John R. Foster, probably the son of the Old Three Hundred settler, fought with the Texas army during the Siege of Béxar. He appears to have been part of Travis’s cavalry detachment that captured a herd of Mexican horses outside of San Antonio. In mid-November 1835 Travis dispatched the captured herd to Gonzales under the charge of John R. Foster. In 1837 this Foster petitioned for the organization of Fort Bend County.

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Louis Kleberg was born 1802 in Westphalia, Prussia. When volunteers were called for in the Texas struggle for independence, Kleberg served from October 29, 1835, until January 18, 1836. He saw service at the Siege of Béxar in Capt. Thomas F. L. Parrott’s company. Indian raids along the upper Brazos, Colorado, and Trinity rivers drew him into military service again in 1839. On April 21 he joined a company of fifty-nine men under the command of Capt. John Bird. The company marched to Fort Milam near the site of present Marlin by May 6. They lived on frugal rations in poor camps and tracked Indians. On June 25 they reached a deserted fort on the Little River. The next morning the volunteers pursued a group of Indians they discovered near the fort. By the time they reached the site presently known as Bird’s Creek, the Indians numbered several hundred. A struggle known as the Bird’s Creek Indian Fight ensued. In it the Texans eventually drove away the Indians, but both sides sustained heavy losses. Captain Bird and the Indian chief, Buffalo Hump, both died. Kleberg was one of the few surviving Texans. He died on July 1, 1847, and is buried in a small cemetery on private property near Millheim in Austin County.

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John Freeman Pettus was born 1808 in Virginia. He participated in the Siege of Béxar in December 1835 and served as second lieutenant of Capt. Moseley Baker’s Company D of Col. Edward Burleson’s First Regiment, Texas Volunteers, at the battle of San Jacinto, where he lost a pack mule valued at $50. He was discharged on May 29, 1836, but reenlisted in Capt. John Yorkqv’s company on July 1 and served until November 20, 1836.

Benjamin Franklin (Frank) Hardin was born 1803 in Georgia. He moved to Texas in 1826 and served under Stephen F. Austin against the Fredonian Rebellion of 1827. He was first lieutenant of infantry and fought in the Siege of Béxar under Col. Francis White Johnson. Hardin served as a lieutenant in Capt. William M. Logan’s company until June 1836. He carried the San Jacinto victory dispatch for Sam Houston to the United States border. Between July 7, 1836, and October 7, 1836, he was captain of a newly organized company and joined an expedition against the Indians. Hardin was put in charge of guarding Mexican officers interned at his brother’s plantation until they were repatriated in 1837. He was Liberty county surveyor (1838–45) and served as colonel of the Second Brigade of the Texas militia (1842–43). He died at his residence in Liberty on April 21, 1878.

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