Tom McCabes Genealogy 2022

Private Allen Gann of the TN Mounted Militia and the Sabine Frontier by Cindy L. Frie

From: Volume 30, No. 2, Fall 2022 The Gann Gazette, page 8

Allen Gann was born around the year 1810 in Tennessee. His parents were Isom and Elizabeth (we have not found any documentation of her maiden name). Allen is my 2nd Paternal Great Grandfather, I descend from his daughter Mary Ann, who married William Skiles. Mary Ann and her family eventually settled in Alexander County, Illinois. According to the biography of William Skiles in the History of Alexander, Union, and Pulaski Counties, Illinois, Allen was married to Sarah Myers, (this was possiblya used as a nickname). I have not been able to locate any documentation for their marriage, given the birth year of their oldest child, Martha, they were probably married around the year 1836. The last document I have found regarding Allen is the 1880 Census for Liberty, St. Francois County, Missouri, which was recorded on 8 June 25, I assume that he died sometime after that. Throughout Allen’s life in Tennessee, there were attacks on the Anglo-American settlers by local Indian tribes. The atmosphere was rife with racism and hatred toward the Indians. In 1819, when Allen was about nine years old, the Florida Treaty (this treaty is recognized under four different names) was signed, and Florida was ceded to the United States. This included the new border between Mexico and the United States set at the Sabine River, bordering Louisiana. America’s interest in Texas, still under the Spanish Government was growing. In 1822, a group of Davidson County, Tennesseans inaugurated the Texas Association, and Sam Houston was among them. Their goal was to recruit at least 300 families from Tennessee to immigrate to Texas.

In this short timeframe, the population of Texas expanded greatly, it grew from about fourteen hundred to roughly thirty thousand by 1835. Many of whom had been lured there by the recruiting of Sam Houston and other prominent Tennesseans with the promise of cheap, fertile land in a new territory. Mexico was feeling threatened by the mass migration of Americans, and a war began to brew. Allen had either recently married or was about to and thoughts of starting a family probably played a part in his decision-making to volunteer.

The Texian War of Independence started in 1835 and included the battles of Conception, Bexar (now known as San Antonio), the Alamo, and the Battle of San Jacinto, which was fought on April 21, 1836, and was the last battle of the war. Thousands of men lost their lives during these battles, including Davy Crockett, who died at Alamo. Intermittent conflicts continued between Mexico and the now-known Republic of Texas. On April 8, 1836, the Commander of the Frontier division of the United States Army, Major General Edmund P. Gaines called upon Governors of Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Alabama to furnish twenty-five hundred volunteers, notices were posted in local newspapers, advertising the request, soon to be followed by volunteers. Many of the patriotic citizens of Tennessee responded including the women who formed leagues to assist financially as well as offer other support. The men were willingly volunteering to assist their neighbors and relatives who had already migrated to the frontier of Texas. This also allowed them to scope out the area if they were thinking about migrating there themselves. Allen and his brother Washington Gann were among the volunteers, they enlisted under Capt. Benjamin Cannon in the Tennessee Mounted Volunteers. Washington was married to Camilla Nelson (daughter of Moses and Hannah Gann, Hannah is the daughter of Nathan Ignatious Gann.)

According to muster rolls, Allen and Washington served from May 21 to June 10 in 1836, serving twenty-one days as mounted volunteers., Allen would have been about twenty-six years old. They were called out for the protection of the Sabine Frontier under the authority of General Gaines, to patrol the area and protect from possible attacks from the Mexicans. I have been in contact with the Tennessee State Library and Archives, and they have confirmed that Allen and Washington were ordered to help in the fortification of the border of Texas and the Louisiana Territory to prevent attacks on the citizens from the Mexican Army. Phone conversations and correspondences with libraries and archives, both in Texas and Tennessee did not shed any light on what the Mounted Volunteers did. Most likely their base would have been at Fort Jesup, Sabine Parish, Louisiana and they would have garrisoned at Nacogdoches, Texas.

With little information found in the early stages of my research for Allen’s military biography, I started to wonder if Allen and Washington may have been a part of a contingent that helped escort the Gann’s and Massengill’s wagon train to Texas. After studying the muster cards for Cannon’s Company, I saw there were probably too many mounted volunteers to be considered a probability of a military escort. After perusing and posting queries on the Gann Historical Society’s Facebook page, as well as perusing earlier Gann Gazettes I found mention of a couple of Ganns who had been in the area of Texas before the arrival of the wagon train from Tennessee, given what we know today it may have been Allen and Washington. It made more sense to conclude that they did indeed participate in garrisoning the Nacogdoches area and protecting the earlier settlers.

After volunteering, Allen and Sarah would raise a family. According to census reports they had at least seven children. Allen applied for Bounty Land in Iowa and Minnesota in 1855. However, he moved to Webster County, Missouri instead, and relocated to St. Francois County, Missouri.

Bibliography:

Andrew W. McMahan, Archival Assistant IV, Tennessee State Library & Archives Chris Cotton, Archive Associate, East Texas Research Center, Stephen F. Austin State University Fort Jesup State Historic Site https://www.nps.gov/places/ fort-jesup-state-historic-site.htm Gann Historical Society Gazettes Huffines, Allan C.: The Texas War of Independence 1835- 1836 From Outbreak to the Alamo at San Jacinto James, Marquis: The Raven A Biography of Sam Houston Karsch, Robert F. “TENNESSEE’S INTEREST IN THE TEXAN REVOLUTION, 1835-1836.” Tennessee Historical Magazine 3, no. 4 (1937): 206–39. http://www.jstor.org/ stable/42638126. National Archives, Washington, DC; Washington, DC, USA; Records of the Adjutant General???s Office, 1780???s- 1917; Record Group Number: RG 94; Series Title: Indexed to Compiled Service Records of Volunteer Soldiers Who Served During the Cherokee Removal in Organizations From the State of Alabama; Series Number: M243; Roll: M629_13 Perrin, William Henry: History of Alexander, Union, and Pulaski Counties, Illinois Silkey, Kay, third cousin, once removed Smith, Trevor Augustine, “Pioneers, patriots, and politicians: the Tennessee militia system, 1772-1857. “Ph.D. diss., University of Tennessee, 2003. https://trace.tennessee. edu/utk_graddiss/5189 Walraven, Bill, and Marjorie K. Walraven. “The ‘Sabine Chute’: The U.S. Army and the Texas Revolution.” The Southwestern Historical Quarterly 107, no. 4 (2004): 572– 601.