MR. R. B. HUDNAL AND FAMILY, Smith County, TX ***************************************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm Submitted by Doris Peirce - ginlu@home.com 22 May 2001 ***************************************************************** MR. R. B. HUDNAL AND FAMILY "Some Biographies of Old Settlers." Historical, Personal and Reminiscent. Volume I By Sid S. Johnson, 1900: Sid S. Johnson, Publisher, Tyler, Texas Chapter LXXXIII - Pages 339-340 R. B. Hudnal was born in South Carolina in 1812, and died a few miles northeast of Tyler, in June, 1872. He left his native state and removed to Montgomery, Ala., and helped to build the first capitol built in that city, after its removal from Tuscaloosa. He first settled on the Brazos river, in 1832, with Austin's Colony, and participated in the Texas revolution, which won the Independence of Texas. After the Independence of Texas, he settled in the territory of Anderson county, and married Miss Elizabeth Bowen, of a highly respected frontier family. In 1845, with his young wife, he removed to the territory, afterwards comprising the county of Smith. When the county lines of Smith county were run, he assisted Col. Jas. C. Hill in establishing them. He helped to lay off and plot the town of Tyler. Mr. Hudnal was a Texas veteran, an intelligent man, and could recount the startling events of the early struggles of the people of Texas. He was under the flag of Mexico, the Republic of Texas, the United States, the Confederate States, then a return of the Star Spangled Banner. He helped to regain the Independence of Texas, helped to lay the civil structure of government that is culminating, with rapid strides, to a Greater Texas. He was a good, honest citizen---one of the heroes that followed Houston, Lamar, Rusk and others in throwing off Mexican oppression, and planting the civil rights of the Lone Star Republic. He raised a good sized family, to venerate his good name and good citizenship. N. B. Hudnal, a prominent farmer, living a few miles from Tyler, is a son of the old Texas hero.