THOMAS JEFFERSON HEROD
Submitted by Frank Butcher, updated
May 28, 2007
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THOMAS JEFFERSON HEROD Thomas Jefferson Herod was born on February 7, 1828. The Herod family lived in Alabama five or six years before moving to Madison County, Mississippi in 1828. Records show both Alabama and Mississippi as the state of birth for Thomas. The family moved to Attala County, Mississippi in 1837. There Thomas married Elvira on 2 January 1851. His father James and mother Hannah sold their land on 13 January 1851 and started for Texas with all of the children except for Thomas and his sister Jane, who also was married. Following the death of Elvira's dad, the couple helped look after her mom until her death in 1865. Thomas Herod enlisted with the Confederacy in 1861 and was discharged in the winter but enlisted again in April 1862 and served until the close of the war. His first tour of duty was in Company I, 5th Mississippi infantry. According to his widow’s application for a Civil War pension, Thomas’ second stint was in the cavalry, at least part of the time under the legendary General Nathan Bedford Forrest. Forest’s cavalry conducted a mostly guerrilla type campaign to harass the invading Union troops, but some of his raids went as far north as Ohio and he was undefeated in battle until the last days of the war. In 1868 Thomas and Elvira moved to Limestone County, Texas, and settled east of Thornton near the Davis Prairie Community. According to one Herod descendant, Thomas Herod and his brothers had three traits in common: (1) They were all extremely intelligent, (2) they could remember anything they ever read, but (3) they did not have much ambition or drive. |