General Notes

This information came from a book about the early settlers in Texas. This information was copied by Bob Allen Reed and passed on to my mother Doris Allen Underwood to me Lillie Underwood Franke,  It was found on page 226. The information was submitted by Mrs J. V.  Harris.  The paragraph is titled Oxley-Smalley.   The following is the information from that book.  I think the book is entitled Williamson Co. Texas : It's History and It's People .  This title was found in Ancestors of Sheri Gail Price who also come from the Martin C, Allen line.    Enoch Oxley , born 3 April 1800, Laudon County, Virginia, married Elizabeth Smalley on 16 March 1826 in Clinton County ,Ohio.  The couple , with their family, moved to Texas , near Hutto on Brushy Creek in the year of 1846. Elizabeth Oxley died 14 May  1853 in Williamson County and was laid to rest in the old Oxley Cemetery, not far from the house.  Enoch Oxley then married Rachel Smalley Snider, widow of John Snider, and sister of his first wife, Elizabeth, on 4 October 1853.  Rachel had five Snider children, Sam, Ben, Molley (Mary Elizabeth) , Barbara,  Ace. Enoch and Rachel had four children, Sophrania Ann (born 25 April 1856) Rachel Victoria and James Louis (twins) born 6 June 1859 and Prudie S. Oxley , born 19 September 1865. After John Snider died Rachel wanted to come to Texas to be near her father and sister.  She left Vermillion County, Illinois , in a covered wagon pulled by oxen, with her five children and a nephew.  A story was told of Rachel Snider having $1,000.00 in an old beat-up tin can.  At night she would throw the can under the feet of the oxen, pick it up the next morning and throw it back in the wagon.  When she reached Hutto, her father and sister had both passed away.   personal note:  Rachel was 21 years younger than Enoch.  she was 32 years old when she married Enoch,  Her daughter Mary Elizabeth was between 2 1/2 and 3 when her mother started to Texas with her and her 2 brothers and 2 sisters.  I have always felt that this woman was a very strong woman to come all the way in a wagon with just the  help of a nephew.         Then to arrive in Texas and find out the she no longer had family here except the children of her sister and her brother-in-law.  She could have barely known her brother-in-law because of the age difference.  That she married him  5 months after her sisters death.  Enoch must have been a good man to see that Rachel would make him a good wife and a good stepmother/aunt to his children.  That these two made it a real marriage by have children of their own.  It must have been hard on Rachel to have children at the age of 35 and twins at 38 and another child at the age of 42, considering the times she lived in. After hearing and reading about this great-great-great-great grandmother I can only wish that some of her strengths have passed on to me and my grandchildren.  Rachels son-in-law was William Barret Travis Allen  the son of James Bud Allen the son of Martin C, Allen  one of the old three hundred of Texas.