Rare 1851 ADS Signer Texas Declaration Of Independence S. W. Blount
Item History & Price
| Reference Number: Avaluer:58641879 |
Stephen William Blount (1808-1890). Signer of the Texas Declaration ofIndependence, Confederate officer, and county official.Autograph Document Signed, 1 page small 8vo, “Received San Augustine 28th June 1851 this package from the handsof James B. Johnson, the commissioner before whom it was taken. S.W. Blount P.M.” The writing is clear and dark although thepaper is quite browned and the edges are quite ragged. However as can be seen from the main scan thepo...rtion with Blount’s document is very good. This was apparently the cover of a deposition relative to a legal case, sent to The Clerk of Madison County, Mississippi as that address and notationis on the other side. Vertically to theleft of Blount’s document is a statement by Madison County prosecutor Henry R.Coulter. Blount was elected colonel of the Eighth Regiment of GeorgiaMilitia in 1833, served as deputy sheriff and sheriff of Burke County for fouryears, and was an aide-de-camp to Brig. Gen. Robert Tootle and Maj. Gen. DavidTaylor from 1832 to 1834. He arrived in Texas in August 1835 and settled at SanAugustine. He was one of the three representatives from San Augustine atthe Convention of1836 at Washington-on-the-Brazosand there signed the Declaration of Independence. On March 17, 1836, when theconvention adjourned, he returned to San Augustine and joined the Texas army inthe company of Capt. William D. Ratcliff. He reached San Jacinto the day afterthe battle had been fought. Blount returned to the United States and inAlabama, sometime after February 1, 1838, married Mrs. Mary Landon Lacy; theyhad eight children. Blount brought his wife to Texas in 1839. He was the first county clerk of San Augustine County and from1846 to 1849 was postmaster at San Augustine. He was a delegate to theDemocratic state convention in 1850 and to the national Democratic conventionat Cincinnati in 1876. He acquired 60, 000 acres, on which he raised cotton.During the Civil War he was fiscal agent for the Confederate States ofAmerica. He was a charter member of Redland Lodge No. 3 at San Augustine, and amember of the Episcopal Church. He was vice president of the United ConfederateVeterans when he died, on February 7, 1890.In a blog on the site “Washington on the Brazos” Judy Hough-Goldstein writes “Stephen William Blount was born inGeorgia in 1808 and moved to Texas in 1835. On August 7, 1843, eight yearslater, Stephen’s father wrote him a letter (which has been passed down in ourfamily) hinting at the dark reason that Stephen had left Georgia at the age of27. The bulk of the letter talks about the various marriages and children bornto his brothers and sisters, and their financial difficulties and need to sell“the Plantation” and slaves (“I sold Pat and her four children on the firstTuesday in May last…”). The letter also states, “every person that was knowingto your 4 of July frolic is either dead or gone away all the Sharps are dead…if you wish to come to Georgia I think you could come without any risk.” Familylore has it that the “frolic” involved Blount running into one of the Sharpswhile on horseback. After identifying himself and asking for the other man’sname, he thought the man was making fun of his name (“Blunt” versus “Sharp”)and subsequently shot him. Probably both were drunk. In any case, he felt hehad to flee the state to avoid prosecution.”
