John Henry Brown was an American journalist, military leader, author, politician, and historian, who served as a state legislator and as mayor of both Galveston (1856) and Dallas, Texas (1885-1887). Brown was among the first to publish scholarly histories of the state of Texas and the city of Dallas.

Brigadier-General Benjamin McCulloch was a soldier in the Texas Revolution, a Texas Ranger, a major-general in the Texas militia and thereafter a major in the United States Army during the Mexican–American War, sheriff of Sacramento County, a U.S. marshal, and a brigadier-general in the army of the Confederate States during the American Civil War. He owned at least 91 slaves.