The Shook Family in 1820s Texas
My research indicates Amanda Elizabeth (Morris) Shook, wife of Josiah Webster Shook was the first (maternal) Shook born in Texas. A true Texas pioneer. Amanda was born in June 10, 1821 in the Harris County area of Texas, married Josiah on November 30, 1844 in Texas, and died on July 26, 1915 in Texas. In all her life, she never left the great state of Texas. Sadly this Texas Patriot is interned in an unmarked grave in Waco, Texas.
Amanda was born was the summer that Stephen Fuller Austin and a small group of settlers crossed into Spanish-Texas to meet with government officials about settling what became Mexican-Texas during his trip. When those settlers began arriving at Austin's Colony (ca. 1824 - 1828), Amanda was already a small child (about 3 - 7 years old).
In 1824, Amanda "Amy" (Comstock) White Swail immigrated to Austin's Colony. Amy and four of hers sons (Joseph, Reuben, Walter C., and William) are five families of the Old Three Hundred - the first 300 settlers in Texas. Alhough not documented as one of the first 300 [Austin Colony] settlers in Texas, Amanda had lived in Texas for at least 3 years by the time Amy (Comstock) White reached Texas.
The significance of this timeline (and connection) materialized about four years later when one of Amy's sons, George Wallace White (age 29), married Amanda's widowed mother Rebecca (Phipps) Morris (age 24) ca. 1828. At 8 years old, Amanda became George's step-daughter and, subsequently, associated with one of The Old 300.
While not officially members of The Old 300, Rebecca and Amanda were certainly original Texas pioneers and lived among the earliest settlers in Spanish-Texas, Mexican-Texas, and the Republic of Texas. While Rebecca died (~1842) before Texas became a state in 1845, Amanda lived to see Texas become a State in both the United States and Confederate States of America.
Josiah and Amanda lived in the Harris County, Texas area until sometime between 1880 and 1889 when they moved to the Bell County / Falls County / McLennan County area of Texas. Josiah died in 1889, and is buried in an unmarked grave at the Shiloh Cemetery in Troy, Bell County, Texas. Amanda died in 1915, and is buried in an unmarked grave at the Oakwood Cemetery in Waco, McLennan County, Texas ((not far from Baylor University).