JONES, REBECCA GREENLEAF WESTOVER MCINTYRE [MCINTIRE] (1798~1865) Rebecca Greenleaf Westover McIntyre [McIntire] Jones, wife of Ira J. Westover, Thomas H. McIntyre [McIntire] and Oliver Jones, all Republic of Texas veterans and public officials, was born in Dorchester, Massachusetts, in December 1798.
After traveling to Jeffersonville, Kentucky, Ira, Rebecca, and their adopted son, Lucius W. Gates, who is believed to have been their nephew, set out for Texas in 1834. They floated down the Mississippi River to New Orleans on a flatboat. After arriving, they set sail to Texas on a brig, but were shipwrecked and left stranded on Padre Island on June 6, 1834. After being rescued five days later, they were taken to San Patricio, where they had made arrangements to join the McMullen-McGloin colony. Instead, they joined the Power and Heweston colony and received land in Refugio and along the San Antonio River.
Once in Refugio, Ira, who was a merchant, was planning on setting up a mercantile, but, instead, joined the municipal militia, where he was a captain. He also became a member of the Refugio committee on safety and correspondence. As the colonists' dislike of the Mexican government grew, Ira, a devout patriot, became more involved in Texas' fight for independence and was elected to represent Goliad in the Consultation of 1835, but arrived after its adjournment. He was later elected to the General Council at San Felipe, where he was appointed a captain of artillery in the regular army. This appointment ultimately sealed his family's fate. As the war escalated, his company was assigned to the Lafayette Battalion, under the command of Colonel James Fannin. Taking Lucius with him, both men were killed during the Goliad Massacre on March 27, 1836.
Rebecca, alone during this time, left her home, which was later used as Sam Houston's headquarters during his visit to Refugio, joined the Runaway Scrape and fled to San Patricio, Harrisburg, and Galveston. After the War, she returned to San Patricio, where she more than likely learned of Ira's and Lucius' deaths.
She later married Thomas H. McIntyre [McIntire], who fought at the Battle of San Jacinto. He was the captain in command of the 5th Company of the 2nd Regiment of Texas Volunteers. On March 29, 1839, Sam Houston appointed him Chief Justice of Jackson County, but he died before he could take office. He reportedly drowned in September of that year. On October 9, 1839, Rebecca successfully petitioned the Jackson County Court to be made the administrator of her late husband's estate.
That next year, she traveled to Austin, to seek restitution from the Republic of Texas for oxen and carts that were lost during the revolution. Staying in Angelina Eberly's hotel, the Eberly House, she met fellow guest, Oliver Jones, who was serving in the senate from Austin County.
Oliver, who was quite smitten with the forty year-old widow, passed a joint resolution paying Rebecca $1,100 for her losses. Two weeks later, they were married in Austin on January 30, 1840. Fellow senator, Anson Jones, was a witness to the ceremony that was performed by General Thomas Jefferson Rusk.
After annexation and Oliver's retirement from public office, they built a home at Burleigh, in Austin County, where they ran a successful cotton plantation. In 1859, they moved to Galveston. While visiting Colonel Cornelius Ennis in Houston, Rebecca died on December 24, 1865. She was buried in the Episcopal and Masonic Cemetery. Oliver died the next year and was buried by her side.
As Texas was preparing to celebrate its 100th anniversary in 1936, Oliver and Rebecca were moved to the Texas State Cemetery in 1930.
Information taken from: Gambrell, Herbert P. Anson Jones: The Last President of Texas, (1947); "JONES, OLIVER." The Handbook of Texas Online. [Accessed Thu Nov 6 9:21:36 US/Central 2003]; and Information compiled by Louis W. Kemp and taken from the San Jacinto Monument website, http://www.sanjacinto-museum.org/Herzstein_Library/Veteran_Biographies/Browse_Biographies/biographies/default.asp?action=bio&id=3382. |
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