Zenas Bartlett
Zenas Bartlett, b September 29, 1819 in Garland, Penobscot County, Maine, d December 4, 1897 in Falls County, Texas and buried in Calvary Cemetery in Marlin -- was a son of Deacon Josiah and Sarah (Kimball) Bartlett. Josiah Bartlett had founded the town of Garland, out of a dense forest, in 1802.After finishing Foxcroft Academy in Charleston, Maine, young Zenas, at the age of twenty, traveled cross country to Gallipolis, Ohio, where he taught a subscription school. The following year, he moved to Alabama, where he remained several years selling plantation supplies for a Mobile firm. In 1849, he left for the Gold Rush in California, arriving by boat in San Francisco on September 1, 1849. In 1854, having re-turned from the west "with a sack full of gold," Zenas Bartlett settled in Marlin, Falls County, Texas.
While in Alabama, Zenas Bartlett had become friends with George E. Green, b September 3,1828 in Rutland, Vermont, d July 6, 1856 in Marlin, Falls County, Texas, who had married Sarah Kendrick Jones -- daughter of Churchill and Susan (Tomlinson) Jones who came to Falls County in the early 1850's. After Zenas returned from California, he joined George E. Green in his mercantile business, and the firm be-came "Green and Bartlett." Their business became the largest pre-Civil War business establishment in Falls County, and the store house was located on the site of the present Marlin City Hall. After Green's death, Bartlett expanded the operation -- building Marlin's first brick building near the same spot.
On September 25, 1857 at the Churchill Jones' plantation in Falls County, Texas, Zenas Bartlett married the widow of George E. Green, Mrs. Sarah Kendrick (Jones) Green, b November 29, 1833 in Evergreen, Conecuh County, Alabama, d June 28, 1914 in Marlin, Falls County, Texas and buried by her second husband in Calvary Cemetery in Marlin. By her marriage to George E. Green, Sarah had two children:
Susan Lacy Green, b 1853 in Alabama, who married Thomas Elbridge Battle; and George E. Green, Jr., b 1855 in Falls County, Texas, d before 1870 and buried in the Churchill Jones Family Cemetery. In 1860, both Green children were residing with their maternal grandparents, Churchill and Susan (Tomlinson) Jones.
Zenas and Sarah Kendrick (Jones-Green) Bartlett settled into the George E. Green log cabin, which they later enlarged and improved, and which was located in Marlin, Texas. A city street in the vicinity was later named "Green Street," in honor of Mr. Green. Mr. and Mrs. Bartlett reared six children:
Charles Henry Bartlett, b July 31, 1858, d March 2, 1899-- married Mary ("Mollie") Dickson, b September 17, 1864, d January 9, 1933-- a daughter of James Lawrence and Martha C. (Ellington) Dickson. Martha C. Ellington's first husband was John LaPrelle, by whom she had two children, James and John LaPrelle, who also came to Falls County, who established the "LaPrelle Mercantile" in Marlin, Texas.
Churchill Jones Bartlett, b June 6,1863, d September 27, 1930 -- who married Bodie C. (maiden name unknown), b November 13, 1870, d January 8, 1894 -- and both buried in Calvary Cemetery in Marlin, Texas.
Rosa L. Bartlett, b ca 1865 -- married James Mullins, of Plymouth, Massachusetts. They had no children.
Zenas Wilson Bartlett, b January 31, 1867, d December 18, 1942 -- who married Mary Conoly, b December 3, 1875, d December 6,1953 -- and both buried in Calvary Cemetery in Marlin, Texas. Their children were S. Conoly, who married Catherine Beard; Zenas Wilson Bartlett, Jr., who married Mary Louise Stall-worth; David Bartlett, who married Barbara Hinds, who developed a radar system for the U.S. Army, and was sent to England to install it during the blitz of 1944 during World War II; Mary Jane Bartlett who married Charles E. Reagan, a Marlin attorney; and John Bartlett, who drowned in the oil mill lake at age 13 years, in 1918.
James William Bartlett, b December 7, 1869, d May l9, 1929--married Annie Carter, b February 11, 1873, d May 1, 1929 -- and both buried in Calvary Cemetery.
Lalla Bartlett, b November 16, 1872, d May 18,1895 and in Calvary Cemetery. She was not married.
The Bartletts were all prominent in the social, civic, and business affairs of their community; and the two daughters, Rosa and Lalla -- with their half sister, Susan (Green) Battle, were founders or charter members of many of Marlin's older social and cultural clubs.
Zenas Wilson Bartlett became a prominent local attorney; James William Bartlett was manager of the family estate and a partner in the hardware firm of Rush, Gardner, and Bartlett in Marlin. Charles Henry was Marlin's first native-born mayor in 1892. Churchill Jones Bartlett was a member of the 30th and 31st State Legislatur~5 (1906--1910); and was Texas' Secretary of State (1915--1917).
Zenas and Sarah Bartlett lived in Marlin most of - time; but she also owned a plantation at Tonkoway, on which there was another home, near the Falls on the Brazos River.
During the Civil War, Zenas Bartlett served the Confederate Government as ordinance officer and cotton agent for Falls County. He served as county treasurer and city postmaster, and after Marlin was incorporated in 1897, he was one of the elected city aldermen.
Sarah Kendrick (Jones) Green Bartlett was one of the charter members of the First Presbyterian Church in Marlin, Texas.
Some biographies from "Families of Falls County", compiled and edited by the Falls County Historical Commission.
Permission granted to Theresa Carhart by the Falls County Historical Commission, for use on this page.
CORRECTION submitted by Jessica Griffin
Annie Carter and James William Bartlett were married in 1896 according to Capt. Henry Gray Carter's great-great granddaughter. She did not get to wear her wedding dress because her father died right before they were to be married. They did not have any children.
On Zenas Bartlett's biography, it has Annie Carter Bartlett as having died in 1929, rather than 1959. James William Bartlett died in 1929, Annie survived him by nearly 30 years.
