The Texas Underground

Juke Boy Bonner

2012-02-16T08:44:00.005-06:00

Weldon H. Philip Bonner
March 22, 1932 - Bellville, Texas
June 29, 1978 - Houston, Texas

Blues musician. Orphaned at a very young age, Juke and his nine siblings were cared for by a neighbor during his childhood. At the age of twelve, he began showing an interest in music and taught himself the guitar, getting the name Juke Boy from his habit of singing while accompanied by a juke box in the neighborhood bar. He won a talent show in 1948, the prize being a fifteen minute appearance on a local radio program which brought him to the attention of several people in the music industry, although it would be several years before he began recording professionally. In his early twenties, he recorded some tracks in both California and Louisiana for a few small labels, but there was slight demand at the time for his style of playing and he earned little if any money from them. While laid up in the hospital after surgery in 1963, he began writing poetry to pass the time, poems which he would later translate into songs he played once he fully recovered. After a few years of working local gigs in the Houston area, he began recording albums for Arhoolie, a label dedicated to underground and obscure blues performers. His two albums with them, I'm Going Back To The Country Where They Don't Burn The Buildings Down (1968) and The Struggle (1969), were critically well-received, but again, little money came from them. He was a popular live performer during the 1970s European blues explosion, but the overseas appeal for his rough style never translated to American audiences. In the last years of his life, Juke supported himself with a job at a chicken processing plant, performing sporadically until his death of cirrhosis at the age of fifty-six.

Restlawn Cemetery
Houston

Albert Sidney Johnston

2011-11-23T13:11:00.001-06:00

Albert Sidney Johnston
February 2, 1803 - Washington, Kentucky
April 6, 1862 - Hardin County, Tennessee

Secretary of War of the Republic. Civil War Confederate General. An 1826 graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, Albert first served at Sackett's Harbor in New York before being transferred to the 6th United States Regular Infantry at Jefferson Barracks, Missouri, where he operated as regimental adjunct during the Black Hawk War. After he was forced to resign his commission in 1834 to care for his dying wife, the couple moved to Texas where he ran a farm until she passed away two years later of tuberculosis. He shortly afterward enlisted in the Texas Army to fight for independence from Mexico and rose through the ranks with amazing speed, promoted to major after only a month and assigned as an aide-de-camp to General Sam Houston. On August 5, 1836, he was appointed an Adjutant General, and in January 1837 was promoted to senior Brigadier General in command of the entire Army of the Republic. Unfortunately, during a duel with General Felix Huston, the man he replaced, he was shot in the leg and thus unable to take his new command. Appointed Secretary of War by President Lamar in December 1838, he concerned himself with securing the eastern and southern borders from the Cherokee and encroaching Mexicans. Once his term expired in 1840, he returned to Kentucky and lived there for several years, marrying Eliza Griffin on October 3, 1843. Shortly afterwards the two moved back to Texas and settled at the China Grove Plantation in Brazoria County. With the outbreak of the Mexican War in 1846, he reenlisted in the United States Army and was commissioned a colonel of the 1st Texas Rifle Volunteers, with whom he fought in the Battles of Monterrey and Buena Vista. After the war, he returned to his home until December 1849 when President Zachary Taylor appointed him a major in the U.S. Army. From 1849 to 1860 he was assigned to various duties over the western frontier; from Indian fighting in the Great Plains to assisting in the establishment of a secular government in Salt Lake City during the so-called Utah War. By the end of 1860, he was working in the Pacific Department of the Army in San Francisco, California. Upon hearing that Texas had seceded and sided with the Confederacy at the outset of the Civil War, he resigned his commission and returned home. Enlisting as a private in the Confederate army upon arrival, he was appointed the second-highest ranking General by Confederate President Jefferson Davis and assigned command of the Western Department in only a matter of months. Choosing Bowling Green, Kentucky as his base of operations, Albert called for volunteers and worked on shaping them into disciplined soldiers, as opposed to the typical guerrila-styled militia most Confederate troops operated as at the time. After moving his base to Corinth, Mississippi, he led his men at the Battle of Shiloh on April 6, 1862, by all accounts performing brilliantly on the field until his natural eagerness for involvement led him to ride too far ahead of his troops. He was then accidentally shot, much like Stonewall Jackson would be, by his own men. Hit behind his right knee in the same leg he had been wounded in at the duel many years ago in Texas, he didn't realize just how severe the wound was: the bullet had severed an artery and blood was pouring into his boot. After first ordering his medics to tend to others, he began feeling faint and his men had to help him dismount from his horse. Once his men carried him to a small ravine out of the range of the Union soldiers, Albert died on the Shiloh battlefield of massive blood loss. The man whom Jefferson Davis called the Confederacy's finest general was laid to rest in New Orleans until 1867 when he was reinterred at the Texas State Cemetery with full military honors.

Confederate Field
Texas State Cemetery
Austin

Stovepipe Johnson

2011-08-16T18:47:00.004-05:00

Adam Rankin Johnson
February 6, 1834 - Henderson, Kentucky
October 20, 1922 - Burnet, Texas

Civil War Confederate Brigadier General (unconfirmed). After a brief public school education, Adam began working at the age of twelve in a local drugstore before leaving in 1854 to move to Texas. Finding work as a surveyor for Butterfield Overland Mail, he gained a reputation as an expert Indian fighter and stagecoach driver. When the Civil War erupted in 1861, he returned to his home state of Kentucky and enlisted in Nathan Bedford Forrest's company as a scout. His past experience combined with a natural gift for military tactics resulted in his being given command of the Texas Partisan Rangers and shortly afterward promoted to colonel. As a leader he was well known for his bravado, capturing the town of Newburgh, Indiana in July, 1862 with only thirty-five men and two lengths of stovepipe mounted to a pair of broken wagons. The Union soldiers, fearing the "cannons" surrendered, and from that day forward he was known as "Stovepipe" Johnson, the first Confederate to capture a town in a Northern state. The following year, he was given command of a cavalry brigade where he and his men were the only soldiers to successfully retreat after the disastrous Battle of Buffington Island. Recognized by his superiors for his cunning on the battlefield, he was appointed to brigadier general on September 6, 1864, but his promotion was never confirmed by the Confederate Congress. Unfortunately, his service was cut short soon afterward; during a dawn attack on the Union camp at Grubbs Crossroads, Johnson was accidentally shot in the face by his own men, captured and then imprisoned at Fort Warren until the end of the war. After the surrender of the Confederacy, he was released and returned to Texas, now totally blind. His determination to succeed never died, however; he went on to found both the town of Marble Falls and the Texas Mining Improvement Company, wrote his memoirs The Partisan Rangers of the Confederate States Army and continued his pre-war work with Overland Mail until his death at the age of eighty-eight.

Republic Hill
Texas State Cemetery
Austin

Jacob L. Standifer

2011-07-01T19:13:00.005-05:00

Jacob Littleton Standifer
September 11, 1818 - Union County, Illinois
January 7, 1902 - Elgin, Texas

Soldier of San Jacinto. Jacob came to Texas at the age of eleven, brought there by his widowed mother as part of Stephen Austin's Little Colony. On February 28, 1836, at the age of seventeen, both he and his elder brother William enlisted with Jesse Billingsley's Company, with whom they served at the Battle of San Jacinto. Jacob left the Army two months afterward and returned home to help develop his mother's property and apply for his own land grants. In 1838, he was awarded one-third of a league of land by the county land commissioner, and in June 1846 was granted an additional nine hundred and sixty acres by the state for his military service. Twice married and the father of five children, Jacob enlisted once again in the 1860s to fight for the Confederacy in the Civil War, but the unit and other details are unknown. After the war, he took up residence in Elgin and there lived until his death at the age of eighty-four.

Elgin City Cemetery
Elgin

Christopher Edinburgh

2011-06-27T12:07:00.003-05:00

Christopher Columbus Edinburgh
1790s - Württemberg, Germany
December 10, 1864 - Walker County, Texas

Soldier of San Jacinto. Christopher came to America as a young man, settling in Arkansas for a brief period before he made his way to Texas on October 10, 1824 as part of Wavell's Colony. He married Louiza Byrnside in 1828 and received a title for a league of land to develop in the Walker County area on June 12, 1835. When Louiza passed away sometime prior to 1834, he married again, this time to Lucinda Birdsell, the daughter of a neighboring settler. During the Revolution, he enlisted with William Ware's Company from March to June 1836, and fought under the same at the Battle of San Jacinto. After his term of service, he returned home and worked his expanding property until his passing at the age of sixty-five.

Falba Cemetery
Falba

George Washington Petty

2011-06-19T11:24:00.005-05:00

George Washington Petty
April 7, 1812 - Murfreesboro, Tennessee
July 27, 1901 - Austin County, Texas

Soldier of San Jacinto. George was living in Tennessee when he heard about the growing unrest in Texas and came to volunteer his services to the cause. He arrived in the fall of 1835, and was staying in Cole's Settlement in Washington County when word broke out that the citizens of Gonzales were in open rebellion against Mexico, going so far as to threaten Mexican soldiers with cannon fire. He headed there immediately, but by the time he arrived, the battle was over and the townsfolk were evacuating in fear of reprisal. He returned home and waited for the local militia to organize so that he could enlist, which he did in March, 1836. He was assigned to William Hill's Company and on April 21, fought with them at the Battle of San Jacinto, remaining with the army until June before returning home. George was awarded several tracts of land in Washington County for his service, and spent his remaining years there working his land until he passed away at the age of eighty-nine.

Prairie Lea Cemetery
Brenham

Fred Gipson

2011-06-17T11:27:00.006-05:00

Frederick Benjamin Gipson
February 7, 1908 - Mason, Texas
August 14, 1973 - Mason, Texas

Author. Fred was born on a small family farm, balancing his early life between school and working on his father's property until 1933 when he enrolled in the University of Texas. He took a keen interest in journalism, and wrote for both the Daily Texan and the Ranger before quitting school to work as a reporter for the Corpus Christi Caller-Times in 1937. Drifting from one newspaper job to another, he began contributing stories to Western-themed pulp magazines, but as time went on he started getting his articles into higher quality publications like Look and Liberty. His first novel, The Fabulous Empire: Colonel Zack Miller's Story, was released in 1946 and was mildly successful, but his follow-up Hound-Dog Man three years later sold over a quarter-million copies and was named a Book-of-the-Month Club selection. Encouraged by his first big success, he wrote a series of novels continuing the Southwestern family theme: The Home Place (1950), The Trail-Driving Rooster (1955) and Recollection Creek (1955). However, it was his 1956 novel Old Yeller that gained him national attention. Old Yeller, the story of a small Texas farming family and their dog, was made into a Disney movie in 1957 and would go on to become a classic family film of the era. He wrote a lesser-known sequel, titled Savage Sam, in 1962 and that became a Disney film as well the following year. Over his twenty year career, he was the recipient of many writing accolades, including the first Sequoyah Book Award. After a short term serving as the president of the Texas Institute of Letters in the mid-sixties, he entered semi-retirement in 1967. Fred died six years later at his ranch near Mason, close to the spot where he was born, and by order of the governor was laid to rest in the State Cemetery in recognition of his literary contributions to Texas culture.

Republic Hill
Texas State Cemetery
Austin

William Moore

2011-06-15T08:55:00.006-05:00

William Moore
May 18, 1837 - Boston, Massachusetts
February 16, 1918 - Austin, Texas

Civil War Congressional Medal of Honor Recipient. William enlisted in the Union navy in the early years of the Civil War and was assigned to the ironclad U.S.S. Benton. In December, 1862, the gunship was ordered to traverse the Yazoo River in Mississippi and destroy or capture any enemy vessels. On December 27, they encountered several Confederate batteries near Haine's Bluff and withstood devastating fire at nearly point blank range as they attempted to destroy the rebel emplacements. Although wounded, William refused to cease operations until directly ordered to withdraw. After the war, he settled in Austin, Texas, where he lived for the rest of his days.

Citation: The President of the United States of America, in the name of Congress, takes pleasure in presenting the Medal of Honor to Boatswain's Mate William Moore, United States Navy, for extraordinary heroism in action, serving as Boatswain's Mate on board the U.S.S. Benton during the attack on Haines Bluff, Yazoo River, Mississippi, 27 December 1862. Wounded during the hour-and-a-half engagement in which the enemy had the dead range of the vessel and was punishing her with heavy fire, Boatswain's Mate Moore served courageously in carrying lines to the shore until the Benton was ordered to withdraw.

Block A
Oakwood Cemetery Annex
Austin

Philip Singleton

2011-03-02T11:58:00.009-06:00

Philip Singleton
1787 - Kentucky
1835 - Harris County, Texas

Old Three Hundred colonist. Along with his brother George, Philip came to Texas in 1824 as one of Stephen Austin's original settlers. He was married to Susannah Walker, probably in Wayne County, Kentucky, and had at least two children. After he settled in Harrisburg Municipality, now present-day Harris County, nothing else is known of him other than a family legend that he went hunting one day and never returned; it was believed he was killed by Indians, as his dog came home with an arrow in his mouth. His body was never found.

Note: This is a cenotaph.

Glendale Cemetery
Houston

Cornelius De Vore

2010-11-29T10:29:00.007-06:00

Cornelius De Vore
September 11, 1819 - New Orleans, Louisiana
July 29, 1883 - Liberty, Texas

Soldier of San Jacinto. Cornelius came to Texas with his parents in 1828 and settled in the Atascosito District in present-day Liberty County. On March 6, 1836, he enlisted as a member of William Logan's Company of Texas Volunteers and the following month fought with them at the Battle of San Jacinto. After he was discharged on June 6, he returned to Liberty and became a rancher, his estate eventually growing well over 600 acres. He was well regarded for his charitable nature; he donated some of his property to the town for the building of a school, and it was rumored that he assisted runaway slaves in organizing a Baptist church.

City Cemetery
Liberty

Michael Chavenoe

2010-10-08T06:32:00.007-05:00

Michael Chavenoe
? - ?
1850s - Chambers County, Texas

Soldier of San Jacinto. Michael came to Texas in 1829, and by November 14, 1835 was living near Liberty when he enlisted in the militia. He signed on for only a month, but re-enlisted in March 1836 with William Logan's Company of Liberty Volunteers, with whom he fought during the Battle of San Jacinto. When the unit disbanded two months later, it is not known if he transferred to another company or left the service entirely. The only records of his movement from this point are transfers of property deeds: he sold some land in Liberty County in 1852, and again the following year while living in Fort Bend County. Sometime between 1853 and 1860, Michael died while visiting a friend and was buried in the family cemetery.

Tilton Cemetery
Old River-Winfree

Thomas Borden

2010-10-05T09:24:00.012-05:00

Thomas Henry Borden
January 28, 1804 - Norwich, New York
March 16, 1877 - Galveston, Texas

Old Three Hundred colonist. Thomas' family traveled frequently when he was young, and by the time he was twenty he had lived in several different states along the Great Lakes region. Looking for new experiences, he applied for citizenship with Stephen Austin's first colony in 1824 and became one of the original Old Three Hundred settlers. By 1830, he was working as the colony's official surveyor, a job he would later turn over to his brother Gail. Five years later, Thomas was living in the Fort Bend area and became involved in the burgeoning revolution, serving in the Texas army and fighting as a lieutenant at the Siege of Bexar. Once Texas had won its independence, he helped found one of the first newspapers of the Republic, the Telegraph and Texas Register, before helping to lay out the new towns of Houston and Richmond. In 1840, he was living in Galveston when he invented a new type of gauge to use on river steamboats; some years later he moved to New Orleans where he built a company around his new gadget. Unfortunately, he did not believe in patents as a principle, so his invention was patented by others, which not only brought him no money for his idea, but ended up ruining his business. Over the next twenty years, the combination of his business losses, the devastation of the Civil War, and the long illness of his wife Louisa, brought him to near bankruptcy. He moved back to Galveston in the late 1860s, and lived quietly on his homestead until his death at the age of seventy-three.

Evergreen Cemetery
Galveston

Isaac L. Jaques

2010-09-10T09:20:00.009-05:00

Isaac L. Jaques
? - New York
August 6, 1836 - Lynchburg, Texas

Soldier of San Jacinto. Isaac, his wife and two daughters arrived in Texas in October 1835 from New York, where he had applied for land in one of Stephen Austin's later colonies. He joined the rebellion against Mexico in late February, enlisting with Duncan's Company for two weeks, before volunteering once again, this time with McIntyre's Company, on March 8, 1836. He fought at the Battle of San Jacinto the following month, but his actions afterward are unknown until a Columbia newspaper reported his death in Lynchburg in early August.

San Jacinto Battlefield State Park
La Porte

John C. Hale

2010-09-08T12:10:00.010-05:00

John C. Hale
April 3, 1806 - Scott County, Virginia
April 21, 1836 - La Porte, Texas

Soldier of San Jacinto. Arriving in Texas via Louisiana around 1835, he settled near San Augustine and shortly afterward enlisted in the army as part of Benjamin Bryant's company. Promoted to first lieutenant, he was killed in action at the Battle of San Jacinto and buried on the battlefield alongside the other seven men who died in the conflict. Hale County, Texas, is named in his honor.

Note: This is a cenotaph. John Hale's actual grave location has been lost but is known to be in the immediate area.

San Jacinto Battlefield State Park
La Porte

William Richardson

2010-08-22T09:12:00.012-05:00

William Richardson
January 20, 1822 - Sweden
June 7, 1877 - Galveston, Texas

It is not known when William came to Texas. He enlisted shortly after his fourteenth birthday with John Hart's Company, a unit comprised mostly of soldiers recruited in New Orleans, but his name was not on the original roster. It is probable he joined up with them immediately after they arrived at Velasco on January 28, 1836. The following month, Richard Roman was promoted to company commander, and it was as a member of Roman's Company that William fought at the Battle of San Jacinto. He remained in the army until September 25, 1836, when he left the service. Over the course of time, he married, had four children and was living in Galveston when he passed away in 1877 at the age of fifty-four.

Trinity Episcopal Cemetery
Galveston

Isaac McGary

2010-08-13T11:42:00.016-05:00

Isaac McGary
January 19, 1800 - Butler County, Ohio
June 21, 1866 - Galveston, Texas

Soldier of San Jacinto. Isaac came to Texas in January, 1830 and enlisted with William Kimbro's Company on April 16, 1836, serving with that unit at the Battle of San Jacinto the following week. He was one of those tasked with guarding Antonio López de Santa Anna immediately after his capture, and continued with his military service until he was discharged on November 24, 1836. During the Mexican War, he enlisted as part of the First Regiment of Texas Mounted Riflemen and served under fellow San Jacinto veteran, Captain James Gillaspie. From 1846 to 1852, Isaac was employed as the county clerk of Walker County before being elected as Walker County chief justice two years later. In 1866, he was on a trip along the Gulf coast when he died suddenly, probably a victim of the cholera epidemic, at the age of sixty-six.

Note: Isaac McGary's grave, as well as the rest of the graves in Soldier's Rest, was destroyed in the hurricane of 1900. During the reconstruction of the island, the surface was raised several feet and what was Soldier's Rest now lies somewhere beneath Oleander Cemetery.

Soldier's Rest Cemetery (defunct)
Oleander Cemetery
Galveston

Samuel May Williams

2010-08-12T11:13:00.012-05:00

Samuel May Williams
October 4, 1795 - Providence, Rhode Island
September 13, 1858 - Galveston, Texas

Old Three Hundred colonist. The son of a New England ship captain, Samuel learned the ways of the sea and merchandising early. After studying bookkeeping and international commerce under his uncle, he traveled extensively, working in such faraway places as Buenos Aires before immigrating to Texas as one of Stephen Austin's original colonists. For the next thirteen years, he worked as Austin's second-in-command as a clerk and translator, and was responsible for the colony during Austin's frequent absences. After proposing the sale of land to finance the overthrow of Santa Anna in 1835, he escaped arrest by fleeing to the United States where he raised funds and arms for the coming revolution. Returning to Texas in 1838, Samuel helped found the city of Galveston and there formed Texas' first bank, the Commercial and Agricultural Bank of Galveston. After a failed attempt to run for Congress in 1846, he concentrated on his bank for the remainder of his life. His house, built in 1839, still stands and is maintained as part of the Galveston Historical Foundation.

Trinity Episcopal Cemetery
Galveston

John Richardson

2010-05-17T15:28:00.014-05:00

John Richardson
? - ?
May 25, 1840 - Houston, Texas

Soldier of San Jacinto. Outside of military and probate records, there seems to be no trace of John's personal history whatsoever. He arrived in Texas in 1834, and muster rolls show that he was enlisted in Silas Parker's company from October, 1835 until January, 1836. He left service for a few months, then re-enlisted in March with James Gillaspie's company, whom he served with during the Battle of San Jacinto. After being discharged on May 30, 1836, John's whereabouts are unknown until 1840, when the probate records of Harris County reported his death.

Note: This is a cenotaph. Nearly all of the graves in Founders Memorial Park were lost due to neglect, and although John Richardson is known to be buried in this cemetery, the exact location is unknown.

Founders Memorial Park
Houston

John W. Moore

2010-05-17T15:20:00.013-05:00

John W. Moore
1797 - Pennsylvania
1846 - Houston, Texas

Signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence. Arriving in Texas via Tennessee sometime in 1830, John settled in the Harrisburg district near present-day Houston. A friend of William Travis, he was with him during the siege of the Mexican fort at Anahuac on July 30, 1835, and was elected a contractor for the Texas army at the onset of the Revolution. The following year, he was one of three delegates from Harrisburg chosen to represent the municipality at the Convention of 1836 and there signed the Declaration of Independence. When Texas gained its emancipation the following month, he was elected to serve in the first Texas Congress on October 3, 1836, but the vote was overturned after being contested. In January 1837, John was named sheriff of Harris County and served until the early 1840s when he retired from public service.

Note: This is a cenotaph. Nearly all of the graves in Founders Memorial Park were lost due to neglect, and although John Moore is known to be buried in this cemetery, the exact location is unknown.

Founders Memorial Park
Houston

Jethro Russell Bancroft

2010-05-17T13:43:00.014-05:00

Jethro Russell Bancroft
? - ?
January 7, 1848 - Harris County, Texas

Soldier of San Jacinto. Nothing is known of Jethro's early life prior to 1830, when he arrived in Texas. He participated in the Siege of Bexar from December 5-10, 1835, before moving to Lynchburg, where he enlisted in the militia on March 8, 1836. He was assigned to McIntyre's Company on March 20th and fought with that same unit at the Battle of San Jacinto the following month. Outside of a brief period of illness, he remained with the company until June 8th, when he was discharged, having fulfilled his terms of enlistment.

Note: This is a cenotaph. Nearly all of the graves in Founders Memorial Park were lost due to neglect, and although Jethro Bancroft is known to be buried in this cemetery, the exact location is unknown.

Founders Memorial Park
Houston

Archibald S. Lewis

2010-05-17T13:41:00.011-05:00

Archibald S, Lewis
? - ?
December 3, 1839 - Houston, Texas

Soldier of San Jacinto. The earliest existing records of Archibald Lewis show that he had enlisted on March 31, 1836 in the Texas Army for a period of thirty days. He was assigned to Benjamin F. Bryant's company and fought as a second lieutenant at the Battle of San Jacinto while with that unit. He re-enlisted on July 27, 1836, served until January 1838, then settled in Houston where he lived until his death the following year.

Note: This is a cenotaph. Nearly all of the graves in Founders Memorial Park were lost due to neglect, and although Archibald Lewis is known to be buried in this cemetery, the exact location is unknown.

Founders Memorial Park
Houston

John Beldin

2010-05-17T10:21:00.012-05:00

John Beldin
1812 - New York
September 15, 1841 - Houston, Texas

Soldier of San Jacinto. While in New Orleans, John enlisted in the Texas army on October 22, 1835 and arrived in Texas three days later. In early December, 1838, during the Siege of Bexar, he lost an eye to a musket ball and was sent back to New Orleans for medical attention. His injury did not keep him from re-enlisting, however, and by April 1836, he was back in the army and fought at the Battle of San Jacinto under Amasa Turner. After Texas won its independence, he received a special dispensation for being permanently disabled in the service and moved to the Houston area, where he passed away five years later of congestive fever.

Note: Unmarked. Nearly all of the graves in Founders Memorial Park were lost due to neglect, and although John Beldin is known to be buried in this cemetery, the exact location is unknown.

Founders Memorial Park
Houston

Matthias Bingham

2010-05-17T10:20:00.022-05:00

Matthias Amend Bingham
? - Augusta County, Virginia?
January 12, 1861 - Houston, Texas

Soldier of San Jacinto. The brother of renowned artist George Caleb Bingham, Matthias was most likely born in Augusta County, Virginia between 1810 and 1818. He came to Texas in the spring of 1835 and enlisted in the Army, possibly as a diplomatic assistant to Sam Houston, as there exists documentation that he served as a witness to a treaty between the Texans and the Cherokee on February 23, 1836. He fought with William S. Fisher's Company of Velasco Blues during the Battle of San Jacinto, and continued his service with the militia sporadically until at least March, 1838. He was living in Houston when he died of unknown causes in 1861.

Note: Unmarked. Nearly all of the graves in Founders Memorial Park were lost due to neglect, and although Matthias Bingham is known to be buried in this cemetery, the exact location is unknown.

Founders Memorial Park
Houston

Ambrose Mays

2010-05-17T10:17:00.020-05:00

Ambrose Mays
? - ?
1852 - Harris County, Texas

Soldier of San Jacinto. Ambrose arrived in Texas in 1831 and served in the army from March 20 to July 20, 1836 as a member of Thomas McIntyre's company, with whom he served at the Battle of San Jacinto. He applied for the land awarded him for his service in April, 1838, and was not heard from again until the probate court of Harris County recorded his death in 1852.

Note: Unmarked. Nearly all of the graves in Founders Memorial Park were lost due to neglect, and although Ambrose Mays is known to be buried in this cemetery, the exact location is unknown.

Founders Memorial Park
Houston

John N.O. Smith

2010-05-17T10:15:00.014-05:00

John N.O. Smith
1815 - Massachusetts
May 5, 1851 - Houston, Texas

Soldier of San Jacinto. It is unknown when John Smith came to Texas, or anything prior to that other than the year and place of his birth; he enlisted in the regular Texas army in February 1836 and fought as a First Sergeant under Millard's command at the Battle of San Jacinto. He was promoted to captain of the Somervell Expedition in 1842 but ended up remaining behind at Gonzales due to illness. Over the next few years he moved to Houston, served in the state legislature, and in 1843, founded the local newspaper, The Citizen. In 1849, John contracted tuberculosis, which ended up taking his life two years later at the age of thirty-six.

Note: Unmarked. Nearly all of the graves in Founders Memorial Park were lost due to neglect, and although John Smith is known to be buried in this cemetery, the exact location is unknown.

Founders Memorial Park
Houston

Henry Tierwester

2010-05-17T10:14:00.010-05:00

Heinrich H. Thurwachter
? - Germany
1859 - Houston, Texas

Soldier of San Jacinto. One of the first German immigrants to Texas, Henry applied for and was awarded land near present-day Harris County as part of Stephen Austin's Second Colony. A carpenter by trade, he arrived in Texas in either 1827, 1828 or 1829, and nothing is known of his whereabouts until March 1, 1836, when he enlisted in the army as a member of William Fisher's company. He fought under Fisher at the Battle of San Jacinto and was discharged on June 7. He spent the remainder of his life improving and expanding his property on what is now Houston's Third Ward district.

Note: Unmarked. Nearly all of the graves in Founders Memorial Park were lost due to neglect, and although Henry Tierwester is known to be buried in this cemetery, the exact location is unknown.

Founders Memorial Park
Houston

Robert Barr

2010-05-16T15:04:00.036-05:00

Robert Barr
1802 - Urbana, Ohio
October 11, 1839 - Houston, Texas

Soldier of San Jacinto. Postmaster General of the Republic. Little is known of Robert's early life, except that he was living in Texas prior to December 5, 1833. He served as a private in Patton's Fourth Company under Sidney Sherman's Second Regiment at the Battle of San Jacinto in April 1836, and on December 22 of that same year was named the first Postmaster General of the Republic by President Sam Houston. He was reappointed in 1838 by President Mirabeau Lamar when he began to organize his cabinet, but died of yellow fever shortly after Lamar's inauguration.

Note: This is a cenotaph. Nearly all of the graves in Founders Memorial Park were lost due to neglect, and although Robert Barr is known to be buried in this cemetery, the exact location is unknown.

Founders Memorial Park
Houston

John Kirby Allen

2010-05-16T15:04:00.035-05:00

John Kirby Allen
1810 - Orrville, New York
August 15, 1838 - Houston, Texas

Co-founder of the city of Houston. Republic of Texas Congressman. Having worked since the age of seven, John learned every aspect of trade at an early age, working in positions as varied as hotel callboy to a partnership in a hat company. In 1832, while working as a stockbroker with his brother Augustus, the two decided to try their luck in the new Mexican territory opening down south and moved to Texas. When the Revolution broke out in late 1835, the Allen brothers did not enlist in the militia as did most men, but instead worked on supplying the troops with everything from firearms and feed to armoring the warship Brutus for the Texas Navy, usually at no charge or at cost. After Texas won its independence in 1836, John was elected to the Texas Congress as a representative from Nacogdoches. Not satisfied with governing and bureaucracy, John, Augustus and Augustus' wife Charlotte went into a business partnership, bought a large piece of land off of Buffalo Bayou in Harris County and named it Houston, after the President of Texas. For the rest of his life, John devoted himself to city planning, promoting Houston as the new capitol of the Republic, and selling tracts of property until his death of congestive fever at the early age of twenty-eight.

Founders Memorial Cemetery
Houston

Jacob Maybee

2010-05-16T13:42:00.010-05:00

Jacob Maybee
? - ?
February 8, 1838 - Houston, Texas

Soldier of San Jacinto. Jacob arrived in Texas in 1835 and was living in the Lynchburg area when he enlisted with William Fisher's Company the day before the battle. He served for a period of three months and was discharged on June 22, 1836. He was living in Houston by early 1838 and there died, possibly of yellow fever.

Note: This is a cenotaph. Nearly all of the graves in Founders Memorial Park were lost due to neglect, and although Jacob Maybee is known to be buried in this cemetery, the exact location is unknown.

Founders Memorial Park
Houston

John Austin Wharton

2010-05-16T11:33:00.020-05:00

John Austin Wharton
April 1806 - Nashville, Tennessee
December 17, 1838 - Houston, Texas

Soldier of San Jacinto. Secretary of War of the Republic. Republic of Texas Congressman. Orphaned at ten and raised by his uncle, John was given a thorough education, entered law school and admitted to the bar before his twenty-first birthday. He began his law practice in New Orleans in 1830, although some sources state he was already in the Brazoria area of Texas with his brother William in 1829. By 1833, John became involved with the cause for Texas independence, and participated in several local committees dedicated to opposing the restrictive Mexican government mandates, becoming well-known for his dedication to the cause. On December 8, 1835, he was ordered by Sam Houston to find provisions for the growing Texan liberation movement; not only did he succeed in this task by acquiring the Twin Sisters cannons, but was afterwards assigned to Houston's staff as Adjutant General. Although slightly crippled in his right hand from a duel several years earlier, he was recognized for his valor on the battlefield at San Jacinto by none other than Thomas Jefferson Rusk. Once Texas had won its independence from Mexico and became a free Republic, he served briefly as Secretary of War until October 1836 when he left that post to represent Brazoria in the Texas Congress. After his term, he operated a law office in Houston for two years, then was again elected to Congress; however, before he could be seated, he fell ill with a fever which would prove to be fatal.

Note: This is a cenotaph. Nearly all of the graves in Founders Memorial Park were lost due to neglect, and although John Wharton is known to be buried in this cemetery, the exact location is unknown.

Founders Memorial Park
Houston

John Cheevers

2010-05-16T10:54:00.010-05:00

John Cheevers
? - ?
1846 - Houston, Texas

Soldier of San Jacinto. John came to Texas in 1829 and apparently settled in the Lynchburg area, as it was from there that he volunteered to serve in the Texas militia on March 8, 1836. As part of Thomas McIntyre's Company, he fought at the Battle of San Jacinto in April and was discharged from his duties on June 2, 1836 in La Bahia while a member of Peter Dexter's Company. In 1838, he was living in the Harrisburg district and received nearly a thousand acres of land for his service in the Army and as a veteran of San Jacinto. Nothing more is known of his whereabouts until his death in Houston in 1846.

Note: This is a cenotaph. Nearly all of the graves in Founders Memorial Park were lost due to neglect, and although John Cheevers is known to be buried in this cemetery, the exact location is unknown.

Founders Memorial Park
Houston

Harvey Homan

2010-05-16T10:53:00.010-05:00

Harvey Homan
1806 - Kentucky
July, 1846 - Houston, Texas

Soldier of San Jacinto. A carpenter by trade, Harvey was recruited in New Orleans to fight for the liberation of Texas. Arriving at the port of Velasco on January 28, 1836, he was assigned to Richard Roman's company and served with them during the Battle of San Jacinto. He remained with the Texas army at least one more year, as records show he was with George Casey's company until December, 1837. It is likely he left active duty at that time, since he sold his rights to property granted to him for his service just three months later. There are no further records of him until his death in Houston at the age of forty.

Note: This is a cenotaph. Nearly all of the graves in Founders Memorial Park were lost due to neglect, and although Harvey Homan is known to be buried in this cemetery, the exact location is unknown.

Founders Memorial Park
Houston

Fielding G. Secrest

2010-05-16T10:22:00.011-05:00

Fielding Grundy Secrest
? - ?
June 1, 1840 - Houston, Texas

Soldier of San Jacinto. It is not known when or where Fielding was born; the earliest record regarding him shows that he and his brother Washington arrived in Texas in early 1835 and probably settled in present-day Harris County. He enlisted at an unknown date with Henry Karnes' Company during the Texas Revolution and fought with them at the Battle of San Jacinto on April 21, 1836. From June to December 1836, he served in the regular Texas Army with the Washington Cavalry Company, commanded by his brother. While living in Houston in 1838, he married Eliza Sneed on September 25, but both she and their infant daughter died sometime the following year. Fielding himself would follow them not long after, possibly from one of the frequent yellow fever epidemics raging through Houston at the time.

Note: This is a cenotaph. Nearly all of the graves in Founders Memorial Park were lost due to neglect, and although Fielding Secrest is known to be buried in this cemetery, the exact location is unknown.

Founders Memorial Park
Houston

John Viven

2010-05-16T10:14:00.014-05:00

John Viven
? - ?
October 26, 1856 - Houston, Texas

Soldier of San Jacinto. Nothing is known of John's early life prior to December 18, 1835, when he enlisted with Sidney Sherman's Company in Kentucky. He arrived in Texas in January 1836, and four months later fought at the Battle of San Jacinto as a member of the First Regiment of Texas Volunteers. He was living in Houston by August 1849 and working as an agent for Spears & Ferguson, a local lumber merchant, before being elected County Commissioner, a post he held until his death.

Note: This is a cenotaph. Nearly all of the graves in Founders Memorial Park were lost due to neglect, and although John Viven is known to be buried in this cemetery, the exact location is unknown.

Founders Memorial Park
Houston

James Collinsworth

2010-05-16T10:11:00.024-05:00

James T. Collinsworth
1806 - Davidson County, Tennessee
July 11, 1838 - Galveston Bay, Texas

Signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence. ad interim Secretary of State of the Republic. Soldier of San Jacinto. Senator of the Republic. Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Republic. As a young lawyer who counted both Sam Houston and Andrew Jackson as friends, James excelled in his legal practice and served as a United States district attorney in Tennessee from 1829 to 1834. By the next year, he had moved to Matagorda, Texas and opened a law office where he was well-respected for his abilities, so much so that he was one of the three men chosen to represent the Brazoria district at the Convention of 1836, where he signed the Declaration of Independence. As one of the most experienced in legal procedure, he became a key part of the Convention and not only introduced the resolution to make Sam Houston the commander-in-chief of the Texas army, but became the chairman for the committee on military affairs and aided in drafting the Constitution as well. General Houston appointed him his aide-de-camp following the Convention, and he was commended for his bravery at the climactic Battle of San Jacinto. Once Texas had won its independence, he was appointed the Secretary of State for the provisional government from April to May, 1836. Although President Houston wished to make him his Attorney General, James turned down the position, and instead served a term in the Texas Senate. When the Republic began forming its judiciary, he was appointed the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, a position he held until his death. At the end of President Houston's first term, James was considered for the presidency, but unfortunately, after a week-long drinking binge, either jumped or fell off a ship in Galveston Bay and drowned.

Note: This is a cenotaph. Nearly all of the graves in Founders Memorial Park were lost due to neglect, and although James Collinsworth is known to be buried in this cemetery, the exact location is unknown.

Founders Memorial Park
Houston

Sarah Seelye

2010-03-25T08:43:00.014-05:00

Sarah Emma Edmondson Seelye
December 1841 - Magaguadavic Settlement, New Brunswick, Canada
September 5, 1898 - La Porte, Texas

Civil War Union soldier. At the age of seventeen, Sarah ran away from home to escape a forced marriage, and to avoid being recognized and returned to her family, disguised herself as a man. As Franklin Thompson, she got a job as a traveling Bible salesman, and on May 25, 1861 enlisted in Company F, 2nd Michigan Volunteer Infantry. Over the course of the next two years, she served with distinction in many conflicts, including the Siege of Yorktown, and the Battles of Williamsburg, Second Manassas and Fredericksburg. According to her memoirs, she also served as a spy for the Union, "disguising" herself as a woman and finding work in Confederate camps, then reporting what she overheard to her superiors. In 1863, Sarah was stricken with malaria, and fearing exposure by the camp doctors, deserted her unit. Once she recovered, she served as an Army nurse in Washington D.C. until the end of the war. She wrote of her experiences in her autobiography Nurse and Spy in the Union Army in 1864, which caused the government to cancel her Army nurse pension for her confessed desertion. Twenty years later, an Act of Congress had the desertion charges against her expunged, she was re-awarded her pension, and in 1897 became the only woman ever admitted to the Grand Army of the Republic. Upon her death, her fellow G.A.R. members requested, and were permitted, to bury her with military honors in the G.A.R. plot at Washington Cemetery. Sarah is the only woman in the history of the American military so allowed the privilege.

Section B
Washington Cemetery
Houston

J. S. Cullinan

2010-03-25T08:42:00.014-05:00

Joseph Stephen Cullinan
December 31, 1860 - Sharon, Pennsylvania
March 11, 1937 - Palo Alto, California

Founder of Texaco. Joseph started working in the oil fields of Pennsylvania at the age of fourteen, learning all aspects of the petroleum industry from the ground up. In 1882, he was hired to manage an offshoot company of Standard Oil and worked there for thirteen years before striking out on his own and organizing his own firm, Petroleum Iron Works, in 1895. Two years later, he was asked to manage the oil strike in Corsicana, Texas, and there built his first refinery under the J.S. Cullinan Company brand. With the discovery of oil at Spindletop in 1901, he moved his headquarters to Beaumont and changed the company name to the Texas Fuel Company, but quickly dropped 'Fuel' from the title and it became known simply as The Texas Company. In 1905, he moved the company base again, this time to Houston, as did most oil businesses at the time to take advantage of its superior port system and higher pool of potential employees. This greater access to both shipping and hiring possibilities made Cullinan a key player in the American oil industry, and he started turning his attention to philanthropic causes. For the next thirty years, in addition to running his business, he would contribute to many different public works, from the Mount Rushmore National Memorial Committee to the development of both the Houston Ship Channel and the Houston Symphony. In 1937, while visiting his friend, former president Herbert Hoover at his home, Joseph was suddenly stricken with pneumonia and died there at the age of seventy-seven. In 1959, The Texas Company would change its name one last time to what it is today: Texaco.

Little Hillside Section
Glenwood Cemetery
Houston

Hal Epps

2010-03-19T11:47:00.016-05:00

Harold Franklin Epps
March 26, 1914 - Athens, Georgia
August 25, 2004 - Houston, Texas

Baseball player. Hal was a lover of sports as a young man and was good enough at them to get into the University of Georgia on a football scholarship in 1934. Just one year later, though, he was convinced by a scout for the St Louis Cardinals to switch over to baseball, where he would remain for the next eighteen years. Signed to the Cardinals training camp, he honed his skills in numerous farm systems where he attained a batting average of over .300. Despite his promising batting skills, it would take four years before he was called up to the Cardinals professional roster as an outfielder, making his major league debut on September 9, 1938. Although he only made seventeen appearances as a player during the season, his batting skills placed him at the forefront of pinch hitters. He was sent back to the minors at the close of the season, and would not play with the Cardinals again until 1940. After eleven more games, he was again sent back to the minors, this time with the Houston Buffs, until 1943 when he signed with the Toledo Mud Hens, the affiliate team for the St Louis Browns. Still hitting a respectable .300 to .301, he began perfecting his role as an outfielder, earning his nickname "The Reindeer" for the way he sprinted and dove to make catches. His improvement earned him a spot on the Browns until he was picked up by the Philadelphia Athletics in June, 1944. Shortly after, he was called up by the Army to fight in the Pacific during World War II. After being discharged in 1947, he returned to the Houston Buffs and helped the team win the Dixie Series. Realizing that the call to the majors would never come again, he continued playing for the Buffs until 1952 before leaving baseball permanently to work as a security guard. He would remain a local minor league legend, however, receiving fan mail daily until his passing at the age of ninety.

Section N3
Houston National Cemetery
Houston

Home Run Brown

2010-03-17T13:18:00.026-05:00

Willard Jessie Brown
June 26, 1915 - Shreveport, Louisiana
August 4, 1996 - Houston, Texas

Hall of Fame baseball player. Willie was born to a poor family who encouraged his interest in sports, and baseball in particular. He became known in the neighborhood as a quality player, and in 1934 joined the Monroe Monarchs, a minor Negro League team. As he gained experience on the field, he refined his batting skills to the point that he was signed to the pro-level Kansas City Monarchs in 1936 and played professionally with them for eight years. He developed into the most powerful home run hitter in the Negro Leagues, possibly in all of baseball, but as records weren't kept consistently in that era there is no way of knowing specific numbers. It is known, however, that he surpassed the legendary Josh Gibson, who was so impressed by his ability that he bestowed Willard with the nickname that would follow him for the rest of his professional career: Home Run Brown. In 1944, he enlisted in the Army to fight in World War II and served until the following year when victory was declared. He returned to baseball, playing in Puerto Rico during the Negro League off-season, having lost none of his talent during his wartime service; at one point, he reached batting averages of .410. In 1947, he played briefly for the St. Louis Browns, but the overall lack of talent on his team affected his hitting; he left the team after only twenty-one games, but not before becoming the first black player to hit a home run in the American League. Returning to Puerto Rico, his averages shot back up and he achieved his greatest season ever, attaining .432, twenty-seven home runs and eighty-six RBI in just sixty games, winning the Triple Crown - a feat he would achieve again in the 1949-1950 season. In 1948, he returned to the Monarchs and remained with them until his retirement in 1950, although he would occasionally suit up for minor league teams in the Texas League until 1956. After leaving the game for good, he moved to Houston where he lived quietly until he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's in 1989; he underwent treatment which helped retard the progression of the disease until it finally claimed him in 1996. Ten years later, Willard "Home Run" Brown was unanimously elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Section G-2
Houston National Cemetery
Houston

Cameron Hill

2010-03-08T16:26:00.032-06:00

Maurice Cameron Hill
February 7, 1919 - Rusk, Texas
June 22, 1962 - Houston, Texas

Musician. Raised by parents with a love of music, Cameron started playing the guitar and singing at the age of nine and by eleven was performing with his father on the local radio station. While working with the Texas parks and roads service as a teenager, he started playing at small clubs through the 1930s until December 1939, when he signed on with The Texas Wanderers. The band was popular enough to record for Decca the following spring, but had split up by October, with Cameron playing for the revised Moon Mullican's Texas Wanderers. Following another breakup of the Wanderers in 1941, he went on the road, playing with various bands and appearing on local radio until he was hired for Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys. As one of the two lead guitarists, Cameron recorded with the Playboys from 1944 to late 1945, when he left the group and moved to Houston. Cameron continued to work through the 1940s and 50s, recording with country legends from The Skyliners and Roy Rogers to Slim Whitman and Floyd Tillman. By the early 1960s, Cameron had developed a debilitating illness and retired from performing completely, settling down at his home in Houston with his family until his death.

Section 19
Rosewood Funeral Home and Cemetery
Humble

Sonny Fisher

2010-03-08T16:26:00.031-06:00

Therman B. Fisher
November 13, 1931 - Chandler, Texas
October 8, 2005 - Houston, Texas

Rockabilly singer. Although born in Texas, Sonny was raised in Tacoma, Washington until his family moved to the Houston area when he was a teenager. His father was an amateur guitar player and singer and from this, Sonny gained an interest in both country and blues music. He started his own bluegrass band, The Rocking Boys, in 1951, but after attending an Elvis concert in 1955, he switched direction and became a devotee of rockabilly for the rest of his life. His group was offered a short contract later that same year, and of the four tracks released, his debut song, Rockin’ Daddy, would go on to become his first and greatest hit. Although the song was a success, the residuals from it were so small that he refused to renew his contract and began his own label. However, after a few unsuccessful productions, his label shut down and he was reduced to playing small clubs until leaving the business entirely in 1965. By 1979, however, rockabilly was undergoing a huge resurgence in Europe and a pair of British promoters tracked him down. After he was convinced to do a quick tour of England, his original eight tracks were repackaged into the highly acclaimed Texas Rockabilly album and he became an in-demand performer across Europe until 1983, when he retired again. A decade later, he recorded one song, a duet with rockabilly legend Sleepy LaBeef for the Rockabilly Fiesta album, then retired again, this time for good.

Section 47
Brookside Memorial Park
Houston

W.D. Jones

2010-03-08T16:21:00.012-06:00

William Daniel Jones
May 15, 1916 - Dallas, Texas
August 20, 1974 - Houston, Texas

Bonnie and Clyde gang member. William was born to a family entrenched in poverty, and when his sharecropper father moved them to a new neighborhood in 1921, he became friends with a local boy named Clyde Barrow. When Clyde left town to begin his criminal career, William stayed behind and began committing low-level crimes, ranging from bootlegging to car theft. When Clyde returned home in 1936 with his new girlfriend Bonnie Parker in tow, he asked William to keep an eye on their car while the two slept. The next morning, after William did some quick repairs on the car, Clyde offered him a place with them and he accepted; within a few days, he was involved in his first murder. For the next eight months, he acted as a combination of driver and mechanic for the gang, usually staying in the car with Bonnie while Clyde and another gang member robbed whichever gas station or bank was convenient at the time. As things got more intense and the murders became more frequent, William became concerned with being killed during one of their capers, and shortly after Clyde's brother Buck and his wife Blanche were captured in 1933, he jumped ship and went on the lam. Quickly recognized and arrested by the time he got to Houston, he claimed he was actually a prisoner of the gang who was tied down at night to prevent his escape. No one believed it for a minute and he was imprisoned for six years. After his release, he drifted from job to job and became hooked on drugs and alcohol, surfacing briefly in 1968 in an attempt to sue Warner Brothers for their portrayal of him in the Bonnie and Clyde film. Six years later, he was gunned down during a failed drug transaction.

St Matthews's Section
Brookside Memorial Park
Houston

Katie Webster

2009-06-23T21:35:00.015-05:00

Kathryn Jewel Thorne
January 11, 1936 - Houston, Texas
September 9, 1999 - League City, Texas

Entertainer. Katie's parents taught her piano while she was a child with the caveat that she was to play only gospel or classical music, she was to play none of that devil music, no sir, not their little girl. So she did what all kids do in this situation: she listened to that devil music at night with an old radio she had smuggled in the house and hidden under her pillow. Every chance she got, she would hammer out the music she had fallen in love with on any piano she could find, developing her own style of boogie-woogie along the way. When she was a teenager, her parents moved to California and gave Katie the choice to live with other family members in southern Louisiana, a chance she leapt at. Now that she had permission to play out in the open, she became well-known in the area for her loud piano-banging style; by the time she was fifteen, she was one of the most requested studio musicians in the area. She played on hundreds of recordings from the 1950s through the 1960s, with such luminaries as Guitar Junior, Lightnin' Slim and Lazy Lester. Her big break came in 1964 when Otis Redding heard her playing in a nightclub with her group The Uptighters and immediately hired her for his band. She did her first nationwide tour with Redding as an opening act and can be heard playing on his acclaimed album Live At The Whiskey A-Go-Go. She toured with him for three years until pregnancy kept her from performing on his 1967 tour; the tour she missed was the one Redding died on when his plane crashed into Lake Monona. The loss of her friend and the need to care for her elderly parents caused her to quit the business until the early 1980s when blues and rockabilly was rediscovered in Europe and the demand for vintage performers was booming. She toured Europe and became a club legend there, returning over thirty times to play for sold out crowds. Encouraged by her success, she began playing at blues festivals in America and dazzled huge crowds of fans time and time again. In 1988, she signed with Alligator Records, and with the assistance of artists like Bonnie Raitt and Robert Cray, released her debut album, The Swamp Boogie Queen. It was an international hit. She would follow up over the next several years with Two-Fisted Mama! and No Foolin'!, both of which cemented her status as a boogie-woogie legend. In 1993, while on tour in Greece, Katie had a stroke which restricted the use of her left hand and took almost all of her eyesight. In spite of everything she kept going, and although she booked fewer performances, she continued to deliver her signature sound by relying more on her right hand to play the piano. Eventually, she slowed down and played less; she just couldn't perform with the fire she used to and felt she would be cheating the audience unless she could go all out. She would play infrequently over the next few years, and remained a fan favorite both in the States and in Europe until her death from heart failure at the age of sixty-three.

Section 211
Forest Park East Cemetery
Webster

Wild Bill Longley

2009-06-23T19:11:00.015-05:00

William Preston Longley
October 6, 1851 - Austin County, Texas
October 11, 1878 - Giddings, Texas

Outlaw. Longley spent his childhood between school and working the family farm on Mill Creek, teaching himself how to shoot while hunting for food. When he reached his teenage years during the extremely divisive post-Civil War Reconstruction era, he developed a manic hatred for both Union soldiers and for former slaves, as they both represented in his mind the oppression of the Northerners. On December 10, 1866, he and his father were walking through the town of Evergreen when a drunk, black Union soldier insulted his father; Longley immediately shot the man dead. Now on the run, he took up with a small gang and proceeded to rob and murder former slaves, random travelers and anyone who he felt were Yankee sympathizers for several years. When a reward was posted for his capture in 1870 after his most recent murder of a freed slave woman, he escaped north to Kansas. He later claimed to have worked as a trail driver in Abilene, before traveling to Wyoming and joining a gold hunting expedition headed for South Dakota. After arriving in the Black Hills, it was discovered that a treaty with the Sioux made it illegal to mine there, and the party had a brief skirmish with the local U.S. Cavalry unit. Somehow, Longley ended up enlisting with the cavalry for a five year term but could not handle the discipline and deserted after only two weeks. Recaptured, court-martialed and sentenced to two years of hard labor, he was only imprisoned for four months before he was returned to his unit. In May, 1872, he deserted again and headed home. Returning to Texas in 1873, he found work as a cowboy in Comanche County, but continued his killing spree: from 1873 to 1876, he killed at least four more men, before fleeing to Louisiana to escape the law. It was there, however, that the law finally caught up with him. He was returned to Texas in 1877 to stand trial for the murder of Wilson Anderson, and on September 5 was convicted and sentenced to be executed. A year later, his one appeal denied, he climbed the gallows in front of a crowd of thousands. Publicly repenting of his crimes - although only confessing to eight murders when it was well over thirty - Bill Longley was hanged by his neck until dead and buried just outside of the town cemetery grounds.

Giddings City Cemetery
Giddings

Jake Brown

2009-06-23T17:19:00.015-05:00

Jerald Ray Brown
March 22, 1948 - Sumrall, Mississippi
December 18, 1981 - Houston, Texas

Baseball player. Jake attended Southern University and A&M College in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and played on the school's baseball team. He was picked up by the Minnesota Twins in the 1967 MLB June Amateur Draft and bumped around the minor leagues for nine years before being signed to the San Francisco Giants at the relatively late age of twenty-seven. He made his major league debut on May 17, 1975, but only played in a total of forty-one games before being released.

Section 6
Paradise North Cemetery
Houston

George Frank Robie

2009-06-22T19:07:00.026-05:00

George Frank Robie
June 17, 1844 - Candia, New Hampshire
June 10, 1891 - Galveston, Texas

Civil War Congressional Medal of Honor Recipient. George was living in Manchester when he enlisted with the 7th New Hampshire Infantry Regiment in the summer of 1861. He rose through the ranks quickly and was promoted to lieutenant after only three years in service. On September 29, 1864, while acting as his company's commander, he and his unit took part in a reconnaissance operation on Richmond and his performance during that incident led to his being awarded the Medal of Honor. After the war, George made his way to Galveston and worked as a store clerk and bookkeeper until his death in 1891.

Citation: The President of the United States of America, in the name of Congress, takes pleasure in presenting the Medal of Honor to Sergeant George Frank Robie, United States Army, for extraordinary heroism on September, 1864, while serving with Company D, 7th New Hampshire Infantry, in action at Richmond, Virginia, for gallantry on the skirmish line.

New City Cemetery
Galveston