The Life and Mysterious Disappearance of Claiborne Stinnett (unknown–ca. 1838)
Published: 1952
Updated: July 1, 1995
Claiborne Stinnett, early settler and public official, arrived in Texas as a single man on May 20, 1830. He represented Green DeWitt's colony at the Convention of 1832. In the spring of 1837 he married the twice-widowed Sarah Creath Howard, whose two former husbands had both been killed by Indians. Probably in September 1838, while serving as sheriff of Gonzales, Stinnett disappeared while returning to Gonzales from Linnville. Texas historian John Henry Brown believed that he was murdered in 1837 by two runaway slaves on their way to Mexico. He was more likely killed by Indians in 1838. If this is the case, he was the third of Sarah's husbands to die in this way.
Bibliography:
The following, adapted from the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, is the preferred citation for this entry.
Stephen L. Hardin, “Stinnett, Claiborne,” Handbook of Texas Online, accessed March 09, 2026, https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/stinnett-claiborne.
Published by the Texas State Historical Association.
TID:
FST59
- 1952
- July 1, 1995
