Benjamin Wren

1806 – 1898

 

Catherine “Kitty” Wren

1816 - 1901

 

Kendall County founder, Benjamin Wren was born into slavery in 1806 in Arkansas Territory. His first known owner was Silas Rawls, who sold Benjamin to his son, Daniel Rawls, on September 7, 1816, in Clark County, Arkansas. He would have been ten years old. The sale document recorded that Benjamin and four others were "sound and healthy."

 

Benjamin married a Virginia-born slave, Catherine "Kitty," before 1830 in Louisiana, and their first child, Burrell, was born in August 1830. The family was allowed to remain together, which was not always true for enslaved people across America. When Daniel Rawls moved to Texas, Benjamin was 47 years old with a wife and seven children. In addition to Burrell, their children included Ezekiel, born September 1832; Millie, born March 1835; Alexander "Alex," born June 1838; Amanda "Mandy," born around 1846; Nicodemus, born about 1849; and Mary Jane "Jean," born September 1852. All seven children were born in Louisiana. Their youngest child, Mary Ann, was born in June 1855 in Curry's Creek, Texas.

 

On September 13, 1853, while Daniel Rawls was living in St. Mary Parrish, Louisiana, he purchased a 640 Donation Land Grant from George Ray of Georgia, sole heir of Anderson Ray, who died with Fannin at Goliad. The grant consisted of two parcels of land in the Curry's Creek area: 150 acres on the waters of the Guadalupe River and 490 acres along the waters of Curry's Creek, East Fork. A creek was running through the center of the larger tract and was later named Rawls Creek. His home was two miles west of present-day Kendalia. It is unclear how many enslaved people he brought with him, but at least twenty, including Ben, Kitty, and their children, were named in his estate.  

 

Daniel was a 70-year-old widower when he came to Texas, and in 1856, he married Lovina Penrod Lawhon, widow of Jesse William Lawhon. Jessy was the overseer for William E. Jones, who farmed near Daniel. Indians killed Jesse in May of 1855 while he and one of Jones' slaves, Seborn Riley, were looking for missing horses. Seaborn was wounded but managed to escape and alert the other ranches. Lovina Penrod Lawhon Rawls inherited Benjamin and his family when Daniel Rawls died in 1862.   

 

Around 1862 or 1863, Benjamim's son Alexander married Charlotte Manning. Family stories do not mention who Charlotte's owner was, but they tell how Alex and Charlotte had to live apart on their respective owner's property. On June 19, 1865, Major General Gordon Granger ordered the enforcement of the Emancipation Proclamation in Texas. According to Alex's grandson, when General Granger freed them, his grandparents walked thirty-two miles to Boerne and settled in an area known as "the Flats." The Flats is located between two creeks just south of Main Street in Boerne and became one of four "freedom colonies" in Kendall County. The four freedom colonies included the Wasp Creek Colony, the Boerne Flats Colony, the Simmons Creek Colony, and the Wren Colony. 

 

Burrell, Benjamin's oldest son, married Milly Riley around 1866, shortly after being freed. Millie's father was Seaborne Riley, who was with Jesse Lawhon when the Indians killed him. During the 1870 census, Burrell and Milly lived in Precinct 3 of Kendall County, next door to his previous owner, Lavina, and her third husband, Wesley Callahan. Benjamin, Kitty, and their youngest daughter, Maty Ann, lived near Curry's Creek in Precinct 4. Jean and her daughter lived next door to her parents, and Nicodemus lived next door to Jean with his wife, Lucy Medows, and their first child, Elizabeth. Alex and Charlotte lived in the Flats in Precinct 1 with their four children. Ezekiel, Millie, and Mandy also lived in Precinct 1. Ezekiel was married to Mary, whose last name is unknown, and they had two daughters. Millie was married to Louis Hemphill. They were married around 1855 and had seven children listed on the census. Mandy married Richard "Dick" Street in 1866, and they had three children listed on the census. Alex, Ezekiel, Louis, and Dick farmed and had farmhands who were not family members living in their homes.

 

Family stories tell that Alex became friends with Henry Theis, the County Clerk, who helped him apply for a land patent. Adolph Rosenthal surveyed 160 acres of land on the waters of Spring Creek, about three miles from Boerne, for Alex on October 15, 1873. On January 1, 1876, Alex received the certificate of occupancy from Henry Theis, verifying that Alex had met the requirements to receive his patent. C. H. Clauss and John F. Stendebach signed the certificate as witnesses. The land is on Spring Creek Road, about half a mile east of FM 474. The patent was granted on January 18, 1877, by Governor R. B. Hubbard.

 

Alex likely encouraged his father, Benjamin, to pursue land ownership. Charles Comfrey was granted a patent on 80 acres of land on the Little Joshua Creek in December of 1877 near the Wasp Creek community. He occupied the land for a year and then assigned the rights to his patent to Benjamin Wren for fifty dollars. Ben and Kitty occupied the land in December of 1878 and fulfilled the requirements to receive a certificate of occupancy. It was given to them by Henry Theis on February 12, 1881. Ezekiel Wren and Robert Medows were witnesses. Governor John Ireland granted the patent on October 18, 1884. Benjamin and Kitty spent the remainder of their lives living in the area. The property was about 1.25 miles southeast of the present-day intersection of Waring-Welfare Road and Poehnert Road. Benjamin died in 1898 and Kitty in 1901. They are buried in the Wasp Creek Cemetery.

 

Alex set aside two acres on the Wren property for a family cemetery. Governor R. B. Hubbard granted Alex the land patent on January 13, 1877, and his family filed the deed on September 13, 1922, three months after his death, on June 14.  In 1924, Charlotte sold their property, except for the two-acre cemetery and the road leading to it, which she deeded to the Boerne Colored Cemetery Association on August 22, 1925.  The Wren Cemetery, as it came to be known, was designated a State Historic Cemetery in 2018, and the Kendall County Historical Commission erected a State Historical Marker on the site in 2023.