HISTORICAL MARKER Location: U.S. 380, five and a half miles east of Decatur DR.WILLIAM RENSHAW (1822-1887) Born in Illinois, William Renshaw studied medicine and set up practice in Sparta, Tennessee. His wife Sarah received from the Mexican government a grant of land in Texas, where her father Samuel Worthington lost his life in a colonization attempt in 1828. Dr. Renshaw traveled to Texas in 1853 to locate his headright, which encompassed many acres of Wise County north of this marker site. Dr. Renshaw returned to Sparta and served two terms in the Tennessee Legislature before moving his family to Texas in 1859 . The first doctor to settle permanently in Wise County, Dr. Renshaw was often away from home for long periods, with a practice extending from Denton to Jacksboro. The Renshaws organized one of the county's earliest schools, taught by J. D. White, for their own and neighbor children. After the Civil War, the family moved to Decatur, where Dr. Renshaw and his son Lute opened a drugstore. They were devout Baptists and supported Decatur Baptist College. Dr. Renshaw died in 1887 and was buried at Oak Lawn Cemetery in Decatur. As his ten children married, each received a portion of the Worthington survey. Two family members still own part of the property. A number of descendants became doctors. (1976) FOREWORD When Johnie Mae Horgan published Early Years in the Life of the Renshaw Family in 1971, many of us became interested in the family line that Dr. William Renshaw and Sarah Worthington Renshaw established in Texas. With the encouragement of Bernice Bullock, wife of Randolph Bullock, and promises of assistance from my sister, Doris Tipps, I agreed to compile a family history of the Renshaw Family. I was to collect data on the descendants, and Johnie Mae Morgan was to continue to add to her research on our progenitors. Although I was born on my grandfather-Ad Renshaw's place near Decatur, we moved to Denton when I was five years of age, so I did not grow up knowing all these Renshaw cousins. It has been a revelation and a pleasure to become ac- quainted by correspondence with so many cousins throughout the United States. Yes, I knew my first cousins but had lost contact with most. This project has served to pull us all together, for a short time, again. My husband became so impressed with the number of responses that he suggested the title Our Renshaw Cousins. We Wilson children in Denton looked forward to the annual two week summer visit of our grandmother, Lizzie Renshaw. Not only because she helped with the endless chores of a large family by churning, snapping beans and peeling peaches for canning and preserving, but most of all because she told stories of Indians and pioneer days in Wise County. I can see her now, sitting in her chair on the back porch, peeling peaches and saying, "Now which story do you want me to tell? Your grandfather thought he shot an Indian," and she was off. At times my stories may be more Lizzie Perrin Renshaw than Ad Renshaw but what Grandma described reflects the experience of both families in the early pioneer home. My college history professor urged me to record those stories, but youth proscrastinates and this was the day before tape recorders, so we must depend on a dimming memory and the assistance of others. Our children and grandchildren in this age of space and T.V. have not had the opportunity of hearing those early day stories that are now history, and the generation who have heard those stories is already beginning to dwindle. It is my intent to preserve some of this early family history, and perhaps some day when they are old enough to care, our descendants will find that they have a heritage of which they can be truly proud. I When this project was started in 1972, I was pleased to discover that there, were many Renshaws who had collected a great deal of information on our ancestors and were willing to share with me. No one seems to have made a complete study of the over 500 descendants. Our Renshaw Cousins is a compilation of the research of many people. I take credit only for collecting the information and recording It to the best of my knowledge and ability. Through the years, Johnie Mae Horgan continued to send the results of her tireless search. In addition, we are indebted to Dr. Horace Renshaw, who shared much information before his death, and to this wife Carol Jim for pictures and later material. ii