Frost Thorn (1793-1854)

    Frost Thorn, empresario and merchant said to have been the first Texas millionaire, was born in Glen Cove, New York, in 1793. He first came to Texas with the trading company of William Barr and Peter Samuel Davenport. On April 15, 1825, he and Haden Edwards obtained empresario contracts from the Mexican government. During the same year Thorn was married to Susan Wroe Edwards, daughter of Haden Edwards. The couple had three children. Thorn donated land for church sites, served on the board of health of Nacogdoches, aided Stephen F. Austin in getting colonists into Texas, attempted to persuade José de las Piedras to join in the revolution against Anastasio Bustamante, was elected to the state legislature of Coahuila and Texas, and was chairman of the Nacogdoches committee of vigilance and safety during the Texas Revolution. He also aided in the establishment of the University of Nacogdoches and served on the board of trustees. 

    Thorn's chief interest was in the acquisition of land. Besides his own empresario contracts with Benjamin R. Milam and Green DeWitt, whereby he obtained a share in each of their grants from the Mexican government, he acquired additional titles to land grants until his holdings amounted to hundreds of thousands of acres. His other business activities included trade with the Indians in the areas of his landholdings, a general store in Nacogdoches operated in partnership with Haden Edwards, a bank, a salt mine, and a lumber business. Thorn also operated large farms both in Texas and in Louisiana and attempted the establishment of towns in East Texas, one of which, called Thornville, was located north of Nacogdoches. His business activities resulted in the accumulation of a fortune estimated at well over a million dollars. He died in Nacogdoches on December 3, 1854, and was buried in Oak Grove Cemetery. Source

Oak Grove Cemetery
Nacogdoches

COORDINATES

31° 36.178, -094° 38.964

Barbara Charline Jordan (1936-1996)

    Barbara Jordan, politician and educator, was born in Houston, Texas, on February 21, 1936, the youngest of three daughters of Benjamin and Arlyne (Patten) Jordan. She grew up in the Fifth Ward of Houston and attended public schools. Her father, a warehouse clerk and Baptist minister, assisted her in attending Texas Southern University, where she graduated magna cum laude in 1956. She received a law degree from Boston University in 1959 and passed bar exams in Massachusetts and Texas the same year. After teaching at Tuskegee Institute for a year, Jordan returned to Houston in 1960. She opened a law practice and worked from her parents' home for three years until she saved enough to open an office. She became involved in politics by registering black voters for the 1960 presidential campaign, and twice ran unsuccessfully for state office in the early 1960s. In 1967 redistricting and increased registration of black voters secured her a seat in the Texas Senate, where she was the first black state senator since 1883. Her career was endorsed and facilitated by Lyndon Baines Johnson. Eschewing a confrontational approach, Jordan quickly developed a reputation as a master of detail and as an effective pragmatist and gained the respect of her thirty white male colleagues. While in the legislature she worked for minimum-wage laws and voter registration and chaired the Labor and Management Relations Committee. In 1972 she was unanimously elected president pro tempore of the Senate.

    The following year Jordan successfully ran for the United States House of Representatives from the Eighteenth Texas District. She was the first black woman from a Southern state to serve in Congress, and, with Andrew Young, was the first of two African Americans to be elected to Congress from the South in the twentieth century. With her precise diction and booming voice, Jordan was an extremely effective public speaker. She gained national prominence for her role in the 1974 Watergate hearings as a member of the House Judiciary Committee when she delivered what many considered to be the best speech of the hearings. In that speech she asserted, "My faith in the Constitution is whole, it is complete, it is total. I am not going to sit here and be an idle spectator to the diminution, the subversion, the destruction of the Constitution." Impressed with her eloquence and stature in the party, the Democratic party chose her to deliver the keynote address at the 1976 Democratic national convention; she was the first woman to do so. Her speech, which addressed the themes of unity, equality, accountability, and American ideals, was considered by many to be the highlight of the convention, and helped rally support for James E. Carter's presidential campaign.

    In 1979, after three terms in congress, Jordan retired from politics to accept the Lyndon Baines Johnson Public Service Professorship at the LBJ School of Public Affairs, University of Texas at Austin. She taught courses on intergovernmental relations, political values, and ethics. She published her autobiography, Barbara Jordan: A Self Portrait, in 1979. She served as ethics advisor to Governor Ann Richards in the early 1990s. In 1992 she once again delivered the keynote address at the Democratic national convention. She served as chairwoman of the United States Commission on Immigration Reform in 1994. Among her many honors were induction into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1990 and a Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1994. She suffered from a number of ailments in her later years, including a form of multiple sclerosis, and was confined to a wheelchair. She survived a near-drowning incident at her home in 1988, but succumbed to pneumonia and leukemia in Austin on January 17, 1996. Barbara Jordan is buried in the State Cemetery in Austin. Her papers are housed at the Barbara Jordan Archives at Texas Southern University. Source

Republic Hill
Texas State Cemetery
Austin

COORDINATES

30° 15.922, -097° 43.641

Randolph Foster (1790-1878)

    Randolph Foster, one of Stephen F. Austin's Old Three Hundred colonists, the son of John Foster, was born in Mississippi on March 12, 1790. During the War of 1812 he served with Randal Jones, later his Texas neighbor for fifty years. Foster married Lucy Hunter in Mississippi, and they became the parents of seven children. In 1822 the couple joined John Foster and Isaac Foster to move to Texas and establish a camp in what became Fort Bend County. On July 16, 1824, Foster received title to a league of land in an area that is now Waller and Fort Bend counties. On October 11, 1835, Richardson Royster Royall dispatched Foster to retrieve 800 pounds of lead reported to be at William Stafford's plantation. Foster later helped supply the army with meat and furnished food and escort for his family and neighbors during the Runaway Scrape. 

    In 1836 he made a trip back to Mississippi, then returned to Texas to establish permanent residence in Fort Bend County. In December 1845 he signed a proclamation at Richmond commending Sam Houston for his work for the annexation of Texas and inviting him to dinner at Richmond. As a fellow Mississippian, Foster, in August 1865 wrote David G. Burnet requesting him to go to Washington, D.C., to ask President Andrew Johnson to release Jefferson Davis from prison. On August 18, 1878, Foster died in Fort Bend County at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Mary L. Blakely. Source 

Fulshear Cemetery
Fulshear

COORDINATES

29° 41.965, -095° 54.574

Robert Edward Galer (1913-2005)

    Brigadier General Robert Edward Galer, a combat aviator and holder of the Nation's highest decoration, the Medal of Honor, was born in Seattle, Washington, October 23, 1913, and graduated from the University of Washington with a degree in commercial engineering in 1935. While at the University of Washington, Galer was an All-American basketball player and is in the Husky Hall of Fame, the State of Washington Hall of Fame, and the NCAA Hall of Fame. After graduating, he began elimination flight training at the Naval Reserve Aviation Base, Seattle. In June 1936, he began his Aviation Cadet flight training at the Naval Air Station, Pensacola, Florida, and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Marine Corps, July 1, 1936. Following his designation as a Naval Aviator in April 1937, he was transferred to the First Marine Brigade at Quantico, Virginia, for duty with Aircraft One. In July of the same year he was assigned to a course of instruction at the Basic School at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Following the completion of his studies in June 1938, he was ordered to the New York Navy Yard, but shortly thereafter was transferred to the Virgin Islands where he served with Marine Scouting Squadron-3 at St. Thomas. He was advanced to first lieutenant in July 1939. Lieutenant Galer returned to the United States in June 1940, and in July reported to the Second Marine Aircraft Wing in San Diego, California.

    In January 1941, he was ordered to Hawaii and was appointed a captain in March 1941. He was serving at the Marine Corps Air Station, Ewa, Oahu, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. In May 1942, he assumed command of Marine Fighting Squadron-224. It was while in command of the unit that he received the Nation's highest award, shortly after his promotion to the rank of major. He also received the British Distinguished Flying Cross for the same act of heroism. Following the presentation of the Medal of Honor by the President at the White House, Major Galer was ordered to Marine Forces, Air West Coast, Miramar, California, where he served as assistant Operations Officer. Shortly after advancement to the rank of lieutenant colonel in November 1943, he was ordered to return to the Hawaiian Islands, where he became Chief of Staff Marine Air Hawaiian Area. In May 1944, Lieutenant Colonel Galer was named as Operations Officer, Third Marine Aircraft Wing. He served as an observer during the Falani Islands campaign, while on temporary duty from the Third Marine Aircraft Wing. His next assignment found him as Training Officer of Provisional Air Support Command, Fleet Marine Force Pacific. Colonel Avery Kier and Lieutenant Colonel Galer trained three LFASCU's and shipped them out on three different ships as directed. Later Colonels Kier and Galer were ordered to join Team 1 at Ulithe. Team 1 landed on D-day at Iwo Jima, along with Kier and Galer. They were there when the flag was raised. Team 1 was established and working, and Colonels Kier and Galer climbed Surabachi to see the flag established.

    After 30 days, they were directed to catch an airplane for the Philippines. They landed behind the lines and joined Team 2, coming ashore on D-day. They went on into Manila where they set up Team 2. After 30 days, they were directed to return to Ulithe and join Team 3. Team 3 went into Okinawa on D-day. Colonels Kier and Galer participated in three D-days in 65 days. Lieutenant Colonel Galer again returned to the United States in June 1945, and in July he reported to the Marine Barracks Naval Air Training Base Corpus Christi, Texas, as officer in charge of a cadet regiment. He remained in that capacity until August 1947, at which time he was assigned as a student at the Armed Forces Staff College in Norfolk, Virginia. In June 1948, he reported to Marine Aircraft Wing at the Marine Air Corps Air Station, Cherry Point, North Carolina, where he served as Operations and Training Officer. He joined Headquarters Squadrons-2 at that station in April 1949, and was transferred April 26, 1950, to the Naval Air Station San Diego, California. He served there as Marine Planning Officer and, later as Assistant Chief of Staff for Plans, on the Staff of the Commander, Air Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet. During this assignment he was promoted to colonel in March 1951. Colonel Galer sailed in March 1952, for Korea where he saw duty as Assistant Chief of Staff, G-4 (Supply), of the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing, until the following May. He was then named Commanding Officer of Marine Aircraft Group 12, 1st Marine Aircraft Wing there and for extraordinary on July 11, 1952, was awarded a Gold Star in lieu of a second Distinguished Flying Cross. According to the citation accompanying this medal he "led a maximum effort strike of Marine attack aircraft against a heavily defended industrial area in the North Korean capitol city Pyongyang." Colonel Galer was also awarded the Legion of Merit with Combat "V" for his service in Korea from May 24 to August 5, 1952, when he was shot down behind enemy lines by antiaircraft fire and later rescued by helicopter.

    After a period of hospitalization, he returned to duty at El Toro, California in October 1952, as Assistant Chief of Staff, G-1 (Personnel) and later, G-3 (Operations) of Aircraft Fleet Marine Force Pacific. He was enrolled as a student in the Air War College, Maxwell Air Force Base, Montgomery, Alabama in July 1953. Upon graduation from the college the following June, he was transferred to Headquarters Marine Corps, Washington, D.C., where he became Assistant Director, Guided Missiles Division, Bureau of Aeronautics, Department of the Navy. He served in that capacity until January 1956, when he became Acting Director. The following June he was awarded a Masters degree in Engineering Administration from the George Washington University, Washington, D.C. For exceptionally meritorious service in combat, he was advanced to brigadier general upon his retirement, July 31, 1957. A complete list of General Galer's medals and decorations include: the Medal of Honor, Navy Cross, Legion of Merit with Combat "V" Stars, Purple Heart, Presidential Unit Citation with one bronze star, American Defense Service Medal with Base Clasp, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with one silver star, American Campaign Medal, World War II Victory Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Korean Service Medal with two bronze stars, United Nations Service Medal, Distinguished Flying Cross (British Award), and the Korean Presidential Unit citation. After retirement from the military, General Galer moved to Dallas and worked for LTV and also in the real estate business. He was a member of the Medal of Honor Society, Legion of Valor, American Fighter Aces, Golden Eagles, and Former Commander Marine Corps Aviation Association. Brigadier General Robert Edward Galer passed away on June 27, 2005, and was buried with full military honors at the Texas State Cemetery five days later. Source

CITATION  

For conspicuous heroism and courage above and beyond the call of duty as leader of a marine fighter squadron in aerial combat with enemy Japanese forces in the Solomon Islands area. Leading his squadron repeatedly in daring and aggressive raids against Japanese aerial forces, vastly superior in numbers, Maj. Galer availed himself of every favorable attack opportunity, individually shooting down 11 enemy bomber and fighter aircraft over a period of 29 days. Though suffering the extreme physical strain attendant upon protracted fighter operations at an altitude above 25,000 feet, the squadron under his zealous and inspiring leadership shot down a total of 27 Japanese planes. His superb airmanship, his outstanding skill and personal valor reflect great credit upon Maj. Galer's gallant fighting spirit and upon the U.S. Naval Service.

Monument Hill
Texas State Cemetery
Austin

COORDINATES

30° 15.971, -097° 43.572