Zadock Woods (1773-1842)

    Zadock Woods, one of Stephen F. Austin's Old Three Hundred, was born Zaduck Wood on September 18, 1773, in Brookfield Township, Massachusetts, the son of Jonathan and Keziah (Keith) Wood. By 1796 he had moved to South Woodstock, Vermont, where he married Minerva Cottle in 1797. They had six children. Woods and his family moved to the St. Charles District of Missouri Territory around 1801 and were the first white settlers granted land in that area. The town of Woodville (or Woods' Fort) was established at Troy, Missouri, and Woods' inn and tavern was its first stagecoach stopover. Woods' Fort, commanded by Lt. Zachary Taylor, was a principal defense post during the War of 1812. Woods fought with Andrew Jackson in Alabama and New Orleans. After a lead-mining venture with Moses Austin ruined him financially, Woods and his family joined Stephen F. Austin's Texas colony in 1824. His original land grant was in Matagorda County, but the family settled farther up the Colorado River in Fayette County. His fortified home in the vicinity of present West Point was called Woods' Fort (or Woods' Prairie) and was used by the colonists as a place of refuge from Indian attacks from 1828 to 1842. Woods's son Leander was killed in the battle of Velasco in 1832. Zadock mustered under Capt. Michael Goheen and Col. John H. Moore to fight in the battle of Gonzales, the battle of Concepción, and the Grass Fight near San Antonio, all in 1835. He returned home on December 3 of that year but was again involved in the Texas Revolution the next spring, when he housed a ten-member company of Tennessee volunteers under Daniel William Cloud on February 10, 1836, on their way to the Alamo. The family took part in the Runaway Scrape, fleeing before the advancing Mexican army. Minerva Woods died on March 28, 1839, and was buried in Woods' Prairie Cemetery. In 1842 Woods and his sons Norman and Henry G. were recruited by Capt. Nicholas M. Dawson to fight with Mathew Caldwell's forces against Mexican general Adrián Woll at Salado Creek. On September 18, 1842, Woods was killed in the Dawson Massacre. His son Henry escaped, but Norman was captured and taken to Perote Prison. Zadock Woods was buried in a mass grave by Salado Creek but was reinterred six years later at Monument Hill State Historic Site in La Grange. Historical markers in Troy, Missouri, and West Point, Texas, note Woods as a significant early pioneer. Source

Monument Hill State Historic Site
La Grange

COORDINATES

29° 53.339, -096° 52.618

Joan Barton (1925-1976)

    Joan Barton was born Mary Ann Bock, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William E. Bock in McKeesport, Pennsylvania. At fourteen, and dubbed "Mary Ann," she sang with Phil Spitalney's Orchestra. She toured overseas on USO tours during the Second World War, and was warmly welcomed by the soldiers (her measurements were 37-24-35). After the war, she turned to acting. Her career included film roles in Lone Star Moonlight (1946), Romance of the West (1946),  Cigarette Girl (1947) and her most famous role, showgirl Lila Neal in Angel and the Badman (1947) with John Wayne. Barton then began to rack up a number of small television and film credits like Mary Lou (1948) and her final film, Million Dollar Mermaid (1957) with Esther Williams. She managed an Ed Sullivan Show appearance in 1950, worked nightclubs, and went from dating A-list guys like Dick Powell to marrying used-car dealer "Madman" Muntz, notorious for his pioneering hard-sell and totally ludicrous TV commercials, in 1950. The couple had a daughter, Tee Vee "Teena" Muntz, in 1953. The marriage was not a long one, as Muntz was well-known for his ability to only have more than one woman. Muntz went bankrupt in 1959 and in 1962 Joan failed to make cash registers ring for Warners, so she did the only thing she could do, sing professionally. Her single album, the confusingly titled The Most Fun I Had Laughing, In Fidelity Low Lights and Laughs (1962), released on Warner Bros. Records. The album did not do well, with reviews like "an album of sanitized Bessie Smith numbers and 'sophisticated' tunes that hotel nightclub bon vivants sang". She then met and married Jerry Gray, the famous bandleader and arranger, and the duo moved to Dallas, where he lead the Fairmont Hotel band into the 1970s before dying of a heart attack at the age of 61. Joan remained in Dallas until her passing on August 27, 1976.

Abbey Mausoleum
Restland Memorial Park
Dallas

COORDINATES

32° 55.567, -096° 44.369

Benjamin Watson Hardin (1796-1850)

    Benjamin Watson Hardin, early settler and political figure, the first son of Swan and Jerusha (Blackburn) Hardin, was born in Franklin County, Georgia, on March 25, 1796. By 1807 he was living in Maury County, Tennessee, with other family members and managing the family farm. Because of an affair between his brother's wife, Mrs. A. B. Hardin, and Isaac Newton Porter, of which Porter bragged about publicly, Benjamin accompanied his brothers to a meeting with Porter and William Williamson in Columbia, Tennessee, on October 1, 1825. During the ensuing confrontation Hardin's brothers Augustine and Benjamin Franklin Hardin fatally shot Porter and Williamson. After being indicted with his brothers, including William Hardin, in December 1825, Hardin fled to what is now Liberty County, Texas, in 1827 in order to avoid a possible conviction for murder and to join other family members who had similarly made themselves scarce in Tennessee. 

    On January 8, 1828, Hardin married Adelia Coleman in Liberty County; they had four children, two of whom lived beyond childhood. Hardin received a league of land in 1831 and served as sheriff of the Liberty District. He was elected Liberty county sheriff in 1839 and served until 1845. On December 2, 1844, he began his term as Liberty County representative in the Ninth Congress (1844-45) of the Republic of Texas. He was a prominent rancher and farmer in Liberty County and a founding member of the Liberty Masonic Lodge in 1849. He died on January 2, 1850, at his homestead and was buried in the Hardin family cemetery, on his original land grant north of Liberty. Hardin County and Hardin, Texas (Liberty County), were named in honor of the Hardin family. The Texas Centennial Commission erected a monument at Benjamin W. Hardin's grave in 1936. Source

Note: The family cemetery is private and kept locked, but it lies on the shoulder of FM 1011 and can be viewed in its entirety from outside the gate.


Hardin Family Cemetery
Liberty

COORDINATES

30° 06.076, -094° 45.971

Charles Walker "Tex" Harrison (1933-2014)

    Charles Harrison was born in Gary, Indiana on January 20, 1933, but Houston became his home when his parents, Alexander and Lullelia Walker Harrison, relocated to the historic Fifth Ward. He attended Phillis Wheatley High School and competed in varsity basketball until his graduation in 1950. He won an athletic scholarship and was recruited by North Carolina Central University, where he received the nickname "Tex" because he was 6'5" and everything is bigger in Texas. He was an exceptional basketball player, the first player from an African-American institution to capture College All-American honors, and still holds NCCU's second highest scoring record. During his senior year, the Harlem Globetrotters noticed him when they played opposite the College All-American team during the 1954 World Series of Basketball. When he graduated later that year, he was immediately drafted by the Globetrotters. 

    Tex was one of the team's quickest players, an awesome rebounder and a stellar exhibition dribbler, quickly becoming one of the "faces" of the team. His resume detailed a career in which many athletes fantasize: he drank tea with Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip; had private audiences with three Popes; enjoyed cocktails with Orson Welles and Marlon Brando; and while on tour in Moscow, he ate caviar with Nikita Khrushchev. During the Cold War, the Globetrotters received the Athletic Order of Lenin Medal in 1959, an event that solidified them as global ambassadors. He did everything from playing alongside the immortal Wilt Chamberlin to joining several Globetrotter teammates on the Harlem Globetrotters Popcorn Machine, a television variety series where the players sang, danced and performed comedy sketches. In 1972 Tex retired as an active player and became the team's coach and advisor for the next thirty-plus years.

    In 1964, Tex met and married his wife Tommye; during their forty-seven years together the couple would go on to have three daughters. To the very end of his days, he was honored and respected for his contributions to both sports and as a global goodwill ambassador. He was inducted into the North Carolina Central University Athletic Hall of Fame in 1984, and in 1996, he received his "Legends" Ring and had his number retired by the team. Source

Block D

Golden Gate Cemetery

Houston

COORDINATES 

29° 83.464, -095° 32.517

David Herbert McNerney (1931-2010)

    Medal of Honor recipient David H. McNerney was born to an Irish-Catholic family in Lowell, Massachusetts, on June 2, 1931. He was the fifth of five children of Edward and Helen McNerney. A combat veteran of World War I, Edward McNerney, having earned the Distinguished Service Cross, Silver Star, and two Purple Hearts, served as a role model for his children. David McNerney’s brother and sister served in the military during World War II, and another brother flew combat missions as a United States Navy pilot during the Vietnam War. The McNerney family moved to Houston in 1940. David McNerney graduated from Houston’s St. Thomas High School in 1949 and enlisted in the United States Navy. After McNerney completed his service, he returned to Texas in 1953. David McNerney was briefly enrolled at the University of Houston but enlisted in the United States Army after seeing a recruitment poster on campus in 1953.

    McNerney excelled as a combat infantry soldier during his military career. He volunteered for special warfare training in 1962. He served as one of the first American advisers sent to Vietnam in the early 1960s and did a second tour of duty in 1964. In late 1965 McNerney was assigned to Fort Lewis, Washington, to train draftees for combat in Vietnam. In 1966 Company A, First Battalion, Eighth Infantry Regiment, Fourth Infantry Division received much of their basic training and advanced infantry training from Drill Sergeant McNerney. McNerney talked tough and demanded respect from draftees as well as officers. “Let me tell you how things are in this company,” McNerney informed his men. “You do what I tell you to do and you do it when I tell you to do it, because you will die in Vietnam if you don’t.” Although an imposing figure, McNerney developed a bond with the soldiers during their training.

    At the end of the training in September, he announced that he would be going to Vietnam with them, and in early October 1966 McNerney and Company A arrived in South Vietnam. On March 21, 1967, David McNerney was serving as a first sergeant of Company A in a remote region near Polei Doc in Kon Tum Province in South Vietnam near the Cambodian border. Radio contact had been lost with a reconnaissance unit operating in the area, and McNerney’s company had been sent in to find them. The company, consisting of 108 soldiers, was surprised by a North Vietnamese Army (NVA) battalion and heavy machine gun fire at 7:30 A.M. on March 22. Moving quickly, McNerney aided the company commander in establishing a defense perimeter and a base of fire. McNerney then saw several NVA moving through the thick jungle and killed them at close range. He suffered a chest injury when an exploding grenade knocked him to the ground. Unhindered by his wound, McNerney then attacked and eliminated an enemy machine gun nest that had pinned down five of his men outside of the perimeter. Within a few minutes about forty Americans were wounded, and twenty-two others had been killed, including the company commander and the forward artillery observer; both were killed as a result of a direct hit from an enemy rocket. The North Vietnamese force also had surrounded the Americans and outnumbered them at least three to one. First Sergeant McNerney took control of the company and began to issue orders just as panic set in among some of the men. In a daring move, he called for artillery fire to within twenty meters from his position to curtail enemy assaults. On his own, McNerney “moved into a nearby clearing to designate the location to friendly aircraft.” Although exposed to enemy fire, he “remained exposed until he was certain the position was spotted and then climbed into a tree and tied the identification panel to its highest branches.” McNerney proceeded to move among his men and offered encouragement, readjusted their location, and looked after the wounded. As the enemy attacks declined, he sought a location where a helicopter could land and remove wounded. He then ventured away from the perimeter to secure explosive materials in abandoned rucksacks. Constantly on the move from hostile fire, McNerney used the devices to clear a landing zone for the medevac helicopters. Although wounded and declining medical aid, McNerney supervised the evacuation of the wounded and remained in the battle zone until relieved the following day.

    Many veterans of Company A attributed their survival to the heroics of David McNerney. President Lyndon Johnson presented the Medal of Honor to McNerney for his “outstanding heroism and leadership” that was ‘inspirational to his comrades” in a ceremony on the White House lawn on September 19, 1968. President Johnson, in a meeting in the Oval Office before the ceremony, told McNerney, “You’re a good Texan.” McNerney volunteered and was granted a fourth tour of duty in Vietnam. He retired from the military in 1969. During his distinguished military career, he also received five Bronze Stars and two Purple Hearts. McNerney settled near Houston in Crosby, Texas, after retiring from the army. From 1970 until 1995, he served as a U.S. Customs inspector in Houston. In Crosby, he remained active in the local American Legion and the Crosby High School Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (JROTC). McNerney married Parmelia “Charlotte” Moeckel in 1961; they had no children. She died in 2002. In his final years, McNerney battled lung cancer. On October 10, 2010, McNerney died at the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center in Houston. First Sgt. David H. McNerney was buried with full military honors at Houston National Cemetery. McNerney’s heroics that won him the Medal of Honor were detailed in a documentary Honor in the Valley of Tears that was released in May 2010. In Crosby, the American Legion Post was renamed the David H. McNerney Post 658. On March 22, 2013, the post office in Crosby, Texas, was renamed the Army First Sergeant David McNerney Post Office Building in a public ceremony. Source

CITATION

1st Sgt. McNerney distinguished himself when his unit was attacked by a North Vietnamese battalion near Polei Doc. Running through the hail of enemy fire to the area of heaviest contact, he was assisting in the development of a defensive perimeter when he encountered several enemy at close range. He killed the enemy but was painfully injured when blown from his feet by a grenade. In spite of this injury, he assaulted and destroyed an enemy machine gun position that had pinned down 5 of his comrades beyond the defensive line. Upon learning his commander and artillery forward observer had been killed, he assumed command of the company. He adjusted artillery fire to within 20 meters of the position in a daring measure to repulse enemy assaults. When the smoke grenades used to mark the position were gone, he moved into a nearby clearing to designate the location to friendly aircraft. In spite of enemy fire he remained exposed until he was certain the position was spotted and then climbed into a tree and tied the identification panel to its highest branches. Then he moved among his men readjusting their position, encouraging the defenders and checking the wounded. As the hostile assaults slackened, he began clearing a helicopter landing site to evacuate the wounded. When explosives were needed to remove large trees, he crawled outside the relative safety of his perimeter to collect demolition material from abandoned rucksacks. Moving through a fusillade of fire he returned with the explosives that were vital to the clearing of the landing zone. Disregarding the pain of his injury and refusing medical evacuation 1st Sgt. McNerney remained with his unit until the next day when the new commander arrived. First Sgt. McNerney's outstanding heroism and leadership were inspirational to his comrades. His actions were in keeping with the highest traditions of the U.S. Army and reflect great credit upon himself and the Armed Forces of his country.

Section Ha
Houston National Cemetery
Houston

COORDINATES

29° 55.860, -095° 27.064