(Scroll down to bottom to find earlier descendant interviews)

Sue Chenault tells us that the Ferris Cemetery might better be known as the Ferris/Chenault Cemetery. It is located on Warren Angus Ferris’s farm, but it was organized when Ferris and his neighbor and friend Wes Chenault agreed to create a community burial ground.

Wesley M. Chenault (1818 - 1896), his wife Elizabeth Hatfield (1820 - 1858), and five children came to Dallas County in 1846 with Wes’s younger brother William. Coming to Texas from Indiana, the Chenault brothers were settlers in the Peters Colony. Wes as a married man claimed 640 acres of free land which he located “on the waters of White Rock Creek.” The census of 1850 lists Chenault as a 32-year-old farmer, but he later became a miller and real estate speculator. With partners Jack Smith and Judge J.M. Patterson, Chenault built a grist mill and saw mill on White Rock Creek. Chenault also invested in several town lots in John Neeley Bryan’s little village of Dallas. He was actively involved in Dallas politics, appointed a county commissioner to supervise building of roads.

Janetta Chenault, who was only six when the family came to Dallas, told of the hardships of pioneer life in Texas. They ate only what they could shoot or raise in their garden. The closest market for many supplies was 250 miles away, Shreveport or Jefferson. Despite hardships, the families persevered with births, marriages, and deaths. A Chenault daughter, Ardelia Chenault, married John T. Tucker, a neighboring farmer along White Rock Creek. In 1855, Janetta married John W. Davis who became his father-in-law’s partner in buying town lots near the Dallas Courthouse. Wes and his wife had 4 more girls and two sons, Albert George and Wesley Jr., after coming to Texas. In 1858, Elizabeth Chenault died in a terrible typhoid epidemic that struck Dallas. She and her infant child were buried in the Ferris Cemetery. The next year widower Wes Chenault married Lucy Sage, the oldest daughter of another neighbor, Daniel Sage. Lucy was about the age of Wes’s grown daughters. Together they had two more children before Lucy died in 1863. She too was buried in the community cemetery.

Janetta’s husband John enlisted in the Confederate Army. He saw action in several battles in Louisiana and returned unscathed. Wes’s daughter Mary Ellen Chenault was not so lucky; her husband was killed in the war. After the Civil War, in 1869, Wes Chenault married for the third time, this time Elizabeth Turner who had three teenage children by a previous marriage.

Now the story forks. The Memorial and Biographical History of Dallas County (1892) says Wes Chenault and his wife Elizabeth moved to Montague County in West Texas; but the 1870 census shows Wes Chenault still in Dallas County. He died in 1896 and was probably buried in the Ferris Cemetery. We are not certain where Wes Chenault is buried, but it is certain that two (perhaps three) of his wives and several of his children lie in the community cemetery he helped to establish.

Albert George Chenault, son of Wesley Chenault (C1900)

Albert George Chenault (1851 - 1923) was the seventh child of Wes and Elizabeth Chenault, born after the family came to Dallas County. When his mother died of typhoid fever, nine-year-old Albert was raised by his older sisters, especially Janetta. He grew up on the Chenault’s White Rock farm. In 1869, Albert married Catherine Jane Collins and went to live with his in-laws. Their first two children, twins, died as infants, but in 1872 and 1873, Albert and Catherine had a son Joseph Wiley and a girl Lucy Jane. By 1889, there were six more sons and two more daughters.

Albert Chenault and his sons (C1900). Joseph seated to his father’s right. Standing L to R - Benjamin, George, and Eugene “Gene” Chenault.

IN 1895, Catherine Chenault died, leaving Albert with four small children. It was a familiar pioneer story, wives died leaving their husbands with small children to rear. Unlike his father Wes, Albert Chenault never remarried. His older children helped raise the younger ones - just as Janetta had raised Albert. Several of the Chenaults were sharecroppers near Rowlett, TX where they founded the Rowlett Christian Church. “Grandpap” Albert was surrounded by a large, loving family of grandchildren until his death in 1923. He is buried in Mills Cemetery between Rowlett and Garland, TX.

An older Albert with his daughter Lucy and her family. Standing L to R: Albert and Lucy’s older sons William and Albert “Ab” Chenault. Seated L to R: J. Walt Bayless and his wife Lucy with younger son Elzie between them. (C1900)

Our modern Sue, Jerry, and Mickey Chenault are descendants of Wesley Chenault. His grandson Eugene “Gene”Chenault (1883-1948) married Fannie Rittenberry. They too had twins who died at birth. One of their daughters Lona Jewell died at age 14 of the flu. A son Lester ran a high fever, but he and his sisters, Hessie and Irma, lived to adulthood. Gene moved his family to West Texas where dry-land cotton farming was flourishing. Their son Lester Chenault (1908-1969) is the father of Sue, Jerry, and Mickey.

Eugene “Gene” Chenault and wife Fannie on their wedding day in 1903.

A family story told by Sue Chenault relates: “In the 20's, my dad worked with the road crew building the highway between Abilene and Breckenridge. He lived with his family on a farm in the community of Hamby. My mother's family owned a large farm in the community of Elmdale which was a couple of miles just south of Hamby. Irma, his younger sister, hired on with the folks who were picking cotton on my mom's family's farm and became acquainted with my mother working in the cotton field beside her. She went home and told Lester about the really beautiful Pittman daughter she had met and encouraged him to meet her. He finally did. When her school had a box supper, he tried to buy her the box. Unsuccessful, he did not give up; a few weeks later Lester invited her on a double date. The rest is history. Ovie worked on the farm helping her dad and was very committed to lighten his load so Lester and Ovie put off marriage until she felt comfortable that her parents could make it on the farm without her.” Lester Chenault and Ovie Pittman married in 1933.

Lester Chenault and his sisters, Hessie and Irma (1930)

Sue relates another family story about how Wes Chenault’s land in downtown Dallas was "stolen" from the family by a corrupt attorney who did the bidding of what was known as “the Dallas mafia”. Apparently, the papers showing the family's claim to the property were burned or otherwise destroyed by the attorney. There was a big family meeting in the late 1920's attended by her father and his parents who came to Dallas from Abilene, where they lived at the time, to discuss the family efforts to reclaim their property, but sufficient evidence could not be produced.

Sue Chenault and her brothers Jerry and Mickey Chenault are active supporters of the project to revitalize the Ferris Cemetery by creating a wildlife and monarch butterfly way station. Jerry recently built, Sue decorated, and Mickey helped erect a bat house for the site. They are all leaders in the Chenault Family National Association which has met annually until this year when it was cancelled due to the COVID pandemic.

American Chenaults are descendants of Estienne Cheneau (Anglicized as Stephen Chenault), a French Huguenot (Protestant) who took refuge in the Netherlands before coming to Virginia in 1700. Descendants migrated west to Kentucky, Indiana, Tennessee, and Texas, using 37 variations of the spelling of the family name, including “Cheneu”and “Shinault” or whatever the census-taker heard.

Beginning in 1950, several Chenault family reunions were held at the Fairgrounds in Dallas. They were organized by historian Dr. Frank Chenault and Bill W. Chenault, former mayor of Sweetwater, TX. Descendants attended from nine states to share stories, photos, and family memorabilia. In 1994, a national organization was formed, www.chenault.org, and later reunions were held in Memphis, TN and Jackson, MS. This year’s reunion was to have been in Hot Springs, AR. The national Chenault organization publishes the Red Book, which lists descendants of their family. Both Sue and Jerry Chenault have served as officers of the organization.

Mickey, Sue, and Jerry Chenault on Mickey’s 70th birthday - 2018

While we like to think of Wesley Chenault and his Dallas descendants as celebrities, perhaps the most notable Chenault, whose name is recognized by Americans of a certain age, is General Claire Lee Chennault of WWII fame. Claire Chennault was born in Commerce, TX, educated in Louisiana, and saw service in the First World War. In 1919, he earned his wings at Kelly Field in San Antonio. After he retired from the Army in 1931, Chennault was recruited by Madam Chiang Kai-shek to form the Chinese Nationalist Air Force. His group the colorful “Flying Tigers” kept supply routes open between India and China during the Japanese occupation of eastern China. Other famous Chenaults, either by birth or marriage, include Al Jolson and Ogden Nash.

Written by Susanne Starling with the aid of Sue Chenault.

Children of Wesley M. Chenault

Wesley M. Chenault (1819-1870) m. 1837 Elizabeth Hatfield (1820-1858)

Ardelia Chenault (1838-

Janet Chenault (1839-1926)

John Wesley Chenault (1841-1883)

Mary Ellen Chenault (1843-1886)

Lucy Marian Chenault (1845-1913)

Sarah Chenault (1849-C1870)

Albert George Chenault (1851-1923)

Eliza Jacob Chenault (1853-

Louisa Chenault (1854-

Tanzy Anne “Tamsey” Chenault (1855-1899)

Wesley M. Chenault Jr. (1857-1921)

Wesley M. Chenault m. 1859 Lucy Jane Sage (1858-1863)

Lucy Elizabeth Chenault (1860-1939)

James Henry Lee Chenault (1862-1927)

Wesley M. Chenault m. 1869 Betsey T. Blue Frost (1828-C1870)

no children