born about 1790-1800
William Chandley md Elizabeth Meadows In Green Co. information from Green
County Tennessee Records 1783-1868 by Burgner # 1870 page 45
1830 Census Jefferson County Tennessee as William Chandler age 30 to 40
1840 Census Jefferson Co. Tennessee as William Chanley
1850 age 48 Jefferson Co. Tennessee (Farming)
Md. information from Green Couty Tennessee Records 1783-1868 by Burgher.#2238.
BIRTH:Bell County, Texas birth records;vol. 13, p. 23.
The name in the 1900 or 1910 census is Presley M., in some his name is listed
as "Martin Presley" as well.MARRIAGE:Bell County, Texas marriage records;vol. U, p. 393.
MARRIAGE:Bell County, Texas marriage records;vol. U, p. 393.
Article by George Carmack, San Antonio Exrpess News, Saturday June 7, 1980,
1-bNo one ever came to Texas the way the Crenshaw brothers did.
They were so young. The oldest brother was 15 and the youngest was only 11.
No adult came with them - they were running away from home.
But there was, something even more unusual. The two oldest boys--Pleas and
Dock -- rode horses.
But the, youngest brother, Carey, rode a steer all the way from
Middle Tennessee to a camp on the Guadalupe River just below Kerrville. The
year was 1872.
That remarkable feat is now commemorated in a moving bronze statue by a Hill
country artist, Rita Ann Harmon.
Bonnie and I saw a casting of the sculpture--a limited edition of 25--at
Rita's unusual studio and gallery at Center Point.
Center Point--a small town on the banks of the beautiful Guadalupe a few
miles below Kerrville has a rare distinction. Just across the street from
each other is a sculptor and a foundry that casts sculptures in bronze.
. . . But back to the Crenshaw brothers. When their widowered father
remarried, the three boys decided to leave home. And they had heard all of
the stories Texas. Only a yearling steer was available for Carey to ride.
They had no guns but all three became experts in killing
rabbits, squirrels and birds with slingshots. And sometimes people along
the way gave them food.
Bob Bennett told the story in his "Kerr County, Texas, 1856-1854." He
described its ending.
The strange odyssey came near to ending on a tragic note. On night they
arrived at the frontier village of Kerrville,they camped near the site of
the present Kerr County Hospital.
It wa a moonlight night and the Comanches were on the prowl
The Indians stole the two horses and butchered and ate the steer the
youngest brother had ridden. The three boys escaped in the brush. What
then happened is typical of the fortitude of the pioneer people that made
Texas. The three went to work, in time had their own homesteads, married
and brought up fine families. . . . .
According to his WWI draft card, Willie Crenshaw was tall and slender, with light blue eyes and light hair. He also had a disable right foot.