King, William Philip (1820–1836)

William Philip King, Alamo defender, son of John Gladden and Parmelia (Parchman) King, was born on October 8, 1820, in Cotton Gin Port in Monroe County, Mississippi. By the mid-1820s the family moved to Louisiana and arrived in Texas in April 1830. Traveling by covered wagon, the family went to Gonzales and registered in Green Dewitt's Colony on May 15, 1830. In 1836 King lived with his family on land on the Guadalupe River northwest of Gonzales, Texas. When his father was about to ride to the Alamo with the relief force from Gonzales, William, only fifteen years old, persuaded his father that his family needed him more than Col. William Travis did and to let him go in his place. John G. King agreed to his son's request. William Philip King reportedly manned a cannon and was the youngest defender killed in the battle of the Alamo on March 6, 1836. King County was named in his honor.