Byrd Lockhart
West Columbia, Brazoria County, Texas
Marker Inscription
BYRD LOCKHART Byrd Lockhart, Jr. moved to Green DeWitt’s Colony from Missouri around 1826 with several female relatives. He worked as a surveyor for the colony and settled in Gonzales, where he organized defenses against Indian attacks and supervised construction of roads from Gonzales to the coast and San Antonio de Bexar. In 1835-36, Lockhart served in the Texan Army at the Siege of Bexar and as a commissioner to negotiate with Indian tribes. Having helped organize the Gonzales rangers (“the immortal 32”), Lockhart left the Alamo to obtain supplies before the final siege. He later acted as a spy for the Texan army. He died in Columbia (now west Columbia) in Brazoria County in 1839. Lockhart, texas, was named in his honor. (2014)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
A surveyor who came from Missouri to Green DeWitt's colony around 1826, Byrd Lockhart laid out roads from Gonzales to the coast and San Antonio and organized frontier defenses against raids. In 1835-36 he served in the Texan army at the Siege of Bexar, helped raise the Gonzales rangers known as 'the immortal 32,' and left the Alamo on a supply mission before its final fall, later working as a spy for the army. He died in Columbia in 1839, and the town of Lockhart was named in his honor.
Why it matters
Lockhart's career spans surveying, road-building, and combat in the Texas Revolution, embodying the frontier settlers who mapped the land and then fought for its independence.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Byrd Lockhart
- · Green DeWitt
Related events
- · Texas Revolution
- · Siege of Bexar
- · Battle of the Alamo
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Henry William Munson
Jones Creek, TX
Henry William Munson's life spanned the violent birth of Anglo Texas. He fought at the 1813 Battle of Medina near San Antonio, returned east, then came back as one of Austin's colonists in 1824. He took up arms for Mexico to put down the 1827 Fredonian Rebellion, but turned against Santa Anna's agents at the 1832 Battle of Velasco. He and his wife Ann named one son Mordello, after the Mexican officer who had saved Munson's life at Medina.
The Lively
Surfside Beach, TX
This stretch of the Brazoria County coast witnessed three turning points in early Texas history. Here, according to the marker, the first ship of colonists bound for Stephen F. Austin's colony came ashore in December 1821; here the Battle of Velasco was fought in June 1832 in the growing friction between Texian settlers and Mexican authority; and here, in May 1836, peace treaties were signed with the captured General Santa Anna after the Texas Revolution. The Lively's landing opened a decade that would transform this shoreline into the doorstep of a new republic.
Daniel Perry
Arcola, TX
Born in Mississippi in 1791, Daniel Perry brought his family to Texas in 1832 and settled on land along the Brazos as Anglo colonization spread through Stephen F. Austin's grants. He served as a captain and recruiter in the Texas Army, fought at San Jacinto in 1836, and then joined the Republic of Texas Navy before signing the 1837 petition that created Fort Bend County. A rancher and farmer who ran cattle under the "7P" brand, he died in 1869 and was buried at Duke Cemetery.
Paschal Paolo Borden
Stafford, TX
Born in New York in 1806, Paschal Paolo Borden came to Texas in December 1829 and took up arms in the fight for Texas independence. He joined the 1835 campaign that captured Bexar and fought at the decisive Battle of San Jacinto on April 21, 1836. He lived on in the young republic and state he had helped create until his death in 1864, and the State of Texas raised this marker in his honor in 1963.