Notes for: Jonathan MCFADEN

Jonathan departed for Texas in 1849 to join his brother David. There, he is said to have spent time in Austin and, in 1850 was in a Texas Ranger Company in Goliad under the command of Captain James D. Bailey. TheTexas Rangers had been dispatched to Goliad at the request of the citizenry to quell frequent attacks on wagons and carts transiting from the important port of Indianola to San Antonio in what became known as "The Cart War." A number of the bandits were killed or publically hanged by the Rangers in the town square to put an end to the danger. His brother David was also in this company of Texas Rangers.

Following his marriage, Jonathan and his family settled on the very outskirts of the frontier on a farm on Hog Creek in southern Bosque County northwest of Waco. During the Civil War period he served as a State Guard (known as the Texas State Troopers) in a Mounted Rifle Company, protecting the frontier area from both Indian attacks and Union troops. (email David McFadden]

Sources:

United States Census of 1850 (Goliad County, Texas).

Texas State Archives, Records of Service of Veterans of the Civil War, Members of the State Guard, Austin, Texas.