Co, Texas. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Joel married Hannah Ravenell in 1769 in Virginia. Hannah was born in 1750 in Charleston, Charleston Co, South Carolina; died in 1826 in Nelson Co, Virginia. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Andrew married Ann Oglesby on 16 Nov 1775 in St. James Northam Parish, Goochland Co, Virginia. Ann (daughter of Richard Oglesby and Sarah Ferguson) was born in 1755 in Goochland, Goochland Co, Virginia; died after 1786. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Property: 1778, Amherst Co, Virginia

Notes:

Property:
Richard sold property to Ann Moreland in 1778 Book E page
?Know all men by these presents that I Richard Ogelsby of the county of Amherst have this day given, granted and confirmed unto my daughter Ann Moreland of the county of Powhatan a certain Negro girle called and known by the name Sarah which said Negro I do give, grant and confirm with her increase to my said daughter Ann and her heirs forever from me, my heirs, executors, administrators or my other person or persons whatsoever as witness my hands and seal this 17th day of August, 1778. In the presence of John Curd, James Curd, Robin Poor and John Curd Sr. In language virtually identical to his gift to Ann Moreland he gave a Negro girle named Aggy to his daughhter Elizabeth Towman or Thomason (?).of Henrico county. Page 75. .