Richard Bankhead

Richard Bankhead was born in Tennessee and married Sarah Leah Nobles. Together they had five children, including Mary Frances Bankhead (“Frankie”), who would later marry John McAdams Jr. — the Texas Revolution veteran and founder of the McAdams Community.¹

Migration to Texas

In 1834, Richard Bankhead and his family came to Texas, accompanied by four other families: Jimmie Spillers, Ben Roberson, William Winters, and George A. Lamb. They settled on a tract of land a few miles west of Huntsville. Their children were William Newton, James Marion, Mary Elizabeth, Eady Elmyra, and Mary Frances (“Frankie”), who was only a few months old at the time of the journey.²

Richard died of exposure on January 17, 1835, crossing “Bedias” creek. His body was buried at Bath on the old Dewey Convict Farm. He had been in Texas less than a year.²

Within four weeks of his death, from October 15 to November 18, 1835, Sarah lost two of their sons — William and James — both buried by their father at Bath. On March 1, 1831, the remaining heirs of Richard Bankhead were granted two-thirds league and labor of land.²

What Followed

Sarah remarried George A. Lamb, a young South Carolinian who had also come to Texas. George was killed at the Battle of San Jacinto on April 21, 1836, fighting as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Texas Volunteers. Sarah was widowed for the second time before the age of thirty.¹

She raised her children alone in the Republic of Texas and lived to the age of eighty. Her daughter Frankie married John McAdams Jr. in 1849, connecting the Bankhead line to one of Walker County’s most prominent families.¹