Historical Marker
Michael Moore Kennard
Historical marker location:
580 S. Main, Anderson, Texas
( opposite the road from the Fanthorp Inn, Anderson.)
Marker installed: 1971
Born in Tennessee. In 1828 he and family joined Robertson's Colony, bound for Texas. Arrived in 1830, probably having stopped to "make a crop" along the way.
Lived in present Grimes County; was granted a third of a league of land in Robertson's Colony.
For his service in the Texas Revolution, received additional land in Menard and Leon Counties.
His mercantile business-- firm of Fanthorp, Womack & Kennard-- was the first in Grimes County.
The first oil well in the United States was drilled in Texas in 1859. The discovery of oil transformed the economy of the state and helped to make Texas one of the wealthiest states in the nation.