Claiborne Rector

Claiborne Rector, early settler and soldier in the Texas Revolution, was born in Alabama on September 28, 1802. He moved to Texas in January 1830 and settled in the area of present Brazoria County. On March 1, 1836, he enlisted in David Murphree's company, Second Regiment, of Sam Houston's army; he participated in the battle of San Jacinto. Rector served in Byrd Lockhart's spy company in July 1836 and remained in the Texas army until September 1 of that year. He settled in what is now Wilson County by 1840 and received a 4,000-acre patent of land in December 1845. Rector represented Wilson County at the Secession Convention in 1861. He was captain of the Cibolo Guards Light Infantry in the Texas State Troops during the Civil War. Rector married twice and had three children. He died on March 23, 1873, and was buried in the Concrete Cemetery, Guadalupe County, Texas.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Sam Houston Dixon and Louis Wiltz Kemp, The Heroes of San Jacinto (Houston: Anson Jones, 1932). Deed L. Vest, A Century of Light: The History of Brahan Lodge No. 226, A.F. & A.M., La Vernia, Texas, 1858-1959 (Fort Worth: Masonic Home and School, 1959).