Notable Persons

Noteworthy,
or notorious,
people at this site.

Napoleon Bonaparte Wiess
Napoleon Bonaparte Wiess
East Texas Steamboat Captain

Ordered by era & surname.

Recent Past: (1900-present)
Oleg Cassini (1913-2006) Fashion designer.
Gen. George Harlan Cloud (1904-1995) General, USMC.
Jack Martin "Flying Jack" Cloud (1925-) All-American football player at William & Mary.
Dr. Preston E. Cloud (1912-1991) Historical geologist, biogeologist, paleontologist, and humanist; member National Academy of Scientists.
Rev. W.A. Criswell (1909-2002) Pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas, President of the Southern Baptist Convention, founder of Criswell College.
Hedy Lamarr (1913-2000) Hedwig Eva Marie Kiesler, actress, inventor of spread spectrum radio technology, "mother of the cell phone".
Glenn McCarthy (1907-1988) Oil tycoon, subject of the book & movie "Giant".
Lloyd Hilton Smith (1905-1999) Lloyd Hilton Smith, 1929 graduate of Yale, vice-president of Humble Oil Company and director of the National Review.
Cathryn Antoinette "Toni" Tennille American singer, songwriter and half of the TV show duo "Captain and Tennille".
Gene Tierney (1920-1991) Actress.
Dr. Leslie Whittington (1955-2001) Killed in the Muslim terrorist attack of 9/11/2001 on the Pentagon.
 100 - 200 years Ago:  (1800-1900)
Ellen Louise Axson (1860-1914) First lady of the United States, wife of president Woodrow Wilson who died while he was still in office.
Aline Barnsdall Mother of modern (American) architecture.
Theodore Newton Barnsdall The largest independent oil producer of his times in the United States
William Barnsdall He drilled the second oil well in U.S. history, following Col. Edwin Drake.
Edith Bolling First lady of the United States, second wife of president Woodroow Wilson.
Mourad Bumstead Early Texas settler and veteran of the Siege of Bexar.
Daniel William Cloud Died defending the Alamo.
David Comer Cloud (1817-1903) Iowa's First Attorney General.
H.G.W. Cloud (1810-1897) -- Blind at age 21, he still served as tax assessor and collector of Austin county, Texas.
Jennie Cloud Wimmer Jennie Wimmer was perhaps the most instrumental person in starting the California gold rush at Sutter's Mill. The nugget that was discovered was thought to be mica or pyrite (fools gold) and she proved it was real gold.
Dalton gang

The Dalton gang -- The children of James Lewis Dalton and Adeline Lee Younger were born between 1852 and 1879. Adeline Younger's half brother, Henry Washington Younger, fathered the Younger gang, making the Dalton gang and the Younger gang first cousins.They lived in Missouri, Kansas and the Indian Territory (Oklahoma).

See the exposé of the fraud against the Dalton family – Dalton Hoax

Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931) American inventor, scientist and businessman, inventor of the phonograph, motion picture camera, and the light bulb. "The Wizard of Menlo Park."
Judge James A. Elkins Judge James Anderson Elkins (1879-1972). Judge Elkins was a prominent citizen of Houston, Texas and was a founder of the prestigious law firm of Vinson & Elkins.
Hardin family The Hardin family -- Hardin county, Texas is named for the Hardin family of Liberty county. They were involved in a shootout in Tennessee and fled to Texas to avoid prosecution. They became involved with the Yocum gang of East Texas through marriage. Benjamin Watson Hardin's wife, Adelia Coleman, was first married to John Yocum (relative of the infamous Yocum family of East Texas). John Yocum was shot and killed by his brother, Thomas Denman "Tom" Yocum. John and Adelia's son, Jesse Yocum, was participating in the Mier expedition when he was accidentally shot and killed by John Christopher Hill.
John and Tom Yocum and their father and brothers were members of the infamous Murrell gang of western Mississippi, who robbed and killed travelers along the Natchez Trace. Tom Yocum became the leader of the "Yocum gang" known throughout East Texas for thievery and murder.
Benjamin Hardin's brother, Augustine Blackburn Hardin, married a niece of the Yocum gang -- the daughter of Philip Dever and Mary Yocum, Mariah Dever.
"Doc" Holliday Dr. John Henry "Doc" Holliday, D.D.S. (1852-1887) -- Dentist, gambler, gunfighter, friend of Wyatt Earp and survivor of the Gunfight at the OK Corral.
Kate Elder aka "Big Nose Kate" Mary Katherine "Kate" Horony, also known as Kate Elder and Big Nose Kate. Daughter of a Hungarian doctor. Dance-hall girl, prostitute and girl friend of Doc Holliday.
Lewis Ellington Jones (1878-1917) -- He wrote several hymns, including "Power in the Blood", "We Shall See the King Someday", "All in All", "Lean on His Arms", "There'll Be No shadows", and numerous other religious hymns.
T.P. Lee Partner in the Yount-Lee Oil Company of Texas, which participated in the Spindletop oil boom.
Obadiah M. Kyle The first gusher at Spindletop was brought in on on the McFaddin, Wiess & Kyle land.
Wm. P. H. McFaddin The first gusher at Spindletop was brought in on on the McFaddin, Wiess & Kyle land.
Genl / Gov. William Calvin Oates 1894 governor of Alabama and general in the Spanish-American War. (1833-1910)
William Wilhelm Seybold (1795-1864) -- One of the founders of the Texas Medical Association (1848). A successful physician in Germany, he immigrated to Newton county, Texas by 1835.
Cyrus Thompson Veteran of the Battle of San Jacinto, one of the men who captured General Santa Anna.
Harry Carothers Wiess Wiess college at Rice University is named for him. He helped found Humble Oil Company (now Exxon) and was its third president until his death.
Mark Wiess He owned the largest lumber mill in the world at the end of the 19th century -- the Reliance Lumber Company of Beaumont, Texas.  He was a successful inventor and influential businessman.
Simon Wiess Early settler of Texas and East Texas businessman. His sons played an important role in the building of East Texas and the early oil industry of the United States.
Valentine Wiess One of the most successful businessmen of early Beaumont, Texas, and its largest taxpayer in 1913. Wiess Park and Wiess Avenue in Beaumont are named for him.
William Wiess An influential businessman in early Texas and participant in the founding of several oil companies, including the Texas Company (Texaco). His second wife, Elizabeth Carothers, was instrumental in saving Southwestern University in Georgetown from bankruptcy and his son, Harry Carruthers Wiess, was a benefactor of Rice University and was the third president of Humble Oil Company (Exxon).
Woodrow Wilson 28th President of the United States.
Gov. Henry Alexander Wise Governor of Virginia, brigadier general under general Robert E. Lee, and principal in the arrest and trial of John Brown.
Yocum gang The Yocum family / Yocum gang -- Jesse Yokum and his sons joined John A. Murrell's "Murrell gang" of western Mississippi. John A. Murrell began as an abolitionist who "liberated" slaves. They were actually kidnapping them and selling them to farmers in Louisiana. He was joined by Jesse Yokum and his sons, Samuel Yocum, Matthias Yocum, Thomas Denman "Tom" Yocum, James W. Yocum, Jesse Yocum and possibly his youngest son, John Yocum.
Jesse Yokum's daughter, Mary "Polly" Yocum, married Philip Dever. Their son, Thomas Dever, was a friend of William Hobard Whittington (son of Melina Dalton Whittington). William named the town of Devers, Texas after Tom. The town of Devers is located in Liberty county on the Melina Whittington land grant, land granted to William's mother by the Republic of Texas.
Another daughter of Jesse Yokum, Catherine "Kitty" Yocum, married Jacob Montgomery Shannon who later became a Texas Ranger and was descended from the family that founded Montgomery, Texas, located in East Texas on the west side of Liberty county.
Younger gang The Younger gang consisted of the children of Henry Washington Younger, most of whom served with Quantrill's Raiders (aka Quantrill's Guerillas). Henry's son Cole (Thomas Coleman Younger) was one of the founders of the James Gang, along with Frank and Jesse James. Many members of the James Gang were also previous members of the Confederate guerilla group known as Quantrill's Raiders. Henry Younger's half sister, Adeline Lee Younger, was the wife of James Lewis Dalton, the father of the Dalton Gang. They lived in Missouri, Kansas and the Indian Territory (Oklahoma).
 200 - 400 years Past: (1600-1800)
Moses Austin The father of the American lead industry and the first to obtain permission to bring Anglo-American settlers into Spanish Texas. Father of Stephen F. Austin.
Stephen F. Austin Known as "The Father of Texas".
Capt. Samuel Ball Served from New Jersey as Captain in the American Revolutionary War.
Gov. Joseph Blake Governor of South Carolina, 1694.
Joseph Cloud Head of the melting and refining department at the first U.S. mint.
William Cloud (1621-1702) Early settler of the American colonies and progenitor of many with the Cloud surname in America today.  He purchased land from William Penn and settled in what is now Chester county, Pennsylvania.
Jasper Crane One of the original settlers of the New Haven Colony and cofounder of Newark, New Jersey with Capt. Robert Treat.
Rosanna Waters Farrow A Revolutionary War Heroine who rescued three of her five sons from British forces.
Sophia Folsom "Lk-lo-ha-wah" Her Choctaw name means "loved but lost".  After her husband's, John Pitchlynn's, death, she moved to Indian Territory and is honored for her contributions there to this day.  Her grave is an historic marker and the oldest grave in Oklahoma.
Temperance "Tempy" Ellis Frizzle An early Alabama pioneer, the story of Tempy Ellis was required reading in Alabama schools.  She was kidnapped at an early age by Indians and spent a number of years with them.  Her husband, Thomas Frizzle, was murdered by a servant at a family breakfast gathering in 1857.  Check out the Temperance Ellis Society home page.
Robert Treat Paine (1730-1814) Signer of the Declaration of Independence.
Maj. John Pitchlynn (1764-1835) He was appointed by President George Washington to serve as interpreter for all the treaties between the Choctaw Nation and the United States.  He married Sophia Folsom,
Jasper Seybold, R.S. (1730-1788) Revolutionary Soldier.
Gov. Robert Treat (1622-1710) -- He co-founded Newark, New Jersey with Jasper Crane and founded Milford, Connecticut. He was the governor of Connecticut during the Charter Oak Affair. He was Commander in Chief / King Philip's War and was a great-grandfather of Robert Treat Paine, a signer of the Declaration of Independence (July 4, 1776).  Click here for the visit to Milford and his grave.
Col. Philemon Waters (1734-1786) He served in the French and Indian Wars and is credited with firing the first shot at Fort Necessity at Great Meadows, near Pittsburgh, in the French and Indian War while serving under George Washington.  He was one of South Carolina's most illustrious statesmen.
Grief Whittington (1762-1848) Revolutionary Soldier.
 400 - 900 years Past: (1100-1600)
King Bela III King Bela III of Hungary (1148-1196)
William the Conqueror William The CONQUEROR King of England (1027-1087)
King Henry II King Henry of England (1132/33-1189)
King Henry III King Henry III of England (1207-1272)
Robin Hood Robin Hood -- Robert, Earl of Huntingdon (1200-1294).
King John Lackland King John Lackland of England (1166-1216)
King Louis VIII King Louis VIII of France (1187-1226)
Queen Juana of Navarre Juana of Navarre Queen of Navarre (1270-1305)
King Philip III King Philip III of France (aka King Philip the Bold) (1245-1285)
King Richard I (The Lionhearted) King Richard, The Lionhearted, of England (1157-1199).
Queen Eleanor of Provence Eleanor of PROVENCE Queen of England (1220-1291)
Mayor Dick Whittington of London Mayor of London three times (1359-1423).
 More than 900 years Ago: (before 1100 A.D.)
King Aethelwulf King Aethelwulf of England (800-858)
Emperor Charlemagne Emperor CHARLEMAGNE 1st HR Emperor (742-814)
King Dyggvi Domarsson Dyggvi Domarsson, 1st King of Uppsala ( - 190)
Lady Godiva Lady Godiva rode through the streets naked to protest her husband's taxation.
Duke Frederick II of Hohenstauffen Frederick II of Hohenstauffen Duke of Swabia (1091-1147)
King Olaf the Woodcutter King Olaf the WOODCUTTER *of Vermaland -- died about 710 in Vaermaland - sacrificed for better crops
King Athils Ottarsson King Athils Ottarsson of Uppsala -- died in 505 in Uppsala when horse fell
Vanlandi Sveigthirsson Vanlandi Sveigthirsson of Uppsala -- died about 48 in Uppsala, killed by a nightmare
Rurik The Viking Purported founder of Russia.  Rurik Led the invasion into what became "RUS-SIA" (land of the red).
Domaldi Visbursson Domaldi Visbursson of Uppsala -- sacrificed for better harvest

(The above are but a few of the "notables". Follow the links and look around.)

Please submit any suggestions for additions to the list.