Texas State Historical Association (TSHA) https://www.tshaonline.org

Stinnett, Claiborne https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/stinnett-claiborne

The Life and Mysterious Disappearance of Claiborne Stinnett (unknown–ca. 1838)

By: Stephen L. Hardin

Published: 1952

Updated: July 1, 1995

Claiborne Stinnett, early settler and public official, arrived in Texas as a single man on May 20, 1830. He represented Green DeWitt's colony at the Convention of 1832. In the spring of 1837 he married the twice-widowed Sarah Creath Howard, whose two former husbands had both been killed by Indians. Probably in September 1838, while serving as sheriff of Gonzales, Stinnett disappeared while returning to Gonzales from Linnville. Texas historian John Henry Brown believed that he was murdered in 1837 by two runaway slaves on their way to Mexico. He was more likely killed by Indians in 1838. If this is the case, he was the third of Sarah's husbands to die in this way.

Share this entry on social media:

Bibliography:

John Henry Brown, Indian Wars and Pioneers of Texas (Austin: Daniell, 1880; reprod., Easley, South Carolina: Southern Historical Press, 1978). Ethel Zivley Rather, "DeWitt's Colony," Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association 8 (October 1904). Texas House of Representatives, Biographical Directory of the Texan Conventions and Congresses, 1832–1845 (Austin: Book Exchange, 1941).

The following, adapted from the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, is the preferred citation for this entry.

Stephen L. Hardin, “Stinnett, Claiborne,” Handbook of Texas Online, accessed May 19, 2026, https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/stinnett-claiborne.

TID: FST59

Original Publication Date:
1952
Most Recent Revision Date:
July 1, 1995