William Phillip King^[1]

1820 - 1836  (15 years)

• Name	William Phillip King
  Birth	8 Oct 1820	, Giles, Tennessee, USA
  Gender	Male
  Death	6 Mar 1836	San Antonio, Bexar, Texas, USA
  Person ID	I55865	Master
  Last Modified	31 Dec 2024

  
  

  Father	John Gladden King,   b. 8 Feb 1790, , Fairfield, South Carolina, USA d. 16 Mar 1856, Gonzales, Gonzales, Texas, USA (Age 66 years)
  Mother	Mildred Parmelia "Millie" Parchman,   b. 8 Mar 1798, Pulaski, Giles, Tennessee, USA d. 1879, Gonzales, Gonzales, Texas, USA (Age 80 years)
  Marriage	8 May 1817	Pulaski, Giles, Tennessee, USA
  Family ID	F12531	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Event Map

  Birth - 8 Oct 1820 - , Giles, Tennessee, USA Death - 6 Mar 1836 - San Antonio, Bexar, Texas, USA  = Link to Google Earth

  
  

• Notes

  KING, WILLIAM PHILIP (1820–1836). William Philip King, Alamo defender, son of John Gladden and Parmelia (Parchman) King, was born on October 8, 1820, in Cotton Gin Port in Monroe County, Mississippi. By the mid-1820s the family moved to Louisiana and arrived in Texas in April 1830. Traveling by covered wagon, the family went to Gonzales and registered in Green Dewitt's Colony on May 15, 1830. In 1836 King lived with his family on land on the Guadalupe River northwest of Gonzales, Texas. When his father was about to ride to the Alamo with the relief force from Gonzales, William, only fifteen years old, persuaded his father that his family needed him more than Col. William Travis did and to let him go in his place. John G. King agreed to his son's request. William Philip King reportedly manned a cannon and was the youngest defender killed in the battle of the Alamo on March 6, 1836. King County was named in his honor. BIBLIOGRAPHY: Clipping File, Library of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas, San Antonio (Historic Sites, Alamo, Alamo Defenders, William Philip King). Daughters of the American Revolution, The Alamo Heroes and Their Revolutionary Ancestors (San Antonio, 1976). Bill Groneman, Alamo Defenders (Austin: Eakin Press, 1990). Ron Jackson, Alamo Legacy: Alamo Descendants Remember the Alamo (Austin: Eakin Press, 1997). Walter Lord, A Time to Stand (New York: Harper, 1961; 2d ed., Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1978). Phil Rosenthal and Bill Groneman, Roll Call at the Alamo (Fort Collins, Colorado: Old Army, 1985). R. L. Templeton, Cannon Boy of the Alamo (Quanah, Texas: Nortex Press, 1975). William Phillip King, 16, born 8 Oct 1819, a resident of Gonzales and Private rifleman in the Gonzales Rangers. He was the son of John Gladden King (1790-1856) and Parmelia (Milly) Parchman who married abt 1818 in GilesCo, TN. John King received a league of land arriving on 15 May 1830 with a family of nine. His league was on the east bank of the Guadalupe River in GuadalupeCo northwest of Gonzales and southeast of Seguin. His neighbors were the Sowells on the northwest and Umphries Branch on the southeast. Col. John G. King contributed to the early Texas cattle industry and after the Alamo he moved the family to MontgomeryCo. He was a friend of local Indians in the area and highly regarded among particularly the Lipans and Tonkawas. John G. King is also listed in the Gonzales relief force in older records. Son William King is said to have joined the force so that his father could look after the family, some of which were ill, during the emergent crisis. According to Lord’s A Time To Stand, young William King approached the Gonzales relief force among which was his father John King as they passed by the King place north of Gonzales on the way to San Antonio. After some emotional discussion, father John agreed to allow son William to take his place in the force to which Capt. Kimble agreed. Father John King remained with the family on the homeplace. William King was the youngest member of the Alamo defenders. King County on the lower plains of west TX was named in his honor. From the Audited Claims Archives of the Republic of Texas is the following certificate: THIS CERTIFICATE Entitles John G. King to pay from the date of the last payment made him to Sixth March 1836, as a private in [Captain Lt. Kimble] Major Williamson's Command ['s Company,] ( ,) [Regiment] Ranging Service He entered the 24th of Feby 1836--J.W. Robinson has filed a power of attorney from J.G. King. A. Sidney Johnston, Secretary of War. Houston, Jany 15--1839. The above was a printed certificate with the entries shown in bold italics. Bracketed areas were crossed out, note that the unit was at first noted as that of Lt. Kimble, then stricken and replaced with Major Williamson's command. In 1858, the Seguin Mercury reported the eloquent speech of State Senator Henry E. McCulloch: "From an eloquent speech of our State Senator, Captain H. E. McCulloch, delivered in the Senate the 22nd of July last, on the bill for the purchase of the Alamo monument, we make the following extract: I will relate a circumstance which occurred in my presence, with one of these mothers of our country; and, sir, I shall never never forget my feelings upon that occasion, and can scarcely control them now sufficiently to speak. She was the mother of one whose youthful blood was mingled with that of Travis, Crocket, Bowie, and others, to water the tree of liberty which sprang up on their graves; the blood that bought our country, (Texas), and made us free. In the fall of 1942, General Wall, a Mexican general, at the head of a band of Mexican robbers, (for I can call them by no milder name), some 1,200 or 1,500 strong, led, in part, by heartless traitors---and when I say that, I mean what I say, and will name Colonel Juan N. Seguin, who now lives on the San Antonio river, and Captain Antonio Perez, who is dead, as the leaders I refer to---made a descent upon San Antonio, when the district court was then in session, and overpowered and took the place, making prisoners of all the Americans that were there, robbing and plundering the town, and spreading alarm through a sparsely populated and defenseless country, causing the settlers to leave their homes and flee to places of safety. Women were flying, and men whose hearts beat high for their country, were gathering together and hurrying to meet and drive back the dastard foe; I was sent forward by my captain, the noble and lamented Matthew Caldwell, to get every man on or near the road, to join us; and calling at the residence of one, who when young and able to perform his part, had rendered good service to his country; to see if I could get some one at that place; I told him my business, and said: "I know you are too old to go now," and asked him if there was any one who could be spared to go. He hung his head, evidently struggling between his feelings as a parent and love for his country. The only son he had old enough to bear arms and take the field in defense of his country, was, standing impatient for the answer, when the mother spoke and said: "John might be spared from home a few days very well." "But," said the old man, the tears filling his eyes, "we lost William at the Alamo; can we see John go, too?" The mother looked him full in the face, and in a firm, mild voice, said: "Tis true, that William died at the Alamo, and we have no son to spare, but we had better lose them than our country." He went, and like a true son of a noble mother, who had voluntarily offered him, if need be, upon the altar of her country, he stood amid the clangor of arms and din of battle, side by side with the descendants of the heroes of the Alamo, and other citizens of the country, numbering 202 men, till victory perched upon our standard---till the Lone Star waved in triumph over the battle-field of the Salado. Such, sir, are specimens of the widows and descendants of the men whose names are inscribed upon that monument, and it is with pride and pleasure I discharge my high duty to them and my country, by casting my vote for the bill, and I hope it will pass.

  
  

• Sources

  [S761] Yates Publishing, Ancestry Family Trees, (Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com. Original data: Family Tree files submitted by Ancestry members.), Ancestry Family Tree.