A Texas Lawyer with a Texas Heritage

Jack was born in Houston and had a long heritage in Texas. On his father’s side, Jack is a fifth-generation Texan dating back to the late 1830s, and on his mother’s side, he is a sixth-generation Texan dating back to the early 1850s. The first Texas Kuykendall in Jack’s direct line was William Johnson Kuykendall, Jack’s great great grandfather, who is on the bottom row of the picture to the right. His great grandfather, Jim, is standing on the top right side of the picture. On his mother’s side, Shadrach Dixon moved to Texas between 1851 and 1853. His picture is below as well. Shadrach had 22 children, 11 of them born in Texas.

The Kuykendall name has a long and illustrious history in Texas. The first Kuykendalls came to Texas in 1821, and three Kuykendall brothers were part of the Old Three Hundred original families in the Austin colony. The first head of militia was Abner Kuykendall, one of the brothers. The following is written about the brothers:

Captains Robert and Abner Kuykendall were dead in 1836, and brother Joe had a disability. A feud between the Kuykendalls and Houston must have started in Tennessee. The Kuykendalls were going to the rescue of Goliad and the Alamo. Houston threatened court-martial for them and every man who followed them. After those two massacres, because reinforcements did not arrive, the victory of San Jacinto saved Houston and made them a hero of him. Even at the battle of San Jacinto, he left all the Kuykendall's and their troops, including Capt. Gibson Kuykendall, Abner’s son, was at the river guarding the supplies [eleven of them], and only one Kuykendall was in the thick of the 30-minute flight. Had Houston and his forces been routed, those further back guarding supplies would have saved the day, so some historians say. It is said that had not Captain Abner Kuykendall been killed, he, and not Sam Houston, would have been the liberator of Texas, for Abner was overall military forces and had been since the colony was first started was [Stephen F.] Austin’s close friend.