BURLESON, DAVID CROCKETT (1837-1911). David Crockett Burleson, a member of the Texas Rangers^qv and Civil War^qv officer, the son of Sarah (Owen) and Edward Burleson, Sr.,^qv was born on September 6, 1837, probably in Bastrop County, Texas. In 1848 the family settled near San Marcos, where Burleson got the early education that prepared him to attend Baylor University. In 1855 he served in James Hughes Callahan's^qv company of Texas Rangers.^qv The following year he and his brother Edward Burleson, Jr.,^qv traveled to Mexico to clarify some Hays County land titles. They had little success with the title problem and decided to purchase some cattle to drive back to Texas. They were ambushed by a Mexican mob that stole their cattle, and they were jailed for two weeks at Hacienda Potosí. Burleson spent the rest of the pre-Civil War decade as sergeant-at-arms of the Texas Senate. He married Louisa Ware of Manchaca in 1861, shortly before he raised a company for the Confederate Army at Seguin and became a lieutenant in Company B, Thirty-second Texas Cavalry, which served throughout the war in Texas and Louisiana. He purchased land in 1865 in the hills west of San Marcos and operated a horse ranch there before moving to Buda. After his wife died in 1894 he moved to Austin, where he was a member of the capitol police force until his death, on May 17, 1911. He was buried in Live Oak Cemetery at Buda and was survived by four daughters and one son.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: David C. Burleson Papers, Barker Texas History Center, University of Texas at Austin. Amelia W. Williams and Eugene C. Barker, eds., The Writings of Sam Houston, 1813-1863 (8 vols., Austin: University of Texas Press, 1938-43; rpt., Austin and New York: Pemberton Press, 1970).