THE FAMILY OF STEPHEN AND HANNAH CALER COTTER175

The Tennessean Stephen Cotter on the 7th of December 1855 patented a wedge of land containing 155 acres astraddle the Ecleto which had escaped the earlier surveys for James Bradley, Daniel Bird, Morris May and Catharina Zepeda.

Stephen and Hannah (Caler) Cotter came to Texas in 1845 when their fifth and youngest daughter was an infant. The trip from their home state, on which they encountered Indians--friendly ones thank goodness-and killed a buffalo in the vicinity of Austin, took them the better part of a year.

For five years the Cotters lived in Gonzales County near Leesville before the land on the Ecleto was acquired and they moved to the neighborhood in which lived the Birds, the Raders, the Wests--and the Henry Steeles, to whom family tradition has them linked by ties of blood.

It was in Steele Branch Cemetery that they buried the third of their five sons, George, born in Texas in 1848, whose resting place in the very oldest section of graves in that burying ground, is outlined by a near waist-high wall of native red sandstone.

And it was in this area that their sons and daughters were married:

John, whose lung condition precluded service in the Confederate Army, to Nellie Young; Catherine to Pleasant Howe Hobbs; Rutha to Lafayette Quinney; Susan to John Russell, who the story comes down, had Northern Sympathies and when the War came on, left his wife and their three children never to return; Rhoda to Francis "Frank" Wiley; Elizabeth "Bettie" to Zadok Watkins; Daniel to Texana Wiley; William "Billy" first to Laura A. Pierce and second to Margaret Reneau, and Lewis, about whom not one of the many descendants of the clan has any knowledge, to Mary Hutchinson on the 26th of May 1878.

Here it was at the "old Bird Schoolhouse" that they, with daughter Bettie and her husband Zadok Watkins and James D. Rader with the assistance of the Rev. Eli Y. Seale established the first Methodist Church in their community ... a church that lived on many years at Caddo but was finally absorbed in Stockdale's United Methodist (of which, coincidentally, Zadok Watkins and James D. Rader were named as trustees in the early 1870's when that church was organized).

Illiterate himself signing his name by mark, Stephen Cotter saw to it that his own children received what limited education the frontier afforded. Two receipts in the possession of descendants for payments to private teachers attest to the fact--one to John D. Dove at Nockenut in 1860 and another to R. Blassingame, place not stated, in 1861.

A freighter, many were the times in the years immediately preceding and following upon the War Between the States when Stephen, using an ox-drawn wagon, brought such diverse items as kegs of whiskey and barrels of flour and molasses; sides of bacon, salt and coffee, bridle bits and kegs of nails; shoes, hats and bolts or lengths of domestic, calico and cottonade--and writing paper--to the early settlers of Albuquerque, Rancho, Nockenut, Free Timbers and environs from the merchandising establishment of Harttner & Seissner and R. C. Warn in Indianola and D & A Oppenheimer and J. W. Light in San Antonio.

Then judging from Mrs. Hannah Cotter's registration on the 27th of July 1874 (in her own name) of the ear mark and cattle brand of her husband, came the fateful trip in late 1873 or early 1874 from which Stephen Cotter, in his sixties, failed to return. So hard were those years when Reconstruction reigned that his family never learned what foul play befell him.

His widow Hannah (b 1812) lived on until 1881 and her mortal remains were interred at Steele Branch where also to be found (besides the enclosure for George) are the marked graves of sons John, Daniel and William and the daughters Catherine Hobbs, Susan Russell and Bettie Watkins.

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To John and Nellie Young Cotter were born: Susan who married John Bird and had an only son, the late Homer Bird; Daisy who married Dick Rice; Dell who married first a Johnson and had a son named Bunkie and second Buck Wiley; and Daniel.

Lafayette and Rutha Cotter Quinney had John who married Julia Pearl Henry; Ruthie who married Tom McGuffin; Annie who married Harvey Montgomery; William "Bill" who married Mamie Kellogg; and James "Jim" who died unmarried.

The children of John and Susan Cotter Russell were Fannie, John and William. Fannie is remembered with affection as a maiden lady who lived near Caddo. Of her brothers John took for his first wife Betty Robinson. The name of the second wife I could not learn nor whom his brother married. These gentlemen lived out their lives in the Kerrville area.

To Frank and Rhoda Cotter Wiley were born: Francis Eugene who married Leona Miller (note 1); A. Edward who married Annie Trammel; Emery Alvro and Sydney who died young and two little girls, Minnie and Claudie, who drowned.

Zadok and Bettie Cotter Watkins had: Mary Sophronia who married first William McBride and second his cousin John McBride; Hannah who married as his second wife M. F. Montgomery; Roe Nettie who married John Dixon; Frances Ann who married John C. Carr; Temperance who married James Thomas Akin; Ruth A. who married David Stiers Alley and lives today aged 100 years in the Stockdale Nursing Home; John Ezell who married Ada Reeves; Susan who married Claude Bird; and Zeddie E. who married Nora Reeves.

Bettie (Cotter) Watkins, whose obituary from the Stockdale Progress has been preserved by her namesake granddaughter Bettie (Watkins) Daniel, was born the 29th of November 1844 and died the 28th of January 1935 in her ninety-first year ... survived by eight of her ten children, fifty four grandchildren, and ninety-two great-grandchildren and two greatgreat grandchildren.

Also preserved by Bettie Daniels is "Grandma Bettie Watkins and her birthday candles" which appeared in the Household Ranch magazine the 31st of Harch 1928.

The children of Daniel and Texana Wiley Cotter were: Will who married Jessie Spear; Lena who married R. P. Smith; Henry who married Willie Hemby; Rosella who married Jack Dunn; Fannie who married Luther McMeans; and Viola who married Will Hays.

Billy Cotter and his first wife Laura A. Pierce had no children. To his and Margaret Reneau's marriage were born James, a school teacher trained at Baker's old Sutherland Springs Academy, who died in young manhood; Ellen who married Marvin Montgomery; Ural who married (unknown) McPhail; and Edgar who married Mattie Reeves, recently deceased.

1. The children of Francis Eugene and Leona Miller Wiley were Rena who married Logan West; Lottie who married Amos McDaniel; Arthur who married Hattie Childress; Ray who married Eula Cooper, who died last summer; and Della who married John Martin West. I am indebted for this rundown to Della Wiley West who told me also the names of her father's half brothers and sisters by the marriage of Frank Wiley to Elizabeth Heathcock; Britt who married Maggie Jackson; Tom who died of rabies; Buck who married Dell Cotter; Sid who married Minnie Berry, a mail order bride; Mary who married Leo Zoller; Theodore who married Florence Miller; and Frankie who married Pleas McCall.

2. For my information on the children of Lafayette and Rutha Cotter Quinney, my thanks are extended to Viola Quinney Shaver of Stockdale whom Bettie Daniel contacted for me.

1860 Census Sutherland Springs, Wilson, Bexar Co TX

Name Age
Stephen Cotter 54
Hannah Cotter 49
John Cotter 26
Catherine Cotter 24
Ruth Cotter 23
Susan Cotter 19
Rody Cotter 17
Elizabeth Cotter 15
George Cotter 12
Daniel Cotter 10
Wm E Cotter 6

1870 Census Nockenut, Wilson Co TX

Cotter, Stephen 64 m w Farmer   TN
---, Hanna      60 f w ----     TN
---, John       36 m w Farmer   TN
---, Daniel     20 m w Farmer   TX
---, Texana     16 f w at home  TX
---, William    16 m w Farmer   TX
---, Lewis      13 m w ----     TX

Wiley, Frank    22 m w Farmer   LA
---, Roda       28 f w          TN
---, Francis    1 m w          TX
Tooley, Frank   20 m w Farmer   LA
Thorn, Will     12 m w          AR

Name also given as Hannah Carter.179