Hayden S. Arnold: Texas Revolution Officer and Legislator (1805–1839)
By: Thomas W. Cutrer
Published: 1952
Updated: October 2, 2018
Hayden S. Arnold, army officer in the Texas Revolution and legislator in the Republic of Texas, was born in Tennessee in 1805 and moved to Texas late in December 1835. At Nacogdoches on January 14, 1836, he took the oath of allegiance to the Mexican government and enrolled for six months' service in the Volunteer Auxiliary Corps. On March 6 he was elected captain of his company, which became the First Company of Col. Sidney Sherman's Second Regiment, Texas Volunteers. Arnold led the Nacogdoches troops at the battle of San Jacinto, where his new London Yager rifle was shot from his hands and broken through at the breech. After the company disbanded on June 6, 1836, he was elected to represent Nacogdoches in the House of Representatives of the First Congress of the Republic of Texas. He served from October 3, 1836, to June 13, 1837. In 1836 Sam Houston appointed him to serve as secretary of a commission to treat with the Indians. He later served as district clerk pro tem of the Nacogdoches District, until at least December 20, 1838. Arnold died on July 3, 1839, at his home in Nacogdoches and was buried in Oak Grove Cemetery there. His widow, Selina, was appointed administrator of his estate. In 1936 the state of Texas erected a monument over his grave. On November 17, 1851, Adolphus Sterne introduced a bill for the relief of Arnold's heirs before the Senate of the State of Texas.
Bibliography:
Daughters of the Republic of Texas, Muster Rolls of the Texas Revolution (Austin, 1986). Sam Houston Dixon and Louis Wiltz Kemp, The Heroes of San Jacinto (Houston: Anson Jones, 1932). Archie P. McDonald, ed., Hurrah for Texas: The Diary of Adolphus Sterne (Waco: Texian Press, 1969; rpt., Austin: Eakin Press, 1986). Texas House of Representatives, Biographical Directory of the Texan Conventions and Congresses, 1832–1845 (Austin: Book Exchange, 1941).
Time Periods:
The following, adapted from the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, is the preferred citation for this entry.
Thomas W. Cutrer, “Arnold, Hayden S.,” Handbook of Texas Online, accessed March 09, 2026, https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/arnold-hayden-s.
Published by the Texas State Historical Association.
TID:
FAR14
- 1952
- October 2, 2018
