Sheriff Joseph L. Hood

Sheriff Joseph L. Hood
Bexar County Sheriff's Department, TX
Cause of Death: Assault
End of Watch: Thursday, March 19, 1840
Date of Incident: Thursday, March 19, 1840
Age: 37
Tour of Duty: 1 yr
Suspect Info: Not available
Weapon Used: Unknown weapon
Buried: Unknown
Location of Name on National and Texas Monuments
NLEOMF: P59 - W10
TPOM: 21, C, 08


On March 19, 1840 Sheriff Joseph L. Hood, first sheriff of Bexar County, was one of many killed in a melee with Comanche chiefs within the Town Council House during the course of peace negotiations (prior to April 18).. better known in history as The Council House Fight.
The Council House Fight was a conflict between Republic of Texas officials and a Comanche peace delegation which took place in San Antonio, Texas. The meeting took place under a truce with the purpose of negotiating peace after two years of war. The Comanches sought to obtain recognition of the boundaries of the Comancheria, their homeland. The Texans wanted the release of Texan and Mexican captives held by the Comanches. The event ended with 12 Comanche leaders shot to death in the Council House, 23 shot in the streets of San Antonio, and 30 taken captive. The incident ended the chance for peace and led to years of hostility and war.

Sheriff Joseph L. Hood, early settler, businessman, and legislator, was born in North Carolina in 1803. When he applied for Texas citizenship at Nacogdoches in December 1829, he described himself as Catholic, unmarried, and a schoolteacher. On December 12, 1834, he received title to a league of land in the area that later became Bell County. In 1835 he represented the Municipality of Viesca at the Consultation and on the General Council. The General Council appointed him judge at Viesca and designated him as an agent to receive money due the Mexican government and to be transferred for use of the people of Texas. Hood was a business associate of Eliel Melton at Nacogdoches before 1836. He probably went to San Antonio about the time of the Texas Revolution. He was the first elected sheriff of Bexar County on May 1, 1837, and reelected in 1839. -----source The Handbook of Texas Online website and Wikipedia.

Picture of San Antonio Plaza at the time of The Council House Fight.

"The Court House, called the Council House, a one-story stone building with a flat roof and an earth floor, adjoined the stone jail on the corner of Main Plaza and Calaboza (Market) Street. The yard back of the Court House was later the City Market on Market Street."