Stephen H. Darden    

STEPHEN H. DARDEN.  Hon. Stephen H. Darden died May 16, 1902, at Wharton, Texas, at the home of his step-daughter, Mrs. Mary E. Phillips, where he and his wife had resided for several years.

His remains were brought to Austin the following day and interred in the State Cemetery with Masonic honors. John B. Hood Camp of Confederate Veterans was present in a body, as were also a large concourse of other friends.

He was born at Fayette, in the Territory of Mississippi, in what is now Jefferson county, November 18, 1816,¹ the son of Washington Lee Darden and Ann Sharkey Darden. His father was of English descent, was born in Virginia in 1781, near Gen. Washington’s headquarters, and was nearly related to the Washington and Lee families of that State.

His father’s mother (nee Miss Elizabeth Lanier²) was a kinswoman of Gen. Washington, and his father was named Washington Lee by him—Washington for the General and Lee for “Light Horse” Harry Lee. One of his father’s sisters (Miss Elizabeth Darden) married Gov. Stephen Hurd, British Colonial Governor of Georgia. His mother was also a native of Virginia, was of Irish ancestry, and was a cousin of Chief Justice William Sharkey, of Mississippi, who became Governor of that State after the war of 1861-5. Col. Darden was a cousin of Gov. Hardin R. Runnels, of Texas. He was reared on his father’s farm in Madison county, Mississippi, attended country schools during a portion of his boyhood, and completed his literary education at Kentucky Cumberland College.
The fact that the Texan patriots of 1835-6 were battling against a barbarous and despotic foe for all that freemen hold dear appealed powerfully to brave spirits in the United States, and hundreds enlisted to assist them in the struggle. He was among the number, enrolling himself in the early days of 1836 as a member of a company of cavalry raised by Capt. David M. Fulton, a wealthy farmer in Mississippi. This command reached Texas in April, 1836, proceeding by forced marches, and, still hurrying forward, was in a short distance of Gen. Houston’s army when the battle of San Jacinto was fought. It later (in May) went to San Antonio. There had been no rain there since the fall of the Alamo. The building had been blown up and the walls of the inclosure partly demolished by the Mexican cavalry who had been left in the city when Santa Anna moved eastward and who, in obedience to the terms entered into with him after the battle of San Jacinto, evacuated the place and retired beyond the Rio Grande, not, however, without committing this last act of vandalism.

The bloodstains on the walls in the church and elsewhere were still plainly discernible, and the ashes and charred bones of those who perished in the massacre yet remained unburied in the open space where the bodies were committed to the flames.

In a short time the company was ordered to Gonzales and was employed in scouting duty south to the coast and as far west as the Nueces. At the expiration of six months, the term of its enlistment, it was disbanded.

Darden went back to Mississippi, where he owned large landed interests. A few years later he returned to Texas, bought land on the Guadalupe, in Gonzales county, and established a farm, to which he moved his family from Mississippi in 1846, and where he resided until after the war between the States.

Prior to the war he served two terms as a member of the Texas House of Representatives, with marked distinction.

When the secession of Texas was advocated he opposed that measure, not for the reason that the Southern States had no right to withdraw from the Union, but because he believed the step to be unnecessary, impolitic, and certain to be followed by civil war.

This opposition being severely criticised, he became a candidate for the State Senate, to vindicate himself.

Events, however, crowded thick and fast, and in the midst of the race he left the political arena for the field of arms, going to Virginia as first lieutenant in Capt. Key’s company, which became Company A, Hood’s regiment, Fourth Texas brigade, and was the first raised in Gonzales county.

Notwithstanding his absence from the State, he was elected to the Senate, and, returning to Texas, served in that body during the session of 1861-2.

He then rejoined Company A at the front, became its captain, and served with it in the various engagements from Yorktown to Sharpsburg. At Sharpsburg two color bearers (one after the other) were shot down at his side, whereupon he picked up the flag and gallantly bore it forward in a successful charge. His health failing at the close of this campaign, Capt. Darden resigned his position and returned to Texas. The next year he commanded a body of troops on the southwest Gulf coast of Texas, and became very popular in that section.

In 1864 he was elected to represent the First Texas district in the Confederate Congress (to succeed Hon. John A. Wilcox, deceased) and served as a member of that body until the end of the war.
During reconstruction times he sought as best he could to repair his shattered fortunes and at their close aided in overthrowing carpet bag and radical rule.

He was active in the work of reorganizing the Democratic party. The State convention held at Austin in 1873 nominated him for Comptroller of Public Accounts, and December 2d of that year he was elected, with other members of the Coke ticket, by nearly 50,000 majority over his Republican opponent. He qualified as Comptroller and took charge of the office January 20, 1874. He was re-elected February 15, 1876 (under the newly adopted Constitution of 1876) and November 5, 1878, and served until January, 1881, when he was succeeded by Hon. W. M. Brown.
He was appointed Superintendent of Public Buildings and Grounds by Gov. Ireland, February 9, 1884, and served as such until January 22, 1887, when he was succeeded by Gen. William P. Hardeman.
From January, 1887, to January, 1895, he was chief clerk of the Comptroller’s department—from the beginning to the end of Hon. John D. McCall’s terms of office as Comptroller.

He also served for a number of years as a member of the Board. of Trustees of the State Lunatic Asylum at Austin.

He was secretary of the Texas Veterans’ Association from the time of its organization in 1873 to his death. The last public service of his life was rendered the association at its meeting at Lampasas, April 20-21, 1902, where he assisted President Winters in presiding.

From Lampasas he went to Dallas, where he attended the Confederate reunion, April 22-25, 1902, and then returned to Wharton. After a few days of illness he quietly passed away, in the presence of his family and a few friends, at the age of 86.

He was married to Miss Catherine Mays, daughter of John and Anna Sherlock Mays, at Seguin, on the 24th day of March, 1862. His wife and the following children, born of his last marriage, survive him: Nelson Mays Darden, of Bay City, and Mrs. Anne Darden Brown, of Austin. Mrs. Tyler Terrell, a daughter born of a former marriage, is living at Seguin.

He moved with his family from Austin to Wharton in December, 1897, and made his home with Mrs. Phillips, daughter of Mrs. Darden by a former marriage.

He was a Royal Arch Mason. He instituted or organized Alamo Lodge in San Antonio in December, 1847.

At all times he was modest and unpretentious, and lived strictly in accord with the dictates of love and charity. Nothing that required his attention was overlooked or undisposed of. Many there are who will bear witness to his sympathetic kindness and generosity of spirit. In his prosperous days he lived literally with open hands.

¹Mississippi was admitted as a State December 10, 1817.
²Of the same family as that from which the Texas poet Sidney Lanier was descended.
³He married a few years after his return to Mississippi. He was married four times.

Year Book for Texas: party conventions, election returns, inauguration of Governor Lanham and Lieutenant-Governor Neal, legislative work, public officials and current reports of departments and state institutions, important events, obituaries of distinguished dead, industrial development, statistics, biographical sketches, and historical manuscripts never before published. Raines, Cadwell Walton, Austin, Tex.: Gammel-Statesman Pub. Co., 1903, pages 39-42. View image of this page on line.  Search Hundreds of 1880s-1920s Texas History Books for biographies and historical information on your ancestors.  View the book page images on line and print them out for your genealogy file!  Try the family history collection for free for 14 days!