What I Learned Today at the Dan Moody Museum: Taylor connection with the American Revolutionary War and Daniel Boone!

Texas Governor Dan Moody Jr. (1893–1966) descended from a pioneering American family whose roots stretched back to the Revolutionary War and the nation’s early frontier. His mother, Nancy Elizabeth Robertson Moody, was the daughter of Dr. James Register Robertson and Mary Hunt Robertson. Dr. Robertson, born in Tennessee, died before his wife and children migrated to Texas, where Mary eventually settled in Taylor, building a home on 9th Street.

Dr. Robertson was the son of John G. Robertson, who had moved west from North Carolina into Tennessee, continuing a family tradition of exploration and settlement. John’s father, Joseph Robertson, served as a private in the Continental Army from 1777 to 1779, fighting for American independence and participating in significant engagements such as the Battle of King's Mountain. He enlisted in Virginia and was discharged in 1783, receiving a pension for his service.

Joseph married Margaret Darby in Caswell County, North Carolina, and later joined the wave of pioneers who followed the trails blazed by Daniel Boone into Kentucky and Tennessee. Family accounts and local histories suggest that Joseph Robertson and Boone were contemporaries and fellow frontiersmen and hunters, both connected to General Griffith Rutherford’s militia in the late 18th century.

Through this lineage, Governor Moody’s heritage reflects a direct link between Texas leadership and the bold frontier spirit that helped shape early America.

Dr. Robertson, Dan Moody’s grandfather