William Sumter Murphy (1796?-1844)

    William Sumter Murphy, United States diplomat, was born in South Carolina about 1796 and moved to Chillicothe, Ohio, in 1818. There he established a legal practice and, in 1821, married Lucinda Sterret. His powers of oratory were such that he came to be called the "Patrick Henry of the West." Politically, Murphy was at first a Democrat but later supported Whig candidates William Henry Harrison and John Tyler. He was greatly interested in military affairs and was appointed a brigadier general in the Ohio state militia. In 1843 President John Tyler appointed Murphy minister extraordinary to Central America and chargé d'affaires to the Republic of Texas, in which office he replaced Joseph Eve. From his ministry in Galveston Murphy worked diligently toward the annexation of Texas to the United States. When, in February 1844, annexation appeared imminent, Murphy, without authorization from his government, acceded to President Sam Houston's request for United States warships to patrol the Gulf of Mexico to protect Texas ports and harbors. For this action the chargé received the reprimand of his superiors and was given to understand that his appointment would not be confirmed by the Senate. This report caused Houston to write to Murphy on March 30, 1844, of his "regret that anything should at this time withdraw you from this Government, until the work which you have been instrumental in commencing should be terminated either by annexation, or rejection of Texas by the U[nited] States." The treaty of annexation, signed by the Texas government on April 11, 1844, was rejected by the United States Senate, and Murphy was recalled to Washington. "The tail went with the hide," as he summed up the situation. Murphy died of yellow fever in Galveston only a few weeks later, on July 12, 1844, and was buried there the following day. He was the third United States minister to Texas to die at his post since 1840. Source


Trinity Episcopal Cemetery
Galveston

COORDINATES

29° 17.613, -094° 48.672

Juan Nepomuceno Seguin (1806-1890)

    Juan Seguín, political and military figure of the Texas Revolution and Republic of Texas, was born in San Antonio on October 27, 1806, the elder of two sons of Juan José María Erasmo Seguín and María Josefa Becerra. Although he had little formal schooling, Juan was encouraged by his father to read and write, and he appears to have taken some interest in music. At age nineteen he married María Gertrudis Flores de Abrego, a member of one of San Antonio's most important ranching families. They had ten children, among whom Santiago was a mayor of Nuevo Laredo and Juan, Jr., was an officer in the Mexican military in the 1860s and 1870s. Seguín began his long career of public service at an early age. He helped his mother run his father's post office while the latter served in Congress in 1823-24. Seguín's election as alderman in December 1828 demonstrated his great potential. He subsequently served on various electoral boards before being elected alcalde in December 1833. He acted for most of 1834 as political chief of the Department of Bexar, after the previous chief became ill and retired. Seguín's military career began in 1835. In the spring he responded to the Federalist state governor's call for support against the Centralist opposition by leading a militia company to Monclova.

    After the battle of Gonzales in October 1835, Stephen F. Austin granted a captain's commission to Seguín, who raised a company of thirty-seven. His company was involved in the fall of 1835 in scouting and supply operations for the revolutionary army, and on December 5 it participated in the assault on Gen. Martín Perfecto de Cos's army at San Antonio. Seguín entered the Alamo with the other Texan military when Antonio López de Santa Anna's army arrived, but was sent out as a courier. Upon reaching Gonzales he organized a company that functioned as the rear guard of Sam Houston's army, was the only Tejano unit to fight at the battle of San Jacinto, and afterward observed the Mexican army's retreat. Seguín accepted the Mexican surrender of San Antonio on June 4, 1836, and served as the city's military commander through the fall of 1837; during this time he directed burial services for the remains of the Alamo dead. He resigned his commission upon election to the Texas Senate at the end of the year. Seguín, the only Mexican Texan in the Senate of the republic, served in the Second, Third, and Fourth Congress. He served on the Committee of Claims and Accounts and, despite his lack of English, was chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs. Among his legislative initiatives were efforts to have the laws of the new republic printed in Spanish. In the spring of 1840 he resigned his Senate seat to assist Gen. Antonio Canales, a Federalist, in an abortive campaign against the Centralists, but upon his return to San Antonio at the end of the year he found himself selected mayor. In this office Seguín became embroiled in growing hostilities between Anglos and Mexican Texans. He faced personal problems as well.

    He had gained the enmity of some residents by speculating in land. He financed his expedition in support of Canales by mortgaging property and undertook a smuggling venture in order to pay off the debt. Although upon his return from Mexico he came under suspicion of having betrayed the failed Texan Santa Fe expedition, he still managed to be reelected mayor at the end of 1841. His continuing conflicts with Anglo squatters on city property, combined with his business correspondence with Mexico, incriminated him in Gen. Rafael Vásquez's invasion of San Antonio in March 1842. In fear for his safety, Seguín resigned as mayor on April 18, 1842, and shortly thereafter fled to Mexico with his family. He spent six years in Mexico and then attempted to reestablish himself in Texas. While living in Mexico he participated, according to him under duress, in Gen. Adrián Woll's invasion of Texas in September 1842. Afterward his company served as a frontier defense unit, protecting the Rio Grande crossings and fighting Indians. During the Mexican War his company saw action against United States forces. At the end of the war he decided to return to Texas despite the consequences. He settled on land adjacent to his father's ranch in what is now Wilson County. During the 1850s he became involved in local politics and served as a Bexar County constable and an election-precinct chairman. His business dealings took him back to Mexico on occasion, and at the end of the 1860s, after a brief tenure as Wilson county judge, Seguín retired to Nuevo Laredo, where his son Santiago had established himself. He died there on August 27, 1890. His remains were returned to Texas in 1974 and buried at Seguin, the town named in his honor, during ceremonies on July 4, 1976. Source

Juan N. Seguin Memorial Plaza

Seguin

COORDINATES

29° 33.704, -097° 58.251

Barbara Pierce Bush (1925-2018)

    Barbara Pierce was born on June 8, 1925, and grew up in the suburban town of Rye, New York. She went to boarding school at Ashley Hall in South Carolina. It was at a dance when she was only 16 that she met George Bush. They became engaged just before he went off to war as a Navy torpedo bomber pilot. When George returned on leave, Barbara had dropped out of Smith College. Two weeks later, on January 6, 1945, they were married. After the war, they set out for Texas to start their lives together. Six children were born to them: George, Robin, Jeb, Neil, Marvin, and Dorothy. In the first 44 years of marriage, while her husband built a business in the oil industry and held a variety of political and public service positions, Mrs. Bush managed 29 moves of the household. She became the family linchpin, providing everything from discipline to carpools. The death of their daughter Robin from leukemia when she was not quite four left them with a lifelong compassion. She was always an asset to her husband during his campaigns for public office. Her friendly, forthright manner won her high marks from the voters and the press. 

    As wife of the vice president, she selected the promotion of literacy as her special cause. As first lady, she called working for a more literate America the "most important issue we have." Involved with many organizations devoted to this cause, she became honorary chairman of the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy. A strong advocate of volunteerism, Mrs. Bush helped many causes including the homeless, the elderly, AIDS, and school volunteer programs. Barbara lived in a home she and her husband built in Houston, Texas, where she enjoyed being part of the community. Devoted to her family, Mrs. Bush found time to write an autobiography, to serve on the Boards of AmeriCares and the Mayo Clinic, and to continue her prominent role in the Barbara Bush Foundation She died at home in Houston, Texas, on April 17, 2018 and was buried at the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum in College Station, Texas. Source

George Bush Presidential Library and Museum

College Station

COORDINATES

30° 35.874, -096° 21.030

William Bluford DeWees (1799-1878)

    William Bluford DeWees, pioneer settler and public official, was born in Virginia on September 8, 1799. He first visited Texas on a keelboat excursion up the Red River in 1819. In late 1821 he accompanied a group of four families from Arkansas to the Austin colony; the party arrived on the lower Brazos River on January 1, 1822. On August 3, 1824, DeWees and his partner, James Cook, who constituted one of the Austin colony's Old Three Hundred households, received title to a league of land on the Colorado River in the southern part of what is now Colorado County, about ten miles below Columbus. DeWees then obtained title to a second half league on the west bank of the river at the site of the Columbus township, on April 28, 1831. As property owner, developer, and early settler of the site he became known as a founder of Columbus. The census of 1825 listed him as a gunsmith, and he appears as a blacksmith in the census of 1826. In 1840 he held title to 1,207 acres, claimed another 887 acres under survey, and possessed a personal estate that included eleven slaves, thirty cattle, nine horses, and a carriage. DeWees traveled in Mexico in 1826 and 1827, then took up residence in San Antonio, where he lived for almost two years before returning to his home on the Colorado.

    Beginning in 1837 he held a series of public offices in Colorado County, including justice of the peace, associate land commissioner, and associate justice of the county court. In 1865 he was again elected justice of the peace for Precinct 1 of Colorado County. Later that year he was appointed to a term as county treasurer by provisional governor A. J. Hamilton. But DeWees's political career and reputation were ruined in 1866 when he was charged by his successor with misappropriating $1,200 in county funds and was successfully sued for that amount in district court. His appeal of the decision was denied in 1870. DeWees married a daughter of Austin colonist Benjamin Beeson, probably named Lydia, in 1823 and eventually became the father of two children. His wife apparently died before 1850, and DeWees probably married a German immigrant named Angelica. In the early 1850s he covertly collaborated with writer Emmaretta Cara Kimball Crawford in producing a journal of his pioneering experiences that purported to be a compilation of his letters to a Kentucky resident named Cara Cardelle; this volume of dictated reminiscences, actually written by Emmaretta Kimball, was published in 1852 under the title Letters from an Early Settler of Texas to a Friend. DeWees died in Colorado County on April 14, 1878. Source


Old City Cemetery
Columbus

COORDINATES

29° 42.328, -096° 33.071