Smithville br/Bastrop County, Texas br/30 00.607' N 97 04.305' W br/br/Text: A soldier in the Texas War for Independence, 1835 - 1836. William Redfield was born January 21, 1817, to William and Susan (Prentice) Redfield. After the death of his father, his mother married John C. Cunningham, a friend of Moses and Stephen F. Austin, and soon thereafter the family (including William's brothers, John Albert and Henry Prentice) immigrated to the Austin colony in Texas. They left New York in late 1830, and arrived by ship at Matagorda in 1831. After living at San Felipe for several years, they settled on the Colorado River in lower Bastrop County on a large grant of land that became known as Cunningham's Prairie. Besides farming, the Cunninghams later ran a stagecoach inn on the old road from Austin to San Felipe. Both William and his brother, Henry Prentice Redfield , participated in Texas' fight for independence in 1835-36. William was killed in 1840 at the Battle of Presidio, which involved the Republic of the Rio Grande, an effort on the part of Federalist leaders in Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon, and Coahuila, to break away from the centralistic government of Mexico in 1840 and to form a new confederation. Condensed from the "Texas State Historical Association's Handbook Online" by Carol Snyder. Inscription on his gravestone: "William Redfield. Born Jan 21th (sic), 1817, killed at the Battle of Presidio Rio Grande, in the fall of 1840, in his 23 year".