Harriett Stone

 William John Smith, the last messenger from the Alamo and the first mayor of San Antonio, was born in Virginia on March 4, 1792, the son of John and Isabel Smith.  As a youth he moved to Ralls County, Missouri, where he served as tax collector and sheriff and married Harriet Stone in 1821.  They had three children.  In 1826 Smith followed the empresario Green DeWitt to Texas.  When his wife refused to join him, he parted from his family, after extracting a promise for a divorce.  He lived in Gonzales, then in La Bahía, and by 1827 had moved to San Antonio, where he changed his name to John William Smith because it was easier for Spanish speakers to pronounce.  ….  In 1832 he married María de Jesús Delgado Curbelo, a descendant of Canary Islanders, and they had six children, whose descendants remained prominent citizens of San Antonio.  Between 1827 and 1836 Smith served as military storekeeper, developed mercantile interests, and received a sizable Mexican land grant.  He also worked as a civil engineer and surveyor.  In December 1835 he escaped the occupying Mexican army of Gen. Martín Perfecto de Cos and joined Gen. Edward Burleson and the Texas army in besieging San Antonio.  Smith used his familiarity with the town and his surveying skills to draw the detailed plat that made possible the successful house-to-house attack; he also acted as a guide for one of the assaulting parties.  In early 1836 he joined William B. Travis in defense of the Alamo; he was sent by Travis as the final messenger to the Convention of 1836.  Subsequently Smith continued as an army scout and participated in the battle of San Jacinto.”

He was sent out from the Alamo as a courier shortly after the Mexican Army arrived. He returned as a guide with the Gonzales Ranging Company. He was sent out again on March 3.  He was organizing a group of 25 men to return with him when the fort fell.

His first wife Harriett moved her children to Texas in 1839 with her brother and two of her Uncles.  One being Samuel Stone.  They settled in the Bastrop area.  Harriett died in Manor, Tx in 1865.  All of her children remained in Texas and have been loyal citizens along side their half brothers and sisters in Texas history,