Serena was born in Tennessee, on July 3, 1842. Her parents were Lucinda (Bradley) of Tennessee and John Elliott of North Carolina. They were married in Greene County, Tennessee about July 26, 1836. John Elliott signed a $1250 Marriage Bond on that date. The license was returned in September, 1836. New research has revealed that Lucinda may have been the daughter of John and Mary (Myers) Maness of Green County, TN and later Newton County, MO. Both families appear on the 1850 Newton County, Missouri Census. And the Maness Family Album and Bible list her as a daughter. Why she married under the surname of Bradley is as yet unexplained. A Bradley may have been her real father. But further research is needed.

By 1860, Serena is married to Leroy McCraven Crain, a widower with four children; William (age 12), Francis (age 11), a boy J (age 7) and a girl, M (age 5). The family is living in Parker County, Texas and has been joined by a baby girl named Mary Isabelle.

Leroy returned to Newton County, Missouri some time before January 1863. It is believed that the troubled conditions existing due to Newton County's involvement in the Civil War were the reason for his return. There is a document in the National Archives that indicates Leroy's involvement in an incident in Newton County on January 9, 1863. This is the last documented evidence that Leroy is alive. Family tradition carried down by two separate branches of the family state that an escaped prisoner of war told Serena that Leroy was dying of hunger and starvation in a Northern Prison. No records of his Military Service have been found and, in fact, no one now living knows where his loyalties lay. What is known is that he paid for those loyalties with his life.

No records exist to indicate where Serena and the children were at this time. A son, Leroy McCraven Crain Jr. was born on April 13th, in either 1863 or 1864. Conflicting records give Texas or Missouri as his birthplace. A memoir and a letter written by descendants almost 100 years later tell of Serena's subsequent marriage to James Davis, a former Union soldier, from Virginia. James Davis was a salesman and unable to sell his goods in Post Civil War Texas conditions. He determined to go to his family and seek help for his new family. Upon his return, he was "bushwacked" in his own front yard. Presumably for the money he was carrying. Serena and the children lived in fear during the following months.

Serena devised a plan to return to Missouri to her mother, Lucinda, whose help would be needed to care for Serena and the small children during the coming confinement and delivery of her expected child. She sold everything she owned except her team and wagon in order to finance the trip, with the neccessary provisions for the cross country journey. At last they were on their way.

Coming to place where a fording of either Big Muddy or Little Muddy must be made, Serena chose what sounded less threatening; Little Muddy. It was not a good choice. The horses lost their footing and the wagon was swept downstream a considerable distance. Her small children screamed in terror and only by her quick thinking was she able to regain control of the horses, and bring them to safety on the opposite bank. All their food was lost or soaked and ruined. Even the fodder intended for the animals was lost.

Alone in the wilderness with two small chidren, with the arrival of another imminent, Serena must have despaired, but she did not give up. She spread their clothes out to dry and then resumed their journey. She and the children survived on handouts from hard pressed settlers they came upon. Parched corn and dried peas constituted their meager diet, and at night the horses ate their fill of grass when they made camp. At last the weary little party reached the home of Lucinda Elliott, their mother and grandmother. William Isaac Davis was born there on August, 1866.

Serena supported herself and the children by her occupation as a tailoress, making men's coats and other items of clothing.

Serena was soon remarried. Her new husband, John Townzen, a widower with a small son, Francis Marion, had been living in Newton County in 1850 with his parents; Simeon and - Townzen. It is highly possible that they knew each other growing up. Serena and John travelled to several states in the next few years. From Missouri, they moved to Arkansas and they are found there on the 1870 Census. During this time they Homesteaded extensively. They would buy unimproved land, clear it to sell for a profit and move on. Even Nebraska was mentioned by Mary Isabelle in later years. The children who were old enough to work carried bundles of brush to be burned. John, a kind man, made their bundles as small as possible, while the weight of his own caused him to walk stooped over. The children born to Serena and John were James S. on May 12, 1868, John in 1870, Mary A. in 1872, Thomas A. on November 9, 1874, George W. in 1876, Lula A. in 1878, and Alice Belle in 1882.