Page 363 - Foy

Dorothy recalled hearing her mother in law, ALICE ELIZABETH RENFRO, tell about
how one day she saw men riding horses coming toward the RENFRO house. She ran
and told the family and several RENFROs got on their horses and fled. The story was
they all fled to Mexico.

Dorothy could not recall if it was THOMAS RENFRO and his brothers who had come
to Texas with him from Mississippi or if it was THOMAS foy’s sons who fled that day
and she could not remember the names of those who fled but her story was there were
three men who fled to Mexico; two later returned and the third went on to South
America never to return. Allegedly he raised a large family somewhere in South
America.

DOROTHY, of course, did not know if the RENFRO brothers talked about in
Harkey’s book, MEAN AS HELL, were the same group of RENFROs.

So far I haven’t found the documentation but facts obtained from RENFRO
descendants in Oklahoma and Texas indicate MISSOURI met and in 1868 married
THOMAS CLAY RENFRO, who also lived in Limestone County. (And, again, some
RENFRO researchers state MISSOURI and THOMAS married in San Saba County.)

THOMAS and one or more of his brothers, it turns out, were wanted for murder in
Mississippi where they lived before coming to Texas. But, before you think too
harshly of THOMAS you need to hear THE REST OF THE STORY.

Let’s talk first about the parents of THOMAS C. RENFRO, the man MISSOURI FOY
married in about 1868. RENFRO researchers report that originally THOMAS’ father
spelled his last name as RENFROE. Later one of his sons changed the spelling to
RENFRO and the rest of the family followed.

Research of early RENFROs report there are and were several spellings of that last
name, i.e.; Renfro, Renfroe, Rentfro, Renfro and Renfrew. There were many families
with the sir name Renfro in America in the early 1800s, many having come from

Scotland.

John J. Renfroe, the father of Thomas was born in 1817 in North or South Carolina.
Thomas’ mother, Lydiann Hicks was born in 1812 in Georgia. John and Lydiann
married in Crawford County, Georgia on May 12, 1834. They had eleven (11)
children. They were:

BROTHERS & SISTERS OF JOHN ELON FOY 8