Edwin Hawley "Eddie" Dyer (1900-1964)

    Eddie Dyer, baseball player and manager, son of Joseph Dyer, was born in Morgan City, Louisiana, on October 11, 1900. After attending public schools there, he enrolled in Rice Institute, Houston, where he played football and baseball. He was a member of the class of 1924 but did not graduate until 1936, after playing with various minor-league baseball teams. As manager of the Houston club of the Texas League he won league championships in 1939, 1940, and 1941, and in 1942 he was named minor-league manager of the year for his direction of the Columbus, Ohio, team. Thereafter, he joined the St. Louis Cardinals and was manager of that club when it won the World Series in 1946 by beating the Boston Red Sox four games to three. After twenty-three years as a player, manager, and coach, Dyer moved to Houston in 1948 and opened an insurance office. He relinquished managership of the Cardinals in 1950. On January 2, 1962, he suffered a stroke and on April 20, 1964, died of a heart attack. He was described in the Official Encyclopedia of Baseball as a "slow-speaking and quick-thinking Texan" and was considered one of the best teachers and developers of young baseball talent. Source 

Section 53
Forest Park Lawndale
Houston

29° 43.032, -095° 18.227

James Morgan (1787-1866)

    James Morgan, pioneer Texas settler, merchant, land speculator, and commander at Galveston during the Texas Revolution, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on October 13, 1787, the son of James and Martha (Prudun) Morgan. As a child he was taken to North Carolina, where he grew to manhood and married Celia Harrell. In 1830 he visited Brazoria and decided to open a mercantile business in Texas. After returning to the United States, he bound his sixteen slaves as indentured servants for ninety-nine years in order to get around the Mexican prohibition on slavery, and set out for Texas with his wife, two daughters, and a son. In New Orleans Morgan formed a partnership with John Reed, and the two of them purchased a schooner, Exert. Morgan went by land to Anahuac, where he opened a store. Reed soon arrived with a cargo of merchandise, upon which George Fisher, collector of customs, levied a tariff. Morgan's defiance of Fisher's evaluation established him as a leader and was possibly the reason for his being chosen to represent the Liberty Municipality in the Convention of 1832. 

    In 1835 Morgan was appointed agent for a company called the New Washington Association, organized in 1834 by Lorenzo de Zavala and a number of New York financiers to develop Texas real estate. He immediately purchased for the company an enormous quantity of real estate in Harrisburg and Liberty municipalities, including the point at the mouth of the San Jacinto River variously called Rightor's, Hunter's, Clopper's, and later Morgan's Point. Here he laid out the town of New Washington. The company brought to Texas a number of Scottish highlanders and free blacks from New York, including Emily D. West, the so-called Yellow Rose of Texas, and planned a colony of free blacks from Bermuda. As agent, Morgan also operated one of two ships belonging to the company. During the Texas Revolution these ships were often used by the Texas government. Morgan also supplied the civil and military branches with merchandise from his store. From March 20, 1836, to April 1, 1837, with the rank of colonel, he was commandant of Galveston Island and, as such, planned and effected the fortification of the island during the spring campaign of 1836. President Sam Houston later charged him with mismanagement in this work. After the revolution Morgan returned to the site of New Washington, which had been destroyed by the Mexicans, and erected for himself a dwelling named Orange Grove. For some time he continued to act as agent for the New York company and as such projected the town of Swartwout (named for Samuel Swartwout, one of the prime movers of the company) on the Trinity River. 

    Morgan sought election to one of the congresses of the republic, but he lost because his neighbors were suspicious of his wealth. In 1843 he and William Bryan were the commissioners charged with the secret sale of the Texas Navy. During the 1850s Morgan was active in promoting the improvement of what later became the Houston Ship Channel. He owned extensive herds of cattle and reputedly imported the first Durham shorthorns into Texas. He also experimented with the cultivation of oranges, cotton, and sugarcane. At his home he entertained such notable guests as John James Audubon and Ferdinand von Roemer. Though he was completely blind during his last years, he twice saved himself from drowning when squalls overturned the boats in which he was crossing Trinity Bay. He died at his home on March 1, 1866, and was buried on his plantation. Source

Morgan's Point Cemetery
Morgan's Point

29° 40.736, -094° 59.568

George Washington Lonis (?-1882)

    Often mistakenly referred to as G. W. Lewis, Lonis was born in Tennessee and emigrated to Texas sometime in 1830. During the early years of the revolution, he enlisted as a private in Captain Henry Augustine's company and fought at both the Siege of Bexar and the Grass Fight (1835). From March through May 1836 he served with Captain William Patton's company. At the Battle of San Jacinto, he was shot through the lung and nearly died, leading to an early disability discharge. He received his property donation certificates for his enlistment in 1838 and by 1839 Lonis and his wife Margaret (Cowan) were living in Guadalupe County, where he died in 1882.

San Geronimo Cemetery
Seguin

29° 34.412, -097° 56.113

William Fielder Sparks (1814–1900)

    William "Billy" Fielder Sparks, son of Richard and Elizabeth (Cooper) Sparks, was born January 22, 1814 in Lawrence County, Mississippi. He accompanied his parents to Texas and was a member of their household when the 1835 census was taken of Nacogdoches County. It was probably there that he married Minerva Frances McKay (born 1816 in Louisiana) in 1838. They started house-keeping about two miles southwest of the village of Douglass. When the Texas-Mexican War began, Billy Sparks first joined Capt. Bryant's Company of the Texas Army of the Republic. He then became an orderly-sergeant in Robert Smith's Company and was in the Battle of Kickapoo. His company arrived too late to participate in the Battle of San Jacinto. Sparks returned to Nacogdoches County after the war ended, and in 1839 he moved to Robertson County where he was listed on the 1840 census of the Republic of Texas. In 1841, he was elected to represent Robertson County at the Seventh Texas Congress, and, after Texas became the 28th state of the United States in 1845, he returned to Nacogdoches County.

    War between the United States and Mexico broke out in May 1846, and on May 16, Billy Sparks enrolled as a captain in Company E (Capt. Sparks' Company) of the 2nd Regiment of Texas Mounted Volunteers at Nacogdoches to serve for a period of six months. He was mustered into service at Port Isabel, Texas, on June 22, 1846, and was present for duty until October 2, 1846, when he was mustered out with his company at Monterrey, Mexico. He returned to Nacogdoches for a brief stay, and in 1848 he went to Houston. His stay there was also short, and when the 1850 census was taken, he and his family were in Fort Bend County, Texas. On August 7, 1863, Billy Sparks joined the Confederate States Army in J. M. Weston's Company as a lieutenant. At the close of the Civil War, he went to Johnson County where he was elected tax assessor for 1879-1880. Billy Sparks died on July 13,1900, in McLennan County, Texas. His wife, Minerva, survived him by only two months, dying on September 3, 1900. They were buried in the Oakwood Cemetery at Waco, Texas. Source

Block 8

Oakwood Cemetery

Waco

31° 32.197, -97° 06.555