Born in Tennessee, Michael Moore Kennard joined Robertson's Colony with his family in 1828 bound for Texas, arrived in 1830 probably after stopping along the way to make a crop, lived in present Grimes County, received a grant of one-third of a league of land in Robertson's Colony, gained additional land in Menard and Leon Counties for his service in the Texas Revolution, and helped establish the mercantile firm of Fanthorp, Womack and Kennard, the first business of its kind in Grimes County.