biography – Page 31 – Texas History Notebook

R. C. Buckner

Robert Cooke “Father” Buckner was born January 3, 1833 in Madisonville, Tennessee to Rev. Daniel Buckner and Mary Polly Hampton Buckner. He was the youngest son and the fifth of six children (three sons and three daughters). His oldest brother, Henry Frieland Buckner (1818-1882) was also born in Tennessee and served as a career missionary to the Creek tribe in Oklahoma. Henry Frieland also founded the Murrow Orphan’s Home. The middle brother, Bennett Burrow Buckner (1826-1848), joined the United States Army from Tennessee in 1847 and died in Mexico City in 1848 while serving in the Army during the Mexican-American War. His oldest sister Harriet Caroline Buckner died as an infant in 1821 in Tennessee. His second sister was Miriam Isabelle Buckner. She moved to Texas and married a school teacher, Aaron Holt, originally of New Hampshire. They had a son named Adoniram Judson Holt, mentioned below. R. C.’s youngest sister was Anne Haseltine Buckner who married a carpenter named Williams and lived in Paris, Texas.

Howard Hughes and TWA

Howard Hughes (1905-1976) was born in Houston, Texas and died on a flight returning to Houston from Mexico. Hughes had always had a strong interest in aviation and over the years owned either outright or a controlling interest in various aviation-related entities, including commercial airlines TWA and Northwest Airlines (briefly) and aircraft manufacturing.

Adina de Zavala

Adina Emilia de Zavala was the oldest child of Augustine and Julia Tyrrell de Zavala. Augustine (1832-1894) was the oldest of the three children born to Lorenzo de Zavala and his second wife Emily West (1809-1882). Lorenzo was married twice, first to Maria Josefa Teresa Correa y Correa with whom he had three children: Maria Manuela, Lorenzo (Jr.) and William Henry and second to Miranda Emily West whom he married after Maria Josefa passed away, and with whom he had Augustine, Emilia and Ricardo. The family lived near the San Jacinto battleground and Lorenzo, the grandfather, died late in the year 1836 at the age of 48, after being caught out in a norther while in his boat.

Governor Oran Milo Roberts

Governor Oran Milo Roberts was the seventeenth governor of Texas, serving from January 21, 1879 to January 16, 1883, succeeding Richard B. Hubbard and preceding John Ireland. He was the last of at least six children born in Laurens County, South Carolina on July 9, 1815 to Obadiah Roberts (1769-1827) and Margaret Ewing Roberts (1776-1859). Biographical sketches say that he was educated at home until he was seventeen. One anecdote has him telling his mother around that time that although he had respect for the agricultural life they were living, he had higher aspirations than working on the land. Then, using funds borrowed from a brother in law, in 1832 he left home to enter the University of Alabama, graduating in four years with a law degree.

Sid Richardson

Sid Williams Richardson was born on April 25, 1891 to John Isidore Richardson (1856-1911) and Nancy Bradley Richardson (1860-1934) in Athens, Texas. His father was born and died in East Texas. His mother was born in Mississippi, survived his father by about 23 years and died in Wichita Falls.