Levi English was born 25 August 1817 in Arkansas.
Married Mathilda Burleson.
Allied families (married children): Joseph Tumlinson, Rube Bell.
By the 1850s English had become a cattleman and a leader of a frontier community in Atascosa County, where he served as a county commissioner in 1856. In 1865 he led a group of fifteen families into what is now Dimmit County and established a settlement at Carrizo Springs. In 1880, when Dimmit County was organized and Carrizo Springs became the county seat, English donated land to the town for churches, schools, and a courthouse square. He married Matilda Burleson in 1838; the couple had at least one son, Jake, who was born in 1860. Levi English died in Carrizo Springs on May 4, 1904.
Source: Handbook of Texas
Note from newspaper on microfilm, Uvalde News Leader, Uvalde, Tx. Sept. 2, 1938 is an article on Levi English noting that he was born in Little Rock, Arkansas.
Matilda Burleson was the daughter of Aaron Burleson and a cousin of Texas Patriot, General Edward Burleson.
For several years, the English family, primarily due to problems with Indians, moved to Bexar, DeWitt, Atascosa, and Frio Counties, finally settling in the Carrizo Springs area in early 1863. Robert [Lemmons, slave] his mother, and his siblings went as well, with Robert driving a four-yoke team of oxen. Once there, he helped the English family build a herd of Longhorn cattle.
Source: Black Cowboys of Texas/Sara R. Massey
A son is reported as having been born “south of Yorktown” in DeWitt County in April 1852; L.D. Lafferty purchased land in this area about the same time. They may have crossed paths.
In about 1849 Levi moved his family into the house of Ross Byers in Caldwell County, Texas. In autumn of 1850 Levi became suspicious of the relationship between his wife, Matilda Burleson, and Ross Byers. They obtained a divorce in the summer of 1851. A few days later, Matilda married Ross. About ten days after this wedding, Levi returned home from Capt. Conner’s Ranging Company. He then called upon and had dinner with the newlywed couple. He left that evening but remained in the neighborhood several days, occasionally calling upon the couple. On the morning of the 28th of May, he rode to the Byers residence and conversed for about fifteen minutes. He then, apparently without any provocation or intimation, drew a holstered pistol and shot Ross through the heart. Levi and Matilda remarried in 1855.
The family is in Pleasanton, Atascosa County, on the 1860 Census, with name misspelled as “Inglish.”
On July 4, 1865, Levi English had a ranch on the Leona River in either Uvalde, Medina or Frio County. (Verify with map)
In 1867, he is noted to have brought 400 settlers to Carrizo Springs in Dimmit County.