| 6. |  Rev/Dr Joel Ponton, Sr.  (3.Isabelle2, 1.Andrew1) was born on 3 Jul 1802 in near Lovingston, Amherst Co, Virginia; died on 1 Feb 1875 in Ezzell, Lavaca Co, Texas; was buried in Koonce tract, Andrew Kent League, Ezzell, Lavaca Co, Texas. 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.
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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]
Children:
- 10. Andrew Judson Ponton was born on 4 Aug 1829 in Cooper Co, Missouri; died on 12 Jan 1908; was buried in Junction, Kimble Co, Texas.
- 11. William Lee Ponton was born on 4 Nov 1827 in Boonville, Cooper Co, Missouri; died about 1900.
- 12. Jemima Jane Ponton was born in May 1831 in Cooper Co, Missouri; died about 1858.
- 13. Mary Ponton was born in 1833 in Arkansas; died after 1850 in of, Lavaca Co, Texas.
- 14. David Barton Ponton was born on 30 Apr 1834 in Gonzales, Dewitt Co, Texas; died after 1855.
- 15. Joseph Parthenias Ponton was born on 31 Mar 1837 in Columbus, Gonzales Co, Texas; died on 21 Mar 1921 in Thorndale, Milam Co, Texas; was buried in Mesquite Cem, Lee Co, Texas.
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Joel married Rhoda Delaney, (1/2 Indian) on 28 Mar 1839 in Jackson Co, Texas. Rhoda was born on 16 Mar 1813 in New Madrid, Missouri; died on 5 Mar 1850 in Lavaca Co, Texas; was buried in Halletsville, Lavaca Co, Texas. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]
Children:
- 16. Mary Ann Ponton was born in 1840; died in 1844.
- 17. Joel Ponton, Jr. was born on 26 Jan 1842 in Gonzales Co, Texas; died on 14 Dec 1927 in Hallettsville, Lavaca Co, Texas; was buried in Salem Cem, Ezzell, Lavaca Co, Texas.
- 18. Alexander C. Ponton was born in 1843 in Lavaca Co, Texas; died after 1875 in of, Lavaca Co, Texas.
- 19. Martha M. Ponton was born on 6 Sep 1844 in Lavaca Co, Texas; died on 11 Aug 1929 in Palestine, Anderson Co, Texas; was buried on 11 Aug 1929 in East Hill Cem, Palestine, Anderson Co, Texas.
- 20. Mary Ponton was born in 1845; died in 1846.
- 21. Ellen Ponton was born in 1848 in Lavaca Co, Texas; died after 1850 in of, Lavaca Co, Texas.
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Joel married Mary Henderson on 11 Jul 1850 in Hallettsville, Lavaca Co, Texas. Mary (daughter of James Henderson and Mrs. Lucinda (..) Henderson) was born in 1829 in New York; died on 17 Aug 1868 in Lavaca Co, Texas. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]
Children:
- 22. Sarah Ponton was born in 1851 in Lavaca Co, Texas; died after 1870 in of, Lavaca Co, Texas.
- 23. T. James Ponton was born in 1853 in Missouri; died after 1880 in of, Lavaca Co, Texas.
- 24. John Ponton was born in 1856 in Lavaca Co, Texas; died after 1870 in of, Lavaca Co, Texas.
- 25. Alice Ponton was born about 1856; died after 1857.
- 26. Laura Anne Ponton was born on 23 Feb 1858 in Lavaca Co, Texas; died in 1931 in Goliad, Goliad Co, Texas.
- 27. Lena Ponton was born about 1863; died after 1863.
- 28. Henry Ponton was born in 1865 in Lavaca Co, Texas; died after 1870 in of, Lavaca Co, Texas.
- 29. Victor Hugo Ponton was born in 1867 in Lavaca Co, Texas; died after 1870 in of, Lavaca Co, Texas.
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Joel married Mrs. M.A. (..) Beedle on 27 Jul 1869. M.A. was born about 1830; died on 31 Mar 1871 in Gonzales Co, Texas. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]
Joel married Harriet Newell (or W.) Melton-Koonce on 6 Oct 1871 in Lavaca Co, Texas. Harriet (daughter of Michael Hendrick Melton and Rachel Cockrum) was born in 1831 in Indiana; died after 1875 in of, Lavaca, Lavaca Co, Texas. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]
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Abt 1750 - 1802 (~ 52 years)
Andrew Ponton 
Martha M. Ponton 