Texas Legislators: Past & Present

Stephen Heard Darden

Full Name: Stephen Heard Darden
Birth date: November 18, 1816
Death date: May 16, 1902

Terms of Service

Senate, 9th ⁽¹⁾ ⁽³⁾ ⁽⁴⁾ Legislature
11/4/1861 - 1/14/1862
House, 6th ⁽²⁾ Legislature
11/5/1855 - 11/2/1857
House, 5th Legislature
11/7/1853 - 11/5/1855

(1) Spencer Ford, sworn 2/2/1863, succeeded Stephen H. Darden, resigned. Members of the Texas Congress 1836-1845; Members of the Texas Legislature 1846-2004 2005.
(2) Included "[a]mong 1855 legislators that this writer has positively identified as Know Nothings" and on list of "Texas Know Nothing Leaders with a Summary of Biographical Data Taken from the . . . United States Eighth Census, 1860." The party was active at the state level in Texas in 1855 and 1856. "By 1857 the party had virtually disappeared in Texas." "An Analysis of the Texas Know Nothings," The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 70, Number 3, January 1967, pp. 414, 416, 446, crediting Texas State Historical Association. Portal to Texas History (University of North Texas Libraries) .
Census list
(3) 9th Legislature, Regular Session - Roll of Senators, oath of office administered, 11/4/1861, p. 1. Senate Journal .
(4) 9th Legislature, Regular Session - Classification of Senators (drawing for terms of office) - drew "the long term" (four years), 11/12/1861, p. 42. Senate Journal .

Biographical Notes and Resources

Resolutions and Journal entries

5th Legislature - Roll of Members, S.H. Darden, native state Mississippi, emigrated from Mississippi in 1846, planter, postoffice Gonzales, Gonzales County. House Journal .
Member roster, 9th Legislature, Regular Session: name, district, resident county, post office, state of nativity, occupation, and age. Senate Journal .

Photographs

Photograph. Stephen Darden, Personnel of the Texas State Government with Sketches of Distinguished Texans, 21st Legislature

Other Resources

Colonel S.H. Darden, mentioned in description of Alamo monument, Volume I, p. 708. "After the completion of the present capitol building, in 1888, the twenty-first legislature made an appropriation for the erection of an Alamo monument, to be placed in the capitol grounds. It stands at the right of the main entrance, fronting the avenue; the design, which is a combination of the arch and monument, was selected by a commission composed of Colonel S. H. Darden, J. M. Swisher, and H. B. Andrews." A Comprehensive History of Texas, 1685 to 1897 .
DARDEN, STEPHEN HEARD (1816-1902). Birth date 11/19/1816. Handbook of Texas Online .
Biographical sketch, Stephen H. Darden, Chief Clerk of the Comptroller's Office, pp. 41-42. Personnel of the Texas State Government with Sketches of Distinguished Texans, 20th Legislature 1887.
Portrait and biographical sketch, Stephen H. Darden, pp. 72-76. Personnel of the Texas State Government with Sketches of Distinguished Texans, 21st Legislature 1889.
Portrait and biographical sketch, Stephen H. Darden, Chief Clerk of Comptroller of Public Accounts, pp. 596-598. Personnel of the Texas State Government with Sketches of Representative Men of Texas, 22nd Legislature 1892.
Stephen Heard Darden. Texas Burial Sites of Civil War Notables: A Biographical and Pictorial Field Guide 2002.
Texas Army, Volunteer in Captain D.M. Fulton's Mississippi Company, Texas Revolution. Confederate States Army, Captain, Company A, 4th Texas Infantry, Hood's Texas Brigade; Colonel, 5th Infantry Regiment Texas State Troops. Biographical sketch, pp. 23, 110-111, 210. Birth date 11/19/1816. Texas in the War, 1861-1865 1965.
Biographical sketch, pp. 235-236. Texas Legislative Manual, 1879-80 1879.
Darden, Stephen Heard. Birth date 11/18/1816 on headstone. Texas State Cemetery .
Army of Texas, 1836. Confederate States Army, Colonel, 1863. Headstone inscription. Texas State Cemetery .
Biographical sketch, pp. 4, 6. The Texas Senate: Volume II, Civil War to the Eve of Reform, 1861-1889 1999.