Galba Fuqua^{[1, 2]}

1819 - 1836  (16 years)

• Name	Galba Fuqua  [1, 2, 3]
  Birth	9 Mar 1819	, Madison, Alabama, USA   [1, 2, 4]
  Gender	Male
  Death	6 Mar 1836	The Alamo, San Antonio, Bexar, Texas, USA   [1, 2, 4]
  Burial	San Antonio, Bexar, Texas, USA   [1, 4]
  Person ID	I20298	Master
  Last Modified	31 Dec 2024

  
  

  Father	Silas Fuqua,   b. 17 Aug 1783, , Bedford, Virginia, USA d. 26 Oct 1834, , Caldwell, Texas, USA (Age 51 years)
  Mother	Sally Toney Young,   b. 18 Sep 1797, , Bedford, Virginia, USA d. 25 Aug 1828, , Colbert, Alabama, USA (Age 30 years)
  Marriage	25 May 1814	, Madison, Alabama, USA   [2, 5, 6, 7]
  Documents		Silas Fuqua and Sally Young Marriage license.
  Family ID	F5141	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Event Map

  Birth - 9 Mar 1819 - , Madison, Alabama, USA Death - 6 Mar 1836 - The Alamo, San Antonio, Bexar, Texas, USA Burial - - San Antonio, Bexar, Texas, USA  = Link to Google Earth

  
  

• Notes

  Galba Fuqua, Alamo defender, son of Silas and Sally (Toney) Fuqua, was born in Alabama on March 9, 1819. He was of French Huguenot descent. As a resident of Gonzales, Texas, he was enrolled by Byrd Lockhart in the Gonzales Ranging Company of Mounted Volunteers on February 23, 1836. This group of men are the only ones to respond to the call for support from the Alamo, and have since been remembered as "The Immortal 32". Galba rode to the relief of the Alamo garrison with this group and arrived on March 1, 1836. Susannah Dickerson, a survivor of the Alamo related that during the battle Galba burst into the Alamo chapel where she was hiding and he tried to tell her something. Because both jaws were broken, she could not understand him before he rushed back to the battle. He died with the other Alamo defenders on March 6, 1836, three days short of his seventeenth birthday. After wife Sally’s death in 1825, Silas Fuqua went to Texas with his children where he died in 1834. A letter to Stephen F Austin from Silas of 28 Mar 1828 expressed satisfaction with Texas and inquired about assistance and information. Silas Fuqua’s land grant was on the east bank of the San Marcos River in current Caldwell Co on the Gonzales Co line. According to his land certificate, Silas Fuqua arrived in the DeWitt Colony with a family of 6 on 11 May 1830. Galba Fuqua’s single uncle Benjamin Fuqua also came to the DeWitt Colony in 1830 where he received a quarter sitio of land on the west bank of the San Marcos just north of the Silas Fuqua league. Ben Fuqua was purported to be a mechanic and mercantile business man who owned a structure called "Luna" in inner Gonzales town on his brother Silas Fuqua's town lots. It may have been a blacksmith or mercantile business although some have speculated that it might have been a Grog Shop alluded to by author Edwards in his 1836 Texas which he critically termed "the center of attraction for both young and old of the Texians". Benjamin Fuqua married Nancy King (they had a daughter Mary), older sister of William King, also a member of the Gonzales Relief force. Family legends say that both Galba and Benjamin Fuqua were treated like sons by John and Parmelia King after the death of Silas Fuqua and the marriage of Benjamin to Nancy King. Legend says that teenage Relief Force members John Gaston, Galba Fuqua and William King were all good friends as well as the three families. From: http://www.tamu.edu/ccbn/dewitt/gonzalesrangersf-k.htm Benjamin Fuqua first joined the Austin Colony in 1828, but moved to the DeWitt Colony in 1830 where he received a quarter league of land as a single man on the San Marcos River north of Gonzales just inside current Guadalupe County. The following letter from Richard Ellis in Alabama recommended the Fuquas to Stephen F. Austin: " State of Alabama, Town of Tuscumbia 3rd Jany. 1828 D COLO I beg leave to introduce to your aquantence and notice Mr Silus, Ephram and Benjmn Fuqua and Mr Job Ingram and Kye Ingram, these Gentlemen have emigrated to your Coloney to become permanent settlers---The Mr Fuquas are Mechanics. two of them of the best kind; they are honest and respectable men and are determined to suport the Government to which they go, I have had much conversation with Mr Silus Fuqua, on the present and future prospects of your coloney; and tho he has never seen it, he has a most corect idea of its great advantages, you will find him an inteligent man and I have no doubt will be an acquisition to your Setlement, I have known these gentlemen twelve years, the Mr Ingrams I have not known personaly but from their universal good character and the Gentlemen they go with, I feel no hesitation to recomend them to your attention...........RICHARD ELLIS." Benjamin was a representative from the Austin Municipality and a signer of the Declaration of the People of Texas declaring the intention of Texans to fight for the restoration of the Constitution of 1824 and support of a separate state of Texas within the Republic of Mexico. He was a mechanic (artisan) and mercantile businessman and was said to have owned the structure in inner Gonzales town called Luna which has been suggested as possibly one of the Grog Shops alluded to in David Edwards History of Texas. It may simply have been Benjamin Fuqua's general business establishment. Luna was on property deeded to Benjamin's brother Silas Fuqua who was a neighbor of John King. Benjamin Fuqua married King's oldest daughter Nancy. Benjamin Fuqua's nephew, Galba Fuqua and nephew by marriage, William King (Nancy King Fuqua's brother), were members of the Gonzales Relief Force to the Alamo and both died there in Mar 1836. From: http://www.tamu.edu/ccbn/dewitt/oldgonzales18.htm After the battle of San Jacinto the new Mexicans became Texans. These men who came to Mexico had to become Mexican citizens to get free land. Now they became Texans where as before they were Tejanos from Tejas Mexico. After the battle, and in spite of the danger, Juan Seguin was not afraid and went to San Antonio looking for his men. When He got there he took a wagon and collected all the dead bodies and buried them where no one would find them. He buried all his men and kept it to himself, not telling anyone. When the Texans arrived sometime later, they saw the place where the men were burnt and collected the few bones that were left by Juan Seguin. Later they held a funeral for the defenders and built a coffin and placed the few remains in this coffin and placed it on the left side of the entrance of the San Fernando church where it remains to this day.

  
  

• Sources

  [S751] Ancestry.com, U.S., Find a Grave® Index, 1600s-Current, (Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.). [S1161] Ancestry.com, Geneanet Community Trees Index, (Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.). [S645] Ancestry.com, Texas, U.S., Land Title Abstracts,1700-2008, (Ancestry.com Operations Inc). [S751] Ancestry.com, U.S., Find a Grave® Index, 1600s-Current, (Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.) (Reliability: 3). Name: Galba Fuqua Birth Date: 9 Mar 1819 Birth Place: Alabama, United States of America Death Date: 6 Mar 1836 Death Place: San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas, United States of America Cemetery: The Alamo Burial or Cremation Place: San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas, United States of America Has Bio?: Y Father: Silas Fuqua Mother: Sally Fuqua URL: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/8859412/galba-fuqua https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/85576898:60525?tid=&pid=&queryId=7914457903cd688ed04cd2b350b4562d&_phsrc=PFA26781&_phstart=successSource [S363] Ancestry.com, Alabama, Marriage Collection, 1800-1969, (Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006.). [S898] Ancestry.com, Alabama, U.S., Compiled Marriages from Selected Counties, 1809-1920, (Ancestry.com Operations Inc). [S1303] Ancestry.com, Alabama, U.S., Select Marriage Indexes, 1816-1942, (Ancestry.com Operations, Inc).