HistoricSiteMarkers
American RevolutionEarly Republic

Stephen Williams, Sr.

Jasper, Jasper County, Texas

Marker Inscription

Born in North Carolina 1764. Fought at Camden, Brier Creek and Eutaw Springs in the Revolutionary War and the capture of San Antonio, 1835 in the Texas Revolution. Erected by the State of Texas 1936

Erected by Texas Historical Commission

The Story

Born in North Carolina in 1764, Stephen Williams, Sr. came of age fighting for American independence, seeing action at Camden, Brier Creek, and Eutaw Springs in the hard-fought Southern campaigns of the Revolution. Decades later, as an old man on the far frontier, he took up arms again in the cause of Texas, joining the capture of San Antonio in 1835. His long life of service spanned two revolutions on two frontiers.

Why it matters

Williams personifies the generation of Revolutionary veterans who carried the fight for self-government westward, linking the birth of the United States to the founding of the Texas Republic.

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Related people

  • Β· Stephen Williams, Sr.

Related events

  • Β· Battle of Camden
  • Β· Battle of Eutaw Springs
  • Β· Capture of San Antonio (1835)

Themes & tags

Nearby & related markers

Stephen Williams

Jasper, TX

Born in North Carolina in 1760, Stephen Williams enlisted repeatedly in the Continental Army and fought in Revolutionary War battles at Briar Creek, Camden, and Eutaw Springs. He volunteered again in the War of 1812 as a fifty-two-year-old sentry, then in 1835 β€” at seventy-five β€” shouldered his rifle at the Siege of Bexar alongside a son and four grandsons in the Texas fight for independence. Buried on his Jasper County homesite around 1839, he was reinterred in the State Cemetery during the 1936 Texas Centennial, when this monument was placed at his original grave.

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