Oscar Farish (1812-1884)

    Oscar Farish was born on December 18, 1812, in Fredericksburg, Virginia, and emigrated to Texas in October, 1835 to pursue his profession of land surveyor. He joined Captain McIntyre's Company of Col. Sidney Sherman's Regiment, and participated in the Battle of San Jacinto. In 1837 he was elected engrossing clerk of the First Congress of the Republic of Texas. He was elected to be the first Clerk of Galveston County in 1856 and was holding that office when he died May 25, 1884.

Range 3

Old City Cemetery

Galveston

COORDINATES

29° 17.661, -094° 48.709

Ross Shaw Sterling (1875-1949)

    Ross S. Sterling, governor of Texas, son of Benjamin Franklin and Mary Jane (Bryan) Sterling, was born near Anahuac, Texas, in February 1875. Biographical sources give different specific birth dates of February 11 and February 22, due to the change from the Julian (Old Style) to the Gregorian (New Style) Calendar. He attended public schools and farmed until about 1896. He opened a feed store at Sour Lake in 1903, and during the next several years he also entered the banking business by purchasing a number of banks in small towns. In 1903 he became an oil operator and in 1910 bought two wells, which developed into the Humble Oil and Refining Company. The company was officially organized in 1911, and Sterling was president. In 1918 he also was president and owner of the Dayton-Goose Creek Railway Company. In 1925 he sold his Humble interests and started developing real estate in the vicinity of Houston. He bought the Houston Dispatch and the Houston Post in 1925 and 1926 and subsequently combined them as the Houston Post-Dispatch, which later became the Houston Post. Sterling was chairman of the Texas Highway Commission in 1930 and was instrumental in highway development in Texas, including the implementation of the 100-foot right-of-way for highways. On January 20, 1931, he was inaugurated governor of Texas.

    In September 1931, during the Great Depression, he called a special session of the legislature to deal with the emergency in agriculture. The Texas Cotton Acreage Control Law of 1931-32 was designed to cut cotton acreage in the state, but it was declared unconstitutional and never went into effect. Because rulings of the Railroad Commission regulating oil proration in East Texas were being ignored, Sterling placed four counties under martial law and shut down all oil production temporarily. Later the courts ruled that he had exceeded his authority by the declaration of martial law. Sterling was defeated by Miriam A. Ferguson in his race for a second term as governor. In 1933 Sterling returned to Houston, where he appeared little in public life, but in a few years had built another fortune in oil. He was president of the Sterling Oil and Refining Company from 1933 to 1946. He was president of the American Maid Flour Mills and the R. S. Sterling Investment Company and was chairman of the Houston National Bank and the Houston-Harris County Channel Navigation Board. Sterling married Maud Abbie Gage on October 10, 1898; they were parents of five children. Among his philanthropies were the gift of his La Porte home to the Houston Optimist Club for a boys' home, establishment of a boys' camp in memory of Ross Sterling, Jr., who died in 1924, and the contribution of $100,000 to Texas Christian University. He was a Democrat and a Mason. Sterling died in Fort Worth on March 25, 1949, and was buried in Glenwood Cemetery in Houston. Source 

Section H2
Glenwood Cemetery
Houston

COORDINATES

29° 45 825, -095° 23.173

Lemuel Blakey (1818-1836)

    One of ten children born to Thomas and Nancy Anderson Blakey, Lemuel was born in Barron County, Kentucky on October 6, 1818. He left for Texas from Anderson Ferry, Jackson County, Tennessee with his parents and siblings, and arrived in Velasco in January 1832. His father died within a few hours of arriving from an undisclosed illness, leaving eighteen-year-old Lemuel the head of the family. He enlisted in the Texian army on February 29, 1836 for three months and fought at the Battle of San Jacinto as a member of Captain Jesse Billingsley's Company. He was one of nine men who was killed in battle, dying of wounds on April 21, 1836. He and his other fallen comrades were buried on the battlefield.

Note: This is a cenotaph. In 1881, a decision was made to place permanent memorials at the graves of those men who had been killed in the Battle of San Jacinto and buried on the battlefield. It was discovered, however, that all of the original wooden grave markers, except for Benjamin Brigham's, had rotted away and no one could remember exactly where the others rested. As a compromise, since the soldiers had been buried closely together, it was decided to place a cenotaph over Brigham's grave as a memorial to all of them.


San Jacinto Battleground State Historic Site
La Porte

COORDINATES

29° 45.232, -095° 05.363

John Winfield Scott Dancy (1810-1866)

    John Dancy, early legislator, farmer, and railroad promoter, was born to William and Priscilla (Turner) Dancy in Greensville County, Virginia, on September 3, 1810. He was a descendant of Francis de Dance, a Castilian nobleman who fled persecution in France. Dancy had a sister and at least one brother, Charles, who spent time in Texas. General Winfield Scott was Dancy's cousin. After growing up in Decatur, Alabama, Dancy studied law, science, and languages and attended Nashville University. He received a law license in Tennessee from Judge John Catron, United States Supreme Court justice from 1837 to 1865. In July 1835 Dancy married Evalina Rhodes. After her death the following summer he decided to move to Texas. On December 28, 1836, he and Francis R. Lubbock arrived at Velasco on the schooner Corolla. Dancy became a citizen of Texas on January 13, 1837, before Judge Robert M. Williamson. He traveled throughout the republic and in 1838 purchased 640 acres in Fayette County. He introduced long-staple cotton to Texas and developed the first hydraulic ram in the state to provide irrigation for his plantation. In 1841 he was elected Fayette County representative to the Sixth Congress of the Republic of Texas. He later served in the Senate of the Second and Fourth state legislatures (1847-48 and 1851-53) and in the House of the Sixth Legislature (1855-56). He was considered an eloquent but long-winded speaker. Dancy ran for governor as a Democrat in 1853 but placed last in a field of six candidates led by Elisha M. Pease. In February 1861 he was a delegate to the Secession Convention.

    His early advocacy of railroad development earned him the nickname "Father of Texas Railroads." During his first legislative term he advocated annexing California and constructing a railroad to connect the West Coast to Texas. He helped secure charters for the Harrisburg Railroad and Trading Company and the Buffalo Bayou, Brazos and Colorado Railway; he became a vice president of the latter and in 1866 transferred it to the Southern Pacific. In 1850 Dancy proposed using public lands to finance railroad construction. He maintained a law practice in La Grange and was a developer of Colorado City, the site chosen by the legislature in 1838 for the new capital but vetoed by President Sam Houston. Dancy was a member of the Texas Monumental Committee, formed to raise funds for a monument to men killed during the Mier Expedition and Dawson Massacre, and edited the committee's newspaper, the Texas Monument, from July 1850 to June 1851. He was a founding trustee of Rutersville College. During the Mexican invasions of 1842, Dancy served in the First Regiment of Texas Mounted Volunteers under John Coffee Hays. From May to July 1847 he served as a private in a spy company of Texas mounted volunteers commanded by Benjamin McCulloch. He also fought in Indian skirmishes. He married Lucy Ann Nowlin of Austin on October 25, 1849. They had a son and five daughters. Dancy died in La Grange on February 13, 1866, and was buried in the city cemetery. Source

Section 1
Old La Grange City Cemetery
La Grange

COORDINATES

29° 54.625, -096° 52.090

James Allison York (1800-1869)

    James Allison York, Republic of Texas veteran, was born July 4, 1800, in Kentucky. His father's name was James York, but only his mother's maiden name (Allison) is known. York moved to Texas with his family in 1821 and settled in present day Austin County. During Texas' fight for independence, York first enlisted in his brother's company, the Brazos Guards, as a second sergeant on October 7, 1835. York was one of the men who entered Bexar on December 5, 1835, in what later became known as the Storming and Capture of Bexar. After he was discharged on December 13, York enlisted in Moseley Baker's San Felipe Company on March 30, 1836. With Baker, York participated in the Battle of San Jacinto. After being discharged on May 29, 1836, he re-enlisted again, this time joining George W. Jewell's Company on September 19, 1836. Because of his service to Texas, York received 640 acres of land for taking part in the Storming and Capture of Bexar in December 1835. He also received 320 acres of land for serving in the army from October 7 to December 23, 1835. York died on February 6, 1869, and was buried near Sweet Home, Lavaca County, Texas. Because of the neglected state of the cemetery, the State of Texas reinterred York to the Texas State Cemetery on July 31, 1937. Source

Republic Hill
Texas State Cemetery
Austin

COORDINATES

30° 15.917, -097° 43.648