Colonel Robert I. Chester

I have been writing about Chester County, Tennessee being named after War of 1812 veteran Robert I Chester.

From the Sketches of Prominent Tennesseeans.

Born in Carlisle County, Pennsylvania, in 1793.  came to Tennessee and volunteered to serve in the War of 1812 in place of his uncle, Judge John Kennedy.  Served in Mobile as quartermaster of Colonel Samuel Bayliss' Third Tennessee Regiment.

Mustered into service October 14, 1814, at Knoxville with the men destined to join Jackson at New Orleans.

Two regiments, the 3rd and 4th, built boats at Washington in Rhea County and were set to descend the Tennessee River to the Mississippi River.  But that order was countermanded and they marched overland to Mobile where they were stationed until peace was declared in March 1815.

He became a very rich plantation owner and went to Texas and was made a colonel in the Texas Army fighting for independence.  He returned to Tennessee after the Texan victory at the Battle of San Jacinto.

Death came to him in 1892.

--Brock-Perry

Texas War of 1812 Veterans-- Part 30: James Washington Winters

James Sr. and son Benjamin hauled supplies to the San Jacinto Battlefield in 1836 where his sons William Carver, John F. and James W. Winters, Jr., were in the action in General Sidney Sherman's Second Regiment and Captain William Ware's Company.  William Carver Winters was wounded in the battle.

His brother brought him home to Old Waverly where he recovered.

The three Winter brothers at San Jacinto all received Bounty and Donation Land Grants for their service.  Their names are engraved on the bronze panel inside the San Jacinto Monument.

--Brock-Perry

San Jacinto Texans Buried at Fort Houston Cemetery

From the Fort Houston Cemetery site.

Yesterday I mentioned these two men as being buried at the soldiers' section at the Fort Houston Cemetery in Texas along with General Nathaniel Smith, War of 1812 veteran.

JOHN W. CARPENTER--  Veteran of the Battle of San Jacinto.  Born Sept. 25, 1806 and died Oct. 12, 1838.  Killed about four miles east of Palestine in an Indian skirmish prior to the main Battle of Kickapoo, brought back to Fort Houston Cemetery and buried there.

JAMES WILSON--  Veteran San Jacinto.  Died of yellow fever in Houston September 8, 1844.

Also buried at the cemetery:

WILLIAM FROST--  The last white man killed by Indians in Anderson County.  Killed near the Trinity River at West Point sometime during the latter part of February 1841.  Son-in-law of pioneer Joseph Jordan, who donated the land for the town and cemetery.

--Brock-Perry

Fort Houston Cemetery

From the historical plaque at the cemetery.

In 1835, 500 acres were donated for the town of Houston, later known as Fort Houston.  Part of this also included a public burying ground.

The first reported burial was an infant child.  The oldest marked grave is that of Dr. James Hunter dated 1840.

This cemetery is the only remaining physical evidence of the town which was abandoned after Palestine became county seat of Anderson County in 1846.

Burials in the cemetery often included victims of disease, Indian massacres and hardships that went along with life on the frontier.  A special soldiers' plot, marked by a large boulder, contains soldiers of the Texas Republic.

Two of them fought at the Battle of San Jacinto: John W. Carpenter and James Wilson, are buried in unmarked graves..

The final resting spot of General Nathaniel Smith, a veteran of the War of 1812, also is in the soldiers' plot.

--Brock-Perry