William Davenport was born in 1820 in Saltville township, Virginia, and after his family lived in Kentucky they settled in present-day Kaufman County, Texas, in 1843. There he met and married Mary Ware, daughter of Texas Revolutionary veteran William Ware. Soon after purchasing land here in 1851 as part of the Vicente Micheli Survey, William and Mary built a home south of Cibolo Creek. When Mary died the following year, William buried her near their home, establishing a community burial ground. In 1853 he married Nancy D. Young, whose father John was a veteran of the War of 1812 and was also later buried in Davenport Cemetery. William Davenport became a leader in the community of Selma. In 1859, William, Robert Evans, and John C. Miller established the first Selma school, providing funds, supplies, and labor to build a one-room schoolhouse where William's children were among the first pupils. A Mason, he also helped build a two-story limestone combination schoolhouse, church, and Masonic hall in Selma in 1872. He was captain of a local militia organized to protect settlers from Indian attacks and was also an enterprising rancher with land in Bexar, Comal, Bandera, and Kerr counties. The International and Great Northern Railway established Davenport Station, later Bracken, near the ranch in the 1880s, and a Davenport School operated nearby in Comal County. His land extended to the present Randolph Air Force Base, and an auxiliary runway later named Davenport Field was located near the cemetery. Captain William Davenport died in 1901 and was buried there along with other respected pioneers, and Nancy died in 1934 as the last person buried in Davenport Cemetery.