TOMBSTONE TUESDAY: William Richardson Hensley

TOMBSTONE TUESDAY (March 4, 2025) - William Richardson Hensley was born in Shelby County, Kentucky on September 29, 1800. He married Mary Thompson of Tennessee in 1823 and together they moved to Johnson County, Indiana. After the birth of their son Alexander the family moved to Texas in November 1828 and made their home in San Felipe de Austin. At that time San Felipe, founded in 1824, was the capital of Stephen F. Austin’s first colony in Texas. Hensley, who was a surveyor, found plenty of work in the rapidly growing colonies surveying land as far west as the Nueces River. The Hensleys established homes in the areas of Colorado, Fayette, and Jackson counties. Traveling across the colonial lands of south Texas was dangerous and Hensley often met hostile Indians along the way. This part of his job earned him a name as an Indian fighter. In 1832 Hensley was the delegate from the district of Alfred (Colorado County) to the Convention of 1832. During several years before the Texas Revolution Hensley’s close friend, William Barret Travis, lived with the Hensley family. William was also a member of one of the early war councils of the provisional government. Shortly after the fall of the Alamo the Hensley’s had another son born to them and they named him Travis in honor of the fallen commander and family friend. Without enlisting or being assigned to fight, William bravely joined Sam Houston’s army and fought in the Battle of San Jacinto. In the early 1840’s the Hensley’s moved to Port Lavaca and William became a merchant. He controlled the great wagon trains to Mexico. He traveled to Saltillo, Veracruz, and other places in Mexico and traded for goods including hides and silver. On one trip home from Mexico, William Richardson Hensley contracted cholera and died in Port Lavaca, on March 20, 1849, leaving behind his wife Mary and six children. He was buried in an unmarked mass grave of other cholera victims, just outside of the Port Lavaca Cemetery.

Tombstone Tuesday is written and compiled each week by Jody Weaver and Sheryl Cuellar of the Calhoun County Historical Commission, sharing the people and stories behind Calhoun County's history.