Elijah Simmons Collard, Sr.

Citizen of The Republic of Texas -- www.srttexas.org

birthplace source -- us and international marriage records 1560-1900.

Biography:

COLLARD, ELIJAH SIMMONS (1778-1846). Elijah Simmons Collard, early Texas settler and government official, was born November 9, 1778, in Augusta County, Virginia, the son of Joseph and Margaret Collard. As a child he moved with his family to Kentucky. On May 2, 1801, in Bullitt County, Kentucky, he married Mary Stark; the couple had eleven children, ten of whom lived to adulthood. Collard served in the War of 1812 as a private in the Upper Louisiana militia and later as a captain in the Missouri militia. A plaque commemorating this service has been placed at his gravesite. The family lived in Kentucky, Missouri, and Arkansas before moving to Texas. Preceded by at least three of his sons, Collard arrived in what would become Montgomery County in 1833 and was given a league south of the site of what is now Willis. There is some question whether he actually lived on this league. He later moved north to what became Walker County. As trouble developed with the Mexican authorities he became a member of the Consultationqv from Washington Municipality. On January 5, 1836, he became a member of the General Council.qv When Montgomery County was being organized in 1837, he was one of five commissioners chosen to select a county seat. In 1844 he served as a justice of the peace. When Walker County was established from Montgomery County in July 1846, he was selected county commissioner. He died March 13, 1846, and is buried in Gourd Creek Cemetery near New Waverly in Walker County. A Texas historical marker is at his gravesite.

The Collards and Tolberts

The Collards and Tolberts had known each other in Missouri. The Collard and Tolbert names are prominent on maps of the early land grants for Montgomery Land District -- including Montgomery, Walker and Madison counties. The Collards had come from the northeast by way of Kentucky and Missouri. Elijah Collard was active politically, being elected to the Consultation of San Felipe in 1835 that later led to the Texas Declaration of Independence. He was president of the Montgomery County Board of Land Commissioners from 1836 to 1839.[7] His land grant was patented on April 29, 1838. His sons, James H. Collard and Lemuel M. Collard, also received First Class Certificates for land, indicating they arrived before the Declaration of Independence. Elijah and Mary Collard's sons, Jonathan S., Lemuel M., Job S. and James H., fought in the Texas war for independence. Elijah was elected as a commissioner when Walker County was created in 1846.[8]

Elijah Collard's oldest daughter, Margaret, married John Tolbert in Missouri in about 1818. The youngest of their seven children, Eliza, who was born in Missouri in about 1831, married Robert and Catherine Kelton's son, Robert F. After Robert F. died, Eliza married Elijah Lindley, the 13th of Samuel's children. Eliza's father, John Tolbert, received a land grant in what would become Madison County.