Three brothers figure into the history of Texas. They are Thomas, Francis and Henry Lubbock. Colonel Thomas Saltus Lubbock is the brother for whom Lubbock county and the city of Lubbock is named. He was born in South Carolina in 1817 and came to Texas early enough to participate in the Siege of Bexar in late 1835. He was also a participant in the ill-fated Santa Fe Expedition in 1841. Thomas was captured in New Mexico while Texas troops were on their way to Santa Fe. He was taken to Mexico and imprisoned, but was one of two individuals to be able to escape. He later made his way back to Texas. When the Civil War broke out, he first served in an irregular unit comprised mostly of former Texas soldiers and Texas Rangers as scouts for the Confederate Army. He and some others later joined the Confederate Army and were founding members of “Terry’s Texas Rangers,” the 8th Texas Cavalry. Lubbock was promoted to Colonel and put in command of the regiment after the death of Benjamin Franklin Terry but happened to be ill with typhoid fever at the time. Thomas died the following day on January 9, 1862 before he could take command. He is buried in Glenwood Cemetery in Houston, Texas.
Upon his death, the Charleston Daily Courier, of Charleston, South Carolina, printed a lengthy obituary and another article by R. F. Bunting, a chaplain for the Texas Rangers. Thomas S. Lubbock had come to Texas as a member of the New Orleans Grays when he was sixteen years old, immediately prior to the Battle of Bexar. The articles set out his service during the Texas Revolution, including his participation in the Battle of San Jacinto. They cited his previously mentioned service in the Santa Fe Expedition under Mirabeau B. Lamar and his path to service in the Confederate Army. The articles also noted that he was known to be a strong secessionist and served as a delegate to the so-called People’s Convention in which the representatives voted for Texas to secede from the Union. They provided more details about his last illness, that he had suffered from typhoid fever and died at the home of a Mrs. Dr. Porter, where he had been confined.
His older brother was Francis Richard Lubbock who served as the 9th Governor of Texas. Francis Lubbock was born in South Carolina in 1915 and had made his way to Texas by 1836. He is known to have served as Comptroller of the Republic of Texas during the Presidency of Sam Houston and was elected clerk of Harris County, an office which he held from 1841 to 1857. He narrowly won an election as Governor of Texas in 1861 and served only one term, after which he joined the Confederate Army under the command of former United States Army officer John B. Magruder who served much of the Civil War in Texas. In August of 1864, Francis began to serve as aide-de-camp for Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Lubbock and Davis were among the Confederates who were captured and imprisoned at Fort Delaware before eventually being paroled after eight months. The two (Lubbock and Davis) appear to have kept up their acquaintance and long after the war ended, Francis was a pallbearer at Davis’ funeral.
After the war, Francis returned to Texas where he was in business. He also served as Texas State Treasurer from 1878-1891. Francis died in 1905 and is buried in the Texas State Cemetery in Austin.
The youngest of the three born in 1823 and the third Lubbock brother connected to Texas was Henry Schultz (or Schultze) Lubbock. Unlike his brothers, Henry had moved to California during the Gold Rush days and was residing there in 1850. He had worked in the maritime industry for a number of years, either in California or on board ships. At the outset of the Civil War, he came to Texas and served in the Confederate Army, also under John B. Magruder. Henry is known for his command of the Confederate gunboat Bayou City which attacked and captured the Union gunboat Harriet Lane in Galveston harbor. Henry was reportedly a friend of Union General Ulysses S. Grant and appealed to the General to have his brother Francis released from prison after Francis had been captured during the war.
After the war, Henry returned to California where he was appointed by President Grover Cleveland to serve as inspector of hulls and boilers in the San Francisco area. Henry lived in the Alameda area for nearly thirty years where he worked in some area of the maritime industry. Henry was buried in Chapel of the Chimes Memorial Park in Hayward, California.
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TEXAS HISTORY NOTEBOOK 