Leonard Williams, Soldier and Indian Agent

Leonard and his wife, part-Cherokee Nancy Isaacs, entered northern Texas in 1819 with other members of the Williams family. The Mexican government granted Leonard a sitio of land in future Rusk County in 1829 for services in helping to quell the Fredonian Rebellion. (According to Los Mesteños by Jack Jackson, a sitio was either 4,428 acres for large stock or 1,985 acres for small stock.) Six years later, Williams fought against Mexico at the siege of Bexar, during which a bullet blinded him in one eye. In 1836, he served as a sergeant in Benton’s Regiment of Regular Rangers in the Texians’ revolutionary army. He also helped suppress the Cordova Rebellion in 1838. The following year, Leonard, who was fluent in several Indian dialects, served as an interpreter for the Texians at the Battle of the Neches.

In 1840, while on a trading mission, Leonard spied Cynthia Ann Parker in the company of the Comanches who had captured her at Fort Parker in 1836. One of the few Anglos to see the young woman in captivity, he negotiated with the Indians for her release, but they refused his offers.

In the early 1840s, the Texas Congress named Leonard Williams a land commissioner for Houston County, and Sam Houston gave him the title of Colonel. In 1842, Houston appointed Leonard one of four commissioners to negotiate with the Indians. The colonel participated in several important meetings with the Indians, including the Bird’s Fort treaty negotiations in 1843 and the Tehuacana Creek Councils in 1843, 1844, and 1845. Houston wrote to General G.W. Terrell on March 18, 1844, “...Colonel Len. Williams has been here with the Indians, and I think him one of the most useful and efficient men that I have ever seen with the Indians in any country.”

Leonard’s wife, Nancy, with whom he had nine children, died in the mid-1830s. He married Jane Ware in about 1836; they had three children. Leonard Williams died on April 14, 1854, in his mid-fifties. He lies in the Dr. Pitts Cemetery on private land in Limestone County. His service to Texas was cited in the U.S. Congressional Record of April 8, 1965, and by the Texas Legislature in May 1965. The Texas Senate resolution stated that, because Williams secured a treaty by which the Cherokees did not side with the Mexicans, he was “largely responsible for the success of the Texas Revolution.” A state historical marker on Texas 31 near Mount Calm honors his memory.

See the full article in the August 1998 issue.

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