Oakwood Cemetery

Henderson King Yoakum

 

  Yoakum was born Claiborne County, Tennessee, on September 6, 1810. Yoakum graduated from West Point in 1832 but resigned from the army in 1833 to practice law in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. In 1837 Yoakum was elected mayor of Murfreesboro. He served as a member of the Tennessee Senate from 1839 to 1845 where he called for the annexation of Texas.

 

   On October 6, 1845 Yoakum settled in Huntsville, Texas and in December was admitted to the Texas bar. When the Mexican War broke out Yoakum enlisted and later served as a lieutenant under James Gillaspie in Monterrey. When his enlistment expired Yoakum returned to his law practice in Huntsville where Sam Houston was a client and close friend. In 1849 Yoakum wrote the charter for Austin College and served as a trustee from 1849 to 1856. Yoakum was appointed director of the state penitentiary in Huntsville in 1849.

 

   In 1855, he completed the first history of Texas, his two-volume History of Texas from Its First Settlement in 1685 to Its Annexation to the United States in 1846. While attending to court duties he suffered a severe tubercular attack and later died on November 30, 1856.