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Jacob Harmon Garner, soldier, early settler,
and government official, the fifth of seven children of Bradley
and Sarah Rachel (Harmon) Garner, Sr., was born in either St.
Landry or Rapides Parish, Louisiana, on January 12, 1814. About
1824 he and his siblings-including David Hess Garnerqv
and Anna Garner, who married Claiborne Westqv-moved to Old
Jefferson (now Bridge City), on Cow Bayou in Texas. In October
1835 Jacob volunteered to fight in the Texas Revolution,qv
and on November 16 of that year he arrived as a lieutenant at
the camp above Bexar with his brother David, now a captain. On
November 26 he fought in the Grass Fightqv
under Edward Burleson.qv In
early December he was active in the siege of Bexarqv
under Col. Benjamin R. Milam.qv
About March 4, 1836, Garner joined Capt. William Milspaugh's
company. By April 21, 1836, Milspaugh had been succeeded by
Captain Patterson. On the day of the battle of San Jacintoqv
Patterson had detailed Garner to serve as a guard in Liberty.
In October 1837 Garner served as a grand
juror for Jefferson County. On February 16, 1838, he received a
certificate for one-third league of land, and on March 8, 1839,
he was issued a first-class augmentation land grant for
two-thirds of a league and one labor of land. Garner married
Matilda Hayes on November 29, 1838, in the house of Benjamin
Johnson, a soldier in the battle of San Jacinto. On February 6,
1843, Garner was elected justice of the peace for the Cow Bayou
precinct of Jefferson County. In January 1846, at the community
of Sabine Pass, he was appointed "reviewer of the roads," an
honorary position that paid no salary, and on July 13, 1846, he
was elected district clerk of Jefferson County, a position he
held until August 5, 1850. In February 1857 Garner was appointed
overseer of roads, and in July of that year he was voted in as
an alderman of the first city council at Sabine Pass.
He enlisted during the Civil War,qv
on August 3, 1861, for three months in a cavalry company styled
the Ben McCullochqv Coast
Guard; he was elected third lieutenant. Included among this
company's enlistees was his son Leonard, who served until
officials discovered that he was only fourteen. Leonard
re-enlisted when he was seventeen.
In addition to his public and military
service, Garner was a cattleman and farmer in Jefferson County,
where he and his wife raised nine children. On January 24, 1885,
he received a donation grant of 1,280 acres. On October 12,
1886, a hurricane struck suddenly at the coast of Sabine Pass.
By the next day, a third of the local population had drowned,
including Jacob's pregnant granddaughter, Annie Laurie McCall
McReynolds, who was washed out of her husband's arms. Garner
died of pneumonia on February 27, 1887, and was buried at the
Old Sabine Pass Cemetery.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: W. T. Block, A History of
Jefferson County, Texas, from Wilderness to Reconstruction (M.A.
thesis, Lamar University, 1974; Nederland, Texas: Nederland
Publishing, 1976). Helen Smothers Swenson, Jefferson County,
Texas 1850 Census and Consorts (Round Rock, Texas, 1981).
W. T. Block and Sherwood P. McCall III
- Handbook of Texas Online, s.v.
","
http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/GG/fgaut.html
(accessed March 4, 2008).
(NOTE: "s.v." stands for sub verbo, "under the word.")
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