John Rees (Jack the Fifer) was born circa 1801 in Wales. He volunteered for service in Texas with the Second Company of the New Orleans Greys in 1835. He took part in the Siege of Béxar from December 5 through 10, 1835, and remained with his company when camp was established at Goliad the next month. In March 1836 a numerically superior Mexican force under Gen. José de Urrea accepted the surrender of the troops at Goliad from Col. James W. Fannin, Jr. Of approximately 400 prisoners of war, Rees was one of the twenty-eight who escaped the massacre ordered by Mexican president Antonio López de Santa Anna. He was recaptured but was released in April or May 1836, after the Mexican defeat at San Jacinto. He rejoined the army and took an honorable discharge on October 10.

Handbook of Texas Online

Benjamin Franklin Fry was born 1800 in Georgia. Fry joined the Texas army in October 1835 and took part in the Siege of Béxar. He was the second lieutenant of the artillery company garrisoning the Alamo under James C. Niellqv and served as a private in Capt. William S. Fisher’s Company I of Col. Edward Burleson’s First Regiment, Texas Volunteers, at the battle of San Jacinto. After the revolution Fry served as a private in Capt. T. Epperson’s company of the Second Regiment, Second Brigade, Texas Militia. He died on March 10, 1872, at the Bastrop County community of Jeddo, where he is buried.

William M. McFaddin was born 1819 in Louisiana. At age sixteen William served at the Siege of Béxar. He was a member of the group commanded by Thomas J. Rusk that buried the victims of the Goliad Massacre. He subsequently joined the army of Sam Houston at Columbus and was detailed to guard the wounded and baggage at San Jacinto. He was discharged on his seventeenth birthday, June 8, 1836. He and his son William Perry Herring McFaddin founded the McFaddin Ranch of Beaumont and formed several companies in partnership with Obadiah Kyle and Valentine Wiess for acquiring land, raising cattle and rice, irrigating, and milling rice. During the Civil War McFaddin was detailed to supply beef cattle for the Confederate Army and obtained a license to ferry and swim cattle across the Neches River. He was appointed captain of Patrol District No. 1 by the county court. McFaddin died in 1897.