Jesse Edwards Grinstead was born on 16 October, 1866, at Owensboro, Kentucky, the son of William Grinstead (1825-1900) and Elizabeth Miranda Priest (1833-1940).
His father had been a farmer in Missouri before returning to his home state of Kentucky during the American Civil War. At the time of his mother's death (at the age of 107) she was thought to have been the oldest woman in America.
Long before Jesse was born, his father had worked as a guard for Lt. John James Abert (1788 - 1863), of the U.S. Army Topographical Engineers, during his survey of the American Southwest, made nine trips across the American Plains as a wagon-master to New Mexico and California, prospected for gold in California's Sacramento Valley, walked from San Juan del Sur on the Pacific Coast to Lake Nicaragua, transported supplies to the army under the command of Gen. Albert S. Johnston's (1803-1862) while they were stationed at Salt Lake City during the Utah War (1857-58), and conveyed the first threshing machine to Ft. Bridger in the Wyoming Territory.
In the late 1860's, Jesse's family relocated to Pettis County, Missouri, where his father had farmed before the outbreak of the Civil War. Around 1880 his family moved to Oakland, Indian Territory (now Marshall County, Oklahoma).
Later, when his family once again decided move on, this time to Texas, Jesse chose to stay behind. For the next few years, he supported himself by building cabins, hauling logs, branding cattle, digging wells, and even washing clothes.
Eventually he found full-time employment as a printer for a newspaper in the nearby town of Ardmore. Before devoting his energy fulltime to the newspaper business, he had considered practicing law.
A learned judge helped make up his mind when he told him: "Young man, I think you are ruining a fairly good newspaperman by trying to be a damned poor lawyer".
In 1893, Jesse founded the "Oakland News," a few years later he became owner and editor of the Mountain Sun in Kerrville, Texas.
In 1903. Jesse was elected mayor of Kerrville and, four years later, as their representative in the state legislature. While serving in the legislature, he was instrumental in the creation of the State Tubercular Sanatorium in Carlsbad.
Jesse's first wife died shortly after their move to Kerrville. The couple had two boys, Grady H. (1894-1874) and Doyle E. (1897-1951).
Within a year, he married Gertrude Wright (1868-1946), a widow who operated a boarding house in Kerrville. A daughter, Bessie G. (1903-1958) and two sons, Jesse H. (1901-1942) and Pam (1905-1974), soon followed.
After retiring from the newspaper business in 1917, Jesse began writing Western fiction.
Of the some 30 novels, approximately 50 short stories and numerous articles he penned, "The Hill Country" (1923), "The Scourge of the Little C" (1925), "Master Squatter" (1927), "When Texans Ride" (1938), "Flaming Guns" (1938), "Round-Up At Tiger Gap" (1940), "The Flying Y Brand" (1940) and "Feud at Twin Mountain" (1942) were among his most popular.
He was a frequent contributor to such popular magazines as "Big-Book Western Magazine," "Thrilling Ranch Stories," and "Western Romances."
Jesse had also published works under the pseudonyms, Tex Janis, William Crump Rush, and George Bowles.
In 1921, he began publishing "Grinstead's Graphic," a monthly magazine that expressed through his writings and poetry his thoughts, reflections, and views about the area of Texas that he called the "Hill Country" (West of Austin and Northwest of San Antonio).
After an eight-month illness, Jesse Edwards Grinstead passed away on 8 March 1948 at Kerrville.
(Thanks to Find A Grave contributor The Mikado, et al. for this bio)
His father had been a farmer in Missouri before returning to his home state of Kentucky during the American Civil War. At the time of his mother's death (at the age of 107) she was thought to have been the oldest woman in America.
Long before Jesse was born, his father had worked as a guard for Lt. John James Abert (1788 - 1863), of the U.S. Army Topographical Engineers, during his survey of the American Southwest, made nine trips across the American Plains as a wagon-master to New Mexico and California, prospected for gold in California's Sacramento Valley, walked from San Juan del Sur on the Pacific Coast to Lake Nicaragua, transported supplies to the army under the command of Gen. Albert S. Johnston's (1803-1862) while they were stationed at Salt Lake City during the Utah War (1857-58), and conveyed the first threshing machine to Ft. Bridger in the Wyoming Territory.
In the late 1860's, Jesse's family relocated to Pettis County, Missouri, where his father had farmed before the outbreak of the Civil War. Around 1880 his family moved to Oakland, Indian Territory (now Marshall County, Oklahoma).
Later, when his family once again decided move on, this time to Texas, Jesse chose to stay behind. For the next few years, he supported himself by building cabins, hauling logs, branding cattle, digging wells, and even washing clothes.
Eventually he found full-time employment as a printer for a newspaper in the nearby town of Ardmore. Before devoting his energy fulltime to the newspaper business, he had considered practicing law.
A learned judge helped make up his mind when he told him: "Young man, I think you are ruining a fairly good newspaperman by trying to be a damned poor lawyer".
In 1893, Jesse founded the "Oakland News," a few years later he became owner and editor of the Mountain Sun in Kerrville, Texas.
In 1903. Jesse was elected mayor of Kerrville and, four years later, as their representative in the state legislature. While serving in the legislature, he was instrumental in the creation of the State Tubercular Sanatorium in Carlsbad.
Jesse's first wife died shortly after their move to Kerrville. The couple had two boys, Grady H. (1894-1874) and Doyle E. (1897-1951).
Within a year, he married Gertrude Wright (1868-1946), a widow who operated a boarding house in Kerrville. A daughter, Bessie G. (1903-1958) and two sons, Jesse H. (1901-1942) and Pam (1905-1974), soon followed.
After retiring from the newspaper business in 1917, Jesse began writing Western fiction.
Of the some 30 novels, approximately 50 short stories and numerous articles he penned, "The Hill Country" (1923), "The Scourge of the Little C" (1925), "Master Squatter" (1927), "When Texans Ride" (1938), "Flaming Guns" (1938), "Round-Up At Tiger Gap" (1940), "The Flying Y Brand" (1940) and "Feud at Twin Mountain" (1942) were among his most popular.
He was a frequent contributor to such popular magazines as "Big-Book Western Magazine," "Thrilling Ranch Stories," and "Western Romances."
Jesse had also published works under the pseudonyms, Tex Janis, William Crump Rush, and George Bowles.
In 1921, he began publishing "Grinstead's Graphic," a monthly magazine that expressed through his writings and poetry his thoughts, reflections, and views about the area of Texas that he called the "Hill Country" (West of Austin and Northwest of San Antonio).
After an eight-month illness, Jesse Edwards Grinstead passed away on 8 March 1948 at Kerrville.
(Thanks to Find A Grave contributor The Mikado, et al. for this bio)
Jesse Edwards Grinstead was born on 16 October, 1866, at Owensboro, Kentucky, the son of William Grinstead (1825-1900) and Elizabeth Miranda Priest (1833-1940).
His father had been a farmer in Missouri before returning to his home state of Kentucky during the American Civil War. At the time of his mother's death (at the age of 107) she was thought to have been the oldest woman in America.
Long before Jesse was born, his father had worked as a guard for Lt. John James Abert (1788 - 1863), of the U.S. Army Topographical Engineers, during his survey of the American Southwest, made nine trips across the American Plains as a wagon-master to New Mexico and California, prospected for gold in California's Sacramento Valley, walked from San Juan del Sur on the Pacific Coast to Lake Nicaragua, transported supplies to the army under the command of Gen. Albert S. Johnston's (1803-1862) while they were stationed at Salt Lake City during the Utah War (1857-58), and conveyed the first threshing machine to Ft. Bridger in the Wyoming Territory.
In the late 1860's, Jesse's family relocated to Pettis County, Missouri, where his father had farmed before the outbreak of the Civil War. Around 1880 his family moved to Oakland, Indian Territory (now Marshall County, Oklahoma).
Later, when his family once again decided move on, this time to Texas, Jesse chose to stay behind. For the next few years, he supported himself by building cabins, hauling logs, branding cattle, digging wells, and even washing clothes.
Eventually he found full-time employment as a printer for a newspaper in the nearby town of Ardmore. Before devoting his energy fulltime to the newspaper business, he had considered practicing law.
A learned judge helped make up his mind when he told him: "Young man, I think you are ruining a fairly good newspaperman by trying to be a damned poor lawyer".
In 1893, Jesse founded the "Oakland News," a few years later he became owner and editor of the Mountain Sun in Kerrville, Texas.
In 1903. Jesse was elected mayor of Kerrville and, four years later, as their representative in the state legislature. While serving in the legislature, he was instrumental in the creation of the State Tubercular Sanatorium in Carlsbad.
Jesse's first wife died shortly after their move to Kerrville. The couple had two boys, Grady H. (1894-1874) and Doyle E. (1897-1951).
Within a year, he married Gertrude Wright (1868-1946), a widow who operated a boarding house in Kerrville. A daughter, Bessie G. (1903-1958) and two sons, Jesse H. (1901-1942) and Pam (1905-1974), soon followed.
After retiring from the newspaper business in 1917, Jesse began writing Western fiction.
Of the some 30 novels, approximately 50 short stories and numerous articles he penned, "The Hill Country" (1923), "The Scourge of the Little C" (1925), "Master Squatter" (1927), "When Texans Ride" (1938), "Flaming Guns" (1938), "Round-Up At Tiger Gap" (1940), "The Flying Y Brand" (1940) and "Feud at Twin Mountain" (1942) were among his most popular.
He was a frequent contributor to such popular magazines as "Big-Book Western Magazine," "Thrilling Ranch Stories," and "Western Romances."
Jesse had also published works under the pseudonyms, Tex Janis, William Crump Rush, and George Bowles.
In 1921, he began publishing "Grinstead's Graphic," a monthly magazine that expressed through his writings and poetry his thoughts, reflections, and views about the area of Texas that he called the "Hill Country" (West of Austin and Northwest of San Antonio).
After an eight-month illness, Jesse Edwards Grinstead passed away on 8 March 1948 at Kerrville.
(Thanks to Find A Grave contributor The Mikado, et al. for this bio)
His father had been a farmer in Missouri before returning to his home state of Kentucky during the American Civil War. At the time of his mother's death (at the age of 107) she was thought to have been the oldest woman in America.
Long before Jesse was born, his father had worked as a guard for Lt. John James Abert (1788 - 1863), of the U.S. Army Topographical Engineers, during his survey of the American Southwest, made nine trips across the American Plains as a wagon-master to New Mexico and California, prospected for gold in California's Sacramento Valley, walked from San Juan del Sur on the Pacific Coast to Lake Nicaragua, transported supplies to the army under the command of Gen. Albert S. Johnston's (1803-1862) while they were stationed at Salt Lake City during the Utah War (1857-58), and conveyed the first threshing machine to Ft. Bridger in the Wyoming Territory.
In the late 1860's, Jesse's family relocated to Pettis County, Missouri, where his father had farmed before the outbreak of the Civil War. Around 1880 his family moved to Oakland, Indian Territory (now Marshall County, Oklahoma).
Later, when his family once again decided move on, this time to Texas, Jesse chose to stay behind. For the next few years, he supported himself by building cabins, hauling logs, branding cattle, digging wells, and even washing clothes.
Eventually he found full-time employment as a printer for a newspaper in the nearby town of Ardmore. Before devoting his energy fulltime to the newspaper business, he had considered practicing law.
A learned judge helped make up his mind when he told him: "Young man, I think you are ruining a fairly good newspaperman by trying to be a damned poor lawyer".
In 1893, Jesse founded the "Oakland News," a few years later he became owner and editor of the Mountain Sun in Kerrville, Texas.
In 1903. Jesse was elected mayor of Kerrville and, four years later, as their representative in the state legislature. While serving in the legislature, he was instrumental in the creation of the State Tubercular Sanatorium in Carlsbad.
Jesse's first wife died shortly after their move to Kerrville. The couple had two boys, Grady H. (1894-1874) and Doyle E. (1897-1951).
Within a year, he married Gertrude Wright (1868-1946), a widow who operated a boarding house in Kerrville. A daughter, Bessie G. (1903-1958) and two sons, Jesse H. (1901-1942) and Pam (1905-1974), soon followed.
After retiring from the newspaper business in 1917, Jesse began writing Western fiction.
Of the some 30 novels, approximately 50 short stories and numerous articles he penned, "The Hill Country" (1923), "The Scourge of the Little C" (1925), "Master Squatter" (1927), "When Texans Ride" (1938), "Flaming Guns" (1938), "Round-Up At Tiger Gap" (1940), "The Flying Y Brand" (1940) and "Feud at Twin Mountain" (1942) were among his most popular.
He was a frequent contributor to such popular magazines as "Big-Book Western Magazine," "Thrilling Ranch Stories," and "Western Romances."
Jesse had also published works under the pseudonyms, Tex Janis, William Crump Rush, and George Bowles.
In 1921, he began publishing "Grinstead's Graphic," a monthly magazine that expressed through his writings and poetry his thoughts, reflections, and views about the area of Texas that he called the "Hill Country" (West of Austin and Northwest of San Antonio).
After an eight-month illness, Jesse Edwards Grinstead passed away on 8 March 1948 at Kerrville.
(Thanks to Find A Grave contributor The Mikado, et al. for this bio)
Family Members
Siblings
Sponsored by Ancestry
Advertisement
Advertisement
