Veteran Bio

Donation Certificate No. 969 for 640 acres of land was issued to H.R. Williams, December 4, 1839 due him for having participated in the Battle of San Jacinto. He was issued Bounty Certificate No. 2784 for 320 acres of land April 7, 1838 for having served in the army from March 6 to June 6, 1836.

Mr. Williams was born in St. Helena Parish, Louisiana in 1810, a son of Hezekiah and Nancy (Reames) Williams. The year of his birth is shown in the list of the names of all men available for military service in the Municipality of Liberty, July 20, 1836. In January, 1935 the original draft was in possession of R.W. Abbott, Beaumont.

In Headright Certificate No. 7 issued to Mr. Williams February 3, 1838 for 3/4 L & L of land by the Board of Land Commissioners for Jefferson County it is certified that he arrived in Texas in 1833, single, and that on October 5, 1837 he had married. In the Spanish Archives in the General Land Office it is shown that on December 24, 1834 he received title to a league of land in Zavala's Colony situated on the west bank of the Trinity River in what is now Jefferson County.

The name of Mr. Williams's wife has not been ascertained. Mrs. Frederick Schenkenberg, who lived in Dallas, wrote the compiler July 6, 1937, that Mr. and Mrs. Williams had nine children. Some of them were Amanda, who married J. W. Gillespie; Elizabeth, who married Albert H. Day, and after his death, a Mr. Haynes; Oliver Reames, who died while serving in the Confederate Army in the War Between the States, and Hezekiah Williams, Jr..

Comptroller's Military Service Record No. 6959 is signed by Captain Logan, June 6th, 1836 at Goliad and is countersigned by S. Sherman, Col. 2d Regmt. It reads: "This certified that H.R. Williams enrolled his name and entered into the service of Texas on the 6th of March for a term of three months, discharged his duty faithfully as a soldier, was in the Battle of San Jacinto, and his term of Service having expired is this day honourably discharged."

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