Stephen Williams

Stephen Williams, born in North Carolina as the fourth child of blacksmith Richard Williams, Jr., enlisted in seventeen seventy-eight for the first of many periods of military service. He enlisted three times in the United States Army and fought in Revolutionary War battles including Briar Creek, Camden, and Eutaw Springs. After the American Revolutionary War, he moved to St. Helena Parish, Louisiana. When the War of 1812 began, he volunteered again and at age fifty-two served as a sentry. Shortly after the eighteen twenty-nine death of his wife, Delilah, in Louisiana, he relocated to Bevil's Settlement in Jasper County, Texas, where he received a Mexican land grant. In November eighteen thirty-five, as the Siege of Bexar began, the seventy-five-year-old veteran went armed with his rifle to take part. Serving with four grandsons and one son-in-law in Captain Cheshire's Company, he became first sergeant and ultimately received a Republic of Texas land grant for his service. He returned to Bevil's Settlement, where he died circa eighteen thirty-nine and was buried on his homesite, remaining there for almost one hundred years. He was later reinterred in the State Cemetery during the Texas Centennial celebration in nineteen thirty-six, and a Texas Centennial grave monument was erected at his original burial site. In nineteen ninety-one, the grave marker was relocated for greater visibility and accessibility, though it remained on land Williams had owned.

Texas · United States