DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm gonna give it to you straight with a little room to breathe. William Delafield. A name carved into the long memory of Harrison County, Texas — and a life that stretched across so much of this nation's story, you'd almost think one man couldn't hold it all.
But he did. Now let me take you back to where it begins. Nicholas Delafield, William's father, was a cooper in the English Navy in the 1740s — a man who worked with his hands, shaped barrels, and eventually found himself putting down roots in Mecklenburg County, Virginia, as early as the 1760s.
An artisan. A craftsman. A man building something.
His son William, it turns out, was cut from similar cloth — only the stakes were considerably higher. In 1779, young William Delafield — sixteen years old, mind you — stepped into a militia company commanded by a neighbor, Captain Reuben Vaughan. This was no ordinary moment in the life of a sixteen-year-old.
The former American colonies were joined together against the tyranny of George III of Great Britain, and William was in it. That year, 1779, he carried whatever a lad his age could carry, and he served. Then the war passed, and life moved on — as life does.
In 1785, William Delafield, now twenty-two years old, picked up and moved to Georgia. He built a family there. Raised them up.
And in 1827, the young republic he'd helped bring into being finally acknowledged what he'd done — he was awarded land on the basis of his Revolutionary War service. Georgia held him for a good long while, and somewhere along the way he lost a leg. Probably in frontier fighting against the Indians, the way folks around him remembered it.
By 1832, William and his son Nicholas had made their way to Alabama, and in 1836 both of them received land grants in Barbour County. Father and son, still movin', still settlin'. Then the son went further.
In 1846, Nicholas Delafield — William's boy — settled here in Harrison County, Texas. And before long, the old man followed. By 1850, William Delafield himself was living here too, in this very county.
And here is the image the marker leaves you with, and it's one worth sittin' with: an elderly man, a veteran of the American Revolution, out on his porch in a rocking chair, one leg gone, spinning stories of old times for anyone who'd listen. His neighbors knew him that way. That was William Delafield in his final chapter — patriarch, survivor, living thread connecting the birth of a nation to the frontier of Texas.
His descendants went on to attain distinction in military and civilian life in Texas and other states. One man's life, stretched from a Virginia cooperage to a Georgia homestead to an Alabama land grant to a rocking chair in Harrison County — and the story didn't stop there. It just kept moving west, the way American stories do.
What the marker says
A veteran of the American Revolution; lived in this area as patriarch of a family whose history typifies westward movement of the people of the United States. Son of Nicholas Delafield, a cooper in the English Navy in 1740s and an artisan living in Mecklenburg County, Va., as early as the 1760s. William Delafield as a lad of 16 served in the militia company of a neighbor, Capt. Reuben Vaughan, during the year 1779 when the former American colonies-- joined together against the tyranny of George III of Great Britain. In 1785 William Delafield, then 22, moved to Georgia. There he brought up a family and in 1827 was awarded land on basis of his Revolutionary War service. By 1832 he and a son Nicholas lived in Alabama, where in 1836 both received land grants in Barbour County. The son in 1846 settled here in Harrison County, Tex. By 1850 William Delafield also lived here, where he was known to neighbors as an elderly man who sat in a rocking chair relating stories of old times. He had lost a leg, probably in frontier fighting in Georgia against the Indians. His descendants include persons who have attained distinction in military and civilian life in Texas and other states.