Friar, Daniel Boone

4 Apr. 1800–January 1858

Daniel Boone Friar, pioneer Texas settler, was born probably in Bertie County, the son of Willice Friar or Fryer and his wife, Sarah. In 1828 young Friar and his bride of about a year, Annie Graeme Friar, went to Texas as part of Stephen F. Austin's second colony, settling at Washington-on-the-Brazos. Friar in 1835 was authorized to employ and command twenty-five rangers to patrol between the Brazos and Colorado rivers with headquarters in the Indian village that became Waco. He was also captain of a company of volunteers at the Battle of San Jacinto on 21 Apr. 1836. He then moved to south Texas, where his home and store were made the temporary county seat of the newly formed DeWitt County in 1842. Friar and his wife were the parents of nine children. A Presbyterian, he is said to have organized the first Masonic lodge in the county. He died at his home on Coleto Creek at the small farming community of Yorktown in southern Texas.