John William Armstrong (1843-1911) was born in Virginia to parents William Cleminson Armstrong and Sarah Catherine Slaughter. A Confederate soldier during the Civil War, he worked as a surveyor and civil engineer. John married Nannette Pleasants Fisher (1857-1939) on 1885 January 21 in Travis County, Texas. Also called Annette or Nettie, she was the daughter of Samuel William and Eliza Ophelia Smith Fisher; her paternal grandfather, Samuel Rhoads Fisher, was a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence. John and Annette Armstrong had five children: John Fisher, Helen Annette, Marjorie Pleasants (who married George Justin McLernon), Charles Edward, and Frederick Lee.
The oldest child of John William and Annette Fisher Armstrong, John Fisher Armstrong was born in Austin, Texas, on 1886 September 8. Also a veteran of World War I, he was a major in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II. A longtime resident of San Antonio, Texas, Armstrong also lived in Mexico for several years between roughly 1906 and 1920, first working at a mine and later returning to direct construction of oil storage tanks. At various other times he was employed as an independent oil operator, engineering contractor, and realtor. Armstrong died in San Antonio on 1960 August 29.
John Fisher Armstrong married Ann (also Anne or Anna) Copeland (1890-1961) in Bexar County, Texas, on 1913 December 24. The couple had two children: John Fisher Armstrong, Jr. (1914-1987) and Mary Catherine Armstrong (1920-2008). Catherine first married Campbell Henderson Gould, who died on an Army Air Corps flight during World War II in Buenos Aires. She later married Rafael Joseffy, who died on an Army Air Corps flight in West Virginia in 1949.
From the guide to the Armstrong Family Papers Doc 6170., 1906-1969, (Daughters of the Republic of Texas Library at the Alamo, San Antonio, Texas)