Ira Ingram, son of Phillip and Rachel (Burton) Ingram, was born August 18, 1788, in Brookfield, Vermont.
A veteran of the War of 1812, he had been severely wounded by a bayonet at the Battle of Lundy’s Lane and suffered its effects the rest of his life.
He married Emily Polish Hoit in New Orleans, and they had one child, Mary Elizabeth. Both died in 1824.
In August, 1826, Ira Ingram came to Texas to be near his brother, Seth, who had secured for him title to a labor of land and a building lot in present Waller County, thereby making Ingram one of Austin’s “Old Three Hundred” colonists.
His letter of introduction to Austin was written by Governor H. Johnson of Louisiana on February 15, 1825.
The brothers, Ira and Seth Ingram, became merchants at San Felipe in 1828, and this endeavor lasted about two years.
Ira was a Mason and attended the first Masonic meeting held in Texas at San Felipe on January 11, 1828.
Ira was the first chairman of the Committee and Safety and Vigilance, which was organized to oppose the Mexicans; he authored the first Declaration of Independence; and joined Captain George M. Collinsworth’s company of the army, October 2, 1835, and participated in the capture of Colonel Francisco Sandoval and the taking of Goliad.
Ira Ingram served in three of the legislative assemblies: in the Convention of 1832 as a delegate from Mina (Bastrop), in the Convention of 1833 as a delegate from San Felipe de Austin (Austin County), and in the First Congress as Representative from Matagorda County.
In this last body, Ingram served as Speaker of the House until his resignation, just prior to the convening of the second session, May 1, 1827.
He was the first alcalde of Matagorda in 1834.
Ingram was mayor-elect of Matagorda at the time of his death on September 22, 1837.
His grave in Matagorda Cemetery next to his brother,
Seth, is marked by a 1936 Texas Centennial Historical Marker.
His will revealed that he had left a considerable inheritance to his sister-in-law, Susannah (Rice) Ingram, wife of his brother, Seth.
He planned to leave $75,000 to the inhabitants of Matagorda County to establish a school fund.
One of Texas’ early pioneers, he was a principle founder of Matagorda, a soldier, a patriot, statesman and philanthropist.
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