Archives for November 2014

John Porter Gill was born 1801 in Alabama. On August 9, 1835, he joined ninety-three other Brazoria residents in signing a call for a convention “to quiet the present excitement and promote the general interest of Texas”. Gill was elected first lieutenant of Capt. John York’s company of volunteers at the Siege of Béxar and on December 8 commanded a detachment that reinforced the beleaguered Texans occupying Zambrano Row opposite the town’s Main Plaza. Gill served as first lieutenant of Capt. Thomas H. McIntire’s Fifth Company of Col. Sidney Sherman’s Second Regiment, Texas Volunteers, at the battle of San Jacinto, and afterward was elected first lieutenant of Capt. Washington H. Secrest’s company of Washington Cavalry. He served from June 1836 until his discharge on October 23, 1836. On January 21, 1837, Gill was elected captain of one of the two companies of Brazoria County militia in the battalion of Maj. Willis A. Faris.

William Stanhope Taylor was born 1819 in Ohio. William Taylor enlisted in the revolutionary army on October 17, 1835, and served with Capt. John M. Bradley (Volunteers from Tunahan District) at the Siege of Béxar, to include the Grass Fight, and was discharged on December 23, 1835. He re-enlisted on March 12, 1836, and served under Capt. William Ware (Second Company, Second Regiment, Texas Volunteers) and Capt. William Smith (Company J, Second Regiment, Volunteer Cavalry). On April 20, 1836, Taylor, who served as a scout/spy, volunteered to participate as part of Col. Sidney Sherman’s cavalry force in an attempt to capture the Mexican cannon at San Jacinto. On April 21 he was reassigned to Captain Smith’s Company J in the cavalry charge on the Mexican left flank, followed by the pursuit of General Santa Anna and his cavalry towards Vincent Bridge. William died of yellow fever on February 2, 1869, in Montgomery, Montgomery County, Texas.

George Washington Glasscock was born 1810 in Kentucky. He fought in the Black Hawk War in Illinois. He served with James Chesshire’s company in the Grass Fight and the Siege of Béxar. He died in Austin February 28, 1868. Glasscock County was named in his honor.

John James Dix, Sr. was born 1796 in Massachusetts. He was a part of the Texas force that took San Antonio in the Siege of Béxar in 1835. Dix died in Corpus Christi January 18, 1870.

Calloway Deen (Dean) was born 1812 in Tennessee. Nov. 1, 1835 he enlisted in the Texas army as sergeant in Henry W. Augustine’s company. He participated in the Siege of Béxar and was discharged on December 14. He enlisted in John M. Bradley’s company and served from June 25 to October 1, 1836. He served in the First Regiment, First Brigade. Deen died on May 25, 1892, and was buried in the Starrville Cemetery in Smith County.