William Jones Elliott Heard (1801-1874)

    William J. E. Heard, soldier and planter, was born near Knoxville, Tennessee, on August 16, 1801, the son of Stephen Rhodes and Jemima (Menifee) Heard. At an early age Heard was taken by his family to Alabama. On October 30, 1830, he and his twenty-one-year-old wife, America (Morton), and their two daughters joined his family and an "Alabama colony" that had arrived in Texana, Texas, in December 1830. Heard was granted a league and a labor six miles from Texana in Stephen F. Austin's colony. In 1832 he was elected second lieutenant of Capt. Joseph K. Looney's volunteer company. In 1835 he moved to Egypt in Colorado (now Wharton) County and established himself as a sugar and cotton planter. On February 1, 1836, with the outbreak of the Texas Revolution, Heard was elected first lieutenant of Capt. Thomas J. Rabb's company of volunteers, but when the army was reorganized on April 2 he was elected captain of what became Company F of Col. Edward Burleson's First Regiment, Texas Volunteers. 

    At the battle of San Jacinto Heard's company was in the middle of the Texan line opposite the Mexican artillery and overran and captured the enemy cannons. Heard was discharged at Victoria on May 13, 1836. On September 28, 1838, he was elected chief justice of Colorado County, where in 1840 he owned 1,200 acres of land, seventeen slaves, forty-five cattle, a workhorse, and a clock. In that year he was elected chief justice of Wharton County and accompanied Col. John H. Moore's expedition against the Indians of the upper Colorado River. Heard was elected justice of the peace of Beat One of the judicial Ward County on February 24, 1841. 

    When Mexican general Adrián Woll invaded Texas in 1842, Heard raised a company of twenty volunteers and was assigned to the command of the defense of Victoria. He arrived there on the evening of March 6 to find "the citizens badly armed and in great confusion." Upon receiving reports that a force of 1,100 of the enemy were marching toward Victoria from Refugio and that 3,000 more were near San Antonio, with an additional 14,000 reinforcements still beyond the Rio Grande, he wrote to the editor of the Telegraph and Texas Register, "I have no doubt, from all I can gather that there is an invasion at hand," and resolved to fall back beyond the Lavaca River the following day. "I cannot risk myself and men here longer than tomorrow evening without help," he wrote. After Woll's withdrawal, however, Heard and his men returned to their homes. By 1850 Heard reported real-estate holdings worth $16,888. His wife died on June 18, 1855; they had two daughters and two sons. Heard later married a widow named Ester Glass. In 1866 he moved to what was said to have been a model plantation at Chappell Hill, where he died on August 8, 1874. He was a Methodist and a member of the Texas Veterans Association. Source

Masonic Cemetery
Chappell Hill

COORDINATES

30° 09.238, -096° 15.642

Martin Parmer (1778-1850)

    Martin Parmer, legislator, judge, and signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence, was born in Charlotte County, Virginia, on June 4, 1778. After first moving to Kentucky, in 1798 Parmer settled in Dickson County, Tennessee, where he became superintendent of the Montgomery Bell iron works. About 1816 he moved to Missouri, where in 1820 he was elected to a two-year term in the Missouri General Assembly (1820-21). While serving in this office Parmer was named as a delegate to the Missouri Constitutional Convention of 1821. Three years later he represented Clay County for a term in the Missouri State Senate (1824-25). Partly as a result of his military service in the War of 1812, he was chosen colonel of the Missouri militia, where, after 1821, he led four military companies against the Indians. In 1825 Parmer went briefly to Arkansas and then to Texas, where he settled near Mound Prairie (now in Cherokee County). The next year he joined Haden Edwards and fought for Benjamin Edwards in the Fredonian Rebellion.

    On November 25, 1826, Parmer presided over the court-martial that tried and convicted Samuel Norris, the alcalde of Nacogdoches, and his attorney, José Antonio Sepulveda. When the rebellion collapsed in defeat, Parmer fled first to Gonzales and then later to Louisiana. He attempted to return to Texas in 1831 but was expelled by Mexican authorities. After being pardoned in 1835 he returned to East Texas in time to be elected as a delegate from Tenaha (now Shelby County) to the Consultation of 1835. The same year he was elected to the General Council. The following year San Augustine County selected Parmer as one of its delegates to the Constitutional Convention of 1836. At Washington-on-the-Brazos he signed the Texas Declaration of Independence and was assigned to the committee to draft the new constitution. In 1839 President Mirabeau B. Lamar appointed Parmer chief justice of Jasper County. He held this post for less than a year. Parmer married Sarah Hardwick about 1798 in Kentucky. They had ten children. Sarah Parmer died in Texas in 1826. In later years her ten children spelled their surname "Palmer." About 1827 Parmer married Margaret Griffin Neal; they had one daughter. About 1830 Parmer married Louisa Lout, who had at least six children by a previous marriage. They had one son. Finally, about 1839 Parmer married Zina Kelley; they had five children. Parmer died on March 2, 1850, in Jasper County and was buried twelve miles southeast of Jasper on the A. C. Parmer survey. Later his body was moved to the State Cemetery in Austin. Parmer County, organized on August 21, 1876, was named in his honor. Source

Republic Hill
Texas State Cemetery
Austin

COORDINATES

30° 15.971, -097° 43.643

Albert Sidney Johnston (1803-1862)

    Albert Sidney Johnston, Confederate general, son of John and Abigail (Harris) Johnston, was born at Washington, Kentucky, on February 2, 1803. He attended Transylvania University before he entered the United States Military Academy at West Point, from which he graduated in June 1826. He served at Sackett's Harbor, New York, in 1826, with the Sixth Infantry at Jefferson Barracks, Missouri, in 1827, and as regimental adjutant in the Black Hawk War. On January 20, 1829, he married Henrietta Preston. Because of his wife's illness, he resigned his commission on April 22, 1834, and farmed near St. Louis in 1835. She died on August 12, 1835. In 1836 Johnston moved to Texas and enlisted as a private in the Texas Army. 

    On August 5, 1836, he was appointed adjutant general by Thomas Jefferson Rusk and on January 31, 1837, he became senior brigadier general in command of the army to replace Felix Huston. A duel with Huston resulted; Johnston was wounded and could not immediately take the command. On December 22, 1838, he was appointed secretary of war for the Republic of Texas by President Mirabeau B. Lamar, and in December 1839 he led an expedition against the Cherokee Indians in East Texas. On March 1, 1840, Johnston returned to Kentucky, where, on October 3, 1843, he married Eliza Griffin, a cousin of his first wife. They returned to Texas to settle at China Grove Plantation in Brazoria County.

    During the Mexican War he was colonel of the First Texas Rifle Volunteers and served with W. O. Butler as inspector general at Monterrey, Mexico. On December 2, 1849, Johnston became paymaster in the United States Army and was assigned to the Texas frontier. He went with William S. Harney to the Great Plains in 1855, and on April 2, 1856, he was appointed colonel of the Second Cavalry. In 1858 Johnston received command of a Utah expedition to escort a new territorial governor and three judges to Salt Lake City and to establish a military presence, due to Mormon resistance of federal authority. He set up Camp Scott near the ruins of Fort Bridger in the fall of 1858, and later selected a site southwest of Salt Lake City for a permanent camp-Camp Floyd which was dedicated in November of 1859. Johnston remained in charge of Camp Floyd until 1860 when he was sent to the Pacific Department and stationed at San Francisco. At the beginning of the Civil War in 1861, he resigned his commission in the United States Army, refused the federal government's offer of a command, and returned overland to Texas.

    In Austin 1861 Jefferson Davis appointed Johnston a general in the Confederate Army and in September assigned him command of the Western Department. Johnston issued a call for men and formed and drilled an army, but it lacked men and organization, had a huge area to defend, and could not control the rivers that were vital to military success in the region. In February 1862, following Federal victories on the Cumberland and Tennessee rivers, he moved his line of defense to the vicinity of Nashville, Tennessee, and later to Corinth, Mississippi. On April 6, 1862, he was killed while leading his forces at the battle of Shiloh. He was temporarily buried at New Orleans. By special appropriation, the Texas Legislature, in January 1867, had his remains transferred to Austin for burial in the State Cemetery. In 1905 a stone monument executed by noted sculptor Elisabet Ney was erected at the site. Source

Confederate Field

Texas State Cemetery

Austin

COORDINATES

30° 15.913, -097° 43.597

John Edward Lewis (1808-1892)

    John Edward Lewis, Republic of Texas Veteran, was born on October 3, 1808, to Joseph and Mary Lewis, one of three children. Lewis arrived in Texas in March 1834, where he settled in Stephen F. Austin's fourth colony, present-day Fayette County. At some point, Lewis returned to New York, because he married his wife, Anna Scott, of Albany. During Texas' fight for independence, Lewis fought with Captain William J.E. Heard's Company of Citizen Soldiers, where he participated in the Battle of San Jacinto. According to his service record, Lewis served in the army from February 28 to May 24, 1836. After the war, Lewis received 320 acres of land for his service, which he later sold. He received another 640 acres for taking part in the Battle of San Jacinto. In 1883, the Lewis family moved from Fayette County to Austin, where John, a member of the Texas Veterans Association, died on April 1, 1892. Anna died at age 84 on May 24, 1896. Together, John and Anna had 13 children: William, John, James, Jacob, Alfred, Lettie, Phebe, Emily, Mary, Annie, Nellie, Jesse, and Betty. After their deaths, Emily had her parents' remains moved to the Texas State Cemetery, where the State of Texas erected a monument over their grave.

Republic Hill
Texas State Cemetery
Austin

COORDINATES

30° 15.912, -097° 43.632

James Edward "Pete" Runnels (1928-1991)

    Born January 28, 1928 in Lufkin, Texas, the 6 ft, 170 lb Runnels batted left-handed and threw right-handed. A master at handling the bat, he was a notorious singles hitter who had one of the best eyes in the game, compiling an outstanding 1.35 walk-to-strikeout ratio. Altogether, he batted over .300 six times, once with the Senators, five with the Red Sox. Despite winning the batting title in 1960, he drove in just 35 runs, a record low for a batting title winner. Solid and versatile with the glove, Runnels started as a shortstop with the Senators, but ultimately played 644 games at first base, 642 at second, 463 at shortstop, and 49 at third. Twice he led the American League in fielding percentage, at second base in 1960, and at first base in 1961. He was not a good base stealer: in 1952 he set the record for most attempted steals with no successes, at 10. In his career he stole 37 bases and was caught 51 times.

 
    In five seasons with Boston, Runnels never hit less than .314, winning two batting crowns in 1960 and 1962, and just missed the 1958 American League Batting Crown by six points to his teammate Ted Williams on the final day of the 1958 season. On August 30, 1960, in a double-header against the Tigers, Runnels hit 6-for-7 in the first game and 3-for-4 in the second, tying a Major League record for hits in a double-header. In 1962, Runnels played in his third All-Star Game for the American League and hit a home run off the Philadelphia Phillies' Art Mahaffey. He went on to win the American League batting title that year. After the season, however, Runnels was traded to the Houston Colt .45s (forerunners of the Astros) in exchange for outfielder Román Mejías. Runnels was released by Houston early in the 1964 season.

    He coached for the Red Sox in 1965-1966, serving as an interim manager for the last 16 games of the 1966 season. Under Runnels, the Sox played .500 baseball and escaped last place by one-half game. However, he was replaced for the 1967 season. Runnels was inducted into the Texas Sports Hall of Fame in 1982 and into the Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame in November 2004. After leaving Major League Baseball, Runnels returned to his native state and opened a sporting goods store in Pasadena, Texas. He helped found and operate a co-ed camp, Camp Champions in Marble Falls, Texas, which is still in existence. After suffering a stroke while golfing on May 17, 1991, Pete Runnels died three days later at Bayshore Hospital in Pasadena, Texas.

Section 210

Forest Park East Cemetery

Webster

COORDINATES

29° 30.826, -095° 07.439