Born Heinrich Thurwachter in France, he became Henry Tierwester after an immigrations clerk misspelled his name and he decided to keep it. He came to Texas from Ohio in 1828 and applied for land in Austin's Second Colony, which he received in October, 1832. His grant was located in present-day Harris County, and he settled in a small town nearby named Frost Town. On March 1, 1836, he enlisted in the Texas Army as a private in Captain William S. Fisher's Company of Velasco Blues until June 7. During the battle of San Jacinto, he was shot through a powder horn that he had slung around his neck. Fortunately, the bullet had been spent before it penetrated fully and he was unharmed. He married Anne White on April 12, 1838, but the marriage ended in divorce in 1842; he later married Phillipine Pugh, and remained so until his death in 1859. His grave in Houston's City Cemetery was once marked and fenced, but is now lost.
Note: Unmarked. Founders Memorial Park, originally founded in 1836 as
Houston's first city cemetery, was rapidly filled due to a yellow fever
epidemic and closed to further burials around 1840. The cemetery became
neglected over a period of time, often vandalized and was heavily
damaged by the 1900 hurricane. In 1936, despite a massive clean up
effort, a century of neglect had taken its toll. The vast majority of
grave markers were either destroyed or missing and poor record keeping
prevented locating individual graves. Several cenotaphs were placed in
random areas throughout the park in honor of the more high-profile
citizens buried there, but a great number of graves go unmarked to this
day. Henry Tierwester's is one of them.
Founders Memorial Park
Houston
COORDINATES
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