Capt. Jesse Billingsley
A Soldier in the army of Texas,
1835
Commander of Company C,
First Regiment, Texas Volunteers
at San Jacinto
Member of the 1st and 2nd
Congresses of the Republic
Participated in the Woll
Campaign, 1842
Member of the Senate, 5th and 8th
Legislatures of the State
Born in Tennessee
October 10, 1810
Died in Bastrop County, Texas
October 1, 1880
Erected by the State of Texas
1936
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| Full Name: |
Jesse Billingsley |
| Location: |
Section:Republic Hill, Section 1 (C1)
Row:K Number:24 |
| Reason for Eligibility: |
Republic of Texas Veteran; Texas Ranger; Member, Republic of Texas House of Representatives; and Member, Texas State Senate. |
| Birth Date: |
October 10, 1810 |
| Died: |
October 1, 1880 |
| Burial Date: |
Reinterred September 3, 1929 |
| | BILLINGSLEY, JESSE (1810-1880). Jesse Billingsley, San Jacinto soldier, ranger, and legislator, was born on October 10, 1810, in Rutherford County, Tennessee, the son of Jeptha and Miriam (Randolph) Billingsley. In 1834 he moved to Mina, Texas. On November 17, 1835, he joined Capt. Robert M. Coleman's company of Mina Volunteers–forty-nine Bastrop County men, including George B. Erath. Billingsley served until December 17. When this unit mustered into Sam Houston's army at the beginning of the Texas Revolution, it was designated Company B of Col. Edward Burleson's First Regiment, and on March 1, 1836, Billingsley was elected its captain. He commanded the company at the battle of San Jacinto, where he received a wound that crippled his left hand for life. The company disbanded at Mina on June 1. Billingsley thereafter served as a private in John C. Hunt's ranger company, from July 1 through October 1, 1836.
He was elected from Bastrop County to the House of Representatives of the First Congress of the Republic of Texas and is said to have "furnished his own grub, slept on his own blanket, and wor[n] a buckskin suit that he took from a Comanche Indian whom he killed in battle." Billingsley was reelected to the House of the Second Congress in 1837. In February 1839 he commanded a company of volunteers under Edward Burleson that pursued and engaged the band of Comanche raiders who had killed the widow of Robert Coleman and their son Albert and kidnapped their five-year-old son, Thomas. In 1842 Billingsley recruited volunteers to aid in the repulse of the invasion of Adrián Woll and fought with John C. Hays at the battle of Salado Creek. After annexation he served as a senator in the Fifth (1853-54) and Eighth (1859-61) legislatures. Billingsley died on October 1, 1880, and was buried in the front yard of his house near McDade. On September 3, 1929, he was reinterred in the State Cemetery at Austin.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: John Henry Brown, Indian Wars and Pioneers of Texas (Austin: Daniell, 1880; reprod., Easley, South Carolina: Southern Historical Press, 1978). Daughters of the Republic of Texas, Muster Rolls of the Texas Revolution (Austin, 1986). Andrew Jackson Sowell, Early Settlers and Indian Fighters of Southwest Texas (Austin: Ben C. Jones, 1900; rpt., Austin: State House Press, 1986). Texas House of Representatives, Biographical Directory of the Texan Conventions and Congresses, 1832-1845 (Austin: Book Exchange, 1941). Vertical Files, Barker Texas History Center, University of Texas at Austin.
Thomas W. Cutrer
"BILLINGSLEY, JESSE." The Handbook of Texas Online. [Accessed Mon Feb 17 10:11:10 US/Central 2003]. |
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