William A. Alley: A Pioneer of Texas and Member of the Old Three Hundred (ca. 1800–1869)
Published: 1976
Updated: April 7, 2020
William A. Alley, one of Stephen F. Austin's Old Three Hundred colonists, the son of Catherine (Baker) and Thomas Alley, was born in Missouri in either 1799 or 1800. He moved to Texas in 1824 to join his brothers John C., Thomas V., Rawson, and Abraham Alley, who lived near the Colorado River. With his brother Thomas, he received title to a league of land now in Brazoria County in July 1824. The 1825 census for the Colorado District listed Alley as a farmer and stockman. He was probably the same William Alley who received bounty lands for service in the Texas army from about April 11 to July 11, 1836, and from June 26 to September 26, 1836. He was one of a nine-member committee of Colorado County citizens who nominated James Pinckney Henderson for governor in 1845. Alley, who never married, died at his home in Alleyton on August 15, 1869.
Bibliography:
Eugene C. Barker, ed., The Austin Papers (3 vols., Washington: GPO, 1924–28). Lester G. Bugbee, "The Old Three Hundred: A List of Settlers in Austin's First Colony," Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association 1 (October 1897). Dallas Herald, September 4, 1869. Thomas L. Miller, Bounty and Donation Land Grants of Texas, 1835–1888 (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1967). Annie Doom Pickrell, Pioneer Women in Texas (Austin: Steck, 1929). Telegraph and Texas Register, June 7, 1843. Texas National Register, November 15, 1845.
Time Periods:
The following, adapted from the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, is the preferred citation for this entry.
Anonymous, “Alley, William A.,” Handbook of Texas Online, accessed March 09, 2026, https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/alley-william-a.
Published by the Texas State Historical Association.
TID:
FAL37
- 1976
- April 7, 2020
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