Fernley author Mary Jean Kelso recently returned from a trip to Texas where she and co-author of “A Visual History Record of Alamo Defender Gordon Cartwright Jennings’ Family” Wendy Whiteman participated in Alamo memorial services honoring her great-great-grandfather, Gordon Cartwright Jennings, and other Alamo heroes.
On March 1, Kelso and Whiteman released a history book with reprints of tin-types and paper photographs Kelso inherited from the pioneering days of the Jennings and Williams families. In 1833 Gordon Cartwright Jennings moved his family from Missouri to Mina (now Bastrop), Texas, to join the Austin Colony. Three years later, he was the oldest man to die at the Battle of the Alamo. His heirs remained in Mina and surrounding areas after his passing.
The book contains anecdotes and genealogy of the Jennings and Williams families as well as images from Jennings’ son, Samuel K. Jennings (one of Captain Cady’s First Mounted Texas Rangers), on down to the authors.
Samuel K. Jennings’ daughter, Laura Ellen, married into another Texas pioneering family with her union to C. A. Williams. They raised four boys in Texas until 1910 when they moved to a ranch in Montana. C. A. and Laura Ellen Williams’ second son, Thomas Jasper Williams, became Kelso’s father.
Kelso will sign books at the Soroptimist International of Fallon’s 14th annual Home, Garden and Recreation Show from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. April 12 and from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. April 13 at Fallon Convention Center, 100 Campus Way. Kelso’s other 20 plus titles will also be available. The newest book can be purchased for $19.95, plus shipping and handling, through PayPal on the book’s Facebook page, or by sending an email to Mjkel@aol.com.