TOMBSTONE TUESDAY: Thomas Mann Randolph Bankhead Part 2 of 2

June 24, 2025
by Sheryl Cuellar
Thomas Mann Randolph Bankhead Thomas Mann Randolph Bankhead

“The discovery of an amazing story” (Part 2/2):
On July 1, 1851, Thomas Mann Randolph Bankhead, a man of influence and wealth died in Port Lavaca, Texas. His widow buried him in Lynnworth Cemetery, today known as Port Lavaca Cemetery. Elizabeth Anne Pryor Bankhead found herself a widow at 28 years old. Thomas and Elizabeth did not have any children. In his will Tom left all his wealth to his beloved wife Elizabeth. 
After the death of Thomas, Elizabeth Anne met and married a widower who was well known in the State of Texas, James Thompson Lytle. James was born on 26 April 1824 in Charleston, South Carolina. He was a lawyer, a veteran of the Mexican War, a Texas Ranger, and a poet. He was known as “The Poet of the Texas Rangers.” James wrote several songs including “Texas Ranger Song” and “The Maid of Monterrey.” His songs are included in a book of folk songs titled “Follow the Drinkin’ Gou’d” by J. Frank Dobie. He was also known as the Honorable James T. Lytle, Texas State Senator. A good friend of the Hatch family, Lytle came often to Calhoun County to visit the family. James was a widower, whose first wife’s family were also well known. She was Margaret Eveline Peyton, daughter of Angelina Peyton Eberly, who is known as “The Heroine of the Texas Archives.” Margaret was born in San Felipe, Austin County Texas in 1830 when Texas was still under Mexican rule. Her family ran a small Tavern there. During the Texas Revolution, Margaret and her mother were part of the “Runaway Scrape.” The Runaway Scrape was the long and dangerous journey of Texan women, children, sick, and elderly who swiftly traveled towards the Sabine River and Louisiana ahead of the Mexican Army. James and Margaret were married October 18, 1848. The couple had 1 son, Peyton Bell Lytle born in 1850. Margaret died on 12 October 1850, shortly after childbirth, she was 19 years old. Margaret is buried in Ranger Cemetery in Port Lavaca, TX. After her death James married widow, Elizabeth Anne Pryor Bankhead in 1853. James died 6 Feb 1854 at 29 years old, and Peyton was then raised by his grand mother Angelina Belle Peyton Eberly who owned a Tavern and Inn in the city of Indianola, TX. Angelina died in 1860 andPeyton became the ward of Fletcher Stockdale, a lawyer who was a friend of his father. Stockdale sent Peyton to Washington College, in Lexington, Virginia where he graduated in 1867. Peyton then joined the Virginia Military Institute as a cadet. He had always been of fragile health and in January 1872 he died at age 22. His body was brought home to Indianola where he was buried next to his grandmother Angelina Eberly in Old Town Cemetery. Sadly, their headstones were washed away in the Hurricane of 1875. Upon the death of James Thompson Lytle, his widow Elizabeth Anne Pryor Bankhead Lytle buried him right next to her 1st husband Thomas Mann Randolph Bankhead in Lynwood, Port Lavaca Cemetery. Their graves can be visited there, side by side today. Elizabeth Anne and Peyton Lytle were both inheritors of James’s will. One of the executors was her father Richard Pryor and the other his friend Fletcher S. Stockdale. The same Stockdale who took over raising Peyton Lytle after his grandmother’s death. 
Fletcher Stockdale was born in Kentucky in 1825. He died in 1890 at the age of 64 in Cuero, DeWitt County, TX. Stockdale was a Railroad Official from 1857-1861. He also was the Representative of the 25th district in the Texas Senate. He was a signer of the Ordinance of Succession, and he also served as Governor of Texas from 1863 to 1865. He was active in Politics until his death. Fletcher was the 3rd and final husband of Elizabeth Anne Pryor Bankhead Thompson Stockdale. The two married in 1857. Elizabeth died 27 April 1865 in Austin, Texas at 42 years of age. When her mother died, she left instructions in her will, that Elizabeth and her father’s bodies should be brought back to Hempstead Co., Arkansas and buried next to her in the Pryor Family Cemetery. Elizabeth lived a very full life in her 42 years, and she was married to men who lived lives of adventure and prestige. This however is not a story about Elizabeth, James Thompson Lytle, or Fletcher S. Stockdale. It is a story about Thomas Mann Randolph Bankhead and his story is the most interesting of all. 
Thomas Mann Randolph Bankhead’s (TMR) father was Charles Lewis Bankhead, (1788-1833) and his mother was Anne Cary Randolph (1768-1828). Both families had roots that had grown deeply into the Colony of Virginia. Charles was the son of Dr. John Bankhead, a nephew of President James Monroe, and a good friend of President Thomas Jefferson. Dr. John married widow Mary Warner Lewis Lightfoot. Charles’s middle name Lewis came from her family sir name, Lewis, as in Lewis and Clark of Explorers fame. The Bankhead family had many famous family ties to U.S. Presidents, and forefathers of the nation including Monroe, Washington, Madison, and Jefferson and many more. 
Charles Lewis Bankhead married Anne Cary Randolph in 1808. Anne’s family had many of the same family ties to the same families as the Bankhead family, including distant ties and were even more famous than the Bankhead family.
Anne’s father was Governor Thomas Mann Randolph (1768-1828) and her mother was Martha “Polly” Jefferson Randolph (1772-1836). They married in 1790 at Monticello in Virginia. Her father, Thomas Mann Randolph, was a soldier, planter, and politician from Virginia. He served in both houses of the Virginia General Assembly, a representative in the United States Congress, and 21st Governor of Virginia. Anne’s middle name Cary is taken from her paternal grandmother Anne Cary Randolph. 
Her mother was Martha Jefferson, nicknamed Polly, who was the eldest and only surviving child of Martha Wayles Skelton and President Thomas Jefferson. This made Anne Cary Randolph the first granddaughter of President Jefferson. He was very fond of Anne whom he had the honor of naming and who was born at Monticello. She was one of 12 children and grew up within a short distance from her grandfather’s plantation. Anne’s grandmother, Martha died young, and Thomas never remarried. It was left to his eldest and only daughter Martha to oversee the operations of Monticello as well as Edge Hill and Varina with her husband Thomas Mann Randolph Jr. With Jefferson often away in Washington serving as both Vice President and President of the United States, the Randolph family often lived at Monticello. The Jefferson and Randolph families were distant cousins and as custom in those days family members were often given name of other family members. Anne was able to spend a great deal of her childhood at Monticello and in the company of her famous and doting grand papa. 
Charles and Anne had 4 children and Thomas Mann Randolph Bankhead was the second of the children. In 1811, the year TMR was born, the family bought an 800-acre farm adjacent from Monticello they named Carlton Estate. TMR and his siblings were able to spend time with both his grandparents and his great grandfather often. Charles studied law and it was a profitable living until he became bored with it and gave it up. He then tried farming, however that proved to be a failed venture as well as he stuck to old and outdated farming methods instead of learning from his grandfather-in-law Jefferson, who was known for his brilliance at growing and cultivating methods that transformed the agricultural industry. As his failures set in his alcoholism got worse. Eventually Anne was the victim of his abuse. The Randolph’s and Jefferson tried hard to get Anne Cary and the children to leave Charles and move back to Monticello, but she lived in a time when that was not considered proper and so she stayed with her husband Charles. As debt mounted Jefferson added 130 acres to the Bankhead Estate Carlton. 
Thomas Jefferson kept every piece of correspondence he wrote and received throughout his lifetime. They are all pieces of the library known as the “Jefferson Papers.” There are several letters between Jefferson and Charles Lewis Bankhead, expressing his disapproval of his treatment of Anne and the children. He wanted him to quit drinking and find a way to support himself and his family. Jefferson and Charles's father Dr. John Bankhead also corresponded about the problems of Anne and Charles’ marriage. Where the families were happy about the marriage in the beginning, it turned sour when alcohol and abuse to Anne became frequent. The breaking point for Anne was when her husband got into an argument with her brother, Thomas Jefferson Randolph over the situation at a local tavern. The argument escalated and Charles drew a knife and stabbed Anne’s brother Thomas in the side. Fortunately, the wound was not fatal, and Thomas lived, but it was the last straw with Anne. She took the children and left him. Not long after she had moved back in with her parents, she learned she was once again pregnant. There was concern that she would return to Charles and try again to make her family marriage and family work. She decided to have the baby before making that move and sadly, she died at following childbirth. Upon her death her children were raised by their grandparents, the Randolph’s. They spent time growing up at Edge Hill and Monticello. Anne Cary Randolph Bankhead was one of the first family members buried in the Jefferson family cemetery at Monticello. Anne died 5 months before her dear grand papa, Thomas Jefferson died. He joined her there with his headstone written in his own words, “Here was buried Thomas Jefferson, Author of the Declaration of American Independence, of the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom, and the Father of the University of Virginia.” These were the things he was proudest of in his life. 
We know the rest of the story about Thomas Mann Randolph Bankhead, and now we know the beginning. What a wealth of national, state, and local history has been kept secret beneath the flat concrete gravestone, with the weathered inscription, in the oldest part of the cemetery in the little city of Port Lavaca. How wonderful and exciting to unearth it a share the life of Thomas Mann Randolph Bankhead. A man who could have, and perhaps should have, been laid to rest with his mother and his family on the beautiful grounds of Monticello.
References:
Find a Grave.com 

founders.archives.gov Jefferson Papers

ancestry.com Arkansas U.S.

www.loc.gov Library of Congress 

The Chronicles of History: The abusive marriage of Thomas Jefferson’s Granddaughter Anne
The National Historical Publications and Records Commission
Arkansas,U.S.,Homestead and Cash Entry Patents, Pre-1908
U.S.General Land Office Records, 1776-2015
WikiTree Thomas Jefferson-Charles Lewis Bankhead Family Connection, Aug 2021
Arkansas,U.S.,Compiled Marriages from Select Counties, 1779-1850

www.geni.com Thomas Mann Randolph Bankhead

arkansasgravestones.org

Tombstone Tuesday is written and compiled each week by Jody Weaver and Sheryl Cuellar of the Calhoun County Historical Commission, sharing the people and stories behind Calhoun County's history.





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