Title Page The Munsons of Texas — an American Saga, Second Edition, by Thurmond A. Williamson







© 1987, 2005 Thurmond A. Williamson; Internet format © 2005 Laura Munson Cooper All Rights Reserved ContentsTable of Contents











© 1987, 2005 Thurmond A. Williamson; Internet format © 2005 Laura Munson Cooper All Rights Reserved IndicesIndex Links











© 1987, 2005 Thurmond A. Williamson; Internet format © 2005 Laura Munson Cooper All Rights Reserved LinksOther sites and files of interest to the Munson family









© 1987, 2005 Thurmond A. Williamson; Internet format © 2005 Laura Munson Cooper All Rights Reserved PreviousChapter 21
The Life and Family of Henry William Munson III (b. 1851-d. 1924)







© 1987, 2005 Thurmond A. Williamson; Internet format © 2005 Laura Munson Cooper All Rights Reserved NextChapter 23
The Life and Family of Emma Munson Murray (b. 1855-d. 1936)







© 1987, 2005 Thurmond A. Williamson; Internet format © 2005 Laura Munson Cooper All Rights Reserved

The Munsons of Texas — an American Saga

Chapter Twenty-two

THE LIFE AND FAMILY OF GEORGE CALDWELL MUNSON
b. 1853 — d. 1931

SUMMARY

George Caldwell Munson, the second child of Mordello and Sarah Munson, was born on January 12, 1853. He was raised at Bailey’s Prairie and obtained a law degree in Austin, but he was a farmer and rancher in Brazoria County all his life. He married Hannah Dyer Adriance on February 6, 1878, and they lived long, happy lives together. They have the largest number of descendants of any of the eight children of Mordello and Sarah. They had seven children, twelve grandchildren, thirty-seven great-grandchildren, and, to this date, sixty-two great-great-grandchildren.

George Caldwell Munson was born January 12, 1853, while his parents lived at “Hard Castle,” their small original home at Bailey’s Prairie. Family records tell that he was born at Bailey’s Prairie, so he was probably born in that home. Older brother Henry William had been born at Oakland Plantation, but James and Ann Caldwell had left Oakland for San Marcos, and Sarah apparently had her second child at home. He was named for his uncle, George Poindexter Munson, and his father’s stepfather, James Caldwell. In the naming of his first two children, Mordello gave recognition to his father, his stepfather, and both of his closest brothers. He had a total of six sons, but he never named one for himself.

George C. Munson was raised at Ridgely Plantation with his seven brothers and sisters and some of the seven cousins that his father and mother raised. He was grown before the children of Gerard and Annie came to live at Ridgely. In all his mother’s letters he was always referred to as “Bud.” His older brother was “Son,” his sister Emma was “Daughter” or “Daught,” and the next, Sarah, was "Doll.” All of the later children were called by their given names: Waddy, Armour, Bascom, and Stephen.

George, like the others, got his elementary education at home from his mother and private governesses. George attended a school in San Marcos (probably because his grandmother, Ann Caldwell, lived there until her death in 1865), and then “a school in Austin" — surely Texas Military Institute — with older brother Henry William. From these early days onward, George and Henry William were partners in many of their endeavors, doing business as "H. W. and G. C. Munson,” and their families lived together as one family for many of the early years.

George aspired to be a lawyer and was admitted to the Texas Bar by examination in Travis County (Austin) on March 22, 1876, at the age of 23. He returned to the Bailey’s Prairie home and for a short time practiced law with his father, who had offices in Brazoria, Houston, and Galveston. George may have worked in the Houston office, as a letter from him in Houston to his father, dated 1877, describes George’s investigations of the early legal quarrels regarding their Bailey’s Prairie land. In 1878 he was married; he gave up his practice of law to help manage his father’s plantation; and he spent the remainder of his life as a rancher, farmer, and manager of family affairs. An entry in Sarah’s diary on January 12, 1881, reads: “This is Bud’s birthday, just to think he is 29. He is certainly a noble man and one of the best of sons. . ."

His daughter, Sarah Munson Stevens, wrote of her father:

     My father. . .was the son of a brilliant lawyer and early expressed a desire to follow the same profession, as did three of his younger brothers. He graduated from law school and received his license to practice, but married as soon as he came home from school, so decided to try farming and cattle raising until such a time as he should feel able to begin his career as a struggling young lawyer. This time never came and he continued along these lines the rest of his life.

George was the first of the children of Mordello and Sarah to marry when he married Hannah Dyer Adriance on February 6, 1878, at Christ Episcopal Church in Houston. This date was the twenty-eighth wedding anniversary of Mordello and Sarah. George was 25 years old and Hannah was 20. The Munson family of Bailey’s Prairie and the Adriance family of Columbia had been close friends and business and political associates for many years, and they remained so for the rest of their lives.

George and Hannah lived and worked with his parents at the Bailey’s Prairie home for about four years. During these years they lost their first child, a daughter named Lydia, and they had a second daughter, whom they also named Lydia. Living at Ridgely Plantation in these years were Mordello and Sarah, their daughter Emma, their oldest son, Henry William, and two or three of their younger sons, plus George and Hannah and their baby daughter, and four of brother Gerard’s children. It appears that for most of this time there were ten or twelve at the table for each meal.

Hannah was pregnant again, and George and Hannah wanted a home of their own. About 1881 John Adriance sold some land and divided the money among his children. That part which he gave to daughter Hannah enabled her and George to buy the “Van Place,” a 2,000-acre plantation some miles north of Columbia and Bailey’s Prairie. It covered all of the land between the Brazos River and Oyster Creek. Today much of this land lies beneath the waters of the Dow Reservoir.

Entries in Sarah Munson’s diary tell some of the early story of the “Van Place.” Several entries in January and February of 1882 tell of various of the men leaving for the “Van Place” and then returning. They were apparently getting it ready for occupancy. On February 23, 1882, an entry in the diary says, “Well Bud [i. e. son George] has at last moved `Bag and bage’, wife and children from the old Parental roof. He says he doesn’t so consider it and that this is Home still. He, Hannah, Lydia, Emma left this morning for Peach Lake, since quiet rains supreme. Oh how much I miss Lydia’s sweet little prattle and footsteps."

When the George Munson family moved from Bailey’s Prairie to the "Van Place,” George’s brother, Henry William III, moved with them, and they operated the plantation together. Family tradition tells that as they were leaving the Bailey’s Prairie home — the first children to move away — their mother, Sarah, told them, "You may go to live there, but remember, this is always your home.” Since then that Bailey’s Prairie location has always been known as the “Old Home Place.”

Mary Kennedy Giesecke wrote about the “Van Place:"

     With fondest [memories] I remember the “Vann Place,” situated near the banks of Oyster Creek. In this home lived my mother’s brothers, Henry & George. The latter’s family consisted of our dear Aunt Hannah Adriance & children, Lydia, Sarah, Adriance, Henry, Mordello & Ruth. Henry later brought his wife Kate Cahill here & their son Waddy was born in "Uncle’s room,” later George moved to Angleton so the children could be in school. Henry remained till 1898 [actually 1899] when his wife died at a son’s birth, then he & little Waddy lived with different relatives. Lydia spent some years at school in E. Columbia, staying with her grandfather. Later [at the “Van Place"] it became necessary to have a governess. The first was Miss Margaret Horn from N. Carolina, a wonderful woman. The other was Miss Lilly Fremer from Quintana. School was held in the “girl’s room.” Our plantation, Waverly, was 3 miles n. west and every day, weather permitting, my oldest sister, Sarah, Emma & I came to school in a “jolter” pulled by old “Dapple.” “Aunt Melinda” was the faithful cook & Wm. Thomas helped out. Up the road from the house was the “store” & west the old brick sugar mill & barns on the bank of the Lake.

In many personal conversations, Mary Giesecke and Ruth Smith have told of the happy times that the children had playing on the banks of the horseshoe-shaped lake — beautiful in springtime and wonderful fun in summertime — about swimming and boating in the lake and riding a swing out over the lake from a huge weeping willow tree and plunging into the cool, fresh water. They also told about the ducks and geese, chickens, turkeys, dogs, cattle, hogs, and horses; about Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter; and about family and visits from friends — it was a happy family on an early Texas plantation. The major products of the plantation were cattle, hogs, cotton, corn, and sugar.

The George C. Munson family, the Henry William III family, and the Kennedy family all lived at the “Van Place” and nearby Waverly Plantation until about 1898, when they all moved to Angleton. During these years there was constant travel among the three plantations by many family members.

George and Hannah’s next child was born at Ridgely on August 29, 1882, and was named Sarah Kimbrough Munson (IV). An entry in Sarah’s diary on that date tells of the event, “Has certainly been a day of surprises for Daught’s [Emma] coming and the `little Stranger’s advent’. Hannah and Babe both doing well. It was born about ten o’clock.” And an entry the next day says, “Bascom went to the Peach Lake to carry Bud the tidings. . .and on August 31, "Hannah & Babe still doing well. I wrote Mrs. Adriance today. Bud has been cutting grass in the garden."

George and Hannah’s fourth child was also born at Ridgely, on November 24, 1885, and thereafter they had three additional children, all born at the “Van Place.” At Bailey’s Prairie they had had Lydia (who died at birth), Lydia (again) who married Ralph Johnson, Sarah (who married Frank K. Stevens), and Adriance. At the "Van Place” they had Henry William IV, Mordello Stephen II, and Ruth (who married Frank T. Smith).

In December of 1896, Henry William III, at the age of 45, married 20-year-old Sarah Kate Cahill of nearby Chenango Plantation, and he brought his bride to live with George and Hannah and their six children. Economic times were very bad, the price of cotton “had dropped to nothing,” and the plantation was probably not supporting these families satisfactorily.

George and Hannah, in about 1897, moved their family to the new town of Angleton, reportedly in order to place their children in the newly opened school there. They moved first to a house just to the west of Angleton (either the Jamison or the Cannan house), with the intention of building on the Munson land nearby. At about this time the first child of brother Bascom and Addie Cotton died of scarlet fever in the big two-story house that Bascom had just completed on the Munson land. Bascom did not want to live there any longer, so he said to George, “I want you to have this house and I’ll build another for my family,” and Bascom gave George the house, for which he later received a small consideration.

Henry William III remained at the “Van Place” briefly, possibly managing its last days, but he also left in 1899 when his wife, Kate Cahill, died at childbirth at George and Hannah’s home in Angleton. He and baby Waddy lived with George’s family briefly while he had a home built for himself nearby. It is thought by some family members that the “Van Place” may have been lost from financial hardships.

George and Hannah raised their family in the large, two-story Angleton home, and it became the center of the Munson family activities. They always had bountiful meals and a warm home for their large family, their many, many drop-in visitors, and their frequent live-in brothers’ and sisters’ families. Some family groups lived with them for several months or several years as the families resettled on “Munson Row.” This happy home was the site of a large family dinner every Sunday, on holidays, and especially at Christmas.

George and Henry William III were partners in farming and ranching — raising, among other things, beef and dairy cattle, hogs, chickens, turkeys, cotton, corn, vegetables, potatoes, and fruit. Among other ventures, Henry and George were among the first to raise rice in Brazoria County, beginning in 1903 or 1904. They irrigated their first rice fields out of Oyster Creek with steam-powered pumps. The old brick pump foundations are standing on this Munson land today. During the pumping season in those early days, wagon loads of firewood could be seen going and coming from all directions around the pumping station.

George and Henry William III were always active in community affairs and in local, conservative, Democratic politics. Both were members of the Methodist Church. Hannah Adriance was an active member of the Episcopal Church, as her father had been a life-long, lay reader in this church, and all of the children were raised as Episcopalians. The first small building of the Holy Comforter Episcopal Church was built in Angleton with the active participation of Hannah Munson, and many members of the Munson family have been active members of this church during its ninety years.

George C. Munson was also a supporter of the University of South Texas, which was started in Angleton in about 1897 or 1898. A printed stock certificate issued to him by this university remains among his papers. Ruth Munson Smith, his daughter, can remember the two-story college building on the south side of the road west of Angleton, approximately across from the Murray Ranch. Ruth Smith’s recollections tell that the university’s organizer lived in the building and was the president and the only teacher. The institution ended when the building was totally destroyed in the 1900 storm.

George Caldwell Munson died at home after midnight on Christmas night, December 26, 1931, at the age of 78, and is buried in the Angleton Cemetery.

The large home was severely damaged in the 1932 storm and was soon thereafter torn down, and the material was used to build a home for George’s son, Mordello Stephen Munson II, next door. This home, at 730 S. Walker Street, is still occupied by the family today. The original two-story home was located near the site that is now 726 S. Walker Street, and the two giant live oak trees in the front yard next door, at 700 S. Walker, “were brought from the prairie and planted on either side of the road to the barn” almost ninety years ago.

Hannah Adriance Munson died in Port Arthur at the home of her daughter, Ruth Smith, on December 15, 1937, at the age of 80, and is buried in the Angleton Cemetery beside her husband.

Daughter Sarah Munson Stevens wrote about her parents:

     My father was always keenly interested in every concern of his fellow man. Himself of exemplary habits, he could never tolerate excesses of any kind, and was ready always to help in any reforms which were undertaken.
     He was loving, kind and generous to a fault, never thinking of himself to the exclusion of others.
     He was rarely ever ill, until the later years of his life, when he suffered to a considerable extent with headache, caused, we understood, by hardening of the arteries, which led to his death at almost the age of 79 years.

     My mother. . .living, as her family did, in a new country with poor educational advantages, did not have a college course, but had the advantage of a cultured, gentle, dignified home environment and splendid private teachers.
     As a consequence she always loved the uplifting things of life, and had the highest ambitions for her children and grandchildren. In fact, my mother’s whole life was wrapped up in her family and friends, and she was never happier than when surrounded by them in her home. . .
     For a number of years, she was afflicted with angina pectoris, but in spite of her tortured suffering at times, she always kept the keen interest in every concern of her friends and loved ones.
     Her Church was her main interest outside of her home, and she never missed services or work in any of its organizations if humanly possible. . .until her poor heart was stilled.

The Adriance Family

Hannah Dyer Adriance was descended from a distinguished colonial family on both her mother’s and her father’s side.

Her mother was Lydia Ann Cook, whose grandmother was Lydia Brewster. Lydia Brewster’s father was Elisha Brewster, a great grandson of Love Brewster, who came to America on the Mayflower with his father, William Brewster. William Brewster was a leading figure in the little band of Pilgrims who came to America on the Mayflower in 1620. Thus, all descendants of Hannah Adriance are eligible for membership in the organization known as Mayflower Descendants.

The Adriance family traces its ancestry in America back to the settling of New Amsterdam, now New York City. Hannah’s grandfather, George C. Adriance, was a hatter and fur dealer there. Hannah’s father, John Adriance, was born at Troy, New York, on November 10, 1815. At the age of 12, John was left fatherless and was raised by an uncle. At the age of 20, he decided to go to Texas for his health. He left on October 25, 1835, on the schooner Julius Caesar and arrived at Bell’s Landing, Texas, on November 25. He did not expect to remain, but he settled at Bell’s Landing (as the town of Marion was commonly known), subsequently named Columbia, and later East Columbia, and he remained there for the rest of his long life.

Though a very new arrival, John Adriance, aged 20, participated in the final actions of the Texas Revolution in the spring of 1836. He joined Captain Jacob Eberly’s Volunteer Company of thirty-five mounted men at the time that General Sam Houston and his Texas Army were retreating eastward across Texas before the vastly superior army of General Santa Anna. As Houston crossed the Brazos, he detailed Captain Eberly’s Company to remain at Marion until all of the families fleeing in “The Runaway Scrape” had crossed the river. Thus cut off from Houston’s army at San Jacinto, they then made their way to San Luis Pass on the gulf and on to Galveston.

Captain Eberly and fifteen of his men, including John Adriance, volunteered to board the steamboat Laura as guards, as the ship was to make an effort to reach the Texas Army with provisions and volunteers. On April 21, at Redfish Bar, they met the steamer Cayuga with Mexican prisoners and the news of the Battle of San Jacinto. Returning to Galveston Island, they embarked for the battleground on the steamer Yellowstone. When Santa Anna and his officers were placed aboard Yellowstone, John Adriance was one of their guards while the ship lay in the stream and during the cruise to Galveston Island. There the party was transferred to the steamer Laura, which proceeded to Velasco, where the treaty of surrender was signed on May 14.

John Adriance returned to Columbia, where the first Texas Congress assembled on October 3, 1836, and entered the mercantile business. Columbia, at that time, was the trading center for much of the Republic of Texas, and there is little doubt that James Caldwell at Oakland Plantation and Mordello Munson at Ridgely did regular business with the Adriance firms for several decades.

On September 24, 1846, at the age of 30, John Adriance was married to Miss Lydia Ann Cook in Watertown, New York. They had three children: Sarah Bush Adriance, who never married; Hannah Dyer Adriance, who married George Caldwell Munson; and Duncan M. Adriance, who married May Webb and who was an early professor of chemistry at Texas A. & M. College. Duncan and May had one son, Guy Webb Adriance, who also taught at Texas A. & M. College.

Lydia Adriance died in 1871, and John married her widowed sister, Mrs. D. E. Nash.

John Adriance had a large home at Bell’s Landing situated on the northeast side of Varner’s Creek near its junction with the Brazos. His firms had warehouses and wharves on the river’s bank south of Varner’s Creek. They were importers and warehousers of supplies for the colonists and brokers for cotton, corn, sugar, and other export produce. A Texas State Highway historical marker in East Columbia, describing Bell’s Landing, stands near the location of the Adriance businesses, and another describing the historic Nash-Wright house, built in 1847, stands just across Varner’s Creek from the location of the Adriance residence. William Nash, through his mother, Kitty Cook, was a first cousin to Hannah Adriance.

John Adriance and Colonel M. L. Smith were the first owners of the Waldeck Plantation, where they engaged in the manufacture of sugar. They bought 1,255 acres from William G. Hill on May 19, 1841. The land lay north of the Patton Plantation on the west bank of the Brazos River. It was named for Count Joseph de Boos Waldeck, a Texas visitor and land buyer from Germany in 1843. A copy of his calling card still resides in the Munson-Adriance files. The estate remained in possession of the firm of Smith & Adriance until March 16, 1847, when Adriance sold his interest to Smith for $24,800.50. At that date the plantation had 37 slaves, 12 yoke of oxen, 13 mules, 3 Spanish horses, 1,230 head of cattle, and 65 hogs. After 1847 Morgan L. Smith continued to operate Waldeck and it became one of the largest sugar plantations in Texas and produced the first refined white sugar in the state. Its ruins stand among fine cattle grazing on the fertile banks of the Brazos near Columbia Lakes Country Club.

John Adriance was one of the first to volunteer for the Confederate Army but was not accepted due to his age. His warehouse in Columbia served as a conscription center for volunteers and a warehouse for the Confederate commissary department. It has been written that he lost heavily during the war, at the end of which his warehouse held trunks full of worthless Confederate money. A biography written during his later years states: “Merchandising has been his principal business in life and as he is a man thoroughly trustworthy and reliable, and possessing a true appreciation of all the requirements of his line, he amassed quite a fortune previous to the war."

As one of the foremost businessmen after the War, John Adriance was active and influential in the formation of the Galveston and Brazos Canal Company; in the organization of the Houston Tap and Brazoria Railroad running from Houston to Columbia and on to Wharton (in which he owned a twenty-five percent interest); in working for a deep-water port at Freeport; and in the selection of Angleton as the county seat of Brazoria County.

John Adriance was a member of the Thirteenth Texas Legislature from 1872 to 1874, nominated at Galveston without his knowledge. He was often solicited to run for the same office in later years, which he declined, preferring, as he wrote, “the quieter paths of life.” During their formative years, he took a deep interest in the welfare of the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas, where he was a member of the Finance Committee for five years, and in the Prairie View State Normal School for black students, where he was a member of the Board of Directors.

For all of his active life, John Adriance was a lay reader in the Episcopal Churches in Columbia and Brazoria. Like his father, he was a prominent Mason, becoming Grand High Priest of the Grand Royal Arch Chapter of Texas and as such was well known throughout the state. A large picture of John Adriance hangs today in the Grand Lodge of Texas Temple in Waco, Texas.

John Adriance died on December 7, 1903, at the age of 88, just seven weeks after the death of his good friend, Mordello Munson (October 13, 1903). He is buried in the West Columbia Cemetery.

The Descendants of George C. Munson and Hannah Adriance

George and Hannah were married on February 6, 1878. Their first child was a daughter, whom they named, or planned to name, Lydia, for her grandmother, Lydia Cook. This child died at birth (possibly prematurely).

Their first child to survive was another daughter, also named Lydia Munson, born on November 20, 1880, at Bailey’s Prairie. This Lydia Munson grew to adulthood and lived all of her life in Angleton. She was married on November 5, 1923, at the age of 42, to Ralph Johnson, who for many successive years was elected and served as sheriff of Brazoria County. They purchased from Mrs. Joseph Waddy Munson (Woodie) the house on “Munson Row,” now 910 S. Walker Street, built by Joseph Waddy Munson in 1903. Lydia was a favorite of all and is remembered as one of the “sweetest” members of the Munson clan. She had no children, but was a delight to her many nieces and nephews — playing games endlessly with them. She died on December 25, 1969, at the age of 89. Lydia and Ralph are buried in the Angleton Cemetery.

The third child of George and Hannah Munson, born on August 29, 1882, at Bailey’s Prairie, was named Sarah Kimbrough Munson. She was Sarah Kimbrough Munson IV. Her daughter Eleanor writes: “She was beautiful inside and outside, sweet, kind and gentle, an absolute angel here on God’s earth.” On June 8, 1910, she married Frank Kirkland Stevens of Angleton after a courtship of eight years.

Frank K. Stevens had been born in Brazoria on September 24, 1885. His grandfather, Hennell Stevens, was the co-founder, in Quintana in 1873, of the Brazoria County Abstract Company. Frank’s father, Frank Wilson Stevens, had moved the offices from the town of Quintana to the new county seat at Angleton. Frank K. was beginning his training for a career in architecture when he was persuaded to join his father in the abstract office. He and his family operated the abstract office for the remainder of his life, and it is still operated by his descendants. In 1962 Frank K. Stevens wrote an autobiography entitled Memories of Seventy-Eight Years in Brazoria County.

Frank and Sarah Stevens lived for fifty-five years in a large house at 503 West Myrtle Street in Angleton, where they raised their four children: Lydia, Eleanor Adriance, Frank Wilson II, and George Munson Stevens. Sarah died in Angleton on January 1, 1965, at the age of 82, and Frank K. on January 1, 1975, at the age of 89. Both are buried in the Angleton Cemetery.

Lydia Stevens was a person of many talents, including writing, singing, photography, and art. She married David Edwin Shepherd and they both worked in the abstract office until his retirement. They had three children, eight grandchildren and, to this date, eight great-grandchildren. Lydia died on October 16, 1979, of heart arrest and is buried in the Angleton Cemetery. Edwin died March 17, 1990 in Brazoria County.

Eleanor Stevens studied architecture at Rice University but did not pursue that career. Instead, she married Herschel McCarver Vaughan, whose career as an executive with Gulf Oil Company led them to live in Port Arthur, Texas, for nineteen years and in Pennsylvania for four years. Their last nine years together were spent in England, until his untimely death from cancer in Houston on November 10, 1970, at the age of 58. He is buried in the Angleton Cemetery. Eleanor and Herschel have four children and, at this time, five grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. Eleanor now lives in Angleton.

Frank W. Stevens II studied chemical engineering at Rice University for two years but switched to law and received a law degree from the University of Texas. During World War II, he had a distinguished career in the Air Force. From Aho Gunnery Base in Arizona he was sent to Karachi, India, to train other pilots. He then served as a fighter pilot in the famous Flying Tigers under General Claire Chennault in China. He returned home in 1945 with the rank of lieutenant colonel. After his return to Angleton he married Barbara Ann Bailey, practiced law, and worked with the abstract office in Angleton until his retirement. Frank W. followed the family tradition of active commitment to civic and church affairs, and among his many awards was the coveted Angleton Community Service Award. Frank W. and Barbara have three sons and, at this time, six grandchildren.

George Munson Stevens, from an early age, had a burning desire to help his fellow man. He attended the University of Texas at Austin and received an M. D. degree from the University of Texas Medical School at Galveston. There he met and married Elizabeth Matchett, a surgical nurse. He served as medical officer in the Navy during World War II, going to the Mediterranean, to Formosa, and Japan. After the war he practiced medicine in Lake Jackson, Texas, for a number of years before doing his residency in psychiatry at the Veteran’s Hospital in Houston. He was in private practice there until his sudden death from a heart arrest on October 8, 1978, at the age of 58. He is buried in the Munson Cemetery at Bailey’s Prairie. George and Elizabeth have four sons and, at this time, seven grandchildren.

These couples have given Frank K. and Sarah Munson Stevens fourteen grandchildren and twenty-seven great-grandchildren at the time of this writing.

The fourth child and first son of George and Hannah was named Adriance Munson. He was born on November 24, 1885, at Bailey’s Prairie. Adriance graduated from Angleton High School, then from Texas A. & M. College with a degree in engineering. He was a surveyor all his professional life. His first job was in Abilene, but he soon returned to Angleton and married Lolita Reese from the Reese Plantation near Brazoria on January 3, 1917. He was then employed by the Freeport Sulfur Company and they lived in Freeport. When newborn twin babies—a boy and a girl—came up for adoption, Adriance and Lolita adopted the girl and named her Robin, and their next door neighbors adopted the boy and named him Chris. Later, Adriance and family moved to Angleton where he was elected county surveyor.

Robin Munson first married Richard Weems and they have a son, Chris Haslund Weems. Later she married Wilbur Lee Womack, and they have a daughter, Jeanette Womack. Both have grown to adulthood and have married, and Chris Weems has two children.

Adriance Munson was killed in an automobile accident near San Antonio on May 31, 1957, at the age of 71. Lolita continued to live in Angleton where she practiced and taught china painting for many years. She died August 2, 1994 at age 99.

The fifth child and second son of George and Hannah Munson was named Henry William Munson IV, always known as Henry. He was born on January 4, 1888, the first of the family to be born at the “Van Place.” This is the best indication available to date the family’s move to the “Van Place.” He was raised at the “Van Place” and in Angleton, and he graduated from Angleton High School, then Texas A. & M. College with a degree in engineering. He returned to Angleton and was married in Hustburg, Tennessee, to Elsie McCauley on June 4, 1914. Henry and Elsie lived temporarily with his uncle, Henry William III, while their new home was built at what is now 632 S. Walker Street. They lived there the rest of their lives. Their grandson, Henry William Munson V, and his family live there today.

Henry worked all of his years as an engineer—as an independent surveyor, as county surveyor for many years, and finally with the Briscoe Irrigation Company of Alvin. Briscoe was engaged primarily in the design and construction of irrigation canals for rice farming and the Texas City water reservoir. He also raised cattle on his Bailey’s Prairie land. Henry and Elsie had two children: George McCauley Munson, who married Martha Mabelle Clyburn, and Elizabeth Munson, who married Leroy Marvin Gibson. For over twenty years, three generations of Munsons—Henry William IV, son George McCauley, and grandson Henry William V—ranched together on their property between Oyster Creek and Bailey’s Prairie.

George McCauley Munson attended Texas A. &. M. College, then Southern Methodist University, where he graduated with a degree in journalism. He worked as a sports editor for a newspaper in Tyler and then as editor of the Angleton Times for a few months before going to work for Dow Chemical Company in Freeport in May of 1942. He remained with Dow until his retirement. His Dow career was interrupted by his army service in World War II. He was first a member of the 124th Cavalry—probably the last of the horse cavalry units. Later he was a member of the Mars Task Force that took the Burma Road from the Japanese in the China-Burma-India Theatre. In 1947 he built a home beside his parents’ home, at what is now 620 S. Walker Street. George and Martha have two children and five grandchildren. Cauley Munson died June 14, 2000. Martha lives in Angleton.

Elizabeth and Leroy M. “Roy” Gibson have lived in Austin, Albuquerque, Tyler, Harlingen, Waco, and Denton. They had three children, one of whom died in infancy, and five grand-children. Elizabeth died on February 6, 1971.

The sixth child and third son of George and Hannah, born February 22, 1893, at the “Van Place,” was named Mordello Stephen Munson II. He was always known as “Del” and was a Brazoria County cattleman, as were so many of his Munson uncles, brothers, and nephews. Mordello graduated from Angleton High School and San Antonio Academy, then returned to live “at home” and work with his father, George C. Munson, at farming and ranching.

On June 3, 1925, Mordello married Minnie Ella Moore. They lived with his parents for a short time, then moved to what the family called the “Ranch House” at Bailey’s Prairie. Lydia and Ralph Johnson were visiting them when the 1932 storm started moving in. Mordello and Minnie Ella went home with Lydia and Ralph to weather the storm and the “Ranch House” was destroyed. They stayed with Lydia and Ralph while they built a new home on “Munson Row.” The large two-story home of his parents (George and Hannah) had been badly damaged by the storm and George had died in 1931, so the lumber and materials from this house were used to build a house for Mordello and Minnie Ella next door, at what is now 730 S. Walker Street. This is where they raised their family. Mordello died on November 17, 1960 at age 67, and Minnie Ella died August 12, 1992 at age 89.

Mordello and Minnie Ella raised two children: Walter Mordello, who married Betty Painter, and Sarah Moore, who married John David Broussard. Walter Mordello built a home just to the north of his parents’ home, at what is now 726 S. Walker Street; and Sarah Moore and her husband built just to the west, on Bryan Street. John David died in 1985, and in 1989 Sarah Moore married Jack Buice. She inherited her mother’s home, and she and Jack are living there today. Walter Mordello and Sarah Moore have between them five children, ten grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. One of Walter Mordello’s sons was named Mordello Stephen Munson III, and this Munson’s first son, born in 1980, a great-great-great-grandson of Mordello S. Munson I, was named Luke Mordello Munson.

The seventh and last child of George and Hannah was daughter Ruth Munson, born October 19, 1895. As this is written in October of 1987, Ruth has just celebrated her 92nd birthday. Ruth attended Albert Sidney Johnston Free School in Angleton, then Angleton High School. There she met Frank Thomas Smith, whom she later married on December 29, 1915, at the Holy Comforter Episcopal Church in Angleton. Frank was 23 years old and Ruth was 20. They celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in 1965 and their 62nd in 1977. Both sets of their parents had also observed 50th wedding anniversaries.

Frank was born in Petty, Texas, on December 5, 1892, the son of the early Brazoria County doctor, Josiah G. Smith, and Fannie Glasscock. The family moved to Brazoria County in 1898 when Frank was just six years old. His father was port quarantine doctor at what was then Velasco but is now known as Surfside. Because he lived there, he was also employed as manager of the mammoth, luxury Surfside Hotel. In summer, visitors from Houston, other points in Texas, and from the north came to this resort hotel for vacations at the popular beach. The original hotel was badly damaged in the 1900 storm and was rebuilt. As a young boy, Frank was a carriage driver and porter at the new hotel. He was there when it burned in 1905, and his stories of the hotel and the fire have entertained many Munson gatherings.

Frank was employed for sixteen years by the Texas Company (now Texaco, Inc.) in Port Arthur, Texas. It was there that Frank and Ruth raised their family of three children: Hannah Frances, Frank Thomas Jr., and Melvin Munson Smith. In 1942 Frank took a job as the first administrator of the new Dow Hospital in Freeport, from which he retired in 1968. In 1950 Frank and Ruth built a home near the location of the original two-story Munson house on “Munson Row,” now 700 S. Walker Street, right between the two large live oak trees “on either side of the road that led to the barn.”

A unique characteristic of the Munson clan in years past has been the acceptance and integration of the Munson-in-laws into the family. No better example exists than that of Frank T. Smith—one of the most loved and admired of all the Munsons. Frank died in a Houston hospital on May 5, 1978, at the age of 85. Ruth died in Angleton on March 20, 1995, at the age of 99. Both are buried in the Angleton Cemetery.

Ruth Munson Smith has been very active in family and community affairs for all her life. As one of the most active historians in the Munson clan, Ruth has a tremendous file of Munson and Adriance genealogical papers, documents, pictures, and information. She is a member of the Brazoria County Historical Society and the Brazoria County Museum Board. She was chairman of the committee for gathering data and organizing the publication of A Narrative History of Brazoria County, Texas by James A. Creighton in 1975. She is a member of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, the Daughters of the Republic of Texas, the Daughters of the American Revolution, and the Texas Chapter of the Mayflower Descendants, in that order of importance.

Hannah Frances Smith married Carl Vaughan in Port Arthur. They have four children, and, at this date, seven grandchildren. She is now married to J. Ray Gayle Jr. of Angleton, and they were living at Columbia Lakes Country Club in 1987. Hannah Frances now lives in Wimberley.

Frank T. Smith Jr. received an M. D. degree from the University of Texas Medical School at Galveston in the same class with his cousin, George Stevens, and has practiced medicine in Sealy, Texas, for many years. In 1945-1948 he was a captain in the U. S. Army Medical Corps in occupied Korea. Frank Jr. is married to Geraldine Irene “Jerry” Thompson. They have six children and, at this date (2006), twelve grandchildren.

Munson Melvin Smith received a law degree from the University of Texas and has practiced law with the firm of Anderson, Smith and Null in Victoria, Texas, since 1950. During World War II he served in the U. S. Navy. After the War he married Evelyn Davis, who had a son, Michael Davis, from a previous marriage. Michael Davis Smith was adopted by Munson, and Munson and Evelyn also have a daughter, Marcia Smith, who is married and lives in Denver, Colorado.

All known descendants of George Caldwell Munson and Hannah Dyer Adriance Munson are shown on Charts 16, 17 and 18.

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