Young Perry Alsbury

Young Perry Alsbury (1814 – November 19, 1877) was a soldier in the Texas Army during the Texas Revolution.[1] He was among the group of volunteers for the mission that was successful in burning the strategically important Vince's Bridge during the Battle of San Jacinto.[1][2][3][4] Additionally Juana Navarro Alsbury, the wife of his brother Horace Arlington Alsbury (AKA Horatio Alexander Alsbury), was one of the few survivors of the battle of the Alamo.[1]

Biography

Young Perry Alsbury was born in Hopkinsville, Kentucky in 1814. He was the youngest son of ten children. His father, Thomas Alsbury, Jr., was a frontiersman and Indian spy in Virginia (now West Virginia) in the 1790s, and then an early settler and tavern/innkeeper in Hopkinsville, Christian County, Kentucky in the early 1800s. His mother was Leah Catlett, born in Maryland. In the early 1820s the Alsbury family moved from Kentucky to Texas.[1] Stephen F. Austin had written a letter to his father asking the Alsbury family, which included seven sons, to move to Texas and become part of the original Austin Colony.[4] They settled in Brazoria on the Brazos River. Land was what had enticed the family to move to the area.[5] Thomas Alsbury was given two leagues and 1½ labors (between 9,000 and 10,000 acres) (36 and 40 km²).[1] (A league of land was 4,428.4 acres (17.921 km2), a labor 177.136 acres). The property was located on the west bank of the Brazos River.[1] Three of the older sons of Thomas (Charles, Harvey, and Horace) were also given land. It was located in the Indian country, along the Gulf Coast, a bit west of where the Dow Chemical Company is now located.[1] Young Perry Alsbury was too young at that time to obtain his own land grant.

When he was 22, during the 1836 Texas Revolution, Young Perry Alsbury fought on the Texian side in Captain Henry Wax Karnes’ Cavalry, better known as "Deaf Smith's spy company".[6] Prior to the pivotal Battle of San Jacinto on April 21, 1836, he joined a small company in passing close to enemy lines to burn the strategic Vince's Bridge to prevent reinforcement and escape of Antonio López de Santa Anna.[1][2][3][4] The others who were with him on that mission were Deaf Smith, John Coker, Denmore W. Reaves, John T. Garner, Moses Lapham and Edwin R. Rainwater.

On May 28, 1838 he was issued Donation Certificate No. 247 for 640 acres (2.6 km2) of land for having participated in the battle.[7] He received a Bounty Certificate No. 3599 for 320 acres (1.3 km2) of land for having served in the army from March 1 to May 28, 1836. On March 5, 1839, he was issued a Headright Certificate for one-third of a league of land by the Brazoria County Board.[7] Shortly after the Battle of San Jacinto, Young Perry Alsbury came to San Antonio, Texas and in 1845 during the U.S.-Mexican War he went into Mexico with General Scott.[8]

After the war he returned to San Antonio, and was married there about 1847 to Mary Rodriguez, said to be a daughter of wealthy Spanish-Americans.[8] He purchased 200 acres of land from Maria de Jesus Olivarri, wife of Ambrosio Rodriguez, and in early spring of 1848 he moved to the East bank of the Salado Creek, just north of Dittmar Road (now Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.) and built a home. His mother Leah moved from Brazoria to live there with him.[8] He raised four children: Leah Jane, b. 1849 (married John R. Hester), Thomas Jefferson, b. 1851 (married Bertha Edwards), Young Perry Jr., b. 1855 (married Mary Elizabeth Jowers), and Mary Ann, b. 1860 (married Albert Moody). Y.P. served as a Texas Ranger and was involved in several Indian skirmishes. Young Perry Alsbury died November 19, 1877 in his early 60s, and was buried only a few yards from the home on the Salado that he loved. His wife Mary died 3 years later, in 1880. A huge pecan tree marked the head of his grave. To his right lies the body of his wife, and to his left is that of his mother.[1] In 1936, centennial year of the Texas Revolution, the Texas Historical Commission placed a polished marble historical marker on his grave.

See also

References
  1. "Young Perry Alsbury" San Jacinto Museum Biographies, San Jacinto State Park, Texas
  2. "Y.P. Alsbury letter" Located in the Republic of Texas Archives
  3. "Battle of San Jacinto" A Texas Historical Commission historical marker.
  4. "Y. P. Alsbury" A Texas Historical Commission historical marker.
  5. "Diary of Willam Fairfax Grey, Virginia to Texas 1835-1837" William Fairfax Grey
  6. "Young Perry Alsbury, Hero of San Jacinto" San Antonio Express newspaper,July 15, 1934, Sunday.
  7. "Coker Community Church Facts" By J. William Roten, Bulletin of Coker Community Church 1972.
  8. "Coker Community Has Experienced Scope of Area Development" By Susan Goodell
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