Major Leonidas C. Rountree (CSA)

From Bob's Genealogy Filing Cabinet:

2.2. Leonidas C. Rountree (1827 – 11 December 1875) He served in the Mexican War in 1846, for his wife later applied for a pension. He evidently came to Walker County, Texas about 1845 or 1846 with his mother and stepfather. According to his widow’s pension application file, he enlisted in the Mexican War from Walker County, Texas on 9 June 1846 and was discharged as a sergeant on 2 October 1846 [see footnote for file summary].56 His stepfather’s 1850 will (see above) mentions a tavern in which he and his mother were partners – presumably the semi-famous Keenan House in Huntsville. He and his brother John were also in some sort of business together in Walker County. The 1850 census shows him as a single man, a tavern keeper, with his widowed mother (age 44) and stepbrother Walter A. Keenan (age 6) in the household. His brother John was enumerated next door with apparently another step-sibling, Alice L. Keenan (age 6). He married Anna Eliza Smither on 19 June 1851 in Walker County.57 In 1860 he and his brother were still next door to one another, and Leonidas’ household included himself, his wife, and four children. He was not found in the 1870 census, which is incomplete for Walker County. [His widow’s pension application says he resided in Walker County for about 20 years after 1846 then resided in Galveston for 11 years. However, he is not in the 1870 census for Galveston, or indeed anywhere in Texas.] He is presumably the same Lee C. Rountree who was a major commanding a cavalry unit (the 35th cavalry) in the Civil War, though his wife’s pension application does not mention it.. He died of “heart disease” in St. Louis, Missouri apparently while visiting, on 11 December 1875.58 Again, according to the widow’s pension file, he was interred in Huntsville. After his death, his family moved to Sherman, Grayson County where his widow and six children were enumerated in the 1880 census. The West Hill Cemetery in Sherman has gravestones for Leonidas C. Rountree (evidently a memorial), his wife, and six of their children, most marked with only the years of birth and death. From these gravestones and the 1860 and 1880 censuses, the children were: a son H. L. Rountree (1852-1910) whose initial was G. in 1860, a daughter M. R. Rountree (c1853), Lee Anna Rountree (1857-1891), Chesley C. Rountree (1859-1923), Ida L. Rountree (1861-1934), Carrie S. Rountree (1863-1957), Mary S. Rountree (1865-1952), and Lella Rountree (c1868).

http://www.genfiles.com/rountree/william-rountree-c1765-1836/

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See also his bio at the Texas State Historical Association:

https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/froau

Leonidas (Lee) C. Rountree, Confederate cavalry officer and tavern owner, was born in 1827 to Chesley B. and Lucinda Catherine (Sessums) Rountree. His father died while the family lived in Lauderdale County, Tennessee, and his mother later married John Keenan and moved to Walker County, Texas.

Rountree served in the Mexican War and enlisted on June 9, 1846, and achieved the rank of sergeant. His stepfather died in 1850 and bequeathed Rountree and his mother the Keenan House, a tavern, in Huntsville. By 1860 he had $35,000 in wealth. On June 19, 1851, he married Anna Eliza Smither. The couple had eight children—five girls and three boys.

During the Civil War, Rountree raised a battalion of men, the Thirteenth Texas Volunteers, to fight for the Confederacy. In 1863 he combined his unit with Rueben R. Brown's battalion to create the Thirty-fifth Texas Cavalry and served as a major in the regiment. The Thirty-fifth was part of the Trans-Mississippi Department and served in Texas until 1864 when they were transferred to Louisiana. He fought in the Red River campaign.

Following the Civil War, Rountree moved his family to Galveston sometime before 1870. He died in St. Louis, Missouri, of heart trouble on December 11, 1875, probably while visiting or on business. Although he is buried in Huntsville, his wife moved to Sherman, Texas, following his death and is interred there. Rountree's body was not moved, but there is a memorial to him next to his family's graves at West Hill Cemetery in Sherman.