Veteran Bio

John M. Swisher, Auditor of the Republic, on January 19, 1852 certified that Mr. Browning served as Master of Arms on board the schooner Brutus from May 12 to September 11, 1837.

In the Memorials and Petitions in the Archives of the State Library is an affidavit signed by Mr. Browning January 19, 1852 at his home in Shelby County in which he tells of his services in the army of Texas and his wife, Harriet H. Browning, were living in Angelina County in 1867. Mr. Browning died at Austin, Texas May 14, 1879, while a member of the Texas Veterans Association.

Mr. Browning, living in Shelby County, on January 19, 1852, signed the following affidavit before John B. Costa, a Justice of the Peace:

"On this 19th day of January personly appeard before me the Undersigned an acting Justice of the peace in and for said county and State aforesaid, George W. Browning and makes oath in due form of law that he is the identical same George W. Browning who served as a private in Company B first Regiment Infantry in the late Republick of Texas. That he emigrated in January 1836 and enrolled in the Company above named on the 14th day of February 1836 and served in said company and was honorably discharged 24th October 1837; that he fought in the battle of Sangisento and that he afterwards served as master at armes on the Scooner Brutus from 12th May untill 11th September 1837. And that he remained in Texas untill the month of December/37 and that he did not leave Texas to avoid partisipating in the war but left with the advise of Gen. Rusk and by Advice of Bernarde E. Bee and that he Shipracted with John Horton on the Scooner Tamalupus on his way to join Fannan and that he lost a set of Sergacle instruments and spent two hundred dollars in reaching Texas and that he has never received any land except the donation lands & a twelve hundred and eighty acres of scrip or Bounty all making three 640 acre claim and he still claims one third of a league and all the ballance that is due him for the afforesaid services and citizenship of the Late Republick of Texas."

A signed statement by Barnard E. Bee, Secretary of War, dated Houston, October 24, 1837, to the effect that Mr. Browning entered the service as a private in Company B, First Regiment of Regular Infantry on February 13, 1836, for a period of two years, fought bravely at San Jacinto and was discharged October 24, 1837. Following this was a statement from John M. Swisher, Auditor of the Republic, that Mr. Browning served as Master of Arms on board the Schooner Brutus from May 12 to September 11, 1837. The originals of these documents are to be found among the Memorials and Petitions, Archives, State Library, Austin.

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