Cushney, William H. (1819–1852)

William H. Cushney, early newspaperman, was born in Fonda, New York, on September 15, 1819. He went to Augusta, Georgia, in 1835 as foreman in the office of the Constitutionalist before moving to Texas in 1840 and serving for a time in the Texas army. Cushney settled in Austin in 1845. He published the Austin Texas Democrat for a time before founding the Austin State Gazette in August 1849. Cushney married Lydia Jane Brown, sister of Frank Brown, in 1846, and they became the parents of two children. Cushney died, probably of tuberculosis, on November 24, 1852, while visiting a friend's home in Independence, Washington County; he was buried with Masonic honors at Oakwood Cemetery in Austin.