Gordon C. Jennings

1782-1836

Born in Windham, Connecticut, the eldest son of a Revolutionary War soldier, Gordon C. Jennings moved to Missouri in the early 1820s. There he met and married a young woman with two children from previous marriages, Catherine Cynthia Overton Avery McCutcheon. Four more children were born to the couple, and desiring free land in Texas, Gordon took his family, and along with his brothers, moved to Bastrop, Stephen F. Austin's "Little Colony," in 1833.

Incensed that the Mexican government had, among other things, failed to provide a system of public education, trial by jury, and freedom of religion, Texans revolted. Further enticed by the promise of land grant compensations, Gordon enlisted in the Texas militia in July of 1835 under Captain R.M. (Three-Legged Willie) Williamson in the command of Col. John H. Moore. In December, Gordon re-enlisted under Colonel William B. Travis. At the Alamo, Gordon, as the oldest soldier there, could have left without taint to his reputation, but he elected to stay to the end. As a corporal in Captain William R. Carey's artillery company, Gordon was probably manning the artillery when following a thirteen day siege, the Mexican army, after being hurled back twice by furious artillery and rifle fire, stormed the garrison. At the end of an hour and a half of brutal hand-to-hand combat, Gordon and his fellow soldiers lay dead. Later that month, Gordon's brother Charles would die at the massacre at Goliad.

His contemporaries regarded Gordon Jennings as a kind, respectable man--a man who only wanted to provide a better place for his family. He did that and more, leaving behind a legacy of bravery that will endure as long as the spirit of the Alamo lives in the hearts of men.

Catherine Cynthia Overton Jennings

1790-1867

Born in Perquimans County, North Carolina, at age 18, Catherine Overton married seaman Vinson Avery, and her sister Alice married his brother Frederick. Catherine and Vinson had one son, Willis, but Vinson died at sea soon after their marriage. Desiring to be near her sister and brother-in-law, Catherine and Willis joined a wagon train for Tennessee. There she married William McCutcheon and bore two more sons, William and Collin. The marriage was not a happy one, however, and ended in divorce six years later. Catherine took her two oldest boys and once again followed her sister and brother-in-law, this time to Missouri. In Lincoln County, she met and married Gordon C. Jennings. Four children were born to them there, but the lure of Texas was strong, and in 1833, the blended family traveled three months through Arkansas, Nacogdoches, and on to the town of Bastrop, or Mina, as it was called then. Situated on the banks of the Colorado River, Bastrop was constantly beset by Indians who raided and plundered, and many nights Catherine and her family listened to the screams of war whoops.

Catherine lost her husband Gordon at the Alamo. Her sons William and Willis were Texas "Mina Volunteers" with Captain Jesse Billingsley, and Willis fought at the Battle of San Jacinto. An uncommon woman in so many ways during her lifetime, Catherine died at the age of 99 at the home of her son, William McCutcheon, in Williamson County