John Montgomery (1796-1863)

    John Montgomery, San Jacinto veteran, was born in 1796, Baker's Creek, Blount, Tennessee, the son of William and Mary Polly (James) Montgomery and brother of fellow San Jacinto soldier Andrew Jackson Montgomery. He first arrived in Texas in 1831, after traveling through Alabama, Mississippi and Arkansas and settled in what is now Montgomery County. He entered the Texas army on March 1, 1836, as a soldier in Captain James Gillaspie's Company, fought at San Jacinto on April 21 and left the service on May 13, 1836. On October 12, 1838, while living in Walker County, he married Elizabeth Julia Robinson and the couple had three children before she died in 1845, possibly from complications after having their last child. He remarried in 1848 to Sarah Allen in Collin County, and the two had five children. John continued his habit of moving often throughout his life, living in Walker County in 1850 and Trinity County in 1861, until finally settling in Grimes County, where he died in 1863. He was buried next to his brother Andrew in Stoneham Cemetery.


Stoneham Cemetery
Stoneham

COORDINATES

30° 21.468, -095° 55.373

Thomas Jones Hardeman (1788-1854)

    Thomas Hardeman, soldier, pioneer Texas settler, judge, and politician, child of Thomas and Mary (Perkins) Hardeman, was born at Hardeman's Stockade near Nashville, Tennessee, on January 31, 1788. His father represented back-country North Carolina at the convention that ratified the United States Constitution and with his close friend Andrew Jackson was a delegate at the Tennessee State Constitutional Convention. Hardeman moved with his family to Williamson County, Tennessee, in 1803. In 1814 he married Mary Ophelia Polk, the aunt of James K. Polk. Later that year, as a captain, Hardeman fought under General Jackson in the closing campaign of the War of 1812 at New Orleans. He was captured by the British and wounded in the head by a sabre for refusing to divulge military secrets to the enemy. In 1818 applying his legal training, he helped to settle and organize Hardeman County, Tennessee. His wife died there in 1835. In the same year, accompanied by his brothers Blackstone and Bailey Hardeman, he moved to Texas, where he and his four sons became involved in the move for Texas independence. Hardeman, a devout Episcopalian and an active Mason, served in the Congress of the Republic of Texas from Matagorda County in 1837-39 and spent two terms in the state legislature from Bastrop and Travis counties, from 1847 to 1851. In the 1840s he served both as associate and chief justice of Bastrop County. At his suggestion the capital of Texas was named Austin. Hardeman's second wife was a widow, Eliza DeWitt Hamilton, daughter of empresario Green DeWitt. Hardeman had five children by his first wife and three by the second. The four sons of his first marriage, Thomas Monroe Hardeman, William Polk Hardeman, Owen Bailey Hardeman, and Leonidas Polk Hardeman, were all venturesome types. They participated in scores of military campaigns of the Texas Revolution, the Mexican War, Indian wars, and the Civil War. Hardeman died on January 15, 1854, and was buried in Bastrop County. In 1937 his remains were removed to the State Cemetery in Austin. Hardeman County, Texas, was named partly in his honor. Source

Monument Hill
Texas State Cemetery
Austin

COORDINATES

30° 15.919, -097° 43.640