Stamps, John (1798–1867)

John Stamps, legislator, was born on September 3, 1798, in Pulaski, Kentucky, the son of John and Mary Polly (McGrew) Stamps. He married Henrietta Burch on February 22, 1821. The couple had two children and lived in Mississippi in 1825. Stamps moved to the Austin colony early and settled in what is now Washington County. By 1841 he had enough influence to have Mount Vernon, a site near his residence, declared the county seat. The new community was county seat for three years. Stamps represented the county as a member of the House in the Eighth Congress of the republic. He continued to live in the area; he is listed in the 1850 agricultural census as the owner of extensive farmland and livestock. He was the largest slaveholder in the county and worked as a railroad contractor. He had a son, John C. Stamps, who was living nearby in 1853, and a daughter, Mary Louisiana, who died in 1849. Henrietta Stamps died on August 6, 1857, and Stamps married Jane Ann Gorman on March 25, 1858. He died on September 24, 1867, and is buried at Prairie Lea Cemetery in Brenham, Washington County. At the time of his death he was on the board of directors of Baylor University and Baylor Female College.