Arabella Jemima Harrington

From a letter written to Mary, Arabella's daughter, written after her death, stating that she was not eligible for an inheritance as she did not live under the jurisdiction of the Confederate States.

http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/CAMARIPO/2001-02/0982...

Arabella Gray Deaver Harrington

The "Harrington League," on which most of the present downtown Brenham is built, was granted by the Mexican Government in 1831 to a widow from North Carolina, Arabella Gray Deaver/Dever Harrington. She received a League of Land, 4428.4 acres, and chose an area on the upland prairie. She had arrived several years earlier -- probably 1823 or 1824 -- after her second husband, John William Harrington, died in Arkansas on the way to Texas. Arabella continued on her way, with her three youngest children, Lydia, Lydia, Mahala and John Walton Harrington. In later years, John told of the long trip by horseback. He was only about 2 years of age, and sometimes stood behind his mother, clinging to her neck, as they rode on to Texas.

Arabella left her three beloved older daughters -- Frances, Margaret, and Mary Mariah Deaver, behind in North Carolina with their uncle, planning to send for them when she could. But that time never came, and she did not see them again. Frances married Jefferson Cooper, Margaret married Abram Wiggins -- and they both remained in North Carolina. Mary Mariah and her husband Andrew Cathey, went to California by wagon train during the Gold Rush and that branch of the family is there today.

The oldest son, William Harvey Deaver, born in 1804, came to Washington County before his mother arrived. He came at 17 years of age with his Negro slave/guardian/friend "Reuben," settling in San Felipe for several years, then received a land grant in Washington County in 1831, moving there in 1834 (Goodspeed, Record of Texas East, 1895, and family letters).

Both of Arabella's sons, William Harvey Deaver and John Walton Harrington, served in the Texas Army. John Harrington, served in the Texas Army from May 10, 1836 to August 14, 1937. He joined 20 days after the Battle of San Jacinto, so being a boy soldier of 14 years (not unusual at the time). He was also a Texas Ranger for a number of years and his wife received a Ranger pension many years later.

John later became a Methodist minister of very strong character, in Blanco County, Texas.

Arabella's daughter Lydia Harrington, married Abner Lee, and her daughter Mahala Harrington married Lucian B. Outlaw.

William Deaver married Catherine Early/Earle, daughter of Michael Early (from Ireland) and Mary Ann Kennedy (from South Carolina) [Wm. Deaver Family Bible]. Catherine's father Michael also died en route to Texas, and her mother received her grant of land from the Mexican government in Washington County in 1824 (entering Austin's Colony from Louisiana). William and Catherine had 10 children, and they married into the Porter, Martin, Kessee, Hendley, Clay, Foster, and Campbell families.

The strength of Arabella's character can only be gauged by what we know the endured. She was the daughter of William Gray and Lydia Richardson, of the Catawba River area, Burke County, North Carolina. Gray had come to the Colonies from England, amassed quite a sizable estate, but joined the Colonies against Britain in the American Revolution, and was killed in 1780, at the age of 35, in the Battle of King's Mountain. Arabella was only 12 years of age. Her mother had a nervous breakdown, and the six Gray children were "bound out" until their mother could care for them again.

Arabella was both a daughter of, and wife of a Revolution Soldier. She married Nathaniel Deaver, born in Hartford County Maryland, who had joined the Revolutionary Army from Amherst Co. Virginia, and was then listed as a soldier from North Carolina, where his family moved. He and Arabella lived in Buncombe County, North Carolina, where in 1792, the court named him to help decide on a new site for an iron works. In 1805 he moved to Haywood County, North Carolina (on the Pigeon River) to land which he received from his father, William Deaver.

Like so many pioneers of the day, in 1810 he moved on -- this time to Illinois. There is a tradition that a group of families were being sent to the area to try to discourage the Indian from joining with the British, who were trying to regain the territory. Nathan is said to have spoken several Indian dialects. [F. H. Deaver papers]. While he and others drove the cattle overland, Arabella and their 4 children (Mary being born in Illinois), with the household goods, when by flatboat down the Ohio River to Randolph County, Illinois. Zelma Deaver Draper ( a descendant of Richard Deaver, a brother of Nathaniel) has seen family letters in North Carolina telling of Arabella being on a flatboat whose captain saw a better boat, and forced his passengers to transfer to that and then proceeded down the river, with Arabella saying she was going to report him to her husband when they arrived in Illinois. When the men met them, she told Nathaniel, and the captain promptly shoved off, taking with him all possessions of the families he had just delivered.

In the 1810 census of Illinois, the N. Deaver family appears -- and Nathaniel died that year on Auger Creek. He left Arabella and their young Deaver children in the raw new Illinois Territory (which at that time included all of present Indiana). Arabella moved her family southward to New Madrid County, Missouri (probably), just in time to experience the Great Earthquake of 1811.

We do not know where and when John William Harrington and Arabella were married, no exactly when John William died, though there is a tradition that he was killed in a sawmill accident in Arkansas.

When the second-time widowed Arabella arrived in Washington County, Texas, (which was of course a part of Mexico at that time, and also in Stephen F. Austin's Colony), she lived as most did at the time -- securing land, registering her cattle brand, doing some small farming. She paid taxes on her land in county from 1837 until her death in 1860. In 1844 she sold 100 acres to Jesse Farral and James Hurt, who were eager to have the seat of the county government located nearer their homes. This land was then donated by Farral and hurt as the site for the city of Brenham.

Arabella earned extra income as a midwife, and probably served meals to travelers. It is reported that at one time she lived at Washington-on-the Brazoz (her son William living near Chappell Hill), but she seems to have chosen a beautiful part of her league for her home, building a simple cabin on the hill in the southern part of Brenham. She was a charter member of the Brenham Methodist Church.

Arabella Gray Deaver Harrington died 2 April 1860, and is buried on a hill just east of Brenham -- in Matchett Cemetery -- along with her son William and part of his family.