Sampson Connell, II was living with his father in 1845 in what was then Gonzalez County, Texas. He was on the committee which established Caldwell County from Gonzalez in 1847. In that same year, he and three brothers inherited a large land grant of almost 5,000 acres, one of three land grants given to their father for his service in the Texas Revolution.

His land bordered on the Dr. Nathan Beal Hudspeth ranch and it was not long before Sampson met and married Missouri E. Hudspeth. They filed for marriage on December 25, 1854 (Christmas was not yet a national holiday) and were married three days later on December 28, 1854 in the home of her parents, Nathan and Narcissa Hudspeth.

Following their marriage, the land in Caldwell Co. was sold to J.J. Myers, who had married Missouri's sister, Sarah E. who died within a year of their marriage, and Sampson and Missouri moved to another of his father's land grants. This one was located in Milam County, in an area near the present day town of Conoley (not named for Connell). They lived at this location for almost sixteen years.

Around the spring of 1871, Missouri and Sampson moved to a new home about six miles north of Liberty Hill in Williamson County. Sampson built a two-story home using the large river stones found on the land next to Bear Creek, which was the southern border of their property.

Nine of their children had been born in Milam Co. Their last child, Ivy Evelyn was the only one born in Williamson Co. Their ten children were:

1. Sampson Connell IV

2. William Nathan (in memory of Wm. and Nathan Hudspeth)

3. Sarah E. (in memory of Sarah E. Hudspeth)

4. John J. (in memory of J. J. Myers, close family friend; previous husband of Sarah E. Hudspeth)

5. Edward Fulton

6. Annie Narcissa (in memory of Narcissa Hudspeth)

7. Emily Elizabeth

8. Joel Beall (in memory of Narcissa's father)

9. Ivy Evelyn

10. Julia Pearl

Sampson Connell died at home in Williamson Co. in 1873. Missouri never remarried.

In later years Missouri moved at the age of sixty-five in "the last week in August 1900" to live with her daughter, Mrs. Andrew J. Cox (Ivy Evelyn Connell) in Sonora, Texas. Later that year, on Christmas day, she fell and broke her leg in two places. She developed pneumonia on February 12, 1901 and died five days later on February 17, 1901. She was buried that evening in the cemetery in Sonora, TX.

The old home along Bear Creek was eventually torn down. Family tradition states that many of the river stone fences seen along the roads in the immediate area are stones from this home.