James Coryell/Jim Bowie/Ben Milam

James Coryell came down the Mississippi from Ohio to join Jim and Rezin Bowie in their search for the lost San Saba silver mine. Coryell was wounded in the great San Saba Massacre in a fight against Comanche, Kiowa, and Waco Indians.

He fought at the Alamo with Ben Milam when the Texans took the Alamo from General Cos in December of 1835. He and a friend then left San Antonio to deliver the body of Milam to his family.

Coryell rode with Deaf Smith during the Runaway Scrape and likely was with him during the battle of San Jacinto.

Coryell joined a Ranging company under Major George Erath to survey much of the area and claimed land along Coryell Creek near Davidson Cemetery and the Pecan Grove Baptist Church as part of his reward for services in the Texas Revolution. A Live Oak tree in the cemetery has an “X” carved to mark one of the boundaries of his claim.

Posted at Fort Milam, he was killed in May of 1837 by Waco Indians, never having lived on his land. He and two others were robbing a bee hive of honey when they were attacked near the falls of the Brazos River in Falls County. He stood to draw the fire of the attackers so that his friends could escape. They did. He did not.