ROSANNA ELIZABETH CATO, WIFE OF WILLIAM BARRET TRAVIS
Back in the double dark ages of 1971, my classmates and I in Peggy Gray's sophomore English class at Greenville Senior High School in Greenville, Texas were informed we were going to do our first ever term paper. I have to admit, it really didn't interest me at all. However, once I realized that I was never going to find a way to weasel out of it, I decided it was going to have to be on a subject that interested me.
So....The Alamo.
Early on, in a book called, "Thirteen Days to Glory" by Lon Tinkle...yeah, that's his name...I stumbled on the name Rosanna E. Cato. The book said that this was the name of the wife that I had always heard that Colonel William Barret Travis, Commander of The Alamo, had abandoned in Alabama, when he skipped out on debts and lawsuits to find his fortune in the Northern Mexican State of Texas. He also had abandoned his young son, Charles Edward and his wife was pregnant with a child, later named Susan Isabella.
Now, I had known that my mother's maiden name was Cato, but her father Roy Lee Cato had died in 1925, when Mama was only 3. And her younger brother, Harrold Bennett Cato, died by being crushed by a horse falling on him when he was just 15 days short of his 15th birthday in 1939. My grandmother had remarried long before I was born and her name changed to Allen. I HAD met my granddaddy's younger brother, Dreyfus Cato, when I was a child but other than that, I had never known of anyone with the last name, that as a middle name I had used as the name I have gone by my entire life. I went to Mama and Mama A with my discovery, and of course they said....NO IDEA.
This was long before the advent of the internet, and I had no means of researching where I would have needed to in Alabama. So, it was just a name that I kept seeing in the same context for the next 40 years or so.
ROSANNA (1812-1848) was the reason that I originally became a member of Ancestry.com. To see if I could find her. And it took a while, but I finally found her. My Great-Great-Great Granddaddy Claiborne Henry Cato (1802-1875) had may siblings....and I mean MANY siblings. But his youngest sister was Rosanna Elizabeth Cato. She had been a 16 year old student of Travis' in Monroe, Alabama and they were married in 1828.
In the Winter of 1835, Rosanna was planning to remarry in New Orleans and was ready to finalize the divorce proceedings that had begun back in 1834. So, she made the trip to Stephen F. Austin's largest settlement, San Felipe, which was just west of present day Houston, where Travis was living and had a law office. She brought the divorce papers and their son, Charlie, because Travis wanted to be the one to raise him. This was the only time he ever saw his daughter, Susan. After signing the papers, Rosanna and Susan returned to New Orleans where Rosanna married Dr. Samuel B. Cloud. A few short weeks later Travis left for San Antonio, leaving Charlie with his friend, and fellow Mason, David Ayers and his family, until his return...which, of course, never happened.
After the Fall of the Alamo and the Massacre at Goliad, General Sam Houston started quickly moving his troops in the direction of the American border...the frightened citizens started following them...Houston ordered the settlements burned to the ground. This was known as "The Runaway Scrape", and that is how Charlie finally made his way back to Louisiana and his mother in New Orleans.
In 1848, both Rosanna and Samuel died in New Orleans during a yellow fever epidemic. There is no known gravesite for either. Most likely they were either buried in a mass grave, or cremated in a mass pyre. By this time, Charlie was in his early 20's and had already made his way back to Texas. Susan, in 1845, had married and moved on at the ripe old age of 14.
Since I have moved to Austin, the Texas State Archives had posted online that they had, on display, the Travis Family Bible, which they had completely restored. I made the trek down next to the State Capitol Building to the Archives to take a look. They had it in the lobby in a display case in the wall, up on an easel. It was leather bound and looked beautifully restored. They had removed one page and put it in a separate sleeve and up on it's own easel, I believe for two reasons. First, to show the quality of their work on the paper pages on the inside. And the other, to show it's provenance. Because, in a woman's handwriting was, on what had been a blank page when the Bible was originally purchased, were the family histories. Above the name of William Barret Travis were the names of Mark Butler Travis and Jemima Elizabeth Stallworth Travis...the known parents of the Colonel. And above the name or Rosanna Elizabeth Cato Travis were the names of William Henry Cato and Sarah Massey Cato...my 4th Great-Grandparents.
Solid proof that the wife of the Alamo hero was indeed my 4th Great Aunt.
Being a proud Son of Texas, even back in school, and having stumbled on the name of Travis along side the name of Cato back all those years ago...I was like a dog with a bone for all that time.
Persistence actually paid off.
So....The Alamo.
Early on, in a book called, "Thirteen Days to Glory" by Lon Tinkle...yeah, that's his name...I stumbled on the name Rosanna E. Cato. The book said that this was the name of the wife that I had always heard that Colonel William Barret Travis, Commander of The Alamo, had abandoned in Alabama, when he skipped out on debts and lawsuits to find his fortune in the Northern Mexican State of Texas. He also had abandoned his young son, Charles Edward and his wife was pregnant with a child, later named Susan Isabella.
Now, I had known that my mother's maiden name was Cato, but her father Roy Lee Cato had died in 1925, when Mama was only 3. And her younger brother, Harrold Bennett Cato, died by being crushed by a horse falling on him when he was just 15 days short of his 15th birthday in 1939. My grandmother had remarried long before I was born and her name changed to Allen. I HAD met my granddaddy's younger brother, Dreyfus Cato, when I was a child but other than that, I had never known of anyone with the last name, that as a middle name I had used as the name I have gone by my entire life. I went to Mama and Mama A with my discovery, and of course they said....NO IDEA.
This was long before the advent of the internet, and I had no means of researching where I would have needed to in Alabama. So, it was just a name that I kept seeing in the same context for the next 40 years or so.
ROSANNA (1812-1848) was the reason that I originally became a member of Ancestry.com. To see if I could find her. And it took a while, but I finally found her. My Great-Great-Great Granddaddy Claiborne Henry Cato (1802-1875) had may siblings....and I mean MANY siblings. But his youngest sister was Rosanna Elizabeth Cato. She had been a 16 year old student of Travis' in Monroe, Alabama and they were married in 1828.
In the Winter of 1835, Rosanna was planning to remarry in New Orleans and was ready to finalize the divorce proceedings that had begun back in 1834. So, she made the trip to Stephen F. Austin's largest settlement, San Felipe, which was just west of present day Houston, where Travis was living and had a law office. She brought the divorce papers and their son, Charlie, because Travis wanted to be the one to raise him. This was the only time he ever saw his daughter, Susan. After signing the papers, Rosanna and Susan returned to New Orleans where Rosanna married Dr. Samuel B. Cloud. A few short weeks later Travis left for San Antonio, leaving Charlie with his friend, and fellow Mason, David Ayers and his family, until his return...which, of course, never happened.
After the Fall of the Alamo and the Massacre at Goliad, General Sam Houston started quickly moving his troops in the direction of the American border...the frightened citizens started following them...Houston ordered the settlements burned to the ground. This was known as "The Runaway Scrape", and that is how Charlie finally made his way back to Louisiana and his mother in New Orleans.
In 1848, both Rosanna and Samuel died in New Orleans during a yellow fever epidemic. There is no known gravesite for either. Most likely they were either buried in a mass grave, or cremated in a mass pyre. By this time, Charlie was in his early 20's and had already made his way back to Texas. Susan, in 1845, had married and moved on at the ripe old age of 14.
Since I have moved to Austin, the Texas State Archives had posted online that they had, on display, the Travis Family Bible, which they had completely restored. I made the trek down next to the State Capitol Building to the Archives to take a look. They had it in the lobby in a display case in the wall, up on an easel. It was leather bound and looked beautifully restored. They had removed one page and put it in a separate sleeve and up on it's own easel, I believe for two reasons. First, to show the quality of their work on the paper pages on the inside. And the other, to show it's provenance. Because, in a woman's handwriting was, on what had been a blank page when the Bible was originally purchased, were the family histories. Above the name of William Barret Travis were the names of Mark Butler Travis and Jemima Elizabeth Stallworth Travis...the known parents of the Colonel. And above the name or Rosanna Elizabeth Cato Travis were the names of William Henry Cato and Sarah Massey Cato...my 4th Great-Grandparents.
Solid proof that the wife of the Alamo hero was indeed my 4th Great Aunt.
Being a proud Son of Texas, even back in school, and having stumbled on the name of Travis along side the name of Cato back all those years ago...I was like a dog with a bone for all that time.
Persistence actually paid off.
Purdue Hill, Alabama (moved from original site)
House where William B. Travis and his young bride, Rosanna E. Cato Travis set up house and where she had their 2 children, Charles Edward and Susan Isabelle. Travis left for Texas before the birth of Susan Isabelle and the couple were divorced prior to the Battle of the Alamo in San Antonio de Bexar in March of 1836.
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