New York born William H. Cushney 1819-1852 became a “First Footer of the
Republic of Texas” in 1840. He served in the Texas Army before settling in Austin
in 1845. Cushney had learned the newspaper business in Augusta, Georgia before coming to Texas. He published the Texas Democrat, then the Austin State Gazette in 1849. He married Lydia Jane Brown in 1846. Cushney was in Austin on February 19, 1846, for the ceremony of the Republic of Texas becoming the 28 th state in the United States. He died November 24, 1852, of tuberculosis. Only 33 years old, he was survived by his widow and two young children. Lydia died in 1861, they are buried in the Cushney plot at Oakwood Cemetery in Austin. Learn
more about the early days of Austin in award-winning Comanche Trace Book IV of
the Westward Sagas series written by fifth generation Austinite David A. Bowles
www.davidabowlesauthor.com