John J. Grumbles

GRUMBLES, JOHN J. (?-1858). John J. Grumbles, Texas Ranger, immigrated from Tennessee to the Republic of Texas in 1837 and settled at Fort Wilbarger, on the north bank of the Colorado River some ten miles above Bastrop, Texas. He moved to the Travis County community of Webber's Prairie in 1840 and lived there until 1845, when he bought the old home and mill of William Barton and moved to Barton Springs, near Austin. During the Mexican War Grumbles from June 2 through September 22, 1846, served as a private in Capt. Samuel Highsmith's Company K of Col. William C. Young's Third Regiment, Texas Mounted Volunteers. Two days after mustering out of federal service he raised and was elected captain of a company of rangers attached to Maj. Thomas J. Smith's battalion. This company saw service on the western frontier and in northern Mexico until September 23, 1847. In 1849 Grumbles commanded a company of rangers stationed on the Nueces River seventy-five miles above Corpus Christi. He died at San Saba on February 20, 1858.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Frank Brown, Annals of Travis County and the City of Austin (MS, Frank Brown Papers, Barker Texas History Center, University of Texas at Austin). John S. Ford, Rip Ford's Texas, ed. Stephen B. Oates (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1963). Louis Wiltz Kemp Papers, Barker Texas History Center, University of Texas at Austin. Charles D. Spurlin, comp., Texas Veterans in the Mexican War: Muster Rolls of Texas Military Units (Victoria, Texas, 1984). Amelia W. Williams and Eugene C. Barker, eds., The Writings of Sam Houston, 1813-1863 (8 vols., Austin: University of Texas Press, 1938-43; rpt., Austin and New York: Pemberton Press, 1970).

Thomas W. Cutrer

"GRUMBLES, JOHN J." The Handbook of Texas Online. [Accessed Thu Apr 10 14:50:17 US/Central 2003].