George Washington Hockley (1802-1854)

    George Washington Hockley, chief of staff of the Texas army during the Texas Revolution, was born in Philadelphia in 1802. As a young man he moved to Washington, D.C., where he worked as a clerk in the commissary division of the War Department and met Sam Houston, who influenced him to move to Tennessee when Houston became governor there in 1828. Hockley followed Houston to Texas in 1835 and was made chief of staff upon Houston's election as commander-in-chief of the Texas army. At the battle of San Jacinto Hockley was in command of the artillery and in charge of the Twin Sisters. Later he was one of those who accompanied Antonio López de Santa Anna and Juan N. Almonte to Washington, D.C. The friendship between Hockley and Houston continued after the revolution. Houston appointed him colonel of ordnance on December 22, 1836, and secretary of war on November 13, 1838, and again on December 23, 1841. Houston also sent Hockley with Samuel M. Williams in 1843 to arrange an armistice with Mexico. Hockley made his home in Galveston. He died in Corpus Christi on June 6, 1854, while visiting Henry L. Kinney, and was buried in the Old Bayview Cemetery at Corpus Christi, where in 1936 the state erected a monument at his grave. Source

Old Bayview Cemetery
Corpus Christi

COORDINATES

27° 48.076, -097° 23.979

Walter Maxwell "Max" West (1904-1971)

    Max West was born July 14, 1904 in Sunset, Texas to Joseph and Bettie Davis West , the last of four children. Scant information can be found about him prior to his short baseball career, other than he attended the University of North Texas, was married to Mildred Brock and had two girls, Martha Glynn and Myrna G. He debuted in the Major Leagues as an outfielder for the Brooklyn Robins (the precursor to the Dodgers) on September 18, 1928. He had a rough time in his first year (a meager .276 batting average didn't help), and after the team finished the 1928-1929 season in sixth place, the Robins let West go. His final game as a professional baseball player was on October 5, 1929. The Wests moved to Houston shortly afterward, where he died on April 25, 1971.

Section 3A
Earthman Resthaven Cemetery
Houston

COORDINATES

29° 57.612, -095° 25.036

John Cheevers (?-1846)

    John Cheevers came to Texas in 1829 and volunteered for the army at Lynchburg on March 8, 1836, for a three month period. He was assigned to Captain Thomas H. McIntire's Company and with them fought at the battle of San Jacinto on April 21. After the battle, he was transferred to Captain Peter B. Dexter's Company, with whom he served out his remaining enlistment. Some time after his discharge on June 2, 1836 at La Bahia, he moved to Houston. He died there ten years later and was buried in the City Cemetery.

Note: This is a cenotaph. 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. 

Founders Memorial ParkHouston
COORDINATES29° 45.436, -095° 22.750

Preston Earnest Smith (1912-2003)

    Preston Smith, businessman, legislator, and the fortieth governor of Texas, was born on March 8, 1912, in Williamson County. He was the son of Charles Kirby Smith and Effie Smith. One of thirteen children, he grew up in Williamson County until he was twelve, when his family moved to Lamesa in Dawson County, where he graduated from Lamesa High School in 1930. Smith attended and was graduated from Texas Technological College (now Texas Tech University) with a bachelor of business arts degree in 1934. While in one of his college classes, he was seated alphabetically next to Ima Smith (no relation). Preston Smith and Ima Smith married in 1935. They had two children.  Smith became active in the movie theater business in Lubbock as well as real estate enterprises and developed the political name recognition he needed to win election in 1944 to the Texas House of Representatives. A conservative Democrat, Smith served three terms in the House and in 1956 was elected to the Texas Senate. 

    In 1962, the same year that John B. Connally was elected governor, Smith was elected lieutenant governor. In 1968, when Connally chose not to seek reelection, Smith sought and won the Democratic nomination for the governorship amongst a crowded field of candidates. Smith was known for his polka dot neckties, which he claimed he began wearing in 1962 after Gov. Price Daniel urged Smith to do something to help make himself stand out. During the 1968 gubernatorial campaign, Smith's campaign sent letters to approximately 47,000 Texas families named Smith and asked, "Don't you think it is about time one of us was governor?" Known for his relentless work ethic and corny sense of humor, Smith was the first lieutenant governor to be directly elected to the governorship and the first West Texan to be elected. He was inaugurated as governor on January 16, 1969, and was re-elected to a second term in 1970. During his first term, Smith focused on education issues, including a ten-year pay raise program for teachers. His administration also submitted a state water plan, which failed to pass. Smith's governorship in his second term was tainted by the Sharpstown stock-fraud scandal, which initially focused on charges that state officials profited from certain business deals in exchange for the passage of legislation favored by Houston developer Frank Sharp. Though Smith was never charged with a crime, he was "labeled an unindicted co-conspirator," and the scandal grew to such proportions that Texas voters were in an anti-incumbent mood. 

    Smith ran and lost in the 1972 Democratic primary to Dolph Briscoe, Jr. of Uvalde, who would go on to win the general election and be sworn in as Smith's successor in January, 1973. Smith unsuccessfully attempted a comeback in 1978 and retired from politics. After his political career ended, Smith retired to Lubbock. He remained active in local business and civic affairs and worked as a fundraiser for Texas Tech University. His papers are in the Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library at the university library. (As governor he had signed into law the legislation that established the Texas Tech University School of Medicine.) In 1981 Gov. William Clements appointed him to the Texas College and University Coordinating Board, where he served as chairman until 1985. Texas Tech University honored Smith by erecting a statue of him in the Administration Building courtyard on the campus. Smith died from pneumonia at Texas Tech University Medical Center in Lubbock on October 18, 2003, at the age of ninety-one. His wife Ima had died in 1998. He was survived by a son, a daughter, and their respective families. Smith was buried in the Texas State Cemetery in Austin. The city of Lubbock honored Smith by renaming its airport the Preston Smith International Airport in 2004. Source

Republic Hill
Texas State Cemetery
Austin

COORDINATES

30° 15.932, -097° 43.635