Born in Marseilles, France, Charles Cronea came to America on a French frigate as a cabin boy in 1818. Soon after, after boarding a ship out of Charleston, South Carolina, he and several companions entered the service of Jean Laffite of Galveston and took part in privateering cruises off the coast of Spanish Mexico. After nearly a year under the command of Capt. James Campbell, he left the ship when it was burned at the mouth of the Mermentau River in Louisiana. Cronea married Amanda Richey in 1830, and by 1835 he had settled in the Mexican municipality of Jefferson. When the Texas Revolution broke out that fall, he joined Capt. David Garner's company of frontier farmers and participated in the Siege of Bexar. Some records say his company joined the forces of Sam Houston in 1836 and that during the Battle of San Jacinto, Cronea was guarding prisoners nearby. In 1846 he entered the U.S. Army in the war against Mexico under Gen. Zachary Taylor. Later a farmer in Sabine Pass, Cronea married Mary Louisa Elender in 1845, moved his family to High Island in 1876, and in 1885 was awarded 1,280 acres as a surviving soldier of the Texas Revolution.