DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Michael Moore Kennard was born in Tennessee, and if you know anything about Tennessee in the early nineteenth century, you know that wasn't a bad place to start. But in 1828, Kennard and his family made a decision — they joined Robertson's Colony, bound for Texas.
Now, joining a colony bound for Texas in 1828 took a certain kind of person. The kind who looks at a map and thinks, that far edge looks just about right. They arrived in 1830 — and notice that gap. 1828 to 1830.
The marker says they probably stopped along the way to make a crop. In other words, the Kennards were not in a hurry to arrive somewhere easy. They were stopping to plant, harvest, and then keep going toward somewhere harder.
That tells you something. Once they got to what is now Grimes County, they put down roots. Kennard was granted a third of a league of land in Robertson's Colony — a proper foothold in Texas soil.
But he wasn't done earning his place. He served in the Texas Revolution, and for that service he received additional land, this time in Menard and Leon Counties. The man was accumulating Texas the honest way.
And then there's the matter of business. Kennard became part of a mercantile firm — Fanthorp, Womack and Kennard — and that firm holds a distinction worth noting out loud on a Texas road: it was the first mercantile business in Grimes County. The first.
A man who stopped to make a crop on the way to Texas ended up building the first store in the county where he finally settled. Turns out, he knew exactly where he was going all along.
What the marker says
Born in Tennessee. In 1828 he and family joined Robertson's Colony, bound for Texas. Arrived in 1830, probably having stopped to "make a crop" along the way. Lived in present Grimes County; was granted a third of a league of land in Robertson's Colony. For his service in the Texas Revolution, received additional land in Menard and Leon Counties. His mercantile business-- firm of Fanthorp, Womack & Kennard-- was the first in Grimes County.