Reason Green and the Trinity

Reason Green was one of the first settlers of the Kenefick area. This story brings together what public records and historical markers show about his land, his ferry on the Trinity River, and the events of 1836 near his home. Sources are listed at the end.

The land

Reason Green was born on January 1, 1800, in Natchez, Mississippi. In 1822 he married Martha Ann Rogers. He was living on the west side of the Trinity River before 1830, when this area was part of Mexican Texas.

Records at the Texas General Land Office show two land titles in his name in what is now Liberty County. The first is dated May 2, 1831 (Abstract 42). The second, dated August 26, 1835, is a league of 4,428 acres described as “West of the Trinity” (Abstract 43). Kenefick stands on that league today. The Richard Green survey (Abstract 197) borders it on the north.

Green’s Ferry

In an account written in 1923, his son Freeman D. Green said that Reason built a flatboat to carry himself and others across the Trinity, and that the place became known as Green’s Ferry. No record gives the exact location. The east edge of his league is the river, so the ferry was most likely along that stretch.

1836

In the spring of 1836, after the fall of the Alamo, families across Texas fled east toward Louisiana in what is known as the Runaway Scrape. Many crossed the flooded Trinity River near Liberty, and Liberty County residents helped the refugees.

Reason Green served in Sam Houston’s army. He was assigned to escort women and children across the Sabine River to Louisiana, so he was not at the Battle of San Jacinto on April 21, 1836.

After the battle, about sixty Mexican prisoners, including General Martín Perfecto de Cos, were brought from Anahuac to Liberty in August 1836. They were held on Judge William Hardin’s land, now known as Mexican Hill, until their release on April 25, 1837.

Later years

In 1842 Reason Green served as a militia officer at Tarkington Prairie, and he held several public offices during his life. He died in Liberty County on February 11, 1868, and is buried at French Cemetery on FM 1008, just south of Kenefick. The cemetery was once the Pruett family cemetery. Beasley Pruett received that land from the Mexican government in 1824 and was buried there in 1835.

Local tradition

French Cemetery takes its name from a local tradition that French settlers were killed and buried nearby in the 1700s. The historical marker at the cemetery notes that no physical evidence of these burials has been found.

Sources

• Texas General Land Office, Liberty County Abstract 43, Reason Green (1835)
• Texas General Land Office, Liberty County Abstract 42, Reason Green (1831)
• Texas Historical Commission marker, French Cemetery
• Texas Historical Commission marker, The Runaway Scrape
• Texas Historical Commission marker, Mexican Hill
• Reed family genealogy, Reason Green
• Freeman D. Green, written account, Albuquerque, New Mexico, August 3, 1923 (quoted in the Reed family genealogy)
• Hardin Papers, militia lists, Sam Houston Regional Library and Research Center, Liberty