George W. Singleton: Early Settler of Wharton County, Texas (1788–1830)
Published: 1952
Updated: November 17, 2021
George W. Singleton, member of the Old Three Hundred and early Wharton settler, was born in Rutherford, North Carolina, in 1788 to Richard and Margaret Ann Whiteside. He married Sarah “Sally” Lusk in Adams County, Mississippi, on May 14, 1808, and they lived in Wilkinson, Mississippi, in 1813. The family relocated to Texas in the mid-1820s. The census of March 1826 classified him as a farmer and stock raiser, aged between twenty-five and forty. At that time his household included his wife, Sally, five sons, and two daughters. In January 1827 he attended a meeting that claimed loyalty to the Mexican government and condemned the activities of the Fredonian Rebellion. Singleton received title to a sitio of land in what is now Wharton County on May 14, 1827. He was living on the San Bernard River in February 1830. In December 1830 Green DeWitt wrote of Indian depredations in the Gonzales area and said that the Indians had killed George W. Singleton at the mill on the Guadalupe. His wife Sally recalled that the murder occurred on December 25, 1830. The George Washington Singleton, Jr., who applied for land in January 1832, stating that he was twenty-three years old and had lived in the colony for eight years was likely his son.
Bibliography:
Eugene C. Barker, ed., The Austin Papers (3 vols., Washington: GPO, 1924–28). Lester G. Bugbee, "The Old Three Hundred: A List of Settlers in Austin's First Colony," Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association 1 (October 1897). Marion Day Mullins, The First Census of Texas, 1829-1836 (Washington D.C.: National Genealogical Society, 1975). Daughters of the Republic of Texas, Founders and Patriots of the Republic of Texas (Austin, 1963-). Ethel Zivley Rather, "DeWitt's Colony," Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association 8 (October 1904). Texas Gazette, February 6, 1830.
Time Periods:
The following, adapted from the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, is the preferred citation for this entry.
Randolph B. "Mike" Campbell and Brett J. Derbes, “Singleton, George Washington,” Handbook of Texas Online, accessed March 09, 2026, https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/singleton-george-washington.
Published by the Texas State Historical Association.
TID:
FSI29
- 1952
- November 17, 2021
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