No Portrait Available
William Bennett Scates
Signer of the
Texas Declaration of Independence
and a soldier at San Jacinto
Born in Virginia Jan. 26, 1802
Died Feb. 22, 1882
Sarah McMillan
Born July 28, 1819
Married to W. B. Scates
Mar. 25, 1850
Died Apr. 28, 1881
Erected by the State of Texas
|
| Full Name: |
William Bennett Scates |
| Location: |
Section:Republic Hill, Section 1 (C1)
Row:M Number:17 |
| Reason for Eligibility: |
Republic of Texas Veteran; Signer of Texas Declaration of Independence; Confederate Veteran |
| Birth Date: |
June 27, 1802 |
| Died: |
February 22, 1882 |
| Burial Date: |
Reinterred September 9, 1929 |
| | SCATES, WILLIAM BENNETT (1802-1882). William Bennett Scates, soldier and signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence, son of Joseph and Elizabeth Scates, was born in Halifax County, Virginia, on June 27, 1802. The family moved to Christian County, Kentucky, where Scates remained until 1820, when he went to New Orleans; there he clerked and did carpenter work.
Scates arrived at Anahuac, Texas, on March 2, 1831, and in 1832 participated in the Anahuac Disturbances and the battle of Velasco. In 1835 he joined the Revolutionary Army and took part in the siege of Bexar. Scates was one of the two representatives from Jefferson Municipality at the Convention of 1836 at Washington-on-the-Brazos and there signed the Declaration of Independence. When he left the convention, Scates rejoined the army and participated in the battle of San Jacinto in Benjamin F. Bryant's company of Sabine Volunteers. When Bryant's company was disbanded, Scates joined Hayden S. Arnold's Nacogdoches Company. After the revolution he settled in Washington County, where he married Theodocia Clardy Smith on November 17, 1836; two children were born to them. By 1840 Scates had title to 150 acres in Fayette County; he also appears on that county's 1846 poll-tax list.
After his first wife's death, he married Sarah McMillan, on March 25, 1850; they had five children. At the age of sixty-two, Scates enlisted as a private in Company F, Fourth Battalion, Texas Cavalry, Texas State Troops, on October 9, 1863. He died on February 22, 1882, and was buried near Osage, Colorado County. In 1929 the state of Texas reinterred the bodies of Scates and his second wife in the State Cemetery.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Louis Wiltz Kemp, The Signers of the Texas Declaration of Independence (Salado, Texas: Anson Jones, 1944; rpt. 1959).
L. W. Kemp
"SCATES, WILLIAM BENNETT." The Handbook of Texas Online. [Accessed Wed Feb 12 17:14:05 US/Central 2003]. |
|
Follow Us