DAMRON, MILTON WESLEY (1824–1887). Milton Wesley Damron, city official, Confederate officer, and state representative, was born in Weakley County, Tennessee, on May 19, 1824, the son of John, Jr., and Sarah Elizabeth (Schultz) Damron. In 1844 Damron immigrated with his family to Texas as part of the Mercer Colony, settling along the Trinity River in the vicinity of Henderson and Ellis counties. In 1846 Milton W. Damron married Sarah Pennington in Travis County. This couple had three daughters.
Prior to 1850 the Damron family relocated to Bell County and secured a homestead near Comanche Gap. Damron played a leading role in the public affairs of this community throughout the decade. He was the first tax assessor for the county, served on the first grand jury for the county, and was a charter member of the Bell County Agricultural Club. During the early 1850s Milton Damron also served as justice of the peace for the county. During 1859 he served in the Independent Blues, a volunteer ranger company assembled to defend against Indian attacks.
In January 1862 following the outbreak of the Civil War Damron raised a company of cavalry for service in the Confederate Army. This unit, with Damron serving as captain, was mustered into service at Dallas on January 20 as Company D of the Eighteenth Texas Cavalry Regiment. Beginning in June 1862 this unit was assigned to duty in Arkansas and northern Louisiana. He was on furlough, however, when his unit was captured at the Battle of Arkansas Post. In late 1863 Damron was put in command of a new company of men comprised of elements of his original company and new recruits from Ellis County and incorporated into the Seventeenth Texas Cavalry Regiment as Company E. He served with this unit in Louisiana for the remainder of the war.
At the conclusion of the war Damron returned to Bell County. In 1866 he won election as representative for Bell County to the Eleventh Texas Legislature. Milton W. Damron died in Salado, Bell County, on April 28, 1887, and was buried there at Salado Cemetery.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: A Guide to Muster Rolls (http://www.lib.utexas.edu/taro/utcah/00041.xml), accessed May 18, 2007. Mrs. Louis C. Hill, and Mrs. John T. Martin, Bell County, Texas Records, Volume I (Waco: Mrs. Louis C. Hill and Mrs. John T. Martin, 1969 Bell County Historical Commission, Story of Bell County, Texas (2 vols., Austin: Eakin Press, 1998 George Tyler, History of Bell County (San Antonio: Naylor, 1936).
