William P. Avant
Tool, Henderson County, Texas
Marker Inscription
(1826-1863) Alabama born William Avant grew up in what is now Henderson County after coming to Texas with his parents in 1834. At the age of 14, he served with his father, Durham, as a Texas Ranger. In 1849 he was issued a land grant in the Mercer colony (NE of present-day Athens) and settled there with his wife, Rutha, and their children. Involved in the building of the road from Athens to Palestine, Avant later enlisted in the Confederate Army and died after one year of service.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Born in Alabama in 1826, William Avant came to Texas with his family in 1834 and grew up on the frontier of what is now Henderson County, serving alongside his father as a Texas Ranger at just fourteen. He took up a land grant in the Mercer colony in 1849, raised a family with his wife Rutha, and helped build the road from Athens to Palestine. Enlisting in the Confederate Army, he died after only a year of service in 1863.
Why it matters
Avant's life spans the arc of frontier Texas — from Ranger and settler to Confederate soldier — showing how one family's story tracked the state from its wild edges into the Civil War.
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Related people
- · William P. Avant
- · Durham Avant
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Durham Avant
Tool, TX
Durham Avant left North Carolina for Texas in 1834, arriving with his wife Susan during the restless years just before the Texas Revolution. Serving as a Texas Ranger, he helped survey and site the seat of newly formed Henderson County and later opened a hotel in the county seat of Athens. Late in life he enlisted in the Confederate army alongside his son, and died in 1862 not long after joining up.
Payne Cemetery
Athens, TX
Shaded by pines and oaks, Payne Cemetery holds the pioneers who came to Henderson County in the 1870s seeking better lives. Among them was William K. Payne, a delegate who signed the 1861 Texas Ordinance of Secession, served in the Civil War, and gave his name to nearby Payne Springs. The first burial, in 1874, was a small child of the Cook family, and generations of the area's founding families lie here alongside veterans from the Civil War through Vietnam.
Conner Cemetery
Corsicana, TX
Thomas Conner brought his family from Illinois to this part of Navarro County in 1856, and his son Edward bought 164 acres here in 1873. Family tradition holds that burials predate the first recorded interment of 1882, the year Edward formally set the cemetery aside. It has chiefly served the extended Conner family and holds the graves of at least four Confederate veterans, cared for today by the family's descendants.
Goodgame Cemetery
Athens, TX
Named for a pioneering family that migrated from Alabama in the 1850s, Goodgame Cemetery has served Henderson County since the Civil War era, its first recorded burial a young girl who died in 1863 while her father was away at war. Floyd Crockett Goodgame's sons became Confederate officers, and one, a schoolteacher, returned to teach and help found the community of Turkey Creek. The ground was formally deeded in 1901 and holds veterans of every American war from the Civil War through Korea, marked by Woodmen of the World stones and family curbing.