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RAWLS, BENJAMIN (?-1840?). Benjamin Rawls, a partner of Owen H. Stout^qv as one of Stephen F. Austin's^qv Old Three Hundred^qv families, probably came to Texas from Missouri. The partners received title to a sitio^qv of land in what is now Matagorda County on August 3, 1824. The census of March 1826 classified Rawls as a farmer and stock raiser, a single man aged between twenty-five and forty. He was likely related to Daniel and Amos Rawls,^qv as all three men's land grants adjoined on Caney Creek. In January 1827 in the District of Mina, a Ben Rawls signed a declaration of loyalty to the Mexican government that protested the Fredonian Rebellion,^qv and in October 1835 a B. Rawles was among the volunteers under George Morse Collinsworth^qv who signed a pledge to give protection to the citizens of Goliad, provided that they support the republican principles of the Constitution of 1824.^qv A Benjamin Rawls, who may or may not be the original colonist, was with the troops under Philip Dimmitt^qv at Goliad in January 1836. In March 1838 Rawls received a bounty warrant for 320 acres of land for service from October 1835 through January 1836. Sometime after 1835 he married William Kincheloe's^qv widow, Mary (Betts) Kincheloe, daughter of Jacob Betts.^qv The couple had one child. Rawls's will was probated in July 1840.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Eugene C. Barker, ed., The Austin Papers (3 vols., Washington: GPO, 1924-28). Lester G. Bugbee, "The Old Three Hundred: A List of Settlers in Austin's First Colony," Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association 1 (October 1897). John H. Jenkins, ed., The Papers of the Texas Revolution, 1835-1836 (10 vols., Austin: Presidial Press, 1973). Matagorda County Historical Commission, Historic Matagorda County (3 vols., Houston: Armstrong, 1986). Thomas L. Miller, Bounty and Donation Land Grants of Texas, 1835-1888 (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1967). Texas State Gazette, August 28, 1852.

The following, adapted from the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, is the preferred citation for this article.

Handbook of Texas Online, s.v. "," http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/RR/fra47.html (accessed December 1, 2008).

(NOTE: "s.v." stands for sub verbo, "under the word.")

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Last Updated: January 18, 2008
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