Sixth Generation

815. Henrietta Josephine Coffey⁹⁶ was born on 2 July 1838 in Alabama. She lived with her parents in Titus Co., TX on 12 September 1850. She lived with her parents in Lavaca Co., TX on 23 June 1860. Henrietta died on 8 April 1916 at the age of 77 in Lavaca Co., TX and was buried at Andrews Chapel Cemetery in Hackberry, Lavaca Co., TX.^3390,3391

Henrietta Josephine Coffey and William Lawrence were married on 11 May 1864 in Lavaca Co., TX.^672,3392 "Mr. Lawrence was married May 11, 1864 to Miss Henrietta Coffey, who represents another family of early Texas." They^672,3392 appeared in the census on 3 July 1870 in Lavaca Co., TX.³³⁹³ They³³⁹³ appeared in the census on 10 June 1880 in Lavaca Co., TX.³³⁹⁴ Henrietta and William³³⁹⁴ appeared in the census on 4 June 1900 in Lavaca Co., TX.³³⁹⁵ They³³⁹⁵ appeared in the census on 26 April 1910 in Lavaca Co., TX.³³⁹⁶ William Lawrence³³⁹⁷, son of Joseph E. Lawrence and Mary Eleanor McGary, was born on 13 December 1839 in Washington Co., TX. He appeared in the census on 19 January 1920 in Lavaca Co., TX.³³⁹⁸ William died of pneumonia on 2 January 1926 at the age of 86 at home in Lavaca Co., TX and was buried at Andrews Chapel Cemetery in Hallettsville, Lavaca Co., TX on 4 January 1926.^{3399,3400,3401}

"William Lawrence. A resident of Lavaca County most of his life, William Lawrence belongs to some of the oldest American stock in Texas, antedating the war for independence in which his father took part. Since the war between the states, in which he was a soldier, he has applied his energies to the staple industry of Lavaca County, farming and stock raising, and has a good estate near Hallettsville.
 
"William Lawrence was born in old Washington County, Texas, December 13, 1839. His grandfather was named William, and among his children are recalled the names of William, Absalom, Jason, Joseph and Mrs. Barbara Beaver.
 
"Joseph Lawrence was the pioneer Texan. Born in North Carolina, he left there at the age of fifteen, spent several years at Nashville, Tennessee, and in 1833 arrived in Texas, then a province of Mexico. He identified himself with the movement for Texan independence during .the years of 1835-36, and joined Houston's army in time to participate in the culminating battle at San Jacinto. This service entitled him to a land warrant, which was laid in Ellis County, and which his sons sold at $2.50 per acre, unconscious of the future value of acres now located in one of the richest agricultural sections of the state.
 
"After independence Joseph Lawrence, who first lived in Washington County, moved to Dewitt County, but that locality was so exposed to Indian raids that he found a safer location in La Grange and spent about five years there. He then moved into Lavaca County, to a place two miles north of where his son William now lives, and there spent his active years in superintending his ranch and stock. When he died, in 1897, at the age of ninety-four, he was one of the oldest residents of Texas, and highly respected both as a soldier of the Revolution and as a man. Though without education, never having signed his name, he possessed the rugged virility of the pioneer, good judgment in business affairs, and had reared and provided home and other advantages for his family of some ten children. Though a Methodist, he was like many of the older settlers rather backward in church matters.
 
"Joseph Lawrence was married at the old town of Washington, on the Brazos, to Mary E. McGary, an Irish lady who died in Lavaca County. Their children were: William; Bettie, who married S. G. McCown, and died in Yoakum, Texas; Cameron, of Goliad, Texas; Margaret, who married Wallace Chrisman, and died in Dallas; Mary, who became the wife of Henry Smith, and died in Floresville, Texas; Ellen, who married James A. Jameson, of Yoakum; Susan, who died in Lavaca County as the wife of Elijah Sewell; Martha, Mrs. James Brown, of Dallas County; Joseph, now deceased; and Jack, who died at Marlin, Texas.
 
"William Lawrence has lived in Lavaca County since 1849. In his youth schools were not held so important factors in training the younger generation as they are now, and his education rather practical than bookish. Just about the time he was getting ready for life on his own responsibilities, the war came on and in August, 1861, his name was enrolled in the Confederate service. Captain Whitfield's company, which he joined, reported for duty to Gen. Ben McCulloch, in Northern Arkansas, and there Whitfield's legion was organized. He fought at the Battle of Elkhorn, armed with a Mississippi rifle, which he had brought from Hallettsville, and after that engagement his command was sent to Des Arc, Arkansas, and there dismounted and sent to Memphis as infantry. It was in the operations about Corinth, fell back to Tupelo, and there rested and recuperated from the epidemic of measles which was making havoc among the soldiers. After the battle at luka, in which they participated, the legion was again mounted and resumed rank as cavalry. They went into Tennessee, fought at Thompson's Station, and were in the raid of Gen. Van Dorn against Grant's supply train at Holly Springs and helped capture a number of Federal prisoners there. They were then attached to Johnston's army for the relief of Vicksburg. The fall of Vicksburg Mr. Lawrence regarded as the death blow to the hopes of a victorious Confederacy, and after that he fought only as a soldier's duty and not with the spirit which he had begun. He was always present for any service, and as orderly sergeant called the roll of his company every day, but he realized that it was a loss of time and waste of men to continue the struggle against the overwhelming odds on the side of the North. In April, 1864, an order directed that one man from each company should be furloughed home. When the captain presented him the hat containing the lots of those who should go and those who should remain, he scratched down to the bottom of the hat and pulled out a '' furlough.'' When he left the army for sixty days he bade his comrades farewell, for he had determined never again to engage in the war east of the Mississippi. A month after he reached home he married, and a little later joined a company that was organizing in Horton County for duty on the frontier. Capt. William Townsend was in command of this company, with headquarters near San Patricio, but they patrolled a large part of the Rio Grande district, from San Antonio to Laredo and Eagle Pass, and he had returned from one of these long rounds when the news came of Lee's surrender and the end of the war.
 
"Once more free to take up the duties of civil life, Mr. Lawrence resumed his old vocation, farm and stock. His present estate, containing some 560 acres, is on the Woodard and Fuller leagues, and he and his good wife have labored wisely and well to accumulate and improve this substantial homestead. They have fenced it and have brought 250 acres under cultivation, have set up six sets of buildings, and have directed the work of the tenants chiefly to producing cotton.
 
"Mr. Lawrence was married May 11, 1864, to Miss Henrietta Coffey, who represents another family of early Texas. Her father, William Saunders Coffey, was born and reared in Kentucky, but came from Jackson County, Alabama, to Texas in 1844, and settled first in Titus County, and in 1859 came to Lavaca County, where he was a slave-holding farmer until the war. He died in November, 1875, at the age of eighty. He married Elizabeth Schooler, who died in 1871, and their children were as follows: Milton, of Morris County, Texas; Mary J., who married Millis Higginbotham, and died in Titus County; Eliza, who married William Riley, and died in Lavaca County; Emeline, who died unmarried; Catherine, the wife of John Williams, lives near Mrs. Lawrence, who is the next in the family; Margaret, who married Steve Pool, of San Angelo; and John Nathan, of Brown County.
 
"To Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence were born five children: Ellen is the wife of Jep Griffith, of Uvalde, Texas; Willie is the wife of Allen English, and they live on the Lawrence farm; Lulu married Laughlin Simpson, a farmer in this neighborhood; Leon died in young manhood, and his twin brother died at the age of eleven years."

Henrietta Josephine Coffey and William Lawrence had the following children: