|
Joseph Pybus
Joseph Pybus was one
of the pioneer Texans who came from England and spent a long and
useful life in Matagorda County. He married the daughter of one of
the oldest settlers of Texas, William D. Lacy, who had an active
part in the events leading up to the establishment of the Republic
and was a sailor of the revolution.
Joseph Pybus was
born March 12, 1838, in England, and died November 20, 1920, at his
home in Palacios. In 1861 he came to the United States landing at
Indianola in the month of March, just before the outbreak of the
Civil War. He was a cabinet maker by trade and for a number of years
carried on a general contracting and building business at Indianola.
Later he lived in Matagorda County and was county commissioner in
1878-79, and served four years on the City Council and was a
director of the Palacios State Bank and in the Blessing State.
He married, Sept. 5, 1866, Sarah Jane Lacy and they lived in
Palacios. She was the mother of five children: John L., born in
1867; Nannie L., born in 1870; and Joseph E., born in 1883; The son,
John, a contractor at Palacios, married Mattie Anderson of Lockhart,
Texas and they had a daughter, Mary L., who was the wife of Carlton
Crawford who operated a packing plant at Palacios. Mr. and Mrs.
Crawford had a daughter, Mary C., who was born in 1927. The
daughter, Nannie L. lived with Mrs. Pybus at Palacios. Agnes J.
married Joseph E. Lothridge, a farmer of Palacios, and had one
child, Joseph Fulton Lothridge. Fred was in the interior decorating
business at Houston. He married Laura Harris and had four children,
Fred R., Jr., Joseph H., Laurin and Jane Elizabeth. Joseph, a
contractor at Palacios married Mabel Nelson and had a son, Joseph.
William D. Lacy, father of Mrs. Pybus, was born in Virginia on Sept.
15, 1808 and was reared in Logan, Kentucky. After the death of his
parents he and his two older brothers moved to Christian County,
Kentucky, and when a young man of nineteen he started with several
other young Kentuckians on horseback for Texas, arriving in what was
then a province of Mexico in 1827. He acquired a tanyard near
Columbus and employed a number of men in this growing industry. In
1832 William D. Lacy married Mrs. Sally McCrosky.
William D. Lacy in the election of Feb. 1, 1836, was chosen as a
delegate from the Colorado District to the general convention which
met at Washington on the Brazos March 1. He was in favor of an
absolute Declaration of Independence. He had previously enlisted in
the Texas army. When Houston decided to fall back from his position
on the Colorado to the Brazos River, William D. Lacy secured
permission to move his family to Harrisburg, and from there they
went with other refugees to Galveston Island. In the meantime
William D. Lacy had rejoined the army and took part in the battle of
San Jacinto. After that battle he established his family at
Matagorda and then revisited his old home at Columbus, where the
invaders had left everything in ruins. He was on a fair way to
building up a fortune, and the total destruction of his property was
a property sacrifice such as few other Texans suffered as a result
of the war for independence. He started rebuilding his fortune on a
labor of land on the Tres Palacios River and remained there until
1848, when he removed with his family to Paducah, Kentucky, and
died there Oct 14. 1848. His widow subsequently returned to Texas
and lived for many years, passing away June 4, 1880, at the age of
seventy-one. Their only son, Richard, died in 1855. Of these six
children the only survivor at the writing at of this book was Mrs.
Sarah J. Pybus.
William D. Lacy
bought at auction the old rifle which Colonel Milam had used in the
siege of San Antonio, and the rifle in 1866 was given to Mrs. Sarah
Jane Lacy, and she retained this historic weapon until some years
ago when she presented it to the Texas State Historical Association.
Texas Under Many
Flags, Clarence W. Wharton, American Historical Society, 1930
Matagorda County
Genealogical Society Publication, Oak Leaves, Vol. 8 #4,
August 1989
|