Morrison, W. M. History of Fort Bend County: Containing Biographical Sketches of Many Noted Characters. Fort Bend County: 1904.
Last Updated on October 30, 2012 by Erastus Smith, better known as “Deaf Smith,” was the son of Chiliab and Mary Smith, and was born in New York on the 19th of April 1787. At the age of eleven years he emigrated with his parents to the Mississippi Territory, and settled near Natchez. His parents […]
Last Updated on October 30, 2012 by Austin Colonist George Washington Pleasants was born in Raleigh, North Carolina, March 30th, 1809, and came from there to Texas in 1830, and first settled at Columbia, and lived there until 1833. There was a great cholera epidemic that year at Columbia, which nearly depopulated the town. Mr.
Last Updated on October 30, 2012 by Walter W. Little was born in Fort Bend County, on the last day of October 1828, in what was then called the Fort settlement in the bend of the Brazos, where Richmond now is. William Little, father of the subject of this sketch, was a native of Pennsylvania,
Last Updated on October 30, 2012 by Capt. Randall Jones, one of the historic characters of Fort Bend County, was born in Columbia County, Georgia, on the 19th of August 1786. In 1810 he went to Wilkinson County, Mississippi Territory. When the second war with England broke out in 1812 he joined the American army
Last Updated on October 30, 2012 by Henry Jones, one of the “Old Three Hundred” of Austin’s colony was born in Madison County, Virginia, near the “Blue Ridge,” in 1798. In 1817, when but nineteen years of age, he left home in company with his brother, John, and went on a trip of adventure. They
Last Updated on October 30, 2012 by “Uncle Ran.” Foster, as he was familiarly known in his old days, was among the first settlers of Fort Bend County, coming with Stephen F. Austin in the first installment. “Uncle Ran.,” however, had been to Texas and camped within the present limits of Fort Bend County prior
Last Updated on October 30, 2012 by In regard to the death of Mr. Foster, the following was published in the Galveston News in August, 1878: Richmond, August 27th. “Editors News: “To enable you to see what a mistake you made in your issue of 25th instant, in your extract from the “Four Counties,” I
Last Updated on October 30, 2012 by Who lived many years in Fort Bend County, and died there, and whose remains rest in her soil, was born in Jefferson County, Kentucky, March 2, 1834. In 1855 he went to Howard County, Indiana, and was made a Royal Arch Mason there in 1857. In 1858 Mr.
Last Updated on October 30, 2012 by Veteran Of San Jacinto Captain Calder was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on the 17th of July 1810, and was the son of James H. and Jane E. Calder (nee Miss Caldwell). His father dying when he was very small, young Calder was raised by his paternal uncle, Major
Last Updated on October 30, 2012 by It seems that on account of the long distance and slow transmission of mails in those days, that Stephen F. Austin, busy at New Orleans doing the work his father had entrusted to him, was not aware of the fatal illness and death of his father until some
Last Updated on October 30, 2012 by For the information of our readers who are not familiar with the early colonial scheme of settling Texas with American colonists when it was a province of Spain, we will give a short sketch of the man in whose brain it originated and the various causes which led
Last Updated on October 30, 2012 by R. H. Worthington is an old Texan, and one of the good and worthy citizens of Fort Bend County. He was born in Pitt County, North Carolina, on June the 6th, 1826, but came from Alabama to Fort Bend County in 1849. During the great yellow fever epidemic
Last Updated on October 30, 2012 by Fort Bend County, Treasure Tony B. Wessendorff, present County Treasurer, was born in Richmond, Fort Bend County, on the 19th day of November 1872. His father, Anton Wessendorff, came to this County from Hamburg, Germany, when but eighteen years of age and made Fort Bend his permanent home.
Last Updated on October 30, 2012 by Mier Prisoner Colonel William M. Ryon, of Fort Bend County, one of the most gallant of the heroes known to Texas history, was born in Winchester, Kentucky, resided for several years in Alabama, and came to Texas in 1837, landing at the mouth of the Brazos, where he
Last Updated on October 30, 2012 by Fort Bend County, Deputy Sheriff Henry Lee Ransom, the present efficient deputy under Sheriff Peareson, was born in Brenham, Texas, on the 29th of December 1870. His father was a soldier under General Lee, his grandfather having ten sons in the Confederate army. Henry came to Fort Bend
Last Updated on October 30, 2012 by Fort Bend County, Sheriff Edward, Adolphus Peareson, present Sheriff of Fort Bend County, was born in Matagorda County, Texas, on the 2nd day of September 1867. His father, P. E. Peareson, was a native of Alabama, but came to, Texas when a child at a very early day
Last Updated on October 30, 2012 by Another prominent man of Fort Bend County, came from North Carolina to Texas in 1830, and was a member of the convention in 1833. He was a successful planter, and lived to make forty-five crops in Texas. He died in Richmond, Fort Bend County, in December 1875.
Last Updated on October 30, 2012 by Adam Sylvester Neel, named for James Sylvester, one of the captors of Santa Anna, was born in Fort Bend County, near Stafford’s Point, on the 25th of August, 1844. His father was William T. Neel, a native of Louisiana, who came to Texas with William Stafford. He was
Last Updated on October 30, 2012 by Santa Fe Prisoner John McKnabb, one more of those unfortunate ones who accompanied the disastrous Santa Fe expedition in 1841, was a native of Scotland, and came to Fort Bend County in 1837. He was at Austin during the early building of that place, when the Indians harassed
Last Updated on October 30, 2012 by Mr. McElroy Is one of the old settlers of Fort Bend County who still survives those days of pioneer life, fraught with so much danger and hardships, danger from Indian raids and Mexican invasion, and hardships incident to a new and undeveloped country, where the wilderness had to
