Guinn, Robert M.

During his first battle at Cumberland Gap, he was captured by the Union forces. He was taken to a prison camp in Indiana, where he was held until the close of the war, when he was released. *
In 1866, he married Barbara C. Bass, of Greene County, Tennessee. To this union were born eight children, whose names are recorded in the Genealogical Records compiled by Bernice Guinn Sweeney, and shown herein.

Seven years later, in 1873, Robert McPherson Guinn brought his family to Texas, settled in Johnson County, near Alvarado, Texas and engaged in farming and stock raising.

On June 8, 1881, his wife Barbara, passed away, in Alvarado, Texas. This left him with eight children, and his widowed sister, Katherine "Kit" Kiblinger came from Tennessee with her two children to help care for them.

November 25, 1883, Robert McPherson Guinn married Mary Jane Hogge, near Ennis in Ellis County, Texas. To this union were born six children, as listed in the Genealogical Records of Bernice Sweeney, and shown herein.

In November, 1889, Mr. Guinn moved to Houston, Texas, on Young Avenue, now Riesner Street, to take charge of a cattle yard for A. J. Vick.

On May 31, 1890, he returned to Johnson County, Texas, and worked on a farm that belonged to A. J. Vick. He remained there until December, 1894, when he came to the new townsight called Deep Water, Harris County, Texas, as overseer for Col. M. T. Jones (uncle of Jesse Holmes Jones) and A. J. Vick, who owned the townsight and a large plantation. This trip from Johnson County was made by train from Waxahatchie, Texas to Houston, Texas, then by boat, the "Eugene" to Deep Water, Texas.

The present sight of the Ethyl Corporation was the residence of the Robert McPherson Guinn family for the next four years. Because the family was stricken with malaria fever, which could not be controlled, Mr. Guinn moved his family to Webster, Harris County, Texas, in September 1898.

In July 1899, he was compelled to return to his farm in Deep Water to harvest the crop that had been deserted by his renter.

On October 2, 1899, Mr. Guinn moved to Pasadena, Harris County, Texas. He traded a team of mules for three lots on what is now Sterling and Munger Streets to J. W. Lewis, who was the postmaster. Then on October 3, 1899, he was sworn in as postmaster of Pasadena, Texas, in place of J. W. Lewis.

That post office was in one room of the home. Because the strawberry industry was becoming so great, on April 13, 1900, a Wells Fargo Express Office was opened up in the same room with the post office. About the same time, a public telephone was placed in that same room.

In 1905, on the advice of the superintendent of Wells Fargo & Co. Express, Katie Guinn, daughter of Robert McPherson Guinn, started a course in telegraphy, and in 1906, a Western Union Telegraph Office was set up in the same room also.

In the spring of 1907, Mr. Guinn resigned as postmaster, and Charles H. Tilley succeeded him.

In the summer of 1910, the Southern Pacific Railroad Company built a depot at Sterling Avenue and Main Street, and the Express office and the Western Union office were moved to the depot where Katie Guinn was railroad agent and Mr. Guinn remained Express agent.

In the summer of 1916, when because of his wife's declining health, he moved to Andrews County, Texas. There he engaged in farming and cattle raising, on a ranch owned by his daughter, Lela McQuatters, who resided in Los Angeles, California.

On July 16, 1918, Mary Jane, his wife, passed away in Andrews County, Texas, and was returned to Pasadena, Texas and buried in the Crown Hill Cemetery in Pasadena, Texas. Mr. Guinn moved back to his home in Pasadena, where he resumed his occupation of farming and trucking.

Robert McPherson Guinn was active in church and community affairs until his untimely death at the age of 82 years, 8 months, when he died as a result of being "run down" by a car as he and his daughter, Margaret, were walking to church on Sunday evening, February 19, 1928.

My notes: *He was held in Camp Morton in Indianapolis, Indiana. His brother, Alexander S. C. Guinn, died in January 1865 in Camp Morton. Robert was released at the end of the Civil War, in April 1865. Alexander was buried along with other soldiers in a grave on the grounds of the camp, until they were moved to the Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis. Since Robert was one of the original designers and founders of Crown Hill Cemetery in Pasadena, TX, I believe he named the cemetery after the one where Alexander is buried.

Robert had 8 children with Barbara Bass and 6 children with Mary Jane Hogge. My line is through Ray, his son with Mary Jane Hogge. ~ Cindy Hartman