The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 14, July 1910 - April, 1911 Page: 327

William T. Malone

liam T. Malone for services rendered to the Republic of Texas by
him. These certificates declare that he was killed in the defense
of the Alamo.- They were taken back or sent back to his mother,
and she declared in her grief that she would not have them, for
they were bought with the price of her son's blood.
The last inexplicable fact remains; notwithstanding that all
these facts appear to be well established, yet the name of William
T. Malone never seems to have been on the original muster rolls
of the men who fought and fell at the Alamo, nor upon the copy
of the rolls that yet remains in the Land Office, nor upon the mon-
ument that perpetuates the names and fame of the heroic dead.
Was his name upon the original muster rolls that were destroyed
in the burning of the Adjutant General's office before the Civil
War ?2 Was his name casually omitted from the copy of the rolls
that chanced to be preserved from the fire? Or did Malone fight
like Smith of the Wynd "with a free hand, belonging to no com-
pany or clan"? Did he arrive at the Alamo just in time to enter
its fatal walls? Crockett came to the Alamo almost alone. Did
Malone come in the same way? Mrs. Dickinson says that he had
been there but a short time. and belonged to the same mess as her
husband. By some mischance his name has not been preserved
on roll or monument, but let it be placed forever in the historical
records of Texas. Let not the name of the wayward but heroic
young man be forgotten.
1The records of the Land Office show that headright certificate No. 274
for a league and labor of land was issued February 2, 1838, to Elijah
Anderson, assignee of William T. Malone, by the land commissioners of
San Augustine County in consideration of Malone's having arrived in
Texas previous to the declaration of independence; that bounty warrant
No. 4005 for 1920 acres was issued by the Secretary of War to the heirs
of Malone July 5, 1838, for his services in the Texas Army from Septem-
ber 26, 1835, to March 6, 1836; that donation warrant No. 420 for 640
acres was issued to his heirs by the Secretary of War July 6, 1838, for
his having fallen in the Alamo; and that duplicate No. 29/236 was issued
by the Commissioner of the General Land Office March 29, 1871, in place
of a lost original headright certificate for one-third of a league issued
by the land commissioners of Harris county in the name of Malone. The
date and number of this lost original are not known. The "Lost Book
of Harris," in the Land Office, shows that evidence was furnished the
commissioners of Harris county to the effect that Malone was killed in
the Alamo. The information contained in this note was kindly furnished
by the Commissioner of the General Land Office.
'This fire occurred October 10, 1853.

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