At some time between their marriage and
1849, daughter Elizabeth returned to visit family whom she had never met in Giles TN. While there, she met
and married Dr. Abraham Conn Isaacs, on 8 Nov 1849. She was 15 years old
at the time. Sometime in 1850, they moved to Lavaca, Texas, to be close to her
mother. Over the next thirteen years, Elizabeth would conceive and
give birth to five children with Abraham. The second oldest,
Leonard Isaacs, would eventually become my great grandfather.
In 1865, the marriage of Abraham
and Elizabeth began to fall apart. It is believed that this was
due to Abraham having an affair with a mulatto slave girl while in
Tennessee who was said
to be young and very pretty. Family history hints that there may have been a
child out of that relationship and that Elizabeth found out about it.
In order to try to save his wealth and reputation, Abraham sued
Elizabeth for divorce on the grounds of adultery, a trumped up charge. A full jury
trial found Elizabeth innocent of the charge in 1866. She in turn
then sued for divorce, probably on the same grounds, and another trial
began. It ended in a guilty verdict for Abraham. The divorce
was granted, along with a sizeable sum of money. Dr. Isaacs would
take the oldest children after the trial and move to Rockdale.
After Lavina's death, Elizabeth moved around Texas. At one time
she was in far west Texas near the New Mexico border. She would
move to Big Spring after 1910 where a son and daughter were living.
She passed away in Big Spring on 18 Oct 1919, about a month after the
death of her daughter. She was buried in an unmarked grave in the
oldest part of the Mount Olive Cemetery. After about a year of
looking, I was able to locate the exact location of the grave and place
a monument on it. About a year later, I learned that she is buried
next to her daughter, who remains in an unmarked grave but recorded in
Big Springs records.
Dr. Abraham Conn Isaacs moved to
Rockdale with his three children after the divorce. He would give
up medicine in favor of a large ranch and raising cattle and farm
produce. His ranch would eventually exceed 6000 acres. His
second son, my great grandfather Leonard, married Alice
Tyler Broadnax in 1875. They had two children, one of whom passed
away in infancy. In 1878, Alice Isaacs passed away after
accidently overdosing on chloroform being used for a migraine headache.
In 1879, Leonard would meet the beautiful Annie Letcher King of Davilla.
They would marry the following year and have several children. Their
son, Burford
King Isaacs, would become my grandfather. Burford would marry Lyda Mae
Rester and they would have two children, a son and a daughter.
Their daughter was Muriel Annabeth Isaacs, my mother. Leonard and
Annie would become prominent leaders of Rockdale.
On 25 May, 1868, Abraham married
again. This time he married Alice Jane O'neal, whom he met in
Madison, Alabama. She passed away in
1891 and was buried in the Isaacs family cemetery on his ranch. The
cemetery was started for the burial of Alice's mother, who moved with
her husband to Rockdale after their daughter's wedding. In 1892,
Abraham married for a third time. This time the bride was Cora
Barmore. Dr. Abraham Conn Isaacs passed away on 06 Jul 1901.
He was buried beside his second wife. The cemetery was abandoned
after approximately 1930 and the location largely forgotten except for
the land owner at the time who ran cattle on their graves. In
2016, I spent some time looking for the cemetery. It wasn't until
I met Lonnie Moore, of Austin, that I was able to find out where it was
and visit the cemetery. Neither the town of Rockdale, the county
of Milam, nor the State of Texas Historic Cemetery Commission had a
record of this cemetery. I photographed the cemetery, filled out a
registration form, and put together a formal packet of maps, etc, that I
mailed to Milam County to register the cemetery as the Isaacs Family
Cemetery. The county, in turn, would forward it to the Historic
Cemetery Commission of the State of Texas.
Everything I have related above
was dug out the hard way. The key to the above was the use of DNA
testing. It verified my relationship to the above and showed
living descendants of both A.C. Isaacs and Elizabeth Hunnicutt. In
Jan.2015, I filed for membership in the Sons of the Republic of Texas.
I should hear back from them sometime in March.
More Records Found on
Hunnicutt and Isaacs
