Texas Legislators: Past & Present

William Howard Bourland

Full Name: William Howard Bourland
Birth date: 1811
Death date: April 2, 1860

Terms of Service

House, 5th Legislature
11/7/1853 - 11/5/1855
House, 2nd ⁽²⁾ ⁽⁶⁾ Legislature
12/13/1847 - 11/5/1849
House, 1st ⁽¹⁾ ⁽³⁾ ⁽⁴⁾ ⁽⁵⁾ Legislature
2/17/1846 - 12/13/1847

Speaker 5/1/1846 - 5/11/1846.

(1) Not present at organization of the House on 2/16/1846. James Gillett, James Willie, John N.O. Smith, and William Bourland sworn on 2/17/1846, p. 11, House Journal .
(2) W.H. Bourland and Johnson Wren, Lamar County. House Journal .
(3) Branch resigned as speaker 3/16, and Crump was again elected, resigning 5/1 to be succeeded the same day by Bourland, who resigned 5/11 and was succeeded by Perkins. Members of the Texas Congress 1836-1845; Members of the Texas Legislature 1846-2004 2005.
(4) Crump, elected speaker 2/16/1846, on 3/3 was granted leave of absence until 3/15, and Brown was elected speaker pro tempore. Brown resigned 3/9, the House adopted a resolution declaring the office vacant since 3/3, and Branch was elected speaker. Members of the Texas Congress 1836-1845; Members of the Texas Legislature 1846-2004 2005.
(5) W.H. Bourland, Lamar County, farmer, nativity Kentucky, Democrat. Table of members of the 1st Legislature, The Texas Democrat (Austin, Texas), 5/20/1846, p. 3, crediting Dolph Briscoe Center for American History. Portal to Texas History (University of North Texas Libraries) .
(6) Roster of members of the 2nd Legislature, The Texas Democrat (Austin, Texas), 12/15/1847, p. 2, crediting Dolph Briscoe Center for American History. Portal to Texas History (University of North Texas Libraries) .

Biographical Notes and Resources

Resolutions and Journal entries

5th Legislature - Roll of Members, William H. Bourland, age 41 (born circa 1812), native state Tennessee, emigrated from Missouri in 1840, farmer, postoffice Sherman, Grayson County. House Journal .

Other Resources

William Howard Bourland, Commissioner to Investigate Land Titles, bond 4/22/1850, oath 4/21/1850, index card, handwritten oath of office of William Howard Bourland. Texas, U.S., Bonds and Oaths of Office, 1846–1920. Ancestry.com .
Major, 1st Texas Mounted Volunteers, Mexican War. William H. Bourland, age 36, born about 1811, enlistment in San Antonio, 4/23/1847. U.S., Compiled Military Service Records for American Volunteer Soldiers, Mexican War, 1845-1848. Ancestry.com .
Biographical sketch, William H. Bourland, p. 54. Biographical Directory of the Texan Conventions and Congresses, 1832-1845 1942.
William Howard Bourland, married Rachel C. Davis 8/30/1831, second Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives, representative of Lamar County in 1845 and first representative of Grayson County in 1853; proof of "Howard" as middle name. "Benjamin Bourland - Agnes McElroy of North Carolina, South Carolina, Kentucky and Texas," entry 10. Bourland in North Texas and Indian Territory During the Civil War: Fort Cobb, Fort Arbuckle & the Wichita Mountains 2006.
BOURLAND, WILLIAM H. (1811-1860). Handbook of Texas Online .
Mentioned in MEXICAN-AMERICAN LAND GRANT ADJUDICATION. Handbook of Texas Online .
Governor Peter Hansbrough Bell appointed William H. Bourland and James B. Miller as commissioners to investigate the real estate titles between the Nueces River and the Rio Grande, 1850. "Bourland, who involved himself in politics shortly after his arrival in Texas, served in the last two Texas Congresses and the First, Second, and Fifth legislature. He also saw service as a major in the Mexican War," p. 454. Galen D. Greaser and Jesús F. de la Teja, "Quieting Title to Spanish and Mexican Land Grants in the Trans-Nueces: The Bourland and Miller Commission, 1850-1852," The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 95, Number 4, April 1992, pp. 445-464, crediting Texas State Historical Association. Portal to Texas History (University of North Texas Libraries) .
5th Speaker of the House of Representatives: William H. Bourland. Biographical sketch. Presiding Officers of the Texas Legislature, 1846-2016 2016.
Biographical sketch, Colonel James Bourland, p. 573. Relatives: James G. Bourland and William H. Bourland - brothers. The Encyclopedia of the New West 1881.