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Submitted: 7/10/21 • Approved: 7/14/21 • Last Updated: 7/17/21 • R435377-G435377-S3
March 22,1808 - January 14,1852
Dollie Burton Samuel was born on March 22, 1808 in Giles County, Tennessee to Anna R. Waters and Anthony Samuel. She had 11 brothers and sisters.
In 1826, in Giles County, Tennessee, she became the wife of Capt. Thomas Pliney Plaster (known for manning one of the Twin Sister's cannons at the Battle of San Jacinto; member of House of Representatives and Bedias, Texas Postmaster and County Commissioner). There were 9 children produced from this union; the last child, Dollie, died at childbirth along with her mother Dollie.
Mrs. Dollie B. Plaster died January 14, 1858 in Bedias, Grimes County, Texas, at the age of 49.
From the Texas Archives. Back in the 1980s, before computers, someone went to the Texas State Library/Archives and found a letter/story from Dollie about how the local Bidai indians saved her and her childrens lives when her husband was away. She said it was an unusually cold/snowy winter and her husband was in Austin, the capital city, on business. He could not get back to Grimes County where they lived because the weather was so bad. He was gone for quite some time. She had run out of firewood and food and had several small children to care for. She and a son burned the furniture to stay warm and tried to get some firewood but couldn't. She said the area had several "hostile" groups of the Bidai Indian tribe (which the city of Bedias was named after). One night they heard noises outside their cabin and she was afraid the Indians came to kill them. The next morning she found firewood stacked outside their cabin! The next night she heard scary noises again and knew the Indians were back. The next morning she found freshly killed and cleaned meat (I think it was rabbits) outside her door, this happened several times that winter. She never saw the Indians but in her letter she stated she knew it was them that saved her and her children that winter. (story posted by ancestry user cindyatbunet)
She is buried in the Plaster Family Cemetery located on private property in Bedias, Texas.
Contributed on 7/10/21 by deanakh1
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Record #: 435377