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Meet Mrs. Elizabeth Gordon Kennedy


Elizabeth Anne Gordon was born in 1816 in Cumberland County, North Carolina. Her father is William Gordon II. He is the son of Scots immigrants that came to Cape Fear in 1762. His mother was Anne MacIan & his father was William Gordon I. They had a large plantation that processed tar for the water proofing of ships. Both died in 1815 in a fire. William Gordon II was born in North Carolina in 1781.

Elizabeth Anne Gordon’s mother was Elizabeth Mc Alister. The McAlisters, Colin McAlister, his wife, Breanna Mac Farland, & his daughter Elizabeth immigrated to the Cape fear area in 1805. The family prospered & owns 3 large gristmills in Cumberland County. William Gordon II & Elizabeth McAlister met in 1814 & were married in 1815. They have 6 living children all of whom are married. The eldest children being twins, William Gordon III & Elizabeth Anne were born in 1816. William Gordon III, lives on the family plantation with his wife Sarah & manages the family business, with the help of the youngest son, James. William & Sarah Gordon have three sons & three daughters. James Gordon & his wife, Bethanne, have one young son.

Elizabeth Anne Gordon married Thomas Nash, the son of a local planter in 1837. They had three children, two boys & a girl. Thomas Nash died at his home in Cumberland County, North Carolina in 1847 of yellow fever. Elizabeth Gordon Nash continued to raise her three children on the Nash property until mid-1855.

The second son born to William II & Elizabeth McAlister Gordon, Charles, enrolled as a cadet at the Virginia Military Institute in 1833 at the age of 16. There he met William Kennedy, a Texan & the future husband of his sister Elizabeth. At 18 Charles Gordon left VMI & went west with William Kennedy to fight in the battle for Texas Independence. In 1836 Charles fought in the battle at San Jacinto, although soon after the end of the war he spent time in New Orleans where he met & married Jenny LaForrest in 1840. Charles Gordon & his wife moved to Dallas County in 1851. Jenny LaForrest Gordon died in childbirth late in 1851 bearing their only son James.

In late 1854 the widowed Charles Gordon sent back to North Carolina for his eldest, & widowed, sister Elizabeth to come to Texas to help raise his son. As many friends & neighbors had already immigrated to the Dallas area Elizabeth agreed to come, sold her property in Cumberland County, & arrived in Dallas before the end of 1855, bringing her three children & one slave, Hattie, with her.

In 1856 Elizabeth Gordon Nash met & became engaged to William Kennedy, her brother’s school friend with whom he had originally come to Texas. Mr. Kennedy had recently returned from the gold fields of California & purchased a farm near Grapevine in Tarrant County from Judge James Morehead.

Elizabeth Gordon Nash & William Kennedy were married on December 24, 1857, & honeymooned in Jefferson, Texas before returning to his farmstead at Grapevine. The prosperous farm of 640 acres raises cows, sheep, & agricultural crops. The Kennedys owned a small number of slaves to work the property. Their close neighbors include the family of Richard Gano, who had also purchased property from Judge Morehead.

Elizabeth Gordon Kennedy’s children by her first marriage attend various boarding schools, with her oldest son having returned back east. The children’s presence on the Kennedy farm being fairly limited to the holidays. The Kennedy’s had no children of their own.

In December of 1860 William Kennedy traveled to Kentucky to press legal claims to his grandfather’s estate leaving his wife Elizabeth to manage the farm. January & February of 1861 saw an increased threat of Indian attacks as the Comanches crossed the Red River from the north & raided as far south as Denton County. Within a month of his departure, the Kennedy’s slaves had run away leaving Elizabeth alone on the farm. William Kennedy was forced to remain in Kentucky for several months on business & chose to enlist in the Confederate army there at the outbreak of the war.

The help of Erastus Rausch, her husband’s cousin recently arrived in the Dallas area, her sister-in-law, Helen, & frequent visits & help from other relatives in the county allow the Kennedy’s farm to continue to prosper at the opening of the war years.

Contact Mrs. Kennedy