EMILY A. EAVES IRISH

Emily (Embie) Eaves was born July 24, 1827 in Perry County, Alabama, the daughter of Burwell/Burrell and Sarah Ann Eaves.  In The 1830's, Burwell and other members of the Eaves clan moved to western Louisiana.  In about 1841, Emily's mother died, leaving fourteen year old Emily responsible for younger siblings.  In the early 1840's, the Burwell Eaves family entered (or re-entered) the Republic of Texas and settled in the Bland Lake area, near San Augustine.

On November 26, 1845, Emily married Milton Irish.  Milton had served with the Texian Army in the 1835 Siege of Baxer and in the Republic of Texas Army in Colonel James Fannin's command.  He was one of twenty-eight prisoners to escape the infamous "Goliad Massacre" on March 27, 1836, with 370 being executed by the Mexican Army.

Although Milton owned a headright of 1/3 league of land in Shelby County and a 640-acre Bounty Grant in San Augustine County, Emily and Milton established their home on a tract of land three miles north of San Augustine, which they later bought in 1847.   To this marriage was born Benjamin Milam, Laura Ann and Joseph Rowe.  Milton operated a modest farming operation and served two different terms as coroner of San Augustine County.

On April 8, 1952, Milton joined the gold rush to California, leaving Emily on the primitive Texas frontier, with three small children to raise.  Milton later died in 1869 in Redwood City California.  Emily continued to live and struggle on the homestead to support the family.  She was a strong advocate of education, and school records indicate her continual sacrifice to pay the ten cents per day per student, as public schooling did not exit.

On April 18, 1864, she sold the homestead and moved her young family to Center, Texas.  There she re-established a homestead, by which they supported themselves by farming part of Milton's headright, which is located approximately one mile from the New Hope Cemetery.  The 1870 census of Shelby County lists her as head of the household, consisting of B. M., and J. R., and living next door to Laura and her husband, J. P. Wheeler, who was sheriff of Shelby County.

In 1877, Emily's health began to fail and on January 28, 1878, she received a pension from the state of Texas as a "Surviving Widow of a Soldier of the Texas Revolution."  However, it appears, she had difficulty in receiving this quarterly pension of $37.50, as her file in the Texas State Archives contains many vouchers from the Comptroller's Office stating "Pension from (date) to (date) unpaid, Appropriation being exhausted, Warrant cannot issue."  In 1881, she also received a 1280-acre grant from the Texas Veterans Land Board.

Emily died in Shelby County on February 14, 1911 at the age of eighty-four.   She had courageously reared her young family into adulthood and had been without the benefit of a husband's support for almost sixty years.  She is the real heroine and matriarch of the 'IRISH' family.

On July 17, 1999, her descendants honored her memory and frontier spirit by placing a "Citizen of the Republic of Texas, 1836-1846" medallion on her grave marker.