1. Elam, Tillman C., widow Mary A., WA-12233 & WC-8944 filed 9 May 1917 in OK, also see claim WO-768059, he served in 1868-9 in Co. D of 19th KS Cav., he died 26 July 1897 in Portland, KS. 2. ...The men who planted Providence, and then the Colony, held from the first the power of admitting citizens to these incorporations, and of conferring upon these citizens the rights of Freemen;.........In March, 1789, Samuel Elam, a Jew, presented a petition to the Assembly, stating that he came from Leeds, England; but since the Peace he had dwelt in the United States; and now desired to become a citizen of Rhode Island; and prayed this Assembly to pass an Act for his naturalization. The Assembly enacted "that the said Samuel Elam, be, and he is hereby naturalized, and declared a citizen of this State." Upon taking an oath, "he shall be entitled to all the Rights, Liberties, Privileges, and Immunities of a natural, freeborn, citizen of this State: (Acts and Resolves, March, 1789, p. 11). This act took place about the 10th day of the month. The question turns upon the power of the General Assembly to grant naturalizations at that time. It was done March 10. On the 4th of March, 1789, the U. S. Constitution, having been adopted by nine states, went into effect...Rhode Island had not ratified it [and therefore was not a part]........An English subject did not, under the Charter, require naturalization to become a citizen of Rhode Island...By this act the General Assembly admits that the Charter of 1664 had ceased to exist, and to give English subjects the rights of citizenship here. It also naturalized a Jew...The General Assembly, not the people, proceeded to elect Elam a senator of Rhode Island...." 3. "B. F. Terry, a native of Todd County, Ky., but a Texan by long residence.....was commissioned...to return to Texas and raise a regiment of his own liking to fight his own way. The flower of the State rushed to him in response to his call, in numbers more than wanted, self-equipped.....Such was the ardor for the position of high private in this command, embracing ex-Governor Noble's son, a son and nephew of Sam. Houston, Major Thornton, and J. A. McKenzie, present member of Congress from the second district of Kentucky, that the cry as made by Texan Unionists of "a rich man's war and a poor man's fight' was quickly silenced, and, all in all, from flag-bearer Jones, with sixty thousand acres of land at his back, to Elam, who had fourteen of his own horses shot under him, there was a make-up about the regiment exceptional and strong." ___________________________________________________________________ You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail. Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com/getjuno.html or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]