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David Hess Garner, soldier,
sheriff, and Republic of Texasqv
congressman, son of Bradley and Sarah Rachel (Harmon) Garner,
Sr., was born in St. Landry or Rapides Parish, Louisiana, in
1807. His father was a native of Maryland who moved to Louisiana
about 1790 and fought in the battle of New Orleans. David moved
to Texas in 1825 with four of his seven siblings, Jacob Harmon
Garner,qv Isaac Garner, Anne
(who married Claiborne Westqv), and Sarah (Mrs. John) McGaffey,
and settled at Old Jefferson (the site of present Bridge City)
on Cow Bayou.
To help resist Antonio López
de Santa Annaqv
in 1835, Capt. David Garner organized a company of volunteers.
Armed with flintlock muskets and Bowie knives, his group of
nineteen men, including his brother Jacob, set out for San
Antonio. They arrived at the camp above Bexar on November 16,
1835. On December 4 Garner and his men were mustered into the
company of James Chessher and Willis H. Landrum.qv
Garner participated in the siege of Bexarqv
under Gen. Benjamin R. Milam,qv
which resulted in the capture of Gen. Martín Perfecto de Cos.qv
He was discharged from the army on December 13, 1835. On January
22, 1838, he received a headright certificate for a third of a
league of land in Jefferson County. For his service at Bexar he
received a donation grant of 640 acres. On December 14, 1838, he
received a bounty certificate for 320 acres for service from
October 5 to December 13, 1835.
On September 18, 1839, Garner
married Matilda Hampshire in Jefferson County. They became the
parents of eleven children. The 1840, 1850, and 1860 census list
Garner as a farmer and stock raiser. He was elected sheriff of
Jefferson County in 1839. He was elected representative to the
Fourth Congress of Texas (1839-40) and served one term. He was
again elected sheriff of Jefferson County in 1843 and was
reelected to the office in 1845. In 1855 he moved his family to
old Indianola, where he continued to engage in the cattle
business.
During the Civil Warqv
Garner, now too old to serve in the army, supplied the
Confederate troops with beef. When his son Jacob Hampshire
Garner, who had served in the Thirty-third Cavalry, returned
home, he found his father penniless, though loaded with
Confederate money and still a patriotic citizen of Texas. Garner
died in old Indianola on April 10, 1864. His gravestone bears
the Masonic emblem. His wife was a devoted Methodist.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: James Cox,
Historical and Biographical Record
of the Cattle Industry (2 vols., St.
Louis: Woodward and Tiernan Printing, 1894, 1895; rpt., with an
introduction by J. Frank Dobie, New York: Antiquarian, 1959).
Texas House of Representatives,
Biographical Directory of the Texan Conventions and Congresses,
1832-1845 (Austin: Book Exchange,
1941).
Mary B. Erickson
- Handbook of Texas
Online, s.v. ","
http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/GG/fga23.html
(accessed March 3, 2008).
(NOTE: "s.v." stands for sub verbo, "under the word.")
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