Samuel Doak McMahon (1789 - 1854)

Born 1789 in Jonesboro, Washington, Tennessee

Ancestors

Died 1854 at about age 65 in Sabine, Texas, United States

Samuel McMahon served for Tennessee in the War of 1812
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Biography

Note: Yet again the spelling has changed in several sources! From McMechan to McMahon - now McMahan

Samuel was born on 5 March 1789 at Jonesboro, Washington County, Tennessee. He was the son of John Blair(Brooks?) McMahon and Margaret Curley. He was named after Rev. Samuel Doak, the first minister of Hebron Presbyterian near Jonesboro.

In 1811 he married Phoebe Russell Young McMahon (1792–1858)^[3]

He was given property by John Blair McMahon on 20 May 1805 at Logan County, Kentucky, Deed Book A, Page 313. He married Phoebe R Young on 26 April 1811 at Maury County, Tennessee. Samuel registered to pay taxes in 1816 at Maury County, Tennessee. He bought property from Richard McMahon on 5 March 1818 at Lauderdale County, Alabama,, 79 acres, (TWP 1S, RNG 9W, Huntsville Meridian) Warrant 456.7 (an unknown value). A census listed Samuel as head of household in 1835 at Sabine County, Texas. Samuel received a Land Grant on 11 October 1835 at Zavala's Colony, Texas, for one league from the State of Texas. He was elected Justice of the Peace at Bear Creek in 1836 at Sabine County, Texas. He and John Baptist Gaines appeared on the census of 2 November 1850 at Sabine County, Texas. Samuel died on 18 September 1854 at Sabine County, Texas, at age 65. He was buried at McMahon's Chapel, Sabine County.

Children

Children of Samuel Doak McMahon and Phoebe R Young

1. Elizabeth Moore McMahon b. 16 Mar 1813, d. 20 Mar 1813
2. Rev James Blair McMahon+ b. 1 Oct 1814, d. 1874
3. Merlin Young McMahon b. 1 Oct 1816, d. 8 Oct 1816
4. Susan Young McMahon+ b. 6 Sep 1817, d. 22 Dec 1854
5. Amanda Alabama Tennessee McMahon+ b. 14 Apr 1820, d. 18 Mar 1853
6. Nancy Hardin McMahon+ b. 25 Feb 1824, d. 6 Sep 1897
7. Diana Lucinda McMahon b. 25 Oct 1828, d. 9 Sep 1857
8. Margaret Tabitha McMahon+ b. 22 Jul 1831, d. 28 Apr 1891
9. Louisa Holman McMahon b. 17 Sep 1834, d. 4 Oct 1835

In 1831, Col. Samuel Doak McMahan moved with his family from Doak's Crossing in Tennessee and built his home of logs a short distance west of the sacred ground upon which McMahan Chapel is located. McMahan Chapel was formed as a Methodist class or society in this home in September 1833. Historians record that in 1832 while traveling on horseback through the forest of Palo Gaucho Creek between ,his home and San Augustine, Col. McMahan stopped to pray and was soundly converted. He immediately began to seek a Methodist preacher who would come and preach to him, his family, and neighbors.^[4]

McMAHAN'S CHAPEL

by Archie P. McDonald, PhD

Samuel Doak McMahan moved his family from Tennessee and settled in the municipality of San Augustine about eleven miles south of the nascent town in 1831. Other family members, including William Friend McMahan, established homesteads in Newton County. All the McMahan's made contributions to the Anglicization of East Texas, but Samuel's experience was exemplary: he affixed the family name to the first organized Protestant and Methodist congregation in Texas.

Here is how it happened. The Rev. James P. Stevenson, a representative of the Mississippi Conference of the Methodist Church, was posted to the Louisiana Circuit in 1832. Stevenson headquartered near the Sabine River just a few miles from McMahan's farm. In 1833, Stevenson accepted an invitation to cross the river into Texas to preach to settlers who wanted to hear the "old time religion." These services were proscribed by Mexican law, which established Roman Catholicism as the official religion of Mexico. Assured of protection from authorities, Stevenson held a two-day meeting in a home in Milam, a small community near the Sabine River. McMahan attended the services, liked what he heard, and asked Stevenson to hold additional services in his home. Stevenson did so and returned several times during the year to a religious field anxious for his ministry.

In September, the group organized a "religious society," euphony for a church, to skirt Mexican legal prohibition of formal Protestant worship. Actually, this was a good-will gesture. There is little evidence of government attempts to interfere with Texas settler's worship practices or to supply them with Catholic churches or priests east of San Antonio. The "society" had 48 members when it was organized, and McMahan served as "class leader." The Rev. Henry Stephenson, Stevenson's successor in the Louisiana Circuit, reorganized the society in McMahan's home, which became known as McMahan's Chapel.

Protestant religious activity increased in Texas after the successful Texas Revolution. In 1838, the Mississippi Conference created the Texas Mission District and assigned the Rev. Littleton Fowler to lead it. Fowler lived near McMahan's Chapel and took special interest in its development. In 1839 he helped build a log structure for the church, which was the first of three wooden predecessors of the small brick chapel erected in 1956. Fowler, McMahan, and other pioneers of Methodism are buried in the church cemetery.

In 1970, the general conference of the Methodist Church named McMahan's Chapel as one of three official United Methodist landmarks. It serves yet as a house of worship, and may be visited for that purpose by driving east from San Augustine on Highway 21 and turning onto Spur 35. ^[5]

Sources

1. ↑ United States War of 1812 Index to Service Records, 1812-1815, database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q29K-NPK2 : 12 March 2018), Samuel D Mcmahan, 1812-1815; citing NARA microfilm publication M602 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.); roll 141; FHL microfilm 882,659.
2. ↑ https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-95ZX-VYS?i=243&cc=1916219
3. ↑ "Tennessee, County Marriages, 1790-1950," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QKHM-M585 : 6 November 2017), Samuel D Mc Mahan and Phebe Young, 06 Apr 1811; citing Maury, Tennessee, United States, Marriage, p. , Tennessee State Library and Archives, Nashville and county clerk offices from various counties; FHL microfilm 2,281,684.
4. ↑ http://www.toledo-bend.com/sabineco/history/index.asp?request=mcmahan
5. ↑ http://texasescapes.com/AllThingsHistorical/McMahanChapelAMD702.htm

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Acknowledgments

Thanks to Allan Thomas for starting this profile. Click the Changes tab for the details of contributions by Allan and others.