Joseph Franklin Wilson (1901-1968)

    J. Frank Wilson, U. S. Congressman, was born in Corsicana, Navarro County, Texas, March 18, 1901. In 1913, he moved with his family to the Texas Panhandle community of Memphis, Texas in Hall County. From September 1917 to June 1918, he was enrolled at Peacock Military College in San Antonio; from September 1918 to June 1919, Wilson attended the Tennessee Military Institute; and in 1923, Wilson graduated from Baylor Law School in Waco, Texas and was admitted to the bar the same year. He then moved to Dallas and began his law practice. He married Ruby Lee Hopkins in 1926. The couple later had a son, Joseph Franklin, and a daughter, Marion Sue. He began his political career as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1936 and later as chairman of the Dallas County Democratic Executive Committee (1942-1945). In the 1946 Texas Congressional election, Wilson defeated primary opponent Sarah T. Hughes by 14,000 votes, then defeated Republican L.W. Stayart in the 1946 general election. He was re-elected in 1948, 1950 and 1952, but was not a candidate for re-nomination in 1954. He served as district judge of the criminal district court of Texas in 1943 and 1944, being known as Judge J. Frank Wilson. He was appointed judge of Criminal District Court No. 1, Dallas, Texas, in 1955, in which capacity he served until September 1968. During the Jack Ruby trial in Dallas, Wilson was granted a vacation so that his larger courtroom could accommodate Judge Joe B. Brown for the Ruby Trial. Wilson interrupted his vacation to fill in for the ailing Judge Brown.  He retired due to illness and died in Dallas, Texas on October 13, 1968.

Monument Garden
Sparkman-Hillcrest Memorial Park Cemetery
Dallas

COORDINATES

32° 52.017, -096° 46.734

William Jarvis Cannan (1808-1881)

    William Jarvis Cannan, soldier at the battle of San Jacinto, was born in Edgefield, South Carolina, in 1808 and moved to Texas in 1835. He was in the Texas army from March 1 to November 1, 1836, and took part at San Jacinto as a private in Company H, First Regiment of Texas Volunteers, under Robert Stevenson. For his service Cannan was granted a bounty warrant for 640 acres in Brazoria County. In 1837 he married Matilda Jane Lonis. They had four sons and a daughter. After his wife's death at Brazoria in 1850, Cannan married Parmelia A. Wilcox; they became the parents of three sons and a daughter. Throughout the Civil War and Reconstruction era, the Cannan family figured prominently in the Texas cotton trade. Cannan died in September 1881 and was buried in the Oyster Creek Cemetery four miles from Velasco. Source

Hudgins Cemetery
Oyster Creek

COORDINATES

29° 00.477, -095° 18.986

Joffre James "Jeff" Cross (1918-1997)

    Infielder Jeff Cross signed as an amateur free agent with the St. Louis Cardinals before the 1938 season and spent five years in the minor leagues before getting his first look at major league pitching with the Cardinals on September 27, 1942. He appeared in one game for the team, managed one hit in four tries, and spent the next three years (1943-1945) with the United States Navy during World War II. Jeff returned to the St. Louis Cardinals after the war and was used mainly as a back-up infielder in 1946 and 1947 before being purchased by the Chicago Cubs on May 2, 1948. Jeff appeared in 18 games for the Cubs and was sent to the Texas League Shreveport Sports where he appeared in 81 outings and called it a career at the seasons end. 

    Cross's major league stats showed he appeared in 119 games and hit at a .162 clip. He did better in the minors hitting at a .250 number while appearing in 645 games. Jeff's best batting average came in 1939 when he hit .288 with four home runs for the Mobile Shippers of the class B Southeastern League. Jeff played with five different clubs during his six seasons in the minors. After baseball Cross worked forty years in the insurance business in Houston, retiring in 1988. Cross passed away on July 23, 1997 in Huntsville, TX. Source

Chapel of the Oaks Mausoleum
Memorial Oaks Cemetery
Houston

COORDINATES

29° 78.340, -095° 61.414

William Mitchell Logan (1802-1839)

    William Logan, participant in the battle of San Jacinto, was born in Williamson County, Tennessee, on September 15, 1802, the son of William Mitchell and Catherine (Henderson) Logan. Catherine Logan was the aunt of James Pinckney Henderson, governor of Texas. Logan arrived in Texas in November 1831 and settled near Liberty. Shortly afterward, he became involved in a dispute with John Davis Bradburn, the military commander at Fort Anahuac. Bradburn was harboring three runaway slaves from Louisiana. Logan, acting as a slave catcher, claimed the three as runaways, but Bradburn refused to relinquish them without proof of ownership and the authority of the governor of Louisiana. However, when Logan returned with the documents, Bradburn again refused to hand the three over on the grounds that they had requested the protection of the Mexican government and had joined the Mexican army. Bradburn's actions caused both resentment and alarm among Anglo-Texans and has frequently been cited in later years as one of the immediate causes of the Texas revolution. In 1835 Logan enlisted in Andrew Briscoe's company of Liberty volunteers and served as lieutenant during the siege of Bexar. In March 1836 at Liberty he was elected captain of the Third Infantry, Second Regiment, of the Texas volunteers who fought at San Jacinto. After the revolution he became the first sheriff of Liberty County and served as tax collector and muster officer. He died of yellow fever on November 22, 1839, while in Houston on business; he was buried there. A historical marker in his honor was placed on the southeast corner of the Liberty County Courthouse in Liberty.

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. William Logan's is one of them.

Founders Memorial Park
Houston

COORDINATES

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