JOHN BENTON KIDD
1867-1928

John Benton Kidd was born on November 25, 1867 in Loyal Valley, Texas. His parents were William Siree "Bill" Kidd and Matilda "Tilda" Jane Stone Kidd.  After his marriage April 10, 1901 to Ollie Ann Baze, they moved to a ranch in McCulloch County that was given to John as his inheritance.  His sister Mary Emma and a brother Frank Garner also had inherited ranches that bordered John's land.  Since Ollie Ann was born and grew up in Camp San Saba, they had many ties to their friends and relatives in this area, which was actually around 6 miles from their ranch home.
    John was in bad health for several years before his death on November 14, 1928,  He is buried in Bethel Cemetery beside Ollie Ann, who died about a year and a half later, in 1830.

    John and Ollie Ann had three children:

1. Lilly May who married Walter Jordan. Their four children were: Mary Alice Jordan Craig, Dorothy Nell Robertson, Walter Jordan, Jr., and James Richard Jordan;

2. Jefferson Bennett who first married Nina Mae Wade. Their son, Jerry Bennett, married Vera Mae Inman in 1940. Jerry and Vera Mae have three children: Carly Diane Osborn (Carly’s children are Roxanne Bree’Aun Francis, Samantha Ashlee Osborn (daughter Jacquelynn Elizabeth Osborn) and Emily Paige Osborn), James Brian Kidd, and Kathy Denise Kidd Noble. Following Nina Mae’s death, Jeff married Alice Reese. Their son is John Maurice Kidd.

3. Maurice Estes Kidd married Lavada Wood. Their daughter is Carol Louann Hall (children are Billy Dan Hall (daughter Callie Hall), Linda Lou Hensley (children Bryan Hensley (daughter Reagan), Jennifer Hensley, and Tyler Hensley), and Kathy Ann Smithson (daughters Julie Smart and Jana Smart).

John's mother, Matilda Jane Stone Kidd, was born December 12, 1849 in Puluski Co. Missouri and died February 6, 1929 in Loyal Valley, TX.
    His father, William Siree (various other spellings are Sirree, Serree, and Suree), was born October 9, 1827 in the Abbieville District, Benton Co., S. Carolina and died Sept. 22, 1901 in Loyal Valley, TX.  His obituary stated that at an early age he was left an orphan. Family letters relate that he was raised by an Aunt Mary in Ark.  He became an apprentice to Mr. Joe Green in Memphis, Tennessee, where he learned the carpenter trade.  When Joe Green came to Texas in about 1847, to place a bid on rebuilding the Capitol after it had burned, he brought William Kidd with his as a partner.  They failed to get the bid and Mr. Green returned to Tennessee, but William remained in Austin for about 10 years, building private homes and continuing to do carpenter work.  He also worked for the Walter Tipps Hardware Co.  He invested his savings in horses and we presume most of them were mares as he made that his business.  At that time they could be pastured on an open range, but the Indians were a hazard.
    Later, William decided to come farther west and continue to raise horses.  His wanderings brought him to the vicinity of Loyal Valley, Mason County, where he met Matilda Jane Stone.  The Stones lived on Hickory Creek and William Siree came along by the Stone place with his horses and asked to pen them in their pens.  Matilda Jane was sent out by her mother to open the gate, barefooted and 17 years of age.  There the romance began.  William remained in the Stone home and he and Matilda were married the 27th day of January, 1964.  She was 17 and he was 37.
    William and Matilda lived in a small house on Cold Creek with the Stones living next door. It was about this time that William began buying up land for 50 cents an acre.  The people laughed at him because they thought there would always be plenty of open range.  He bought about 5,000 acres, most of which was in McCulloch and Menard County.  It was this land that he gave to some of his children when they married as their inheritance.
    John Benton was one of the following 13 children:
Mary Emma (Sis)        1866-1961
John Benton                1867-1928
William Siree, Jr.      1869-1949
Robert Henry (Bob)    1871-?
George Thomas            1873-1953
James Stanley (Jim)    1874-1951
Ida Annie                        1878-1931
Frank Garner                1881-?
Bennie Pinckney (Ben) 1883-1963
Jacob Sufford (Jake)    1885-1905
Rosina Jane (Rosie)    1887-1925
Reuben Pinckney        1890-?

    John's maternal great-grandparents were William Scott, born in Tennessee in 1800 and Elizabeth Celia Jones. William Scott was called a squaw man as he married a Cherokee Indian maiden.  Elizabeth Celia Jones was born in 1808 and was considered to be a full blooded Cherokee.
    The Scotts moved from Kentucky to the Pulaski-Maries county area in Missouri in the 1840's and were members of the Friendship Baptist Church.  It was here that their daughter Celia Lavina, married the preacher of the church, Reuben Gilmore Stone. The Stone family migrated to the Texas Hill Country in the Friendship Church congregation's wagon train in about the year 1853.  The family group settled in and around Llano, Mason, Blanco, and Comanche counties to farm and ranch.  Their descendents continued to lie in this Hill Country area.
    John's grandmother, Celia Lavina Scott Stone was born June 22, 1824. She and John's grandfather, Ruben Stone, lost their homestead on West Walnut Creek in Llano County because of Confederate harassment during the Civil War. They then moved to the House Mountain area but due to the increased Indian depredations and the capture of the Lehmann children at Squaw Creek, they moved to the Cold Spring Creek area township for protection.  The townships name was changed to Loyal Valley out of loyalty to the Union.
    Celia Lavinia Scott Stone died November 30, 1919 at Pontotoc.  She is buried next to her husband in the Llano Cemetery.

    John's mother, Matilda Jane, was born on December 12, 1847 in Missouri and died February 6, 1929.  She and her husband, William Siree are buried in Loyal Valley. 

    John's great-grandparents, John Stone, and his wife were both born between 1780 and 1790.  John Stone was a religious man, a pioneer, a pilgrim and founder of churches.  Their religious beliefs did not condone slavery so sometime in the late 1830's they moved from
Alabama to Osage County, Missouri to avoid this problem  In 1840 they settles with their two sons, Ambrose Y, and Reuben Gilmore (b. July 11, 1823) at Pulaskie County in a twenty foot square hewn log cabin with was still standing in the 1980's.  In 1844 the Friendship Church (Primitive Baptist) was organized in their home.  Both of their sons, Reuben and Ambrose, were Missouri Baptist Association delegates.  In about 1850 they moved to Blanco County and then settled on West Walnut Creek, Llano County in the Texas Hill Country.  These pilgrims traveled in covered wagons across the Ozark Mountains with their wagon train going through Cherokee, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole lands.  They maintained friendly relations with these eastern Indians, however, in their new settlements they were attacked by both the Apaches and the Comanches.  In 1854 John Stone was on the building committee of the reorganized Friendship Church.  The Confederate troops raided the church in 1862 in order to capture the male congregation to force them into the Confederate army to fight for slavery.  The church disbanded as the members hid in the hills.  They did not want to fight their secessionist friends and neighbors.  Slavery was against their religious beliefs.

    John Benton Kidd continued to uphold the strong religious traditions of his grandparents.  He and his family were members of the Camp San Saba church and he also was a member of the Camp San Saba Masonic Lodge.