This Week in Texas Methodist History  Oct  .1

William Medford Receives Sitio of Land in Bastrop County, Oct. 4, 1835

William Medford, a member of the Missouri Conference (admitted 1818)who located and moved to Texas, became one of the last grantees of land under the government of the Republic of Mexico.  

Medford, although a local pastor, was very important to the small group of Methodists in the last years of the Republic of Texas.  After the Caney Creek Camp Meeting of September 1834, he organized a 4 point circuit.  Since he did not own a horse, he started walking on Saturday so he could reach his preaching point in time to preach.  After one round, a church member loaned him a horse.  

On October 4, 1835, as revolution was in the air, he finally received his land grant which he had applied for the previous April.  His grant was one of the last issued by the Republic of Mexico.  When the Revolution began, the land offices closed.

Medford volunteered for service in the Texian Army, but was discharge on account of his advanced age.  He was 47.  His two weeks of service qualified him for another land grant.  

After the Revolution, he became deputy clerk of Austin County, and in that capacity, his signature is on many of the land transactions of the era.  He bought land on Piney Creek and created a camp meeting site on it.  (see post for last week.)

He died in 1841, never having secured title to his second land grant.  His widow, Elizabeth, went back to United States and left David Ayres with her power of attorney.  In that capacity Ayres finally secured title in what eventually became Uvalde County----a really long, long way from Austin County.