McFaddin, William M.

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.