James Ware Redus (1826 - 1886)

Born 23 Sep 1826 in Athens, Limestone, Alabama

Ancestors

Husband of Leah (McGee) Redus — married 29 Dec 1857 in Bossier Parish, Louisiana

Died 27 Oct 1886 at age 60 in Devine, Medina, Texas

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Biography

James was born in 1826 in Alabama. He was the son of Aaron Redus and Lucy Oglesby. He passed away in 1886 in Texas. He married Leah McGee on 29 Dec 1857 in Bossier Parish, Louisiana.^[1]

James attended school in Athens, Limestone County, Alabama, and moved with his parents from Athens to Aberdeen, Mississippi in about 1840.

Most of his descendants did not know this but James was a Mexican War Veteran. On August 1847, James joined the Third Mississippi Rifles, Keys Company as a private (Mississippi Rifle Company Battalion A -A nderson's Capt Keyes' Company).

According to muster rolls he joined August 1847 in Houston, Mississippi.

November/December 1847 -- he got sick.

January/February 1848--Transferred to Lawrenceburg Hospital in New Orleans.

April 8, 1848 discharged by the surgeon on a Certificate of Disability in New Orleans.

Eventualy he got a pension and a land grant for his service.

He came to Texas in about 1855, settling a few miles south of his brothers John, William and George on the Hondo Creek. The area they settled in is located about 14 miles west of the present city of Devine, Texas and about 40 miles southwest of San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas.

James Redus soon began raising cattle and was among the first to drive herds up the Chisolm Trail to Kansas.

He enlisted in the Confederate States army, April 18, 1862 in Guadalupe County, Texas. He was a fourth corporal in Captain William L. Foster's company of Texas Mounted Rifleman. He came home from the war in 1864 and resumed his ranching interests.

He became a Master Mason in 1862, having received his degrees in the Medina Valley Lodge No. 252, near New Fountain, Texas (close to Hondo, Medina County, Texas). He served as the Worshipful Master of the Moore Lodge before his demise.^[2]

Sources

1. ↑ [1] Louisiana, Compiled Marriage Index, 1718-1925
2. ↑ [2] Findagrave : James Ware Redus Memorial # 5059585