John Winfield Scott Dancy of Fayette County
John Winfield Scott Dancy was born September 3, 1810 in Virginia. He grew up in Alabama and attended college in Tennessee. He married in 1835 but his young wife died the following year.
On November 21, 1836 John Dancy bid farewell to his family in Decatur, Alabama and started for Texas. He traveled overland to New Orleans and then by boat to Texas, arriving at the port of Velasco on December 28, 1836. The “Father of Texas,” General Stephen F. Austin, had died the day before and the steamboat Yellowstone was in port carrying his body to his burial place at Peach Point. Also on board were President Sam Houston, the members of his Cabinet and other government officials. John Dancy joined this group when the steamer returned upriver. Dancy traveled all around the coastal areas and then ventured to San Antonio. In April 1837 he set out for the Colorado River. Traveling by horseback, it took five days to reach Colonel Henry Manton’s home at the La Bahia crossing. Dancy rode over the countryside visiting F. W. Grassmeyer and the Rabb family. Mr. Dancy was so taken with the view from atop the Bluff (Monument Hill) that he purchased sizable acreage from Henry Manton before leaving the Colorado.
Dancy went home to Alabama but was back on the Colorado by early January 1838. Fayette County had been established the month before and the town of La Grange was declared the county seat.
In February 1838, John W. S. Dancy, Henry Manton and five other men established the town of Colorado City on the west bank of the Colorado River directly opposite John Henry Moore’s town of La Grange. Elaborate plans called for the development of 5,000 acres with 156 blocks of residential and commercial property but the town never progressed beyond the plat stage.
Dancy built his home and plantation on his Colorado City property. He grew cotton, wheat, corn and other vegetables and fruits. He installed a hydraulic watering system to provide irrigation for his crops.
John Dancy joined the armies of Texas and the United States during the 1840s. He served as a private under Captain Nicholas Dawson and Colonel John Henry Moore in the last major expedition by Texas troops against the Comanche in 1840. In early 1842 he once again served under Captain Dawson during the Vasquez Raid. In 1847 he was a member of U.S. Army Spy Company during the Mexican War. Dancy began a long political career in 1841, serving in the Senate of the Sixth Congress of the Republic of Texas. In 1847, Senator Dancy was elected to serve in the Texas state legislature. During the next ten years he served two terms in the Senate and one in the House of Representatives. Transportation was a major problem facing early settlers in Texas and John Dancy firmly believed that the development of railroads would be a great economic boon to Texas. His early advocacy of railroad development earned him the nickname “Father of Texas Railroads.”
On October 25, 1849 he married for the second time to Lucy Ann Nowlin of Austin. Together they had six children including one son and five daughters.
In 1850 Dancy became a newspaper man when he served as the editor of the weekly newspaper called the “Texas Monument.” Its purpose was to raise funds for a proposed monument on the bluff to honor the Dawson and Mier men, but the effort failed.
In 1853 Senator Dancy decided to run for Governor of Texas. In the gubernatorial election of August 1853 there were six candidates and Dancy placed last with only 315 votes.
His last official service was as one of three Fayette County delegates to the 1861 secession convention in Austin that approved Texas’ withdrawal from the United States to join the Confederate States of America.
On February 13, 1866, at the age of 56, John Winfield Scott Dancy died and was laid to rest in the Old La Grange City Cemetery. He left behind a detailed diary of his life beginning with his journey to Texas in 1836.