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Susannah "Sukey" Purnell born abt 1780 in Halifax Co. N.C. Death 1862 in San Augustine,TX She married abt. 1799 in Halifax Co. N.C. to Julius Horton who was also born in Halifax Co. N.C. abt. 1777 Susannah and Julius had several children of their own and they took in two children of her sister Elizabeth Purnell Sheffield when they were orphaned. They also took in two other children when they were orphaned (I believe by the name of Campbell).Her father: John Purnell Sr. b.1740 Her mother: Penelope "Penny" ____? Children: all born in Halifax Co., North Carolina 1. Nancy Horton b. 1800 m. James Whitis Bulloch b.1795 (* Nancy Horton, gr. gr. gr. grandmother) 2. Elizabeth Jane Horton b. 1803.....................                3. Samuel W. Horton b. 1806...........................              4. Alexander "Sandy" Horton b. 18 April 1810               5. Martha R. "Patsy" Horton b. 1812..................               6. William Wade Horton b. 1814........................                7. Susan Purnell Horton b. 1816.......................                 8. Henry Purnell Horton b. 1818........................               9. Sarah Horton..........................                                       10. Benjamim Horton.......................                                                                      **Please click on the links for more info on that person & family. **See research by gr.gr.gr.grandson of Alexander Horton: Collected into "Ancestry.com" by Chris Kaeppel Also a family collection by Hugh Adams in RootsWeb.com on Samuel Horton. **See the letter written in memory of "Sukey".......by her grandson: Samuel Houston Horton below......

Susannah "Sukey" Purnell Horton "A Tribute To His Grandmother"....by Sam Houston Horton

I have oft times in long after years heard my grandmother tell of her trip from Washington Parish, Louisiana to join her father in Texas, not knowing but that she would find his body mouldering to decay, the victum of desease or the scalping knives of savages. She was a woman of heroic mould, of fine judgement, inflexible will and determination in carrying to consummation any project or undertaking that appealed to her judgement as proper or necessary, but she never could see the proprioty or nesessity of (James Whitis) Bulloch or Sam Houston leaving her thirteen year old son exposed to such dangers and hardships in the wilds of an uninhabited country. She would oft reminiscently remark, seated around a winter's fire, earnestly picking the seed from cotton--notwithstanding my father's gin was situated a few hundred yards from the residence--"I would not have left him there for the state of Texas, it was enough to have unbalanced the mind of so young a child, to say nothing of the dangers to which he was constantly exposed, and I greatly feared that I would never again see him alive." Whilst the mother and family were recuperating from their long and tedious journey through the wilds of Northern Louisiana to Texas, drying venison and bear meat for future use, and also storing away honey--for the forest abounded with bees--and does to this day, more then three quarters of a century from the time of which I write --and whilst the stock they had brought back with them were fattening on the succulent cane and nutritious grass that springs up with luxuriant  spontaniety, in the Southern clime, the mother was taking observations and indevoring to deside in her own mind what course best to pursue for the benefit of herself and minor children. She did not like the location, it was to far from human habitation with no prospects of schools in the near future, and her children needed to be going to school. She had previously lived, surrounded by relitives and friends in "The Old North State", and at least by neighbors in Louisiana, the few years she spent in that state, and thus to immure herself and family in the uninhabitied wilds of Mexico was repulsive to her feelings and nature revolted at the thought. She determined to go back to the settlements on The Red Lands along  the Kings Highway. This she did, and finding a party that wished to return to the states, she purchased his improvements, about three miles (north) of the town of San Augustine, TX and there remained until all her children had grown up and married off. On a beautiful hillock, near the home, and land by the Kings Highway, her enfeebled body and snow white head, over which eighty-five winters had come and gone, found a last resting place forty years afterward. In 1850 San Augustine Co., Texas census, Susannah was a widow living with William Wade Horton's  young widow, Mary and her young daughter Wadeanne, and two step-daughters Leanna and Susan. Also in the household was Land G. Jewitt, a portrait painter from Masachusetts, possibly as a boarder. More on EARLY TEXIANS:

Alexander Horton m. Elizabeth Lattin on 23 JUN 1837 (she d. 1846) He married second to Mary Harrell on DEC 30 1847

Nancy Horton married James Whitis Bulloch See "next page"