FLOYD, DOLPHIN WARD (1804–1836). Dolphin Ward Floyd, Alamo defender, son of Thomas Penuel and Sarah (Beckwith) Floyd, was born in Nash County, North Carolina, on March 6, 1804. He immigrated to Texas and settled in Gonzales, where he made his living as a farmer. On April 26, 1832, he married Ester Berry House. Floyd joined the relief force from Gonzales and rode to the besieged Alamo, where he arrived on March 1, 1836. He died in the battle of the Alamo on his thirty-second birthday, March 6, 1836. Floyd County is named in his honor.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Daughters of the American Revolution, The Alamo Heroes and Their Revolutionary Ancestors (San Antonio, 1976). Bill Groneman, Alamo Defenders (Austin: Eakin, 1990). Ethel Zivley Rather, "DeWitt's Colony," Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association 8 (October 1904).
