Captain Leiper Willoughby
Hallettsville, Lavaca County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Star and Wreath Came to Texas in 1831. Member Captain William H. Patton's Company at the Battle of San Jacinto. Served in the Vasquez Campaign and against the Indians in 1842. Died in 1874. Erected by the State of Texas 1956.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Leiper Willoughby came to Texas in 1831 and fought in Captain William H. Patton's company at the Battle of San Jacinto in 1836, the engagement that won Texas its independence. He remained in arms for the young Republic, serving in the 1842 Vasquez Campaign against Mexican incursion and in frontier fighting that same year. He died in 1874, and the state honored him with a Star and Wreath marker in 1956.
Why it matters
Willoughby represents the citizen-soldiers of the Texas Revolution whose service didn't end at San Jacinto but continued through the Republic's precarious decade of border and frontier defense.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Leiper Willoughby
- · William H. Patton
Related events
- · Battle of San Jacinto
- · Vasquez Campaign
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Ponton Family
Shiner, TX
Virginians William and Isabella Ponton came to Texas in 1829 and received land in DeWitt's Colony, where William became the first recorded settler killed by Comanche in what became Lavaca County; his son Joel later survived an attack with two arrows in his back. The family stood with their neighbors at the Battle of Gonzales, fled in the Runaway Scrape after the Alamo fell, and returned to rebuild after San Jacinto. Across the eras of the Republic, statehood, and the Civil War, the Pontons served as alcaldes, judges, doctors, preachers, and peacemakers.
Stephen Tucker Foley
Hallettsville, TX
Stephen Tucker Foley was born in Alabama and came to Texas in 1834, arriving just as the colony's break with Mexico approached. In 1836 he served in the Army of Texas, standing with Captain William Heard's company of citizen-soldiers at the Battle of San Jacinto. The State of Texas honored his service to the revolution with this marker in 1956.
Arthur Henry Vollentine
Hallettsville, TX
Born around 1807, Arthur Henry Vollentine came to Texas about 1833 as a colonist of empresario Martin de Leon and served in the Republic of Texas Army at Goliad during the revolution. He and his family fled during the Runaway Scrape in 1836, later returning to the Lavaca River country to farm and ranch under his V5 cattle brand. Appointed one of Lavaca County's first commissioners in 1846, he helped make Hallettsville the county seat and lies buried here with his family.
John Himes Livergood
Hallettsville, TX
Pennsylvania-born John Himes Livergood came to Texas in 1837 and took up 640 acres near Gonzales, throwing himself into the defense of the young Republic's frontier. He joined the pursuit that ended in victory at the Battle of Plum Creek, scouted with Jack Hays's Texas Rangers, and endured the disastrous Mier Expedition—surviving the Black Bean Episode and imprisonment at Perote. Settling on the Lavaca River with his wife Sarah Ann and thirteen children, he became a county judge and justice of the peace before serving the Confederacy in the Civil War.