George Krause Kitchen (1844-1922)

    George K. Kitchen, Medal of Honor recipient, was born in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, on October 5, 1844, son of George Kitchen. Both of his parents were born in England. Kitchen married a woman named Annie, who died in 1915, and later a second wife named Emma. Sgt. George K. Kitchen was in Texas with Company H, Sixth United States Cavalry, on the upper Washita River on September 9, 1874, with Lyman's wagon train, attempting to reach Gen. Nelson A. Miles's forces on the Washita River, when the company was attacked by a large force of Indians. They engaged the enemy from September 9 to 14 under very difficult conditions. Kitchen was awarded the Medal of Honor for "gallantry in action." After leaving the army he lived in San Antonio for seventeen years and worked in the United States Post Office there. He died at Kelly Field No. 2 on November 22, 1922, and is buried in St. Mary's Cemetery. Source

CITATION
Gallantry in action.

Lot 67
St. Mary's Cemetery
San Antonio

COORDINATES

29° 25.016, -098° 27.832

Sammie Lee Tucker (1920-1994)

    Sammie Tucker was a member of The Tucker Sisters, a singing trio that received national acclaim during the late thirties, forties, and early fifties. They began their professional career in 1936 at the Texas State Fair and became one of many successful sister trios during World War II, headlining at major nightclubs from New York to Hollywood, California, and appearing regularly on live CBS radio broadcasts through the 1940s and 1950s. The group also enjoyed popularity as recording artists and performed with the USO during WWII. The trio disbanded in the early 1950s when Ernestine and Betty Jane married and raised families respectively. Sammie continued as a solo act for some time afterward, often performing with MGM's Cavalcade of Stars troupe. She passed away in Chicago on June 18, 1994 and buried in her hometown of Dallas.


Masonic Section
Restland Memorial Park
Dallas

COORDINATES

32° 55.494, -096° 44.644

Edward Burleson (1798-1851)

    Edward Burleson, soldier and statesman, son of Capt. James and Elizabeth (Shipman) Burleson, was born at Buncombe County, North Carolina, on December 15, 1798. He served as a private in the War of 1812 in his father's company, part of Perkin's Regiment, Alabama. He married Sarah Griffin Owen on April 25, 1816, in Madison County, Missouri Territory; they had nine children. On October 20, 1817, Burleson was appointed a captain of militia in Howard County, Missouri; he was commissioned colonel on June 13, 1821, in Saline County, and was colonel of militia from 1823 to 1830 in Hardeman County, Tennessee. He arrived in Texas on May 1, 1830, and applied for land in March 1831; title was issued on April 4, 1831. On August 11, 1832, he was a member of the ayuntamiento at San Felipe de Austin. On December 7, 1832, he was elected lieutenant colonel of the militia of Austin Municipality. In 1833 he was elected a delegate to the Second Convention in Mina. From 1830 to 1842 he defended settlers in numerous engagements with hostile Indians. On May 17, 1835, in Bastrop he was elected to the committee of safety and was therefore unable to attend the Consultation of 1835, although he had been elected a delegate. On October 10, 1835, in Gonzales he was elected lieutenant colonel of the infantry in Gen. Stephen F. Austin's army. On November 24, 1835, Burleson became general of the volunteer army and replaced Austin. 

    On November 26, 1835, he fought in the Grass Fight during the siege of Bexar. His father was active in this battle, which was won by the Texans. On December 1, 1835, Burleson was commissioned commander in chief of the volunteer army by the provisional government. On December 6 he entered Bexar and, with Benjamin R. Milam, wrote a report to the provisional government. On December 14, 1835, he reported on the success at Bexar to the provisional governor, Henry Smith. The volunteer army disbanded on December 20, 1835, and Burleson raised a company and rode to Gonzales in February 1836. By March 10, in Gonzales, he was officially elected colonel of the infantry, First Regiment. On April 21, 1836, at the battle of San Jacinto, he commanded the First Regiment, which was placed opposite Mexican breastworks and was the first to charge them. Burleson accepted the sword and surrender of Gen. Juan N. Almonte. From July 12 to December 1836 he was colonel of the frontier rangers. 

    In 1837 he surveyed and laid out roads to Bastrop, La Grange, and other Central Texas places. On June 12, 1837, he became brigadier general of the militia established by the First Congress of the Republic of Texas. As a representative of the Second Congress from September 26, 1837, to May 1838, Burleson served on the Committee on Post Offices and Post Roads, the Committee on Military Affairs, and the Committee of Indian Affairs, of which he was chairman. In 1838 he was colonel of the First Regiment of Infantry in the new regular army and on April 4, 1838, defeated Mexican insurrectionists under Vicente Córdova. In the spring of that year Burleson laid out the town of Waterloo, the original settlement of the city of Austin. He was elected to the Senate of the Third Congress but resigned on January 19, 1839, at President Mirabeau B. Lamar's request, to take command of the Frontier Regiment. On May 22, 1839, Burleson intercepted a Córdova agent with proof that Mexico had made allies of Cherokees and other Indians. He defeated the Cherokees under Chief Bowl in July 1839. 

    On October 17, 1839, Burleson was in command of the ceremonies establishing Austin as the capital of the Republic of Texas. He defeated the Cherokees, three miles below the mouth of the San Saba River, on Christmas Day, 1839, killing Chief Bowl's son John and another chief known as the Egg. Burleson sent Chief Bowl's "hat" to Sam Houston, who was enraged. On August 12, 1840, Burleson defeated the Comanches in the battle of Plum Creek. In 1841 he was elected vice president of the republic. In the spring of 1842, when the Mexican army under Rafael Vásquez invaded Texas, Burleson met with volunteers at San Antonio, where they elected him to command. Houston sent Alexander Somervell to take over, and Burleson handed the command to him. Burleson then made his famous speech before the Alamo: "though Thermopylae had her messenger of defeat, the Alamo had none".

    In the fall of 1842 Mexican general Adrián Woll invaded Texas. Burleson raised troops for defense and again yielded the command to General Somervell, sent by Houston. In 1844 Burleson made an unsuccessful bid for the presidency against Anson Jones. In December 1845 he was elected senator from the Fifteenth District to the First Legislature of the state of Texas. He was unanimously elected president pro tem. During the Mexican War Burleson and Governor James P. Henderson went to Monterrey, Nuevo León; Burleson was appointed senior aide-de-camp, held the rank of major, and served as a spy during the siege of Monterrey and at Buena Vista. In March 1851 Burleson, Eli T. Merriman, and William Lindsey surveyed and laid out the town of San Marcos. In 1848 Burleson introduced a resolution to establish Hays County and donated the land for the courthouse. He chaired the Committee on Military Affairs, which awarded a $1,250,000 grant to Texas for Indian depredations. Burleson died of pneumonia on December 26, 1851, in Austin, while serving as senator from the Twenty-first District. He was still president pro tem. He was given a Masonic burial at the site of the future State Cemetery, the land for which was purchased by the state of Texas in his honor in 1854. Burleson was a Methodist. Source

Monument Hill
Texas State Cemetery
Austin

COORDINATES

30° 15.924, -097° 43.639

Asa Hoxie Willie (1829-1899)

    Asa Hoxie Willie, jurist and soldier, was born in Washington, Wilkes County, Georgia, on October 11, 1829, the son of James and Caroline E. (Hoxie) Willie. He attended private schools near Washington and taught at Powelton, Georgia, for a time before he moved to Texas in February 1846 at the age of sixteen. He lived for a while in Independence with his maternal uncle, Asa Hoxey, but in 1847 he began the study of law at Brenham in the office of his older brother, James Willie. He was admitted to the bar in 1849, and from 1852 until 1854 he was district attorney for the Third Judicial District. In 1857 James Willie became attorney general and was commissioned to index the state's criminal codes. Asa Hoxie Willie moved to Austin to assist him and for a year took on the greater part of the duties of the attorney general. In 1858 Asa Willie moved to Marshall where he established a partnership with Alexander Pope. He married Bettie Johnson of Bolivar, Tennessee, on October 20, 1859, in Marshall. The couple had ten children, five of whom lived to maturity. 

    With the outbreak of the Civil War Willie joined the Confederate army and was commissioned a major in the Seventh Texas Infantry on the staff of Col. John Gregg. He was captured with the rest of his command at Fort Donelson in February 1862 and was confined for nine months at Camp Douglas, Illinois. The regiment was exchanged in time to take part in the battle of Chickamauga, Tennessee, in September 1863 and the remainder of the battles of the Army of Tennessee. After the war Willie returned to Brenham, where he was elected associate justice of the Texas Supreme Court but was removed from office the following year by the military government of Gen. Charles Griffin as an "impediment to Reconstruction." In 1866 Willie moved to Galveston, where in 1871 he formed a legal partnership with Charles Cleveland. In 1873 he was elected to the House of Representatives of the Forty-third United States Congress, serving until 1875. Willie chose not to run for reelection and returned to Galveston, where he was elected city attorney in 1875 and 1876. In 1882 he was elected chief justice of the Texas Supreme Court by the largest majority of any candidate in state history and served until his retirement on March 3, 1888. Willie died of heart failure in Galveston on March 16, 1899. Source 

Trinity Episcopal Church Cemetery
Galveston

COORDINATES

29° 17.597, -094° 48.697