HOCKLEY, GEORGE WASHINGTON (1802–1854). George Washington Hockley, chief of staff of the Texas army during the Texas Revolution, was born in Philadelphia in 1802. As a young man he moved to Washington, D.C., where he worked as a clerk in the commissary division of the War Department and met Sam Houston, who influenced him to move to Tennessee when Houston became governor there in 1828. Hockley followed Houston to Texas in 1835 and was made chief of staff upon Houston's election as commander-in-chief of the Texas army. At the battle of San Jacinto Hockley was in command of the artillery and in charge of the Twin Sisters. Later he was one of those who accompanied Antonio López de Santa Anna and Juan N. Almonte to Washington, D.C. The friendship between Hockley and Houston continued after the revolution. Houston appointed him colonel of ordnance on December 22, 1836, and secretary of war on November 13, 1838, and again on December 23, 1841. Houston also sent Hockley with Samuel M. Williams in 1843 to arrange an armistice with Mexico. Hockley made his home in Galveston. He died in Corpus Christi on June 6, 1854, while visiting Henry L. Kinney, and was buried in the Old Bayview Cemetery at Corpus Christi, where in 1936 the state erected a monument at his grave.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Zachary T. Fulmore, History and Geography of Texas As Told in County Names (Austin: Steck, 1915; facsimile, 1935). Sam Houston Dixon and Louis Wiltz Kemp, The Heroes of San Jacinto (Houston: Anson Jones Press, 1932).

Geo. Washington Hockley
born in Philadelphia
died at Corpus Christi June 6, 1854
Erected by the State of Texas
(backside)
Inspector General of the Texas Army at San Jacinto
Colonel of Ordinance in 1836
Secretary of War in 1838
Hockley County, Texas was named in his honor