Talk:William Harrison Martin

Birth dates and birth places

There is conflicting information about both the dates and place of birth for William Harrison Martin, and even the name of his father.

The Handbook of Texas cites his birth as September 2, 1823 in Twiggs County, Georgia, the son of Benjamin and Charlotte Martin.

The Biographical Directory of the United States Congress gives his birth date and place as May 23, 1823, Eufaula in Barbour County, Alabama.

A photograph of his tombstone is not much more helpful as it only cites a death date .

The LDS family genealogy search site gives his birth date as September 2, 1822, in Twiggs County, Georgia, son of Robert Martin and Charlotte Harrison. Data submitted for that by Melvin Ray Holt, SR.

Inasmuch as people in the 19th Century were not always sure of their own birth dates, but genealogy researchers are more likely to uncover hitherto unknown documentation, I have used the LDS data on the article page. The date of death on the tombstone matches date of death at LDS site.

--Maile66 (talk) 13:20, 18 June 2010 (UTC)

RE: Birth Date and Place

The LDS records are correct. William Harrison Martin was born Sept. 2, 1822, in Twiggs County, GA, the second child of Robert Martin and Charlotte Harrison, who was the daughter of Benjamin Harrison, who served as an officer in the Revolutionary War.

It is possible the Handbook of Texas transcribed the wrong name.

There is a self-published work titled "Alexander Carswell and Isabella Brown; Their Ancestors and Descendants" authored by Mildred Martin Bond and George Doherty Bond. Only 600 copies were printed, I have two. This book contains considerable biographical detail about "Howdy" Martin with citations to sources. Some of the key sources are two works of Col. Harold B. Simpson who wrote "Hood's Texas Brigade: Lee's Grenadier Guard" (Waco, Texas, 1970) and "Hood's Texas Brigade in Reunion and Memory" (Hillsboro, Texas, 1974)

According to this work, Martin was elected District Attorney in 1872 and served one two-year term.

It is likely that the story about the acquisition of the nickname "Howdy" that has been recounted is apocryphal. Long before the War, it is said that Martin regularly used that greeting and people started using it as a nickname.

It is clear that Martin was a colorful character and likely larger than life. Mildred Bond, who was my aunt, included this personal note in the genealogy she wrote (cited above):

"William Harrison Martin was my grandfather, but he died four years before I was born, and I do not remember as a child ever hearing anything about him that made him seem interesting or remarkable to me. Then, one day, when I was about eleven [circa 1912], I went with a neighbor out to the Confederate Reunion grounds where the surviving veterans and their families gathered once a year from all over Hill and the adjacent counties to hear political speeches, listen to the band play, and commemorate the past. There she took me about the grounds as she sought out old friends and acquaintenances and introduced me as 'Howdy Martin's granddaughter.'

"I will never forget the effect of those words. People looked at me with something like awe and something also like love. Wherever I went that day, the words followed me. Heads turned. The voices said softly, 'that's Howdy Martin's granddaughter.'

"And I knew then that my grandfather was a remarkable man." [pg. 497]

I also have a "club card" photograph of my great-grandfather from his Congressional service that I will try to scan and upload.

I do have bias, I am William Martin Eastland, I was named after both Howdy and his son, my grandfather, who was W. H. Martin, Jr. — Preceding unsigned comment added by BillEastland (talk • contribs) 08:36, 5 July 2011 (UTC)